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    A First Look at Pyu Grammar

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    Kadu Than Naing
    This document provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about the Pyu language. It discusses that Pyu was spoken by a people who lived in cities in Burma in the 1st millennium CE. While some Pyu language inscriptions and Chinese transcriptions exist, the language's position within the Trans-Himalayan language family is unknown. Efforts to understand the Pyu language have been limited by a lack of context in the inscriptions. Analysis of a "Rosetta Stone" inscription suggests basic word order and a realis marker, but the language remains largely indecipherable. Significant diversity likely existed across space and time.

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    A First Look at Pyu Grammar

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    Kadu Than Naing
    121 views35 pages
    This document provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about the Pyu language. It discusses that Pyu was spoken by a people who lived in cities in Burma in the 1st millennium CE. While some Pyu language inscriptions and Chinese transcriptions exist, the language's position within the Trans-Himalayan language family is unknown. Efforts to understand the Pyu language have been limited by a lack of context in the inscriptions. Analysis of a "Rosetta Stone" inscription suggests basic word order and a realis marker, but the language remains largely indecipherable. Significant diversity likely existed across space and time.

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    This document provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about the Pyu language. It discusses that Pyu was spoken by a people who lived in cities in Burma in the 1st millennium CE. While some Pyu language inscriptions and Chinese transcriptions exist, the language's position within the Trans-Himalayan language family is unknown. Efforts to understand the Pyu language have been limited by a lack of context in the inscriptions. Analysis of a "Rosetta Stone" inscription suggests basic word order and a realis marker, but the language remains largely indecipherable. Significant diversity likely existed across space and time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    121 views35 pages

    A First Look at Pyu Grammar

    Uploaded by

    Kadu Than Naing
    This document provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about the Pyu language. It discusses that Pyu was spoken by a people who lived in cities in Burma in the 1st millennium CE. While some Pyu language inscriptions and Chinese transcriptions exist, the language's position within the Trans-Himalayan language family is unknown. Efforts to understand the Pyu language have been limited by a lack of context in the inscriptions. Analysis of a "Rosetta Stone" inscription suggests basic word order and a realis marker, but the language remains largely indecipherable. Significant diversity likely existed across space and time.

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    You are on page 1of 35

    A First Look at Pyu Grammar

    Marc Miyake (The British Museum)


    17 May 2018
    SEALS 28, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    Supported by
    Who were the Pyu?
    • Pyu is the modern Burmese
    exonym for a people who once
    flourished in walled cities such
    as Halin, Beikthano, and Śrī
    Kṣetra in the first millennium CE;
    their autonym is unknown
    • The Pyu assimilated with
    Burmese speakers who arrived
    in the 9th century CE

    CIA map of Burma


    What did the Pyu speak?
    • A Trans-Himalayan (Sino-
    Tibetan) language whose
    position within the family is
    unknown; may belong to an
    extinct branch.
    • No guarantee that Pyu
    subgroups with any TH language
    now spoken in Burma (cf. Illyrian
    and modern Indo-European
    languages in the Balkans)

    CIA map of Burma’s languages


    What remains of the Pyu language?
    • Pyu-language epigraphic texts in
    an Indic script
    • Tang dynasty Chinese
    transcriptions of Pyu (驃 Piao in
    Mandarin); extremely limited in
    number and difficult to interpret
    • Borrowings into Burmese: e.g.,
    ‘country’; more may await
    identification

    Photographs of PYU 27 by James Miles


    A century of Pyu language studies
    Mostly just a struggle to transliterate what we see: e.g.,
    yaṗ trom·ḹ tin·ṗ [ba/kha] dri ḙaḹ ti sat· pdraul·ḹ ta thraṛ ·ḹ din·ṙ ṗ
    I feel as if I’m looking at early Albanian manuscripts – the script
    is vaguely familiar, but the language is almost totally alien.

    Public domain photograph of the Bellifortis MS (15th c.) from Wikipedia.


