The Burmese word သဒ္ဒါ which means "word" is pronounced like ðaˀdà (ð has a sound like "th" in the English word "the"). Okay, this word has 2 syllables, the first syllable is ðaˀ and the second syllable is dà. Okay, the second syllable is dà which is a low tone. However, the first syllable, I am unsure of. It can be anyone of these tones 1) Low နိမ့်သံ 2) High တက်သံ 3) Creaky သက်သံ 4) Checked တိုင်သ or it can have no tone at all. Normally if a syllabe is not the final syllable and it has no vowel marked it is "no tone" and sounds like [ə] ([ə] sounds like "a" in the English word "about"). Okay, here is the problem, the first syllable ends in a consonant ဒ (d) and therefore, if I follow the rules, then the first syllable can not be "no tone" and it would have to be a different tone.
I think it is a (တိုင်သ Checked tone) like this => ðaˀdà because ဒ (d) is in the same consonant class as တ (t). If a syllable with an unmarked vowel ends in တ (t), then the vowel is [a] and the tone is (တိုင်သ Checked tone).
Sandar, I know you mean well and I do appreciate your effort. I do understand what you are saying. The purpose of my question was to get clarification on the tone (and/or phonemic value which may or may not fall under the definition of tone). It appears as though the first syllable is a "reduced syllable" and the word would be pronounced like this => ðə̆·dà (ðə̆ sounds similar to the english word "the") and (dà sounds like Tattoo from the late 70's, early 80's television series Fantasy Island when he would run up the main bell tower to ring the bell and shout "Dà plane! dà plane!" to announce the arrival of a new set of guests at the beginning of each episode).
Even though, according to tone rules, it should be pronounced like this => ðáʔ·dá (the first syllable has a checked or stopped tone, called တိုင်သံ in Burmese); it is not pronounced this way.
So in summary, this word is spelled သဒ္ဒါ but pronounced like သဒါ. I think this was what you were trying to tell me to the best of your abilities. I am slowly coming to the realization that I can not ask Bama lumyo for the names of the tones. It is just not commonplace for a Bama lumyo to know the names of tones.
Actually I am not expert in the tones of words. But what I want to suggest you is that in Myanmar Grammar, if the two words are together like (သဒၵါ), the upper word is for the front word 'သ'. So, the word is 'သဒ္ ဒါ'. It sounds like 'သတ္ဒါ'. But if sounds quickly, it sounds like 'သဒါ'. I hope you may understand.
