Rawang-English-Burmese Dictionary

601 Pages·2015·7.495 MB·English

by  Randy J. LaPolla, David Sangdong

Rawang-English-Burmese
DICTIONARY

(A Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Myanmar)

Randy J. LaPolla and David Sangdong
Copyright © 2015
Randy J. LaPolla and David Sangdong

Privately published for limited circulation

Author’s addresses
Prof. Randy J. LaPolla, PhD FAHA （罗仁地）
Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies
Nanyang Technological University
HSS-03-80, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332

David Sangdong, PhD
Breakthrough Language Development and Training Center
No. 216/5 Dukahtawng Qr.
Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar.
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements v
Introduction vii
The people and their location vii
The Rawang writing system ix
Consonants ix
Vowels ix
Tones x
How to use this dictionary x
Abbreviations xii

A a 1
B b 10
CH ch 35
D d 51
E e 113
G g 114
H h 138
I i 148
J j 150
K k 159
L l 192
M m 217
N n 265
NG ng 295
NY ny 305
O o 306
Ö ö 308
P p 309
R r 328
S s 351
iii
SH sh 374
T t 409
U u 437
V v 438
W w 445
Y y 454
Z z 464

English-Rawang Glossary 481
Semantic Word classes 567
Numerals 568
Kinships 569
Female’s birth order names 570
Male’s birth order names 570
Body parts 571
Animals 573
Reptiles and Amphibians 577
Fish 578
Birds 579
Insects 582
Baskets and containers 585
Cutting and pounding tools 587
Fruits 588

iv
Acknowledgements

Developing a dictionary requires time, money and the participation and the good
will of many individuals. This one has been in progress since the mid-1990’s,1
and many people have helped out along the way. We would like to sincerely
thank all our language consultants for allowing us to record their precious
traditional stories, experiences which became the foundation for accumulating
the words for the dictionary, including Rawang Bezi Deu, Mana Nin, Dakhum Pi,
Dakhum Joseph, Damawang Nin, Male Pong, Malong Pong, Sangdong Pong,
Sangdong Yohan, and Rawang Meram, and to thank James Khong Sar Ong,
Rawang Meram, and Mana Andrew for their very patient work with Randy
LaPolla explaining and analysing the texts and providing extra words for the
dictionary. Some of the stories collected in the early years were published in
2001 as Rawang Texts with Grammatical Analysis and English Translation, edited
by Randy J. LaPolla and Dory Poa. Other texts, with recordings, are now
available on the Rawang-Dulong-Anong Language and Culture Website
(http://tibeto-burman.net/rda). This dictionary is also available on that site.
We would like to acknowledge our sincere thanks to many individuals from
Putao whom we had the privilege of spending several weeks with during our

1 Randy LaPolla had been working on the Dulong language in China, but thanks to the support of
the Project on Southeast Asian Areal Studies of the Academic Sinica he was able to extend this work
to the varieties in Myanmar. Later grants from City University of Hong Kong (Grant #9030829) and
Nanyang Technological University (Grant #M4081048) allowed us to continue the work, which
includes not only the dictionary and texts, but grammatical analysis as well. See
http://randylapolla.net/publications-organized-by-language-and-subject.htm#DR
v
data collection trip in 2010. Yinthang Pilemon, Dangshin Dang, Sangdong Dang,
Daham Dang, and Sangdong Dee spent many hours with us, inputting new words
and data tirelessly for many hours. We would also like to thank Tingkhang Duho,
Tingkhang Pong, and Konglang Khwin for their time, encouragement and their
valuable input.
We would like to acknowledge our sincere thanks to Htamdang Pong and several
friends from Yekyi village in Myitkyina for reading through the first draft and
inputting many more new words.
We would also like to express our gratitude to the many other Rawang people
who participated and provided their valuable input from afar through emails and
discussion on Facebook. Particularly we acknowledge Mana Andrew from
Thailand for his prompt responses and thoughtful and stimulating ideas.

vi
Introduction

The people and their location
The Rawang people live in the far north of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma),
particularly along the Mae Hka and and Maeli Hka river valleys. Their areas
extend east into the Salween valley in Yunnan Province, China, where they are
known in Chinese as the Dulong people and a subset of the Nu people, and west
into Arunachal Pradesh, India. Currently Rawang populated townships in Kachin
State include Putao, Machangbaw, Khonglangphu and Sumprabum. Many
Rawang also live in and around Myitkyina and are scattered in many other parts
of Myanmar.
The term Rawang is a generic term. It represents four groups; Daru-Zewang,
Lungmi, Tangsarr and Matwang. Some literature includes a fifth group, Anong,
the language of whom is unmistakeably related to Rawang. However, some
Rawang and many Anong people consider the Anong people to be a separate
ethnic group. Each of the Rawang divisions has several sub-branches and speak
different dialects. Some dialects, even within the same group, are very different
from others and mutually unintelligible.
Matwang, the central and written dialect, is a prestigious and standard dialect.
Most Rawang can read and understand Matwang and it serves as a lingua franca
among the Rawang groups.
vii
Map of Myanmar.
The Rawng language area is shown with a dotted square box.
viii
The Rawang writing system
The Romanized Rawang writing system was developed by the American
missionary Robert Morse. The 22 consonants symbols with their phonetic
representation given in [ ] brackets are presented below. All the consonants
except q [ʔ] occur in syllable initial position though the final consonants are
limited to p, t, k, m, n, ng, l and r. The consonants f and ny are not common
(perhaps not found) in the Matwang native sound system. However, they are
included in the writing system for loanwords and other Rawang dialects.
Consonants
g [k-g] k [kʰ] q [ʔ] h [h] ng [ŋ]
j [tʃ] ch [tʃʰ] sh [ʃ] y [j] r [ɾ]
d [t-d] t [tʰ] s [s] z [z] n [n]
b [p-b] p [pʰ] l [l] w [w] m [m]
f [f] ny [ɲ]
Vowels
There are seven vowels, all monophthongs.
i [i] ø [ɯ] u [u]
e [ɛ] v [ə] o [ɔ]
a [ɑ]
ix
Tones
Four tonal distinctions are made in Rawang sound system. They are marked as
follows (using the vowel a as a base): high falling tone: á, mid tone: ā (it is
common to leave out the tone mark), and low falling tone: à. All syllables that
end in a stop consonant (-p, -t, -q, -k) are in the high tone. Open syllables without
a tone mark are unstressed.

How to use this dictionary
In this dictionary the English alphabetical order is followed. The order of tones
is a a,́ a.̀ For entries that have a vocalic prefix v [ə], for example the word vna,
the unprefixed form, here na, is used as the base form and the prefixed form is
given after that, separated from the root using the symbol ⇔, to show they are
alternate forms.
na ⇔ vna n: wound, illness. အနာ၊ အနာ ရ ာဂါ။
ná ⇔ vná v.t: forget. ရ ရေ့ ာတေ့ ယ။်
If the entry has more than one meaning (normally semantically related) in
English, they are labelled 1. 2. etc.
pvlu 1. v.t: lay down, lay flat. ခင်း်က င်း်တယ်။ 2. n: mat used
on floor of house, also 'floor of house'. ဖ ာ၊ အခင်း်။
x