Burmese language

Despite vocabulary and pronunciation dierences, there

is mutual intelligibility among Burmese dialects, as for
the most part, they share the same four tones, consonant
clusters and the use of the Burmese script. However, several dialects substantially dier in Burmese with respect
to vocabulary, lexical particles, and rhymes.

The Burmese language (

, MLCTS:
myanma bhasa, [bm b]) is the ocial language of
Myanmar. Although the Constitution of Myanmar ocially recognizes the English name of the language as the
Myanmar language,[4] most English speakers continue
to refer to the language as Burmese.

1.1.1 Irrawaddy River valley

Burmese is spoken as a rst language by 32 million, primarily the Bamar people and related sub-ethnic groups,
and as a second language by 10 million, particularly ethnic minorities in Myanmar and neighboring countries like
the Mon.

The standard dialect of Burmese (the Mandalay-Yangon

dialect continuum) comes from the Irrawaddy River
valley. Regional dierences between speakers from
Upper Burma (e.g., Mandalay dialect), called anya tha
, and speakers from Lower Burma (e.g., Yangon
dialect), called auk tha
, occur in vocabulary
choice, not in pronunciation. Minor pronunciation differences do exist within the Irrawaddy River valley. For
instance, for the term
food oering [to a monk]",
Lower Burmese speakers use [s] instead of [sw],
which is the pronunciation used in Upper Burma.

Burmese is a tonal, pitch-register, and syllable-timed language,[5] largely monosyllabic and analytic language, with
a subjectobjectverb word order. It is a member of
the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language
family.
The Burmese alphabet, which was derived from the Mon
script, one of the Brahmic scripts that was adopted for
Southeast Asian languages due to Indian inuence.

The standard dialect is represented by the Yangon dialect because of the modern citys media inuence and
economic clout. In the past, the Mandalay dialect represented standard Burmese. The most noticeable feature
of the Mandalay dialect is its use of the rst person pronoun
kya.nau [tn] by both men and women,
whereas in Yangon, the said pronoun is used only by male
speakers while
kya.ma. [tma] is used by female
speakers. Moreover, with regard to kinship terminology,
Upper Burmese speakers dierentiate the maternal and
paternal sides of a family whereas Lower Burmese speakers do not.

Classication

Burmese belongs to the Southern Burmish branch of the

Sino-Tibetan languages. Burmese is the most widely
spoken of the non-Sinitic Sino-Tibetan languages.[6]
Burmese was the fth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to
develop a writing system, after Chinese characters, the
Pyu script, the Tibetan alphabet and the Tangut script.[6]

1.1

Dialects
1.2 The spread of Burmese in Lower

The majority of Burmese speakers, who live throughout

Burma
the Irrawaddy River Valley, use a number of largely similar dialects, while a minority speak non-standard dialects Spoken Burmese is remarkably uniform among Burmese
found in the peripheral areas of the country. These di- speakers,[7] particularly those living in the Irrawaddy valalects include:
ley, who all use variants of Standard Burmese. The rst
major reason for the uniformity is the traditional Bud Tanintharyi Region: Merguese (Myeik, Beik),
dhist monastic education system, which encouraged eduTavoyan (Dawei), and Palaw
cation and uniformity in language throughout the Upper
Irrawaddy valley, the traditional homeland of the Bamar
Magway Region: Yaw
people.
Shan State: Intha, Taungyo and Danu
According to the 1891 British census conducted ve years
Arakanese (Rakhine) in Rakhine State and Marma in after the annexation of the entire country, Konbaung
Bangladesh are also sometimes considered dialects of Burma had an unusually high male literacy rate where
Burmese and sometimes as separate languages.
62.5% of age 25 and over in Upper Burma could read and
1

2 REGISTERS

write. The gure would have been much higher if nonBamars (e.g., Chins, Kachins, etc.) were excluded. For
the whole country, the literacy rate was 49% for men and
5.5% for women.[8]
The migration of Burmese speakers of Bamar descent to
Lower Burma is relatively recent. As late as the mid1700s, the Austroasiatic language Mon was the principal
language of Lower Burma and the Mon people who inhabited it. After the Burmese-speaking Konbaung Dynasty's victory over the Mon-speaking Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1757, the shift to Burmese began in Lower Burma. By 1830, an estimated 90% of
the population in the region identied themselves as Bamar (and, as such, Burmese speakers) due the inux from
Upper Burma, assimilation, and intermarriage.[9] In the
British colonial era, British incentives, particularly geared
toward rice production, as well as political instability in
Upper Burma, accelerated this migration.

