Anticipating Computer Language — On Some Conventions in the Burmese Inscriptions Rudolf A. Yanson (bio) The problem of space was always a pressing one for Old Burmese scribes. For inscriptions, they used stone slabs or palm leaves. Stone slabs were difficult to carve while palm leaves were an expensive recording technology because turning palm leaves into materials to write upon required toilsome preparation. So it was natural that the scribes when writing tried to save space and therefore introduced different conventions into orthography. In the course of time, after orthography became more or less stabilized, and the practice of writing inscriptions became more widespread, scribes started to experiment with orthography, introducing into inscriptions their own judgment regarding spellings of some common words/markers. Some conventions these scribes implemented became the norm of present orthography, but some remain the peculiarity of Old Burmese. Those used in Modern Burmese (MB) unfortunately are never found in dictionaries. Although the origin of some of them is explained in different publications, in several cases I find the provided explanations unconvincing.1 Besides, the relevant publications contain just lists of abbreviations met in palm leaf manuscripts and parabaiks covering the period beginning in the 18th and subsequent centuries. [End Page 391] My analysis and examples are based on the analysis of inscriptions published in five volumes in Myanmar.2 In each case, after presenting an example, I will put in the number of the volume, page, and the line from above where the example appears. I shall start by describing the use of numerals in the context of some grammaticals and lexicals, as well as some peculiar cases. The first numeral to be described in an unusual function is 2. Besides its direct function, it was widely used for a variety of purposes, such as reduplication of verbs to intensify their meaning or to express the action as multiple one, e.g.,3 "who (whenever) comes to the monastery" (2,17,2). The verb la, "to come," is followed by the numeral 2. The phrase holds good without the numeral, but the meaning would change and sound like "whoever may come to the monastery." In the following example, the numeral is put after the word "very" to intensify its meaning: "very-very" (2,35,7). The numeral 2 was also used after nouns for emphatic plurality, e.g., "places where there is pure water" (1,289,12). The numeral is put after "place," and the context meaning of the phrase is "wherever one gets to, there will be pure water." Without the numeral, the meaning would be "a place where there is pure water." One more example: "worlds." Formal analysis leads to the meaning "the two worlds," but the contextual meaning is "whatever future worlds may be" (2,21,12). Usually this meaning is expressed by repeating the word "world," but quite often it is expressed with the numeral postponed to the word. [End Page 392] The described functions of the numeral 2 can be traced already in the earliest inscriptions, suggesting that this pattern dates to the early stages of the evolution of writing practices. Quite interesting is the following example: "cows and water buffaloes sacrificed in 3 groups" (3,35,10). Here the numeral is used instead of the word "to sacrifice." Words for "two" and "sacrifice" are spelled the same, so why not use the simple numeral in the place of though not so long but yet complicated for performing on stone word? Some more examples of the unusual use of the numeral 2 are as follows: "may (he) submerge in Hell" (4,113,9–10). The words "two" and "to submerge" are spelled the same. In the example, the word "to submerge" is spelled with numeral 2 and the last symbol of the words "two" and "to submerge", i.e., ca with virama. It appears that the numeral is used instead of symbol hna, which actually does not save space, but inscribing this last symbol is much more complicated than that of numeral. The next two examples also present the mixture in spelling of the word for "two" and the corresponding numeral: "two cows," "two pahsos (dress)" (4,113,4). The word "two...