Rakhine language

Rakhine
Rakhine
Arakanese
ရက္ခိုင်ဘာသာ
Pronunciation	IPA: [ɹəkʰàɪɴbàθà]
Native to	Myanmar, Bangladesh, India
Region	Rakhine State (Myanmar); Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Patuakhali, Barguna (Bangladesh); Tripura (India);
Ethnicity	Rakhine, Kamein, Marma
Native speakers	1 million (2011–2013); 1 million second language speakers in Myanmar (2013)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Lolo-Burmese Burmish Burmese Rakhine; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Ramree; Marma;
Writing system	Burmese script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; rki – Rakhine ("Arakanese"); rmz – Marma ("Burmese")
Glottolog	arak1255
	Rakhine State shown within Myanmar

Rakhine (/rəˈkaɪn/; Burmese: ရခိုင်ဘာသာ, MLCTS: ra.hkuing bhasa [ɹəkʰàɪɴ bàθà]), also known as Arakanese, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Myanmar, primarily in the Rakhine State. Closely related to Burmese, the language is spoken by the Rakhine and Marma peoples; it is estimated to have around one million native speakers and it is spoken as a second language by a further million.

Though Arakanese has some similarity with standard Burmese, Burmese speakers find it difficult to communicate with Arakanese speakers. Thus, it is often considered to be a dialect or variety of Burmese. As there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Arakanese.^[2] There are three dialects of Arakanese: Sittwe–Marma (about two thirds of speakers), Ramree, and Thandwe.^[3]

Vocabulary

While Arakanese and Standard Burmese share the majority of lexicon, Arakanese has numerous vocabulary differences. Some are native words with no cognates in Standard Burmese, like 'sarong' (လုံခြည် in Standard Burmese, ဒယော in Arakanese). Others are loan words from Bengali, English, and Hindi, not found in Standard Burmese. An example is 'hospital', which is called ဆေးရုံ in Standard Burmese, but is called သိပ်လှိုင် (pronounced [θeɪʔ l̥àɪɴ]/[ʃeɪʔ l̥àɪɴ]) in Arakanese, from English sick lines. Other words simply have different meanings (e.g., 'afternoon', ညစ in Arakanese and ညနေ in Standard Burmese). Moreover, some archaic words in Standard Burmese are preferred in Arakanese. An example is the first person pronoun, which is အကျွန် in Arakanese (not ကျွန်တော်, as in Standard Burmese). A more unique difference is the 'Hra' sound which is not found in Burmese: only in Arakanese. eg. ဟြာ(Hra/Seek) and Hraa(ဟြား/very good/smart).

Comparison

A gloss of vocabulary differences between Standard Burmese and Arakanese is below:^[4]

English	Standard Burmese	Arakanese	Notes
thirsty	ရေဆာ	ရီမွတ်
go	သွား	လား	Arakanese for 'go' was historically used in Standard Burmese.
kick a ball	ဘောလုံးကန်	ဘောလုံးကျောက်
stomach ache	ဗိုက်နာ	ဝမ်းနာ	Arakanese prefers ဝမ်း to Standard Burmese ဗိုက် for 'stomach'.
guava	မာလကာသီး	ဂိုယံသီး	Standard Burmese for 'guava' is derived from the word Malacca, whereas Arakanese for 'guava' is from Spanish guayaba, from Taino: guayaba.
papaya	သင်္ဘောသီး	ပဒကာသီး	Standard Burmese for 'papaya' literally means 'boat'.
soap	ဆပ်ပြာ	သူပုန်	From Portuguese "sabão". In Standard Burmese, 'သူပုန်' means 'rebel' or 'insurgent'.
superficial	အပေါ်ယံ	အထက်ပေါ်ရီ^[5]
blanket	စောင်	ပုဆိုး^[5]	ပုဆိုး in Standard Burmese refers to the men's longyi (sarong).
dark	မှောင်	မိုက်	The compound word မှောင်မိုက် ('pitch dark') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese.
pick a flower	ပန်းခူး	ပန်းဆွတ်^[5]	The compound word ဆွတ်ခူး ('pick') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese.
wash [clothes]	လျှော်	ဖွပ်^[5]	The compound word လျှော်ဖွပ် ('wash') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese.