    After last year, I can sound out the Pyu text …
    /jä t.rom̥ tïn [ba/kʰa] Ri ɓah ti sat p.Rol̥ ta t.r̥aŋ̊ ðïn/
    … but what does it all mean?
    /jä t.rom̥ tïn [ba/kʰa] Ri ɓah ti sat p.Rol̥ ta t.r̥aŋ̊ ðïn/
    To begin to answer that question, we need to go back
    to where Pyu language studies started …

    Photograph of PYU 7 by James MIles


    The Kubyaukgyi (Myazedi) Inscription

    Rubbings from Epigraphia Birmanica (1919)


    The Pyu ‘Rosetta Stone’
    The four texts don’t quite line up
    • Burmese: ‘1628 years of the Buddha’s religion
    having elapsed’
    • Pali: ‘When 1628 years had elapsed after the
    Nirvāṇa of the Lord of the World [lokanātha]’
    • Mon: ‘After the religion of the Lord Buddha had
    gone on for 1628 years’
    • Pyu: dathagaṃda ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1000 600 20 ? ? ?
    ????
    Translations by Duroiselle and Blagden from Epigraphia Birmanica (1919)
    Finding matches: the date
    • Burmese: ‘1628 years of the Buddha’s religion
    having elapsed’
    • Pali: ‘When 1628 years had elapsed after the
    Nirvāṇa of the Lord of the World [lokanātha]’
    • Mon: ‘After the religion of the Lord Buddha had
    gone on for 1628 years’
    • Pyu: dathagaṃda ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1000 600 20
    hra[t]·ṁ = ‘eight’ ? ? ? ? ? ?
    Finding matches: Buddha
    • Burmese: ‘1628 years of the Buddha’s religion
    having elapsed’
    • Pali: ‘When 1628 years had elapsed after the
    Nirvāṇa of the Lord of the World [lokanātha]’
    • Mon: ‘After the religion of the Lord Buddha had
    gone on for 1628 years’
    • Pyu: dathagaṃda /tatʰagata/= tathāgata ? ? ? ? ?
    ? ? ? ? 1628 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
    It gets worse: no word spacing –
    just ‘syl la bic u nits’ (cf. Vietnamese)

    Photograph of PYU 8 by James MIles


    But at least the Kubyaukgyi has punctuation
    (too bad other texts don’t!)
    Finding matches: ends of sentences
    • Old Burmese: verb + brī ‘finish’ + … ||
    • Pyu: verb + /ta ðäŋ/ ‘finish’? ||

    Pyu /ta/: cf. Burmese thāḥ- < *t- ‘to place’


    Zooming out: the realis*? marker
    /ɓïn̥/ + verb + /ta ðäŋ/
    /ɓïn̥ t.väŋ̊ ta ðäŋ/
    ‘elapsed’
    *suggested by Julian K. Wheatley
    The realis marker /ɓïn̥/ as a landmark
    kṭlot· rom· tṅok· sdak·ṃ tar· ḅin·ṁḥ tgav·ḥ
    tak· °o kul· vuḥ tlaḥ kdaṅ· mūṅ·ḥ kjik·ṁ tin·ṁ
    ṅam· °o pguṃ kdrap·ṁ pil·ṁḥ tdav·ṃḥ kdaṅ·
    priṅ·ḥ tar· ḅin·ṁḥ tmu nim·ḥ diṃ yaṁ trom·ḥ
    tin·ṁ [ba/kha] dri ḅaḥ ti sat· pdraul·ḥ ta
    thraṅ·ḥ din·ṃṁ tar· ḅin·ṁḥ krol·ḥ gim·ṁ ti
    saṁḥ tar· dav·ṃḥ [d]aṅ·ṁ kni din·ṃṁ tar·
    ḅin·ṁḥ hmuy·ḥ … (PYU 27, line 3)
    The realis marker /ɓïn̥/
    as a clue to (first syllables of) verbs
    kṭlot· rom· tṅok· sdak·ṃ tar· ḅin·ṁḥ tgav·ḥ
    tak· °o kul· vuḥ tlaḥ kdaṅ· mūṅ·ḥ kjik·ṁ tin·ṁ
    ṅam· °o pguṃ kdrap·ṁ pil·ṁḥ tdav·ṃḥ kdaṅ·
    priṅ·ḥ tar· ḅin·ṁḥ tmu nim·ḥ diṃ yaṁ trom·ḥ
    tin·ṁ [ba/kha] dri ḅaḥ ti sat· pdraul·ḥ ta
    thraṅ·ḥ din·ṃṁ tar· ḅin·ṁḥ krol·ḥ gim·ṁ ti
    saṁḥ tar· dav·ṃḥ [d]aṅ·ṁ kni din·ṃṁ tar·
    ḅin·ṁḥ hmuy·ḥ … (PYU 27, line 3)
    Zooming out further: basic word order
    agent + patient + verb
    /raɉakumar ... t.ðu ɓïn̥ cʰaj ta ðäŋ/
    Rajakumāra … water R L S pour finish
    ‘Rajakumāra poured water.’
    (PYU 7.22)
    The mystery of medial verbs
    agent + verb + patient
    /raɉakumar ... ɓïn̥ s.tabana ɓuda tʰar/
    Rajakumāra … R L S enshrine Buddha golden
    ‘Rajakumāra enshrined the golden Buddha.’
    (PYU 7.19 – the same text!)
    Zooming out: The Kubyaukgyi is a Late Pyu text from
    c. 1112 CE – c. 600 years after the oldest? text.
    One of the oldest texts (c. 6th century CE) may be in
    a special register of Pyu that I call Gloss Pyu.
    Gloss Pyu follows each Sanskrit word on the base of
    the Kan Wet Khaung mound Buddha statue.