1.2.1

Outside the Irrawaddy basin

(formal writing), newspapers, radio broadcasts, and

formal speeches
2. Spoken Low (L) form[12] (
mranma
ca.ka:): the low variety (informal and spoken), used
in daily conversation, television, comics and literature (informal writing)
The literary form of Burmese retains archaic and conservative grammatical structures and modiers (including particles, markers and pronouns) no longer used in
the colloquial form.[11] In most cases, the corresponding
grammatical markers in the literary and spoken forms are
totally unrelated to each other.[13] Examples of this phenomenon include the following lexical items:
this (pronoun): HIGH

i LOW

that (pronoun): HIGH

htui LOW

di
hui

at (postposition): HIGH hnai. [n a] LOW

hma [m ]

Main articles: Arakanese language, Tavoyan dialects,

Intha dialect, Yaw dialect and Myeik dialect

plural (marker): HIGH

mya: LOW

possessive (marker): HIGH

i. LOW

More distinctive non-standard varieties emerge as one

moves farther away from the Irrawaddy River valley
toward peripheral areas of the country. These varieties include the Yaw, Palaw, Myeik (Merguese),
Tavoyan and Intha dialects. Despite substantial vocabulary and pronunciation dierences, there is mutual
intelligibility among most Burmese dialects. Dialects
in Tanintharyi Region, including Palaw, Merguese and
Tavoyan, are especially conservative in comparison to
Standard Burmese. The Tavoyan and Intha dialects have
preserved the /l/ medial, which is otherwise only found in
Old Burmese inscriptions. They also often reduce the intensity of the glottal stop. Myeik has 250,000 speakers[10]
while Tavoyan has 400,000.

and (conjunction): HIGH

ne.

hnang. LOW

if (conjunction): HIGH
rang

hlyang LOW

The most pronounced feature of the Arakanese language

of Rakhine State is its retention of the [] sound, which
has become a [j] sound in standard Burmese. Also,
Arakanese features a variety of vowel dierences, including the merger of the [e] and [i] vowels. Hence, a
word like blood
is pronounced [w] in standard
Burmese and [w] in Arakanese.

Registers

Burmese is a diglossic language with two distinguishable

registers (or diglossic varieties):[11]
1. Literary
High
(H)
form[12]
(Template:
mranma ca):
the
Lang-my-Mym
high variety (formal and written), used in literature

twe

re.

Historically the literary register was preferred for written

Burmese on the grounds that the spoken style lacks gravity, authority, dignity. In the mid-1960s some Burmese
writers spearheaded eorts to abandon the literary form,
asserting that the spoken vernacular form ought to be
used.[14][15] Some Burmese linguists such as Minn Latt,
a Czech academic, proposed moving away from the high
form of Burmese altogether.[16] Although the literary
form is heavily used in written contexts (literary and
scholarly works, radio news broadcasts, and novels), the
recent trend has been to accommodate the spoken form in
informal written contexts.[17] Nowadays, television news
broadcasts, comics, and commercial publications use the
spoken form or a combination of the spoken and simpler,
less ornate formal forms.[11]
The following sample sentence reveals that dierences
between literary and spoken Burmese mostly occur in
grammatical particles:
Spoken Burmese has politeness levels and honorics that
take the speakers status and age in relation to the audience into account. The particle
pa is frequently
used after a verb to express politeness.[18] Moreover,
Burmese pronouns relay varying degrees of deference
or respect.[19] In many instances, polite speech (e.g., addressing teachers, ocials, or elders) employs feudal-era
third person pronouns or kinship terms in lieu of rst

3
and second person pronouns.[20][21] Furthermore, with regard to vocabulary choice, spoken Burmese clearly distinguishes the Buddhist clergy (monks) from the laity
(householders), especially when speaking to or about
bhikkhus (monks).[22] The following are examples of
varying vocabulary used for Buddhist clergy and for laity
:
sleep (verb):
ip [e] for laity

4. Hybrid loan (e.g., neologisms or calques): construction of compounds combining native Burmese
words with Pali or combine Pali words:[26]
airplane":
[l j bj], lit. air
machine y,
(native Burmese, air) +
(from Pali yana, vehicle) +
(native
Burmese word, y)[26]

kyin: [t] for monks vs.

Burmese has also adapted a great deal of words from

Mon, traditionally spoken by the Mon people, who un die (verb):
pyam tau mu [pj d m] til recently formed the majority in Lower Burma. Most
Mon loanwords are so well assimilated that they are not
for monks vs.
se [] for laity
distinguished as loanwords as Burmese and Mon were
used interchangeably for several centuries in pre-colonial
Burma.[27] Mon loans are often related to ora, fauna,
3 Vocabulary
administration, textiles, foods, boats, crafts, architecture
and music.[17]
Burmese primarily has a monosyllabic received Sino- As a natural consequence of British rule in Burma,
Tibetan vocabulary. Nonetheless, many words, especially English has been another major source of vocabulary,
loanwords from Indo-European languages like English, especially with regard to technology, measurements and
are polysyllabic, and others, from Mon, an Austroasiatic modern institutions. English loanwords tend to take one
language, are sesquisyllabic.[23] Burmese loanwords are of three forms:
overwhelmingly in the form of nouns.[23]
Historically, Pali, the liturgical language of Theravada
Buddhism, had a profound inuence on Burmese vocabulary. Burmese has readily adopted words of Pali origin because of phonotactic similarities between two languages alongside the fact that the script used for Burmese
can reproduce Pali spellings with complete accuracy.[24]
Pali loanwords are often related to religion, government,
arts, and science.[24]
Burmese loanwords from Pali primarily take four forms:
1. Direct loan: direct import of Pali words with no alteration in orthography
life": Pali

jiva Burmese

jiva

2. Abbreviated loan: import of Pali words with accompanied syllable reduction and alteration in orthography (usually by means of a placing a diacritic, called
athat
(lit. nonexistence) atop the last letter
in the syllable to suppress the consonants inherent
vowel[25]
"karma": Pali

kamma Burmese kam

dawn": Pali
arun

arua Burmese

merit": Pali
kusuil

kusala Burmese

3. Double loan: adoption of two dierent terms derived from the same Pali word[24]
Pali
mna Burmese
[mna] arrogance and
[m] pride

