ပေါ့

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Not given etymology by STEDT (poʼ "light, insipid; feeble"), and not mentioned by Luce 1981.”)

• IPA^(key): /pɔ̰/
• Romanization: MLCTS: pau. • ALA-LC: poʹ • BGN/PCGN: paw. • Okell: pó

ပေါ့ • (pau.)

1. light, not heavy, less in weight
2. mild, not strong or intense, less in intensity
3. wanting in saltiness or sweetness, light or mild in taste, weak in flavor
4. not serious
5. of loose character
6. not sound of mind
7. quick to act or respond

Same as ပါ့ (pa.).

• Phonetic respellings: ပေါ့, ဗော့
• IPA^(key): /pɔ̰/, /bɔ̰/
• Romanization: MLCTS: pau. • ALA-LC: poʹ • BGN/PCGN: paw./baw. • Okell: pó/pó

The voiceless variant /pɔ̰/ occurs after /ʔ/; the voiced variant /bɔ̰/ after vowels and /ɴ/.

ပေါ့ • (pau.)

1. (chiefly colloquial) like (mild intensifier; used to mean "to say" or "to think")
   • 2005, San San Hnin Tun, "Discourse particles in Burmese", in Justin Watkins (ed.), Studies in Burmese Linguistics, →ISBN, p. 193:

     ဒါရောင်းတာ မဟုတ်ဘူးပေါ့လေ။ (daraung:ta ma.hutbhu:pau.le||)

     He was, like, I'm not selling them, you know?

     အဲဒါနဲ့ လွင်မိုးကလည်း ဝမ်းသာအားရပေါ့နော်။ (ai:danai. lwangmui:ka.lany: wam:saa:ra.pau.nau||)

     So then Lwin Moe was, like, really delighted, you know.

2. (chiefly colloquial) say (let's say: used to mark an example, supposition, or hypothesis)
   • 2005, San San Hnin Tun, “Discourse particles in Burmese”, in Justin Watkins, editor, Studies in Burmese Linguistics, →ISBN, page 193:

     အက်စီဒင့် ဖြစ်သွားတာပေါ့နော်။ (akcidang. hpracswa:tapau.nau||)

     akcidang. hpracswa:tapau.nau|| (akcidang. hpracswa:tapau.nau||)

     So say there was an accident, right?

3. (chiefly colloquial) you know (used to confirm agreement or understanding at the end of a statement)
   • 2005, San San Hnin Tun, “Discourse particles in Burmese”, in Justin Watkins, editor, Studies in Burmese Linguistics, →ISBN, page 193:

     ကလဲ့စားချေတဲ့ သဘောမျိုးနဲ့ပေါ့။ (ka.lai.ca:hkyetai. sa.bhau:myui:nai.pau.||)

     ka.lai.ca:hkyetai. sa.bhau:myui:nai.pau.|| (ka.lai.ca:hkyetai. sa.bhau:myui:nai.pau.||)

     It was done as a way of getting even, you know.

• “ပေါ့” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.
• “ပေါ့” in Burmese/Myanmar Dictionary of Grammatical Forms (Routledge 2001, →ISBN), by John Okell and Anna Allott.