    Photographs of PYU 16 by James MIles


    Gloss Pyu follows each Sanskrit word on the base of
    the Kan Wet Khaung mound Buddha statue.
    Unique Sanskrit-like features of Gloss Pyu:
    More number and case marking than regular Pyu
    Sanskrit: Gloss Pyu:
    -ātma-jaiḥ /sah p.li vaŋ ðaŋ/
    self-born.INS.PL child grandchild PL INS
    ‘with descendants’ ‘with children and
    grandchildren’
    Unique Sanskrit-like features of Gloss Pyu:
    Even a verb is marked for number
    Sanskrit: Gloss Pyu:
    virotsyanti /lam l̥ïh s.käŋ m.ra vaŋ/
    contend.F U T .PL road ? obstruct F U T PL
    ‘they will contend’ ‘they will obstruct …
    road’
    Unique Sanskrit-like features of Gloss Pyu:
    Relative pronouns
    Sanskrit: Gloss Pyu:
    yaiḥ /p.ðik vaŋ/
    REL.M .IN S .P L REL.PL
    ‘by whom’ ‘whom’
    (no instrumental case
    marker /ðaŋ/!)
    Other Pyu: neither Gloss Pyu nor Late Pyu
    Late Pyu vs. Other Pyu
    • Punctuation • No punctuation
    • Spacing in one text (39) • Phrase/section spacing
    • Mix of verb-final, medial orders • Verb-medial order not yet found
    • Ubiquitous realis marker /ɓïn/ • /ɓïn/ less common
    • Ubiquitous /ta ðäŋ/ ‘finish’ • /ta ðäŋ/ ‘finish’ only once
    • Copula /si/ • Copula /jä/ < ‘this’?
    • Preposed honorific /ɓäj̊/ • Postposed honorific /ɓäj̊/
    Geographic diversity: Pyu inscription
    findspots: 400 km north to south!
    Dialectal diversity?
    • The corpus has a homogeneous phonology
    with the exception of Late Pyu texts and a
    single text (PYU 37) with transitional
    (Middle Pyu?) features.
    • Whether this homogeneity also extends to
    morphology and syntax is an open question.
    No universal key
    • Even if the Kubyaukgyi Late Pyu and the Gloss Pyu
    texts were fully understood, they would still not be
    the key to Other Pyu. They are both chronological
    outliers, and the Gloss Pyu text is also a stylistic
    outlier. They are not representative of Pyu in general.
    • ‘Other Pyu’ is a cover term for the language of texts
    across a wide range of space and time. The mining of
    this diversity has barely begun.

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