1. Direct loan: adoption of an English word, adapted

to the Burmese phonology[28]
democracy": English democracy Burmese
2. Neologism or calque: translation of an English word
using native Burmese constituent words[29]
human rights": English human rights
Burmese
( human +
rights)
3. Hybrid loan: construction of compound words by
native Burmese words to English words[30]
to sign":
sign) +

[s t]
(English,
(native Burmese, inscribe).

To a lesser extent, Burmese has also imported words from

Sanskrit (religion), Hindi (food, administration, and shipping), and Chinese (games and food).[17] Burmese has
also imported a handful of words from other European
languages such as Portuguese.
Here is a sample of loan words found in Burmese:
suering:
radio:
method:
eggroll:
pi)
wife:

[doka], from Pali dukkha

[dj], from English radio
[sn], from Mon
[k pja], from Hokkien
[zn], from Hindi jani

(jn-

4 PHONOLOGY
noodle:
[ku si]

[ka sw ], from Shan

foot (unit of measurement):

tuguese p
ag:

[p], from Por-

[l], Arabic: alam

storeroom:

ra.hanta [jhd], king

raja. [jza].
Occasionally it is replaced with /l/ (e.g., animal
ti.rac hcan), pronounced [te
s] or [tle s].
^4 is a special syllable-nal nasal consonant,
which bears some resemblance to Japanese
moraic n, .

[d], from Malay gudang

Since the end of British rule, the Burmese government

has attempted to limit usage of Western loans (especially from English) by coining new words (neologisms).
For instance, for the word television, Burmese publications are mandated to use the term
(lit.
see picture, hear sound) in lieu of
, a direct English transliteration.[31] Another example is the
word vehicle, which is ocially
[j] (derived
from Pali) but
[k] (from English car) in spoken Burmese. Some previously common English loanwords have fallen out of usage with the adoption of neologisms. An example is the word university, formerly
[jnbst], from English university, now
[tek], a Pali-derived neologism recently created by the Burmese government and derived from the
Pali spelling of Taxila (
Takkasila), an ancient
university town in modern-day Pakistan.[31]

Burmese exhibits two distinct types of voicing sandhi,

which occurs in the consonant phones:
/k, k/ //
/t, t/ /d/
/s, s/ /z/
/t, t/ /d/
/p, p/ /b/
In the rst type, the initial consonant of the second syllable becomes voiced:[33]
e.g. hot water": [jb]

/j/ + /p/

In the second type, the initial consonants of both syllables

[33]
Some words in Burmese may have many synonyms, each become voiced:
having certain usages, such as formal, literary, colloe.g. promise": [d]
/ka/ + /t/
quial, and poetic. One example is the word moon,
which can be la (native Tibeto-Burman),
/
[sd]/[s] (derivatives of Pali canda moon), or In some compound works, the phoneme /d/, when following the nasalized nal //, can shift to a /j/ sound:
[ d] (Sanskrit).[32]

Phonology

e.g. blouse (
[j].

angkyi): [d]

The transcriptions in this section use the International The phonemes /p, p, b, t, t, d/, when following the nasalized nal //, can become /m/ in compound words:
Phonetic Alphabet.

4.1

Consonants

The consonants of Burmese are as follows:

Phonetic notes:
^1 // is uncommon, except as a voiced
allophone of //.

e.g. to consult
m]
e.g. to apologize
[t m]
e.g. airplane
[l mj]

: [t p] [t
: [t p]
: [li j pj]

^2 /w / is rare, having disappeared from modern Burmese, except in transcriptions of foreign names and a handful of native words.

The placeless nasal // is realized as nasalization of the

preceding vowel or as a homorganic nasal of the following consonant; thus /md/ storm is pronounced
[mnd].

^3 // is rare, used only in toponyms that have

retained Sanskrit or Pali pronunciations (such
as Amarapura, pronounced [mapa] and
in English-derived words. Historically, // became /j/ in Burmese, and is usually replaced
by /j/ in Pli loanwords, e.g. monk

In many Burmese verbs, pre-aspiration and postaspiration distinguishes the causative and non-causative
forms of verbs, where the aspirated initial consonant indicates active voice or a transitive verb, while an unaspirated initial consonant indicates passive voice or an
intransitive verb:[34]

4.4

Syllable structure
e.g. to cook [t],
[t],

4.2

5
vs. to be cooked

e.g. to loosen [pj],

ened [pj],

vs. to be loos-

e.g. to elevate [mj],

vated [mj],

vs. to be ele-

Vowels

The vowels of Burmese are:

The monophthongs /e/, /o/, //, and // occur only in open
syllables (those without a syllable coda); the diphthongs
/ei/, /ou/, /ai/, and /au/ occur only in closed syllables
(those with a syllable coda). // only occurs in a minor
syllable, and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below).
The close vowels /i/ and /u/ and the close portions of the
diphthongs are slightly centered to [] and [] in closed
syllables, i.e. before // and //. Thus
/n i/ two is
phonetically [n ] and
/tu/ cat is phonetically [t].

