§7. According to the foregoing arrangement, the first twenty-five consonants are distributed into five classes. The letters of the first or က class are gutturals (ကဏ္ဍဇာ[1]); those of the second or စ class are palatals (တာလုဇာ); those of the third or ဋ class are cerebrals (မုဒ္ဓဇာ); those of the fourth or တ class are dentals (ဒန္တဇာ); and those of the fifth or ပ class are labials (ဩဋ္ဌဇာ).
§8. The first letter of each class is a simple articulation, smooth and soft; the third is the same, rough and hard; the second is the aspirate of the first; the fourth, according to the Nagari system, is the aspirate of the third, but according to the Burmese pronunciation, is the same; and the fifth is the corresponding nasal.
§9. The pronunciation of the cerebrals and the dentals, though different in the Nagari, is the same in the Burmese.
§10. Of the seven remaining consonants, five, viz; ယ, ရ, လ, ဝ, and ဠ are liquids; သ is properly a sibilant, but pronounced th, and ဟ is an aspirate.
§11. The cerebrals and the letter ဠ are found in words only of Pali origin.
vowels.
§12. The names and powers of the vowels are as follows:—
| အ, | a or ah | as a in America. | |
| အာ, | a or ah | as a in father. | |
| ဣ, | ee | as i in pin, [or ee in been. St.] | |
| ဤ, | ee | as ee in feet. | |
| ဥ, ဥိ, |
oo | as oo in good, or u in full. | |
| ဦ, | oo | as oo in food, or u in rule. | |
| ဧ, | aa or ay | as a in fate. | |
- ↑ The Sanscrit authorities, it is true, give the second letter of the class as the adjunct to the nasal ဏ; but the Pali authorities give the third, which is here adopted.
