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Originally Posted by Mark
OK. Myanmar is written, Bama is spoken. Thanks for the clarification.  The Western literature is all over the place, using Burmese, Burman, Bama, Mramma, Mranma, Myanma, Myanmar, and on and on. 
You mentioned Pali. I have often read that official documents and inscriptions on stele and pagoda were in Pali, but I had assumed that there was a different alphabet used. Is it the same as that used for Myanmar (kind of like Latin and English)?
Anyway, back to dha. Is a Hnget Kyi Taung Dha a particular form of dha lwe, or a different (more formal? more precise?) for the dha lwe? I never know how closely transliterations into English are, but on one dha of mine there is a dedication reading (in part) "Thado Thiri Min Hla Ye Kaung Dha," and I can't figure out if that is all a name, part a title, or some combination. It makes me want to learn Burmese.
The dha in the picture you posted looks like an even more extreme stylization of the one in the picture at the top of the thread. It resembles a bit one appearing in an illustriation of Syme's "An Embassy to the Court of Ava." I have a scan somewhere, and I'll post it. It has the same radical flaring of the scabbard, and overall squat appearance. Who was the author of the reference you cited? I haven't come across it yet.
You can look forward to a lot of brain-picking from the "dha guys" here.  We have been starved for Burmese expertise.
You have a very illustrious namesake, by the way. |
Hi Mark,
Burmese , Burman are obvious anglicisations of Bama
According to linguists ( I'm not one ) the old pronunciation of Myanmar was Mranmar . How old I'm not sure . This is based on cognates with other Tibeto-Burman languages in which words which the Bama pronounce as Y are pronounced with a R in the others .
The Rakhine ( pronounced Yakhaing by the Bama ) speak a dialect which maintains an older form . Essentially I can undertand 80-90% of Rakhine ( pronounce all your Ys as Rs and you have a different dialect
)
As far as I know the long fighting dha ( as opposed to utilitarian wood cutting dha ) has always been known colloquially as Hgnet Kyi daung . Not sure if there would have any differentiation during the times of the Burmese kings .
"Thado Thiri Min Hla Ye Kaung " is a name ( of sorts ) . It's actually full of honorifics so is likely to be a title of a nobleman rather than his actual name .
The book the picture is from is :
I don't think it's available to purchase but you can read some pages from this site :
http://dlxs.library.cornell.edu/cgi/...w=image;seq=30
Hope this helps