4.3

Tones

lower pitch), with those tones encompassing a variety of

pitches.[37] The ordinary tone consists of a range of
pitches. Linguist L. F. Taylor concluded that conversational rhythm and euphonic intonation possess importance not found in related tonal languages and that its
tonal system is now in an advanced state of decay.[38][39]

4.4 Syllable structure

The syllable structure of Burmese is C(G)V((V)C), which
is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide, and the rime consists of a monophthong
alone, a monophthong with a consonant, or a diphthong
with a consonant. The only consonants that can stand in
the coda are // and //. Some representative words are:
CV /m/ 'girl'
CVC /m/ 'crave'
CGV /mj/ 'earth'
CGVC /mj/ 'eye'
CVVC /m/ (term of address for young men)
CGVVC /mj/ 'ditch'

Burmese is a tonal language, which means phonemic contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone of a vowel. In A minor syllable has some restrictions:
Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch, but also
phonation, intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel qual It contains // as its only vowel
ity. However, some linguists consider Burmese a pitch It must be an open syllable (no coda consonant)
register language like Shanghainese.[35]
There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table, the tones are shown marked on the vowel /a/
as an example.
For example, the following words are distinguished from
each other only on the basis of tone:
Low /k/ shake
High /k/ be bitter
Creaky /ka/ fee
Checked /ka/ draw o
In syllables ending with //, the checked tone is excluded:
Low /k/ undergo
High /k/ dry up
Creaky /ka/ appoint

It cannot bear tone

It has only a simple (C) onset (no glide after the consonant)
It must not be the nal syllable of the word
Some examples of words containing minor syllables:
/k.lo/ 'knob'
/p.lw/ 'ute'
/.j / 'mock'
/k.l/ 'be wanton'
/t.m.j/ 'rice-water'

5 Alphabet

In spoken Burmese, some linguists classify two real

tones (there are four nominal tones transcribed in writ- Main article: Burmese alphabet
ten Burmese), high (applied to words that termi- The Burmese alphabet consists of 33 letters and 12 vownate with a stop or check, high-rising pitch) and ordi- els, and is written from left to right. It requires no spaces
nary (unchecked and non-glottal words, with falling or between words, although modern writing usually contains

Sampling of various Burmese script styles

6 GRAMMAR
tives of the Brahmi script.) Burmese orthography originally followed a square format but the cursive format
took hold from the 17th century when popular writing led to the wider use of palm leaves and folded
paper known as parabaiks
.[43] Much of the orthography in written Burmese today can be traced back
to Middle Burmese. Standardized tone marking was
not achieved until the 18th century. From the 19th
century onward, orthographers created spellers to reform Burmese spelling, because ambiguities arose over
spelling sounds that had been merged.[17] During British
colonial rule, Burmese spelling was standardized through
dictionaries and spellers. The latest spelling authority,
named the Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan
, was compiled in 1978 at the
request of the Burmese government.[17]

spaces after each clause to enhance readability. Characterized by its circular letters and diacritics, the script is
an abugida, with all letters having an inherent vowel a.
[a] or []. The consonants are arranged into six consonant groups (called
based on articulation, like other
Brahmi scripts. Tone markings and vowel modications
are written as diacritics placed to the left, right, top, and
bottom of letters.[17]

6 Grammar

However, evidence shows that the Burmese script has

been in use at least since 1035 (perhaps as early as 984)
while the earliest Burma Mon script, which is dierent from the Thailand Mon script, dates to 1093.[42]
The Burmese script may have been sourced from the
Pyu script.[42] (Both Mon and Pyu scripts are deriva-

Numerals follow the nouns they modify. Moreover, numerals follow several pronunciation rules that involve
tone changes (low tone creaky tone) and voicing shifts
depending on the pronunciation of surrounding words. A
more thorough explanation is found on Burmese numerals.