Phonology

The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds, represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Consonants

The consonants of Arakanese are:

Consonant phonemes
		Bilabial	Dental/Alveolar		Post-al./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		Bilabial	central	sibilant	Post-al./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	voiced	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Nasal	voiceless	m̥	n̥		ɲ̊	ŋ̊
Plosive	voiced	b	d		dʒ	ɡ
	plain	p	t		tʃ	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		tʃʰ	kʰ
Fricative	voiced			z
	voiceless		θ	s	ʃ		h
	aspirated			sʰ			h
Lateral	voiced		l
Lateral	voiceless		l̥
Approximant	voiced		ɹ		j	w
Approximant	voiceless		ɹ̥			ʍ

Arakanese largely shares the same set of consonant phonemes as standard Burmese, though Arakanese more prominently uses /ɹ/, which has largely merged to /j/ in standard Burmese (with some exceptions). Because Arakanese has preserved the /ɹ/ sound, the /-ɹ-/ medial (which is preserved in writing in Standard Burmese with the diacritic ြ) is still distinguished in the following Arakanese consonant clusters: /ɡɹ- kɹ- kʰɹ- ŋɹ- pɹ- pʰɹ- bɹ- mɹ- m̥ɹ- hɹ-/. For example, the word "blue," spelt ပြာ, is pronounced /pjà/ in standard Burmese, but pronounced /pɹà/ in Arakanese. Moreover, there is less voicing in Arakanese than in Standard Burmese, occurring only when the consonant is unaspirated.^[6] Unlike in Burmese, voicing never shifts from [θ] to [ð].^[7]

Vowels

The vowels of Arakanese are:

	Monophthongs			Diphthongs
	Front	Central	Back	Front offglide	Back offglide
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e	ə	o	ei	ou
Open-mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a		ai	au

While Arakanese shares the same set of vowels as Burmese, Arakanese rhymes also diverge from Standard Burmese for a number of open syllables and closed syllables. For instance, Arakanese has also merged various vowel sounds, such as ဧ ([e]) to ဣ ([i]). Hence, a word like 'blood', which is spelt သွေး, pronounced ([θwé]) in standard Burmese, is pronounced [θwí] in Arakanese. Similarly, Arakanese has a number of closed syllable rhymes that do not exist in Standard Burmese, including /-ɛɴ -ɔɴ -ɛʔ -ɔʔ/.

The Arakanese dialect also has a higher frequency of open vowels weakening to /ə/ than Standard Burmese. An example is the word for 'salary', (လခ), which is [la̰ɡa̰] in standard Burmese, but [ləkha̰] in Arakanese.

Differences from standard Burmese

The following is a summary of consonantal, vowel and rhyme differences from Standard Burmese found in the Arakanese dialect:^[8]^[9]

Written Burmese	Standard Burmese	Arakanese	Notes
-စ်	/-ɪʔ/	/-aɪʔ/	e.g. စစ် 'genuine' and စိုက် 'plant' are both pronounced [saɪʔ] in Arakanese
ိုက်	/-aɪʔ/	/-aɪʔ/
-က်	-ɛʔ	-ɔʔ
-ဉ်	/-ɪɴ/	/-aɪɴ/	e.g. ဥယျာဉ် 'garden', from Standard Burmese [ṵ jɪ̀ɴ] → [wəjàɪɴ]. Irregular rhyme, with various pronunciations. In some words, it is /-ɛɴ/ (e.g. ဝိညာဉ် 'soul', from Standard Burmese [wèɪɴ ɲɪ̀ɴ] → [wḭ ɲɛ̀ɴ]). In a few words, it is /-i -e/ (e.g. ညှဉ်း 'to oppress', from Standard Burmese [ɲ̥ɪ́ɴ] → [ɲ̥í, ɲ̥é]).
ိုင်	/-aɪɴ/	/-aɪɴ/
-င်	/-ɪɴ/	/-ɔɴ/
-န် ွန်	/-aɴ -ʊɴ/	/-ɔɴ/	ွန် is /-wɔɴ/
-ည်	/-i, -e, -ɛ/	/-e/	A few exceptions are pronounced /-aɪɴ/, like ကြည် 'clear', pronounced [kɹàɪɴ]
-ေ	/-e/	/-i/	e.g. ချီ 'carry' and ချေ 'cancel' are pronounced [tɕʰì] and [tɕʰè] respectively in Standard Burmese, but merged to [tɕʰì] in Arakanese
-တ် ွတ်	/-aʔ -ʊʔ/	/-aʔ/
ိန်	/-eɪɴ/	/-ɪɴ/
-ုန်	/-oʊɴ/	/-ʊɴ/
Nasal initial + -ီ Nasal initial + -ေ	/-i/	/-eɪɴ/	e.g. နီ 'red' is [nì] in Standard Burmese, but [nèɪɴ] in Arakanese In some words, the rhyme is unchanged from the standard rhyme (e.g. မြေ 'land', usually pronounced [mɹì], not [mɹèɪɴ], or အမိ 'mother', usually pronounced [əmḭ], not [əmḛɪɴ] There are few exceptions where the nasal rhyme is /-eɪɴ-/ even without a nasal initial (e.g. သီ 'thread', from Standard Burmese [θì] → [θèɪɴ]).
Nasal initial + -ု -ူ -ူး	/-u/	/-oʊɴ/	e.g. နု 'tender' is [nṵ] in Standard Burmese, but [no̰ʊɴ] in Arakanese
ွား	/-wá/	/-ɔ́/	e.g. ဝါး 'bamboo' is [wá] in Standard Burmese, but [wɔ́] in Arakanese
ြွ	/-w-/	/-ɹw-/	Occurs in some words (e.g. မြွေ 'snake' is [mwè] in Standard Burmese, but [mɹwèɪɴ] in Arakanese)
ရှ-	/ʃ-/	/hɹ-/
ချ-	/tɕʰ-/	/ʃ-/	Occasionally occurs (e.g. ချင် 'to want' is [tɕʰɪ̀ɴ] in Standard Burmese, but [ʃɔ̀ɴ]~[tɕʰɔ̀ɴ] in Arakanese)
တ- → ရ-	/t- d-/	/ɹ-/	e.g. The present tense particle တယ် ([dɛ̀]) corresponds with ရယ် ([ɹɛ̀]) in Arakanese e.g. The plural particle တို့ ([do̰]) corresponds with ရို့ ([ɹo̰]) in Arakanese
ရှ- ယှ- ယျှ-	/ʃ-/	/h-/	Found in some words only
-ယ် ဲ	-ɛ	-e

