Burmese By Ear/Essential Myanmar Introduction to the Burmese Language John Okell

1.11. Which one?

2. numbers

  Numbers     

S1  Da beh-lauq-lèh?  ဒါ ဘယ်လောက်လဲ။  How much is this? 

S2  Lè-zeh c'auq-caq-pa.  လေးဆယ့် ခြောက်ကျပ်ပါ။  It's 46 kyats. 

Pronunciation Points 

caq “kyat”. The unit of Burmese currency. In 2009 the official exchange rate was 6 kyats to US dollar, but on the street you could get around 1000 kyats to the dollar. 

        Update on prices in 2013 

This course was written in 1996. In the intervening years the cost of living in Burma has risen spectacularly. A cup of tea, for example, that cost under 20 kyats in 1996 cost 300 kyats in 2013. A ball point pen that cost 8 kyats at the time of writing would cost around 1000 kyats in 2013. As a general rule, 200 kyats is now the lowest denomination in use, and the example prices used in BBE should be multiplied by about 15 to reflect 2013 prices. 

Voicing. In compounds the word caq is voiced to jaq except after -q, or after hnă or k’un-nă. With tă - however, you say tăjaq. For more see “Voicing Rule” in Appendix 1. 

Weakening. The numbers tiq, hniq, k’un-hniq weaken before caq “kyat” as usual (Lesson 1.5). 

Round numbers. When a number of kyats ends in a 0, the word caq is omitted; examples: 

    tăt’aun   တစ်ထောင်   1000 kyats 

    ngà-ya   ငါးရာ   500 kyats 

If there’s any ambiguity, people may add a word meaning “money”: ngwe ngà-ya, or a word meaning “Burmese currency”: Băma ngwe ngà-ya. 

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