A Linguistic Study of Affixation in The Burmese Language

Abstract

The title of the study was “A Linguistic Study of Affixation in the Burmese Language”. The objectives of this research were classified into two parts 1) To analyze the processes and characteristics of affixation in the Burmese language. and 2) To identify and classify the word classes derived from affixation in the Burmese language. In this research, the researcher applied qualitative research method focusing on documentary in nature. Population was ten key informants from Yangon division in Myanmar. The sources of data collection were from books, magazines, documents, theses, research articles, online webpages that were in accordance with the nature of the study and from in-depth interview ten Burmese language experts who were selected as key informants of this study. The collected data was analyzed based on the types and functions in morphology and interpreted and explained the findings with examples in the form of tables, diagrams and descriptive statements.

The results of the research were found that in Burmese language, there were many particles which can be called affixes of the word and can cause the changes of sense or type of that word. Initially, one of the three types of affixations was called as prefixes. Prefixation can be defined as one or more letters attached at the beginning of the root word in order to change its meaning or its grammatical function. It can be said that prefixes were involved at the initial part of the root word. The most common prefixes were အ /a/ and မ /ma/. Infixation can be defined as an affixation attached inside   a root word which usually the root word consists of two or more words. There were not too many infixes in Burmese language. They were sometimes used in root words by combining with prefixes and suffixes. Suffixation can be defined as one or more letters attached at the end of the root word in order to change its meaning or its grammatical function. In Burmese language, there were many derivational morphemes that change the words from a word class to another by adding suffixes to the root word. The Burmese language had many suffixes more than prefixes and infixes and they were common in spoken and written.

There were two kinds of word according to the grammatical structure of Burmese language. They were single word and compound word. Word classes, often referred to as parts of speech, were a fundamental component in studying any languages. There were nine word-classes for all Burmese words according to the official Burmese grammar book used in the government schools. The researcher found six word-classes derived from affixation in Burmese language. They were noun, verb, adjective, adverb, postpositional marker, and particles.