ถือว่าสำคัญในภาษานี้ เพราะมันใช้ใน pronouns , verb forms, particles and sentence structure
1. Pronouns
informal – ငါ nga = I
နင် nin – You , သူ tu – He , she , they
formal – ကျွန်တော် kjanau = I male ,
ကျွန်မ kjama = I female
သင် the = you
သူ သူသည် tu, tutae = He , She , They
1. Pronouns
Very Formal Pronouns
- I (male): ကျွန်တော် (kyà-nà-dau)
- I (female): ကျွန်မ (kyà-nà-ma)
- You (male): ခင်ဗျား (kà-mya)
- You (female): ရှင် (shin)
- He/She/They: သူများ (thu-myā)
2. Verb Forms and Particles
Politeness in Burmese is also expressed through the use of specific particles and verb forms.
Informal
- Particle: တယ် (te)
- Example: ငါ စာဖတ်တယ်။ (nga sa phat te.) – I read.
Formal
- Particle: တယ် (te) or ပါ (pa) for verbs
- Example: ကျွန်တော် စာဖတ်တယ်။ (kyà-nà-dau sa phat te.) – I read (formal, for males).
- Example: ကျွန်မ စာဖတ်တယ်။ (kyà-nà-ma sa phat te.) – I read (formal, for females).
Very Formal
- Particle: ပါ (pa) or ပါသည် (pa-thi) for verbs
- Example: ကျွန်တော် စာဖတ်ပါတယ်။ (kyà-nà-dau sa phat ba te.) – I read (very formal, for males).
- Example: ကျွန်မ စာဖတ်ပါတယ်။ (kyà-nà-ma sa phat ba te.) – I read (very formal, for females).
3. Polite Particles
Polite particles are added to sentences to indicate respect.
Common Polite Particles
- ကျေးဇူးပြုပြီး (kyé-zù pyù-pì) – Please (used before requests)
- ပါ (pa) – Please (added at the end of a command/request)
- ရှင် (shin) – A polite particle used especially when addressing females
- ခင်ဗျား (kà-mya) – A respectful term used to address males
Examples:
- Informal Request:
- ငါရေကိုလာ (nga ye ko la) – Bring the water.
- Formal Request:
- ကျေးဇူးပြုပြီး ရေကိုလာပါ (kyé-zù pyù-pì ye ko la pa) – Please bring the water.
- Very Formal Request:
- ကျေးဇူးပြုပြီး ရေကိုလာပါရှင် (kyé-zù pyù-pì ye ko la pa shin) – Please bring the water (very formal, addressing a female).
4. Honorific Titles and Forms of Address
Using appropriate titles and forms of address is important in showing respect.
Examples:
- U (ဦး): A respectful title for older men or men of high status.
- Example: ဦးသန့် (U Thant) – Mr. Thant
- Daw (ဒေါ်): A respectful title for older women or women of high status.
- Example: ဒေါ်ဆွေ (Daw Hswe) – Mrs. Hswe
- Ko (ကို): A respectful title for men who are peers or slightly older.
- Example: ကိုကို (Ko Ko) – Mr. Ko
- Ma (မ): A respectful title for younger women.
- Example: မလေး (Ma Lay) – Miss Lay
5. Sentence Structures
The structure of a sentence can also indicate politeness. In formal and very formal contexts, sentences are often more complex and indirect.
Examples:
- Informal:
- ကျွန်တော်ရေကိုလာပါ။ (nga ye ko la pa) – Bring the water (direct and informal).
- Formal:
- ကျေးဇူးပြုပြီး ရေကိုလာပါ။ (kyé-zù pyù-pì ye ko la pa) – Please bring the water (more polite).
- Very Formal:
- ကျေးဇူးပြုပြီး ရေကိုလာပါရှင်။ (kyé-zù pyù-pì ye ko la pa shin) – Please bring the water (very polite, addressing a female).
Summary
Politeness in Burmese is a multifaceted system involving the use of different pronouns, verb forms, particles, honorifics, and sentence structures. Here are the key points to remember:
- Pronouns: Change based on politeness and formality.
- Verb Forms: Use specific particles to indicate politeness (e.g., တယ် for informal, ပါ for formal, and ပါသည် for very formal).
- Polite Particles: Commonly used to add respect to requests and commands (e.g., ကျေးဇူးပြုပြီး, ပါ, ရှင်, ခင်ဗျား).
- Honorific Titles: Titles such as U, Daw, Ko, and Ma are used to show respect.
- Sentence Structures: More complex and indirect structures are used in formal and very formal contexts.
Understanding and using these elements correctly is essential for effective and respectful communication in Burmese.