.Volume VII, issue 7(B)
Modern SPDC era comedy
_ Collected and conveyed by Maha Bandula
Burmese people are lighthearted and could look into and found the funny side even when they are frustrated and angry.
Let us see the witty jokes that Burmese people poke fun at the Myanmar Railways or Myanma Ya Htar in Burma using homonyms. In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling or pronunciation (or both) but have different meanings. Homonyms are words that are spelled and pronounced alike but have different meanings.
They changed the name Myanma_Ya Htar to Myin Hma_ Ya Thar meaning something as seeing is believing. Nowadays trains never arrive in time. You could not rely on the official arrival time. Only when you see (in Burmese, Myin Hma) you are sure the train has arrived.
Train seats are classified as seated (Htine Khone) and sleeping coaches (Eik Sin). As the railway tracks are very narrow, inferior quality, lack proper maintenance and the coaches are also old or refurbished second hands, commuters on the seats are feeling like riding on a jumping or galloping horse. Therefore, the original meaning of Khone in Burmese meaning seat is now used in the sense of Khone, meaning jumping.
Sleeping coaches (Eik Sin) also became to have another meaning; if you sleep on it you would be thrown away _ another meaning of Sin is being thrown out or thrown away.
The final nail to the coffin of SPDC was the last punch suggesting that as Myanmar is now an ASEAN member, to be sync or rhyme with the fellow ASEAN countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, SPDC had changed our country’s name into Yae Mee Sia. Yae is water and Mee is electricity and gasoline or petroleum. Sia (pronounce shar) means scarce or in short supply.
Comments:
Burmaysia Thah said _
My Mother, while she was alive, sometimes would cook special noodles which were
unusual for its particular content of meat and vegetables.
It was unlike any conventional Burmese noodle dish, since it was something new
that she had concocted. When asked what it was called, she said it was, "Burmaysia
Noodles."
As you know, "Bur" in the Burmese way of pronouncing English comes out as "Bar"
and this means "What", or in this particular context, "Whatever" -- as you will
soon see.
"--may" means "ask", and "sia" (pronounced "shah") means "very rare and
hard to find, the opposite of abundant"
So her Burmaysia Noodles was really a satirical joke to that whatever ingredient
you ask in her noodles, it is all very hard to get, i.e., bar bae may may, a
kone shah dair. It was just a way of saying how hard it was to obtain any kind
of food ingredients.
Myo Thu said _
We've heard Bur May Sia, bar may may ma shi, shar loe. (whatever we ask, it is scarce or unavailable). Now we get new name of Burma. YaeMeeSia
Your Comments here_
Request: If you can kindly volunteer to translate BURMA DIGEST English articles into Burmese, please let us know burmadigest@tayzathuria.org.uk .
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