The basic word order of the Burmese language is subjectobject-verb. Pronouns in Burmese vary according to
the gender and status of the audience. Burmese is
monosyllabic (i.e., every word is a root to which a particle but not another word may be prexed).[44] Sentence
structure determines syntactical relations and verbs are
The development of the script followed that of the lan- not conjugated. Instead they have particles suxed to
guage, which is generally divided into Old Burmese, Mid- them. For example, the verb to eat,
ca: [s] is
dle Burmese and modern Burmese. Old Burmese dates itself unchanged when modied.
from the 11th to the 16th century (Pagan and Ava dynasties); Middle Burmese from the 16th to the 18th century (Toungoo to early Konbaung dynasties); modern 6.1 Adjectives
Burmese from the mid-18th century to the present. Orthographic changes followed shifts in phonology (such Burmese does not have adjectives per se. Rather, it has
as the merging of the [-l-] and [--] medials) rather verbs that carry the meaning to be X, where X is an
than transformations in Burmese grammatical structure English adjective. These verbs can modify a noun by
and phonology, which has not changed much from Old means of the grammatical particle tai. [d] in colloBurmese to modern Burmese.[17] For example, during the quial Burmese (literary form:
sau: [ ], which is
Pagan era, the medial [-l-] was transcribed in writing, suxed as follows:
which has been replaced by medials [-j-] and [--] in
modern Burmese (e.g. school in old Burmese
Colloquial:
hkyau: tai. lu [t d l]
[kl]
[t] in modern Burmese).[40] LikeFormal:
hkyau: so: lu
wise written Burmese has preserved all nasalized nals [Gloss: beautiful + adjective particle + pern, -m, -], which have merged to [-] in spoken Burmese.
son
(The exception is [-], which, in spoken Burmese, can be
one of many open vowels [i, e, ]. Likewise, other consonantal nals [-s, -p, -t, -k] have been reduced to [-]. Adjectives may also form a compound with the noun (e.g.
lu hkyau: [l t ] person + be beautiful).
Similar mergers are seen in other Sino-Tibetan languages
Comparatives are usually ordered: X +
htak pui [te
like Shanghainese, and to a lesser extent, Cantonese.)
p]
+
adjective,
where
X
is
the
object
being
compared
Written Burmese dates to the early Pagan period. The
Superlatives
are
indicated
with
the
prex
a. [] +
to.
British colonial period scholars believed that the Burmese
adjective
+
hcum:
[z].
[41]
script was developed c. 1058 from the Mon script.

6.3

6.2

Nouns

Verbs

ca: tau. mai [s d m ] I'm going

to eat (straight-away)"

The roots of Burmese verbs are almost always suxed

with at least one particle which conveys such information
as tense, intention, politeness, mood, etc. Many of these
particles also have formal/literary and colloquial equivalents. In fact, the only time in which no particle is attached to a verb is in imperative commands. However,
Burmese verbs are not conjugated in the same way as
most European languages; the root of the Burmese verb
always remains unchanged and does not have to agree
with the subject in person, number or gender.

When

is used alone, however, it is imperative:

ca: tau. [s d] Eat (now)"

Verbs are negated by the particle ma. [m], which is

prexed to the verb. Generally speaking, other particles
are suxed to that verb, along with .

The verb sux particle nai. [n] (literary form:

The most commonly used verb particles and their usage hnang. [n ] indicates a command:
are shown below with an example verb root
ca: [s]
ma.ca: nai. [ms n] Don't eat
to eat. Alone, the statement
is imperative.
The sux
tai [d ] (literary form:
sany [] can be
viewed as a particle marking the present tense and/or a The verb sux particle
ment:
factual statement:

ma.ca: bhu: [ms b] "[I] don't eat

ca: tai [s d ] I eat

The sux hkai. [] denotes that the action took place
in the past. However, this particle is not always necessary
to indicate the past tense such that it can convey the same
information without it. But to emphasize that the action
happened before another event that is also currently being
discussed, the particle becomes imperative. Note that the
sux
tai [d ] in this case denotes a factual statement
rather than the present tense:
ca: hkai. tai [s d ] I ate
The particle
ne [n] is used to denote an action in
progression. It is equivalent to the English '-ing'"
ca: ne tai [s n d ] I am eating

bhu: [b] indicates a state-

6.3 Nouns
Nouns in Burmese are pluralized by suxing the particle
twe [d] (or [t] if the word ends in a glottal stop)
in colloquial Burmese or
mya: [mj] in formal
Burmese. The particle (tou. [to], which indicates a
group of persons or things, is also suxed to the modied noun. An example is below:

mrac [mj] river

mrac twe [mj t] rivers (colloquial)
mrac mya: [mj mj] rivers (formal)
mrac tou: [mj to] rivers

This particle
pri [bj], which is used when an action
that had been expected to be performed by the subject is Plural suxes are not used when the noun is quantied
now nally being performed, has no equivalent in English. with a number.
So in the above example, if someone had been expecting
you to eat and you have nally started eating, the particle
is used as follows:
Although Burmese does not have grammatical gender
( )
(ca.) ca: pri [(s) s bj] I am
(e.g. masculine or feminine nouns), a distinction is made
(now) eating
between the sexes, especially in animals and plants, by
means of sux particles. Nouns are masculinized with
hti: [t], hpa [pa], or
The particle
mai [m ] (literary form:
many [mj] the following particles:
is used to indicate the future tense or an action which is hpui [p], depending on the noun, and feminized with
the particle ma. [ma]. Examples of usage are below:
yet to be performed:
ca: mai [s m ] I will eat
The particle
tau. [d] is used when the action is
about to be performed immediately when used in conjunction with
. Therefore it could be termed as the
immediate future tense particle.

kraung hti: [t t] male cat

kraung ma. [t ma] female cat

krak hpa. [t pa] rooster/cock

htan: hpui [t p] male toddy palm plant

8
6.3.1

6 GRAMMAR
Numerical classiers

Main article: Burmese numerical classiers

Like its neighboring languages such as Thai, Bengali, and
Chinese, Burmese uses numerical classiers (also called
measure words) when nouns are counted or quantied.
This approximately equates to English expressions such as
two slices of bread or a cup of coee. Classiers are
required when counting nouns, so
hka.le: nga:
[kl ] (lit. child ve) is ungrammatical, because
the measure word for people
yauk [ja] needs to
sux the numeral.
The standard word order of quantied words is: quantied noun + numeral adjective + classier, except in round
numbers (numbers that end in zero), in which the word
order is ipped, where the quantied noun precedes the
classier: quantied noun + classier + numeral adjective. The only exception to this rule is the number 10,
which follows the standard word order.
Measurements of time, such as hour,
month, do not require classiers.

