စာ

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See also: စီး, စော, စို, စား, and စ

Burmese

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Probably 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 Old Chinese 子 (OC *ʔslɯʔ, “child”), 字 (OC *zlɯs, “to bear; to give birth; to breed; to love; Chinese character”); see the latter for more.

Another theory by Luce compares the word to 寫 (OC *sjaːʔ, “to carry, write, copy”).[1]

Noun

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

  1. writing
  2. (in compounds) written language
    ဗမာစာ/မြန်မာစာ ― ba.maca/mranmaca ― (written) Burmese
    အင်္ဂလိပ်စာ ― angga.lipca ― (written) English
  3. letter (written or printed communication)
  4. writing or works
  5. poetry, verse
  6. lessons (for study)
  7. birthmark
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Inherited from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-tsa (“sparrow”). Compare Old Chinese 雀 (OC *ʔsewɢ, “sparrow”) and 鵲 (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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Etymology 3

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From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-dza-k (“to love”). Cognate with Tibetan [script needed] (mdza-ba, “idem”), Jingpho [script needed] (ndźaʔ, “to show love”) (STEDT).

Verb

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စာ • (ca)

  1. to sympathize with, be considerate to, have consideration for
  2. to compare to or with
Derived terms
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Etymology 4

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From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *dza (“to eat”). See also စား (ca:, “to eat”) (STEDT).

Noun

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စာ • (ca)

  1. food (something kept for consumption)
  2. diet, cuisine
  3. meal
  4. fodder, feed, prey, bait
  5. subsistence, means
Derived terms
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Particle

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စာ • (ca)

  1. (derogatory) particle suffixed to nouns to connote that someone is deserving of being victimized or hit by someone or something
  2. particle suffixed to nouns to denote supportive material for a certain function
  3. particle suffixed to nouns to denote sufficiency for a certain number or utility over a certain length of time
  4. particle suffixed to nouns to denote a waste product

References

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  1. ^ Luce, G. H. (1981) “-A Finals (34. Writing)”, in A Comparative Word-List of Old Burmese, Chinese and Tibetan, London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, →ISBN, page 2

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 (cà)

  1. to sell
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