Written	အမေက	သင်္ကြန်ပွဲတွင်	ဝတ်ရန်	ထဘီ	ရှစ်ထည်	ပေးလိုက်ပါ	ဆိုသည်။
Standard Burmese	ʔəmè ɡa̰	ðədʒàɴ pwɛ́ dwɪ̀ɴ	wʊʔ jàɴ	tʰəmèɪɴ	ʃɪʔ tʰɛ̀	pé laɪʔ pà	sʰò dɛ̀
Arakanese	ʔəmì ɡa̰	θɔ́ɴkràɴ pwé hmà	waʔ pʰo̰	dəjɔ̀	ʃaɪʔ tʰè	pí laʔ pà	sʰò ɹì
Arakanese (written)	အမိက	သင်္ကြန်ပွဲမှာ	ဝတ်ဖို့	ဒယော	ရှစ်ထည်	ပီးလတ်ပါ	ဆိုရယ်။
Gloss
English	Mother says "Give me eight pasos for wearing during the Thingyan festival."

Writing system

Arakanese is written using the Burmese script, which descends from Southern Brahmi. Rakhine speakers are taught Rakhine pronunciations using written Burmese, while most Marma speakers are only literate in Bengali.^[10]

The first extant Arakanese inscriptions, the Launggrak Taung Maw inscription and the Mahathi Crocodile Rock inscription (1356), date to the 1300s, and the epigraphic record of Arakanese inscriptions is unevenly distributed between the 1400s to 1800s.^[11] In the early 1400s, Arakanese inscriptions began to transition from the square letters associated with stone inscriptions (kyauksa), to rounder letters that is now standard for the Burmese script.^[11] This coincided with developments in Arakanese literature, which was stimulated by the rise of Mrauk U during the 1400s.^[12]

What is now Rakhine State is home to Sanskrit inscriptions that date from the first millennium to the 1000s.^[11] These inscriptions were written in Northern Brahmic scripts (namely Siddham or Gaudi), which are ancestral to the Bengali script.^[11] However, these inscriptions are not ancestral to Arakanese epigraphy, which uses the Mon–Burmese script.^[11] While some Arakanese have coined the term "Rakkhawunna" (Rakkhavaṇṇa) to describe a script that predates the usage of written Burmese, there is no contemporary lithic evidence to support the existence of such a script.^[12]

References

^ Rakhine ("Arakanese") at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Marma ("Burmese") at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ "The Arakanese dialect". Fifty Viss. 2007-07-02. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
^ Okell 1995, p. 3.
^ "ရခိုင်စကားနဲ့ ဗမာစကား". BBC Burmese. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d အသျှင်စက္ကိန္ဒ (1994). ရခိုင်ဘာသာစကားလမ်းညွှန် (in Burmese). Burma – via Scribd.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Okell 1995, p. 4, 14.
^ Okell 1995, p. 14.
^ Okell 1995.
^ Houghton 1897, pp. 453–61.
^ Davis, Heidi A (2014). "Consonant correspondences of Burmese, Rakhine and Marma with initial implications for historical relationships". The University of North Dakota.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Minn Htin, Kyaw; Leider, Jacques (2018), Perret, Daniel (ed.), "The Epigraphic Archive of Arakan/Rakhine State (Myanmar): A Survey", Writing for Eternity: A Survey of Epigraphy in Southeast Asia, Etudes thématiques, vol. 30, Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, pp. 73–85, retrieved 2022-08-07
^ ^a ^b Singer, Noel F. (2008). Vaishali and the Indianization of Arakan. APH Publishing. ISBN 978-81-313-0405-1.

Bibliography

Houghton, Bernard (1897). "The Arakanese Dialect of the Burman Language". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 453–461. JSTOR 25207880.
Okell, John (1995). "Three Burmese Dialects" (PDF). Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics. 13.