day,

or

[a] in colloquial,
[] in formal) must be attached
to the subject pronoun, although they are also generally
omitted in conversation. Object pronouns must have an
[] in
object marker particle [] in colloquial,
formal) attached immediately after the pronoun. Proper
nouns are often substituted for pronouns. Ones status in
relation to the audience determines the pronouns used,
with certain pronouns used for dierent audiences.
Polite pronouns are used to address elders, teachers and
strangers, through the use of feudal-era third person
pronouns in lieu of rst and second person pronouns.
In such situations, one refers to oneself in third person:
kya. nau [tn ] for men and
kya. ma. [tma] for women, both meaning your servant, and refer to the addressee as
min [m] your
highness,
khang bya: [kmj] master, lord
(from Burmese
, meaning lord master) or
hrang [] ruler/master.[45] So ingrained are these
terms in the daily polite speech that people use them as
the rst and second person pronouns without giving a second thought to the root meaning of these pronouns.

When speaking to a person of the same status or of

younger age,
nga [] I/me and
nang [n] you
Below are some of the most commonly used classiers in may be used, although most speakers choose to use third
Burmese.
person pronouns.[46] For example, an older person may
use
dau le: [d l] aunt or
u: lei: [
l] uncle to refer to himself, while a younger person
6.4 Particles
may use either
sa: [] son or
sa.mi: [m]
daughter.
The Burmese language makes prominent usage of
particles (called
in Burmese), which are untrans- The basic pronouns are:
latable words that are suxed or prexed to words to
* The basic particle to indicate plurality is
indicate level of respect, grammatical tense, or mood.
tui., colloquial dui..
According to the MyanmarEnglish Dictionary (1993),

there are 449 particles in the Burmese language. For exUsed by male speakers.
ample,
[s] is a grammatical particle used to indi
Used by female speakers.
cate the imperative mood. While
(work + particle indicating politeness) does not indicate the imperative,
(work + particle indicating impera- Other pronouns are reserved for speaking with bhikkhus
tive mood + particle indicating politeness) does. Particles (Buddhist monks). When speaking to a bhikkhu, probhun: bhun: (from
phun:
may be combined in some cases, especially those modi- nouns like
kri:
monk),
chara
dau
[sjd
]
royal
fying verbs.
teacher, and
a.hrang bhu.ra: [ pj]
Some particles modify the words part of speech. Among your lordship are used depending on their status
the most prominent of these is the particle [], which when referring to oneself, terms like
ta. paey.
is prexed to verbs and adjectives to form nouns or ad- tau royal disciple or
da. ka [d], donor are
verbs. For instance, the word
means to enter, but used. When speaking to a monk, the following pronouns
combined with , it means entrance
. Also, in col- are used:
loquial Burmese, there is a tendency to omit the second
in words that follow the pattern + noun/adverb +

The particle ma. is suxed for women.

+ noun/adverb, like
, which is pronounced

Typically reserved for the chief monk of a

[sa ] and formally pronounced [sa ].
kyaung (monastery_.

6.5

Pronouns

In colloquial Burmese, possessive pronouns are contracted when the root pronoun itself is low toned. This
Subject pronouns begin sentences, though the subject is does not occur in literary Burmese, which uses [] as
generally omitted in the imperative forms and in conver- postpositional marker for possessive case instead of
sation. Grammatically speaking, subject marker particles [j]. Examples include the following:

[] I + (postpositional marker for possessive Some nouns are also reduplicated to indicate plurality.
case) =
[a] my
For instance,
[pj] country, but when reduplicated
to
[pj pj] country, means many coun
[n] you + (postpositional marker for pos- tries, as in
[pj pj s j] intersessive case) =
[n] your
national. Another example is
, which means a
kind,
but
the
reduplicated
form
means mul [] he, she + (postpositional marker for postiple
kinds.
sessive case) = [] his, her
A few measure words can also be reduplicated to indicate
The contraction also occurs in some low toned nouns, one or the other":
making them possessive nouns (e.g.
or
,
mothers and Myanmars respectively).

