Burmese language

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox language Template:Contains special characters File:WIKITONGUES- Naw speaking Burmese.webm Burmese (Template:Lang-my-Mymr) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Myanmar,<ref name=":0" /> where it is the official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Bamar, the country's largest ethnic group. The Constitution of Myanmar officially refers to it as the Myanmar language in English,<ref>Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008), Chapter XV, Provision 450</ref> though most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese, after Burma—a name with co-official status until 1989 (see Names of Myanmar). Burmese is the most widely spoken language in the country, where it serves as the lingua franca.Template:Sfn In 2019, Burmese was spoken by 42.9 million people globally, including by 32.9 million speakers as a first language and 10 million as a second language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0">Template:E27</ref> A 2023 World Bank survey found that 80% of the country's population speaks Burmese.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Burmese dialects are also spoken by some of the indigenous tribes in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, China's Yunnan province, and India's northeastern states, as well as by Burmese diaspora.

Burmese is a tonal, pitch-register, and syllable-timed language,Template:Sfn largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with a subject–object–verb word order. Burmese is distinguished from other major Southeast Asian languages by its extensive case marking system and rich morphological inventory.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Citation</ref> It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Burmese alphabet ultimately descends from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet.

Classification

Burmese belongs to the Southern Burmish branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages.Template:Sfn It is the most widely spoken of the non-Sinitic Sino-Tibetan languages.Template:Sfn Burmese was the fifth Sino-Tibetan language to develop a writing system, after Classical Chinese, Pyu, Old Tibetan, and Tangut.Template:Sfn

Dialects

Most Burmese speakers, who live throughout the Irrawaddy River Valley, use variants of standard Burmese, while a minority speak non-standard dialects found in the peripheral areas of the country. These dialects include:

Arakanese in Rakhine State and Marma in India are also sometimes considered dialects of Burmese and sometimes separate languages.

Burmese dialects mostly share a common set of tones, consonant clusters, and written script. Several Burmese dialects differ substantially from standard Burmese with respect to vocabulary, lexical particles, and rhymes. Below is a summary of lexical similarity between major Burmese dialects:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dialects Burmese Danu Intha Rakhine Taungyo
Burmese 100% 93% 95% 91% 89%
Danu 93% 100% 93% 85–94% 91%
Intha 95% 93% 100% 90% 89%
Rakhine 91% 85–94% 90% 100% 84–92%
Taungyo 89% N/A 89% 84–92% 100%
Marma N/A N/A N/A 85% N/A

Irrawaddy River valley

Spoken Burmese is remarkably uniform among Burmese speakers,Template:Sfn particularly those living in the Irrawaddy valley, all of whom use variants of Standard Burmese. The standard dialect of Burmese (the Mandalay-Yangon dialect continuum) originates from the Irrawaddy River valley. Regional differences between speakers from Upper Burma (e.g., Mandalay dialect), called anya tha (Template:Lang) and speakers from Lower Burma (e.g., Yangon dialect), called auk tha (Template:Lang), largely occur in vocabulary, not pronunciation. Minor lexical and rhyme differences exist throughout the Irrawaddy River valley.Template:Sfn For instance, for the term Template:Lang, "food offering [to a monk]", Lower Burmese speakers use Template:IPA instead of Template:IPA, the pronunciation used in Upper Burma.

The standard dialect is typified by the Yangon dialect because of the modern city's media influence and economic clout. Formerly, the Mandalay dialect represented standard Burmese. The Mandalay dialect's most noticeable feature is its continued use of the first-person pronoun Template:Lang, kya.nau Template:IPA by both men and women. In Yangon, only male speakers use the same pronoun, while female speakers use Template:Lang, kya.ma. Template:IPA. Moreover, with regard to kinship terminology, Upper Burmese speakers differentiate the maternal and paternal sides of a family while Lower Burmese speakers do not.

Mon has also influenced subtle grammatical differences between the varieties of Burmese spoken in Lower and Upper Burma.Template:Sfn In Lower Burmese varieties, the verb ပေး ('to give') is colloquially used as a permissive causative marker, as in other Southeast Asian languages, but unlike in most Tibeto-Burman languages.Template:Sfn This usage is hardly used in Upper Burmese varieties and is considered sub-standard.

Outside the Irrawaddy basin

Template:Main

More distinctive nonstandard varieties of Burmese emerge as one moves farther away from the Irrawaddy River valley. These varieties include the Yaw, Palaw, Myeik (Merguese), Tavoyan and Intha dialects. Despite substantial vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutual intelligibility among most Burmese dialects, especially with language convergence.

