Modality in Myanmar

Modality

Epistemic Modals

Epistemic modals are used to indicate the possibility or necessity of some piece of knowledge.


Modality in Burmese:  'Ya' or must

POTENTIAL MODALITY (DEONTIC)
1. Deontic Modality 'Ya dae' means must / have to
Ex.     ကျွန်တော့် ကျောင်းသွားရမလား?// Janor Chaung Twa ya ma la ?
(Do I have to go to school?)
Twa ya mae  --- (You) Have to go
Ma twa ya bu --- (You) Don't have to go
Ya - mean 'must or have to'

2. Deontic Modality -- Tin dee means 'should'

သွားသင့်တယ် should go
Ming see go twa tin dee. You should go to the market.

May
အန္တရာယ် ဖြစ်နိုင်
Antarai pyid nai dee maybe dangerous


Asking Permission

Janor Deenei Pwei Twa lo ya tha la? Today can I go to the temple fair?

janor See matwa yathay boo.
I have not been to the market yet.

Janor deenei see twa yata la?
Do I have to go to the market today?

Twa lo ya dae. Yes you may.
Twa lo ma ya boo. No, you may not.

Abilitative Modality

Can

ကျွန်မမြန်မာစကားပြောဆိုနိုင်ပါတယ်။ Jama Myanmar saka pyor soe nai dae.
I (female)  can speak Myanmar.

Ning Myanmar saka Pyor lo ya la ---- Can you speak Myanmar?

Answer Nay Nay Pyor Tud dae. I can speak little Myanmar.