(measure word for people)

(someone)
6.5.1 Family terms
Main article: Burmese kinship

(measure word for things)

(something)

Minor pronunciation dierences do exist within regions

of Irrawaddy valley. For example, the pronunciation 7 Romanization and transcription
[s] of
food oering [to a monk]" is preferred in
Lower Burma, instead of [sw], which is preferred in
Upper Burma. However, the most obvious dierence be- Main article: Romanization of Burmese
tween Upper Burmese and Lower Burmese is that Upper
Burmese speech still dierentiates maternal and paternal There is no ocial romanization system for Burmese.
sides of a family:
There have been attempts to make one, but none have
1
The youngest (paternal or maternal) aunt may be called been successful. Replicating Burmese sounds in the
Latin script is complicated. There is a Pali-based tran[dw l], and the youngest paternal uncle
scription system in existence, MLC Transcription System
[ba dw].
which was devised by the Myanmar Language CommisIn a testament to the power of media, the Yangon-based sion (MLC). However, it only transcribes sounds in forspeech is gaining currency even in Upper Burma. Upper mal Burmese and is based on the orthography rather than
Burmese-specic usage, while historically and technically the phonology.
accurate, is increasingly viewed as countried speech, or
at best regional speech. In fact, some usages are already Several colloquial transcription systems have been proconsidered strictly regional Upper Burmese speech, and posed, but none is overwhelmingly preferred over others.
are likely dying out. For example:
Transcription of Burmese is not standardized, as seen in
In general, the male-centric names of old Burmese for the varying English transcriptions of Burmese names. For
[w] may
familial terms have been replaced in standard Burmese instance, a Burmese personal name like
be
variously
romanized
as
Win,
Winn,
Wyn,
or Wynn,
with formerly female-centric terms, which are now used
while
[k]
may
be
romanized
as
Khaing,
Khine, or
by both sexes. One holdover is the use of (younger
Khain.
brother to a male) and
(younger brother to a female). Terms like
(elder brother to a male) and
(younger sister to a male) now are used in standard
Burmese only as part of compound words like
(brothers) or
(brother and sister).

6.6

8 Computer fonts and standard

keyboard layout

Reduplication

Reduplication is prevalent in Burmese and is used to intensify or weaken adjectives meanings. For example,
[t ] beautiful is reduplicated, the intensity of
the adjectives meaning increases. Many Burmese words,
especially adjectives with two syllables, such as
[lapa]
beautiful, when reduplicated (
[lala papa])
become adverbs. This is also true of some Burmese verbs
and nouns (e.g.
a moment
frequently,
which become adverbs when reduplicated.

The Burmese script can be entered from the standard

QWERTY keyboard. The most popular Burmese font,
Zawgyi, is not Unicode-compliant though a number of
Unicode-compliant fonts are available. The national
standard keyboard layout for Unicode-compliant font is
shown here. It is known as the Myanmar3 layout as it
was published along with the Myanmar3 Unicode font.
The layout, developed by the Myanmar NLP Research
Center, has a smart input system to cover the complex
structures of Burmese and related scripts.

10

10

Notes

[1] Mikael Parkvall, Vrldens 100 strsta sprk 2007

(The Worlds 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in
Nationalencyklopedin
[2] Burmese at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
[3] Nordho, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel,
Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). Southern Burmish. Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
[4] Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
(2008), Chapter XV, Provision 450
[5] Chang 2003.
[6] Bradley 1993, p. 147.
[7] Barron et al. 2007, p. 16-17.
[8] Lieberman 2003, p. 189.
[9] Lieberman 2003, p. 202-206.

REFERENCES

[34] Yanson 2012, p. 17.

[35] Jones 1986, p. 135-136.
[36] Wheatley 1987.
[37] Taylor 1920, p. 91106.
[38] Taylor 1920.
[39] Benedict 1948, p. 184191.
[40] Khin Min 1987.
[41] Harvey 1925, p. 307.
[42] Aung-Thwin 2005, p. 167178, 197200.
[43] Lieberman 2003, p. 136.
[44] Taw 1924, p. viii.
[45] Bradley 1993, p. 157160.
[46] Bradley 1993.

[10] Burmese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

[11] Bradley 2010, p. 99.
[12] Bradley 1995, p. 140.
[13] Bradley 1996, p. 746.
[14] Herbert & Milner 1989, p. 521.
[15] Aung Bala 1981, p. 8199.
[16] Aung Zaw 2010, p. 2.
[17] Herbert & Milner 1989.
[18] Hnin Tun & San San 2001, p. 39.
[19] Taw Sein Ko 1924, p. 68-70.
[20] Hnin Tun & San San 2001, p. 48-49.
[21] Hnin Tun & San San 2001, p. 26.
[22] Houtman 1990, p. 135-136.
[23] Wheatley 2013.
[24] Wheatley & Tun 1999, p. 64.
[25] UC 2012, p. 370.
[26] Wheatley & Tun 1999, p. 65.
[27] Wheatley & Tun 1999.
[28] Wheatley & Tun 1999, p. 81.
[29] Wheatley & Tun 1999, p. 67.
[30] Wheatley & Tun 1999, p. 94.
[31] Wheatley & Tun 1999, p. 68.
[32] MLC 1993.
[33] Nishi 30 October 1998, p. 253-260.