Template:Static row numbersDialects in Tanintharyi Region, including Palaw, Merguese, and Tavoyan, are especially conservative compared to Standard Burmese. The Tavoyan and Intha dialects have preserved the Template:IPA medial, which is only found in Old Burmese inscriptions. These dialects also often reduce the intensity of the glottal stop. Beik has 250,000 speakers<ref>Bradley, D. 2007a. East and Southeast Asia. In C. Moseley (ed.), Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages , pp. 349–424. London: Routledge.</ref> and Tavoyan 400,000. The grammatical constructs of Burmese dialects in Southern Myanmar show greater Mon influence than Standard Burmese.Template:Sfn

The most pronounced feature of the Arakanese language of Rakhine State is its retention of the Template:IPAblink sound, which has become Template:IPAblink in standard Burmese. Moreover, Arakanese features a variety of vowel differences, including the merger of the Template:Lang Template:IPA and Template:Lang Template:IPA vowels. Hence, a word like "blood" Template:Lang is pronounced Template:IPA in standard Burmese and Template:IPA in Arakanese.

History

The Burmese language's early forms include Old Burmese and Middle Burmese. Old Burmese dates from the 11th to the 16th century (Pagan to Ava dynasties); Middle Burmese from the 16th to the 18th century (Toungoo to early Konbaung dynasties); modern Burmese from the mid-18th century. Burmese phonology has evolved significantly, but word order, grammatical structure, and vocabulary have remained markedly stable well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g., function words).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name=":22"/>

Old Burmese

Template:Main Template:Further

The Myazedi inscription, dated to AD 1113, is the oldest surviving stone inscription of the Burmese language.

The earliest attested form of the Burmese language is Old Burmese, dating to the 11th- and 12th-century stone inscriptions of Pagan. The earliest evidence of the Burmese alphabet dates to 1035, while a casting made in the 18th century of an old stone inscription points to 984.Template:Sfn

Owing to the linguistic prestige of Old Pyu in the Pagan Kingdom era, Old Burmese borrowed a substantial corpus of vocabulary from Pali via the Pyu language.Template:Sfn These indirect borrowings can be traced to orthographic idiosyncrasies in these loanwords, such as the Burmese word "to worship", which is spelt ပူဇော် (Template:IAST) instead of ပူဇာ (Template:IAST), as would be expected by the original Pali orthography.Template:Sfn

In the mid-15th century, bilingual Pali-Burmese texts called nissaya (နိဿယ) emerged.<ref name=":1" /> They played a significant role in shaping the standard language, leading Burmese postpositional markers to be reinterpreted as equivalents of Pali inflections, giving them new grammatical roles that were compatible with their original use but not inherent to them.<ref name=":1" /> Over time, these markers became integral to the morphological structure of Burmese and were seen as more obligatory in literary Burmese than in colloquial Burmese.<ref name=":1" />

Middle Burmese

Template:Main The transition to Middle Burmese occurred in the 16th century.Template:Sfn The transition included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of sound pairs that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in the underlying orthography.Template:Sfn

From the 1500s onward, Burmese kingdoms saw substantial gains in the populace's literacy rate, which manifested in greater participation of laymen in scribing and composing legal and historical documents, domains that were traditionally the domain of Buddhist monks, and drove the ensuing proliferation of Burmese literature in both genres and works.Template:Sfn During this period, the Burmese alphabet began employing cursive-style circular letters typically used in palm-leaf manuscripts as opposed to the square block-form letters used in earlier periods.Template:Sfn The orthographic conventions used in written Burmese today can largely be traced to Middle Burmese.

Modern Burmese

Modern Burmese emerged in the mid-18th century. By this time, male literacy in Burma stood at nearly 50%, which enabled the wide circulation of legal texts, royal chronicles, and religious texts.Template:Sfn A major reason for the Burmese language's uniformity was the near-universal presence of Buddhist monasteries (kyaung) in Burmese villages. These served as the foundation of the pre-colonial monastic education system, which fostered uniformity of the language throughout the Upper Irrawaddy valley, the traditional homeland of Burmese speakers. The 1891 Census of India, conducted five years after the annexation of the entire Konbaung Kingdom, found that the former kingdom had an "unusually high male literacy" rate of 62.5% for Upper Burmans aged 25 and above. For all of British Burma, the literacy rate was 49% for men and 5.5% for women (by contrast, British India more broadly had a male literacy rate of 8.44%).Template:Sfn

The expansion of the Burmese language into Lower Burma also coincided with the emergence of Modern Burmese. As late as the mid-1700s, Mon, an Austroasiatic language, was the principal language of Lower Burma, employed by the Mon people who inhabited the region. Lower Burma's shift from Mon to Burmese was accelerated by the Burmese-speaking Konbaung Dynasty's victory over the Mon-speaking Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1757. By 1830, an estimated 90% of the population in Lower Burma self-identified as Burmese-speaking Bamars; huge swaths of former Mon-speaking territory, from the Irrawaddy Delta to upriver in the north, spanning Bassein (now Pathein) and Rangoon (now Yangon) to Tharrawaddy, Toungoo, Prome (now Pyay), and Henzada (now Hinthada), were now Burmese-speaking.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The language shift has been ascribed to a combination of population displacement, intermarriage, and voluntary changes in self-identification among increasingly Mon–Burmese bilingual populations in the region.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Standardized tone marking in written Burmese was not achieved until the 18th century. From the 19th century onward, orthographers created spellers to reform Burmese spelling because of ambiguities that arose over transcribing sounds that had merged.Template:Sfn British rule saw continued efforts to standardize Burmese spelling through dictionaries and spellers.

