ဘယ်

Burmese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛ̀/
• Romanization: MLCTS: bhai • ALA-LC: bhayʻ • BGN/PCGN: bè • Okell: be

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *b(w)ay (“left”), widely attested in Tibeto-Burman languages; compare Naxi wai (“id”). Said root is co-allofamic with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(p/b)aːy (“lame, limp, askew”); more distant cognates from this latter root include perhaps Old Chinese 跛 (OC *prals, *paːlʔ, “to walk lame”), 頗 (OC *pʰaːl, *pʰaːlʔ, *pʰaːls, “slanting, oblique, perverse”), 坡 (OC *pʰaːl), 陂 (OC *pral, *prals, “riverbank, dike”), 詖 (OC *pral, *prals, “biased, insincere”) (STEDT).

Noun

ဘယ် • (bhai)

1. left (the left side)

   Antonym: ညာ (nya)

Derived terms

• ဘယ်ကျော် (bhai-kyau)
• ဘယ်ပြန်ညာပြန် (bhai-prannya-pran)
• ဘယ်သံ (bhaisam)
• ဘယ်သန် (bhaisan)

 

Etymology 2

Adverb

ဘယ် • (bhai)

1. (interrogative) where?
2. (interrogative) which?

Derived terms

• ဘယ်ကဲ့သို့ဘယ်ချမ်းသာ (bhaikai.sui.bhaihkyam:sa)
• ဘယ်တုန်းက (bhaitun:ka.)
• ဘယ်တော့ (bhaitau.)
• ဘယ်နံရောအခါ (bhainam-rau:a.hka)
• ဘယ်နှ (bhaihna.)
• ဘယ်မှ (bhaihma.)
• ဘယ်လို (bhailui)
• ဘယ်လိုဘယ်ညာ (bhailuibhai-nya)
• ဘယ်လောက် (bhailauk)
• ဘယ်သို့ဘယ်ညာ (bhaisui.bhai-nya)
• ဘယ်သူဘယ်ဝါ (bhaisubhaiwa)

 

Further reading

• “ဘယ်” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.