Burmese

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tsa ~ za (though this is not mentioned by STEDT). Cognate with သား (sa:, son, child), စာ (ca, to sympathise with; to be considerate to; to have consideration for). Compare Chinese (, “child”), (, “to bear; to give birth; to breed; to love; Chinese character”); see () for more.

Noun

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စာ (ca) (classifier ရွက် or လုံး or ပုဒ်)

  1. writing
  2. letter (written or printed communication)
  3. (in compounds) written language
    ဗမာစာ/မြန်မာစာba.maca/mranmaca(written) Burmese
    အင်္ဂလိပ်စာangga.lipca(written) English
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Inherited from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-tsa (sparrow). Compare Old Chinese (OC *ʔsewɢ, “sparrow”) and (OC *sʰaɡ, “magpie”) (STEDT).

The "shrill" sense is likely a semantic extension of the "sparrow" sense, via "to chirp like a sparrow" > "to be shrill" (supported by MED), though this is disputed (based on STEDT not linking the entry "ca 'shrill ( obs. )'" to the root page).

Noun

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စာ (ca)

  1. sparrow

Verb

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စာ (ca)

  1. (of a voice) to be shrill
Derived terms
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Further reading

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Pa'o Karen

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Etymology

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From Proto-Karen *caᴬ (sell). Cognate with S'gaw Karen ဆါ (hsah).

Verb

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စာ ()

  1. to sell