Britain's gradual annexation of Burma throughout the 19th century, in addition to concomitant economic and political instability in Upper Burma (e.g., increased tax burdens from the Burmese crown, British rice production incentives, etc.) also accelerated the migration of Burmese speakers from Upper Burma into Lower Burma.Template:Sfn British rule in Burma eroded the strategic and economic importance of the Burmese language; Burmese was effectively subordinated to the English language in the colonial educational system, especially in higher education.Template:Sfn

In the 1930s, the Burmese language saw a linguistic revival, precipitated by the establishment of an independent University of Rangoon in 1920 and the inception of a Burmese language major at the university by Pe Maung Tin, modeled on Anglo Saxon language studies at the University of Oxford.Template:Sfn Student protests in December of that year, triggered by the introduction of English into matriculation examinations, fueled growing demand for Burmese to become the medium of education in British Burma; a short-lived but symbolic parallel system of "national schools" that taught in Burmese subsequently launched.Template:Sfn The role and prominence of the Burmese language in public life and institutions was championed by Burmese nationalists, intertwined with their demands for greater autonomy and independence from the British in the leadup to Burmese independence in 1948.Template:Sfn

The 1948 Constitution of Burma prescribed Burmese as the official language of the newly independent nation. The Burma Translation Society and Rangoon University's Department of Translation and Publication were established in 1947 and 1948, respectively, with the joint goal to modernize the Burmese language in order to replace English across all disciplines.Template:Sfn Anti-colonial sentiment throughout the early post-independence era led to a reactionary switch from English to Burmese as the national medium of education, a process accelerated by the Burmese Way to Socialism.Template:Sfn In August 1963, the socialist Union Revolutionary Government established the Literary and Translation Commission (the immediate precursor to the Myanmar Language Commission) to standardize Burmese spelling, diction, composition, and terminology. In 1978, the commission compiled the latest spelling authority, the Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan (Template:Lang).Template:Sfn

Registers

Diglossia

Burmese is a diglossic language with two distinguishable registers (or diglossic varieties):Template:Sfn

  1. Literary High (H) formTemplate:Sfn (Template:Lang mranma ca): the high variety (formal and written), used in literature (formal writing), newspapers, radio broadcasts, and formal speeches
  2. Spoken Low (L) formTemplate:Sfn (Template:Lang 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 modifiers (including affixes and pronouns) no longer used in the colloquial form.Template:Sfn Most verbs and some nouns also have longer forms in literary Burmese.<ref name=":22">Template:Citation</ref> Literary Burmese, which has not changed significantly since the 13th century, is the register of Burmese taught in schools.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Case marking is highly developed and consistently used in literary Burmese, covering markers for subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, the ablative and locative.<ref name=":1" /> Spoken Burmese also uses case markers, but does so less consistently, particularly for subjects and direct object marking.<ref name=":1" /> The equivalent affixes used in Literary and Spoken Burmese are totally unrelated to each other.Template:Sfn Examples of this phenomenon include the following lexical terms:

Gloss Literary

Template:Small

Spoken

Template:Small

"this" (pronoun) Template:Lang i Template:Lang di
"that" (pronoun) Template:Lang htui Template:Lang hui
"at" (case) Template:Lang hnai. Template:IPA Template:Lang hma Template:IPA
plural (suffix) Template:Lang mya: Template:Lang twe
possessive (case) Template:Lang i. Template:Lang re.
"and" (conjunction) Template:Lang hnang. Template:Small Template:Lang ne.
"if" (conjunction) Template:Lang hlyang Template:Lang rang

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 attempted to abandon the literary form in favor of the spoken vernacular form.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Some Burmese linguists, such as Minn Latt, a Czech academic, proposed moving away from the high form of Burmese altogether.Template:Sfn The literary form is heavily used in written and official contexts (literary and scholarly works, radio news broadcasts, and novels), but the recent trend has been to accommodate the spoken form in informal written contexts.Template:Sfn Nowadays, television news broadcasts, comics, and commercial publications use the spoken form or a combination of the spoken and simpler, less ornate formal forms.Template:Sfn

Burmese uses also distinct spoken and written forms for question pronouns.<ref name=":22"/> The following examples demonstrate significant differences in the pronouns, verbs, and other markers used between the literary and spoken forms (contrasts in bold):

Template:Fs interlinear

Template:Fs interlinear

Honorific terms

Burmese has politeness levels and honorifics that take into account the speaker's status and age in relation to the audience. The suