An Analytical Study of the Burmese Aspectual System of Dialects Spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar

Abstract

             This research is part of my dissertation ‘An Analytical Study of the Burmese Aspectual System of Dialects Spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar’ for MCU and Thailand Research Fund. It aims to explain the syntactic and semantic structures of pre-V_N operator aspect and post-V_N operator aspect. aspects of (Inthar) Dialects spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar. The Burmese aspectual system generally can be divided into two major categories: pre-V_N and post-V_N. According to Nicoletta, R. (2008: 19), the Burmese aspect is shown using markers bound to the main verb, whose combination constitutes the verbal complex, where most of the semantic and functional information is stored. Burmese being a verb-final language, most of the markers that pertain to the main verb follow it, linked to it and to each other by segmental and, possibly, tonal sandhi, morpho-phonological modifications known collectively as close juncture. To add an interesting view to this study, the Inthar dialect spoken in Danubyu of Myanmar has been compared with the Danubyu dialect to point out real characteristics of the Burmese aspectual system. The comparison with the Inthar dialect spoken in Danubyu demonstrates how the three bounded aspects of the two Danubyu dialects are expressed. The language contact with Inthar in Danuvyu is probably pointed out as one factor by which the bounded aspects in Inthar Danubyu are distinguished from those in the Inthar dialect.