ကို

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See also: က, ကဲ့, and თ

Burmese

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *(g/k)əw-n (“elder brother, senior male relative”). See Old Chinese 舅 (OC *ɡuʔ, “maternal uncle; brother-in-law”) for more cognates (STEDT).

Pronunciation

Noun

ကို • (kui)

  1. (honorific) Form of address for younger men
    ကို ဇေယျာ သော်
    kui jeyya sau
    Ko Zayar Thaw
Coordinate terms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Old Burmese ကိုဝ် (kuiw).

Pronunciation

  • Phonetic respellings: ကို, ဂို
  • IPA(key): /kò/, /ɡò/
  • Romanization: MLCTS: kui • ALA-LC: kui • BGN/PCGN: ko/go • Okell: kou/kou

Particle

ကို • (kui)

  1. indicates a direct or indirect object
    ကင်မရာကို ခပ်ဝေးဝေးမှာ ထားပါ။
    kangma.rakui hkap-we:we:hma hta:pa||
    Put the camera at a fair distance.
    ငါ့ကို များများ ပေးပါး။
    nga.kui mya:mya: pe:pa:||
    Give me a lot.
    အမေ့ကို ထမင်းချက်ဖို့ ပြောထားသေးလား။
    a.me.kui hta.mang:hkyakhpui. prau:hta:se:la:||
    Did you tell mother to cook?
Usage notes

Triggers induced creaky tone of a preceding low tone in pronouns and personal referents. Often omitted, especially in the colloquial language.

Derived terms

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Doesn't seem to be mentioned by STEDT. Related to Etymology 2?”)

Particle

ကို • (kui)

  1. (colloquial) emphatic particle suffixed to words

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Doesn't seem to be mentioned by STEDT. Related to Etymology 2?”)

Postposition

ကို • (kui)

  1. to (indicating a destination), in, at
    ဘယ်တုန်းက ဒီမြို့ကို ရောက်သလဲ။
    bhaitun:ka. di-mrui.kui rauksa.lai:||
    When did you arrive in this town?
Usage notes
  • IPA(key): /kò/ (after /ʔ/)
  • IPA(key): /ɡò/ (after a vowel or /ɴ/)

Further reading

  • Pain, Frederic. "Towards a panchronic perspective on a diachronic issue: the rhyme<-uiw> in Old Burmese." Australian Journal of Linguistics 37.4 (2017): 424-464.
  • “ကို” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.
  • “ကို” in Burmese/Myanmar Dictionary of Grammatical Forms (Routledge 2001, →ISBN), by John Okell and Anna Allott.
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