စ

See also: စာ, စား, စို, စီး, and စော

စ U+1005, စ MYANMAR LETTER CA ← င [U+1004] Myanmar ဆ → [U+1006]

Burmese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sa̰/
• Romanization: MLCTS: ca. • ALA-LC: ca • BGN/PCGN: sa. • Okell: sá

• Audio:

  (file)

Letter

စ • (ca.)

1. Ca, the 6th letter of the Burmese alphabet.

Etymology 1

According to Schuessler, related to Old Chinese 之 (OC *tjɯ, “to go, proceed”). An earlier derivation by Luce connects the word to Old Chinese 始 (OC *hljɯʔ, “to begin, start”), 初 (OC *sʰra, “initial, first”).

Verb

စ • (ca.)

1. to begin; to start

   Synonym: ဦး (u:)

   Antonym: ဆုံး (hcum:)

Derived terms

• စတင် (ca.tang, verb)
• စဦးစွာ (ca.u:cwa, adverb)
• အစ (a.ca., noun)

Descendants

• → Mon: စ (ca /caʔ/)

Verb

စ • (ca.)

1. euphonic

Derived terms

• စသည် (ca.sany)

Etymology 2

Particle

စ • (ca.)

1. interrogative verbal particle

   Synonym: လား (la:)

   ကြားပါစ ― kra:paca. ― do/did you hear it?

   တွေ့ပါစ ― twe.paca. ― do/did you find it?

   မြင်ပါစ ― mrangpaca. ― do/did you see it?

   ရှိပါစ ― hri.paca. ― is it there?

References

• “စ” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.
• “စ, 1; စ, 2” in The Judson Burmese–English Dictionary (Rangoon: American Baptist Mission Press 1921), page 340.

Mon

Etymology 1

From Old Mon စ (caʔ), from Proto-Mon-Khmer *caʔ (“to eat”). Cognate with Nyah Kur จาʔ, Khmer ស៊ី (sii).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɕiəʔ/

  Note: This pronunciation was developed from Middle Mon in a phonetically irregular manner.

• (Myanmar) IPA^(key): /cɛʔ/
• (Thailand) IPA^(key): /ceaʔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Letter

စ (ca)

1. Ca, the sixth consonant of the Mon alphabet.

Verb

စ (ca)

1. to eat.
2. to live on, to live (by the revenues of something)
3. to divide (in arithmetic).
4. to take (in chess and other games)
5. {usually as va.} to begin, start {to}, do for the first time.
6. to eat, to live on, by, by the revenues of, govern, to devide {in arithmetic}, to take, in chess and other games, wear away, erode.

Adverb

စ (ca)

1. particle denoting generic or habitual aspect.

Derived terms

(Verbs)

• (causative) ဗ္စ (baca)

(Nouns)

• သွ (swa)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Burmese စ (ca.).

Pronunciation

• (Myanmar, Thailand) IPA^(key): /caʔ/

Verb

စ (ca)

1. to begin; to start.
2. {usually as va.} to begin, start {to}, do for the first time, commence.

Pali

Alternative forms

Alternative scripts

• ca (Latin script)
• 𑀘 (Brahmi script)
• च (Devanagari script)
• চ (Bengali script)
• ච (Sinhalese script)
• ၸ (Burmese script)
• จ or จะ (Thai script)
• ᨧ (Tai Tham script)
• ຈ or ຈະ (Lao script)
• ច (Khmer script)
• 𑄌 (Chakma script)

Particle

စ

1. Burmese script form of ca (“and”)