PARTS OF SPEECH.
In the Burmese language, there are five parts of speech, viz. Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, and Interjections.
NOUNS.
Nouns are of three kinds, common, which are names of whole species; proper, which are names of individuals, as distinguished from others of the same species; and personal, commonly called personal nouns, which are names of individuals, relatively considered, as speaking, spoken to, and spoken of.
Under common nouns, are included two kinds of derivatives, the simple and the compound. Simple derivatives are mostly formed from verbal roots, by affixing အ, as အလင်း, light, from လင်း, to be light; but in composition, the အ is commonly dropped, as ညစာ, for ညအစာ, supper, or evening food. The same is true of all nouns, whose initial is a syllabic အ; and sometimes even when a syllable or word is affixed, as ခက်မ for အခက်မ, a large branch. Compound derivatives will be considered under the head of Verbal Nouns.
B*