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Julie D. Allen; et al., eds. (April 2012). 11. Southeast Asian Scripts. The Unicode Standard Version 6.1 Core Specication (PDF). Mountain View,
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Bradley, David (1996). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacic, Asia, and
the Americas 1. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-311-013417-9.
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Uncles and Aunts:
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Asian Linguisitics: Essays in Honour of Eugnie J.A.
Henderson (School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London): 147162.
Bradley, David (2010). 9. Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. In Martin J. Ball. The
Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the
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Bradley, David (1995). Reexives in Burmese
(PDF). Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 13:
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University) (A-83): 139172.
Bradley, David (May 2011). Changes in Burmese
Phonology and Orthography. SEALS Conference.
Kasetsart University. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
Bradley, David (2012). The Characteristics of the
Burmic Family of Tibeto-Burman. Language and
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Chang, Charles Bond (2003). High-Interest Loans:
The Phonology of English Loanword Adaptation in
Burmese (B.A. thesis). Harvard University. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
Chang, Charles B. (2009). English loanword adaptation in Burmese (PDF). Journal of the Southeast
Asian Linguistics Society 1: 7794.
Harvey, G. E. (1925). History of Burma: From the
Earliest Times to 10 March 1824. London: Frank
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Herbert, Patricia M.; Milner, Anthony (1989).
South-East Asia Languages and Literatures: A Select
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Hill, Nathan W. (2012). Evolution of the Burmese
Vowel System (PDF). Transactions of the Philological Society 110 (1): 6479. doi:10.1111/j.1467968x.2011.01282.x.
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Practice in Burma. Research Institute for Languages
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Khin Min, Maung (1987). Old Usage Styles of

Myanmar Script. Myanmar Unicode & NLP Research Center. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
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Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 8001830, volume 1, Integration on the Mainland. Cambridge
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(PDF). Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology (
) 23 (1): 253260.
Nishi, Yoshio (31 March 1998). The Orthographic
Standardization of Burmese: Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Speculations (PDF). Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology (
) 22: 975
999.
Okell, John (2002). Burmese By Ear or Essential
Myanmar (PDF). London: The School of Oriental
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MyanmarEnglish Dictionary. Myanmar Language
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San San Hnin Tun (2006). Discourse Marking in
Burmese and English: A Corpus-Based Approach
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Mission Press.
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languages of Burma. Bulletin of the School of
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(4). doi:10.1017/S0041977X00101685. JSTOR
607065.
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Languages in contact: The case of English and
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Aung Zaw (September 2010). Tell the World the
Truth. The Irrawaddy (Chiang Mai) 18 (9).
Wheatley, Julian K. (1987). Burmese. In B. Comrie (ed.). Handbook of the worlds major languages.
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Yanson, Rudolf A. (2012). Nathan Hill, ed. Aspiration in the Burmese Phonological System: A Diachronic Account. Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages IV. BRILL. pp. 1729. ISBN 978-90-0423202-0.

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11

Yanson, Rudolf (1994). Uta Grtner, Jens Lorenz,

ed. Chapter 3. Language. Tradition and Modernity
in Myanmar (LIT Verlag Mnster). pp. 366426.
ISBN 978-3-8258-2186-9.

10.1

Bibliography

EXTERNAL LINKS

11 External links
Burmese phrasebook travel guide from Wikivoyage
Omniglot: Burmese Language
Learn Burmese online
Online Burmese lessons

Becker, Alton L. (1984). Biography of a sentence:

A Burmese proverb. In E. M. Bruner (ed.). Text,
play, and story: The construction and reconstruction
of self and society. Washington, D.C.: American
Ethnological Society. pp. 13555.

Burmese language resources from SOAS

Bernot, Denise (1980). Le prdicat en birman parl

(in French). Paris: SELAF. ISBN 2-85297-072-4.

Myanmar 3 font and keyboard

Cornyn, William Stewart (1944).

Outline of
Burmese grammar. Baltimore: Linguistic Society
of America.
Cornyn, William Stewart; D. Haigh Roop (1968).
Beginning Burmese. New Haven: Yale University
Press.
Green, Antony D. (2005). Word, foot, and syllable
structure in Burmese. In J. Watkins (ed.). Studies
in Burmese linguistics. Canberra: Pacic Linguistics. pp. 125. ISBN 0-85883-559-2.
Okell, John (1969). A reference grammar of colloquial Burmese. London: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0-7007-1136-8.
Roop, D. Haigh (1972). An introduction to the
Burmese writing system. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-01528-3.
Taw Sein Ko (1924). Elementary handbook of the
Burmese language. Rangoon: American Baptist
Mission Press.
Watkins, Justin W. (2001).
Illustrations of
the IPA: Burmese.
Journal of the International Phonetic Association 31 (2): 29195.
doi:10.1017/S0025100301002122.
Patricia M Herbert, Anthony Milner, ed. (1989).
South East Asia Languages and Literatures: Languages and Literatures: A Select Guide. University
of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1267-0.
Waxman, Nathan; Aung, Soe Tun (2014).
The Naturalization of Indic Loan-Words into
Burmese: Adoption and Lexical Transformation. Journal of Burma Studies 18 (2): 259290.
doi:10.1353/jbs.2014.0016.

E-books for children with narration in Burmese.

Unite for Literacy library. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
Myanmar Unicode and NLP Research Center

Burmese online dictionary (Unicode)

Ayar Myanmar online dictionary
Myanmar unicode character table
Download
KaNaungConverter_Window_Build200508.zip
from
the
Kanaung project page and Unzip Ka Naung
Converter Engine

13

12
12.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

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Johnson, Circeus, Reuben, Irrawaddy, Axyjo, Hintha, Ogress, Jumbuck, Zachlipton, AmbassadorShras, Sl, DorisAntony, Ish ishwar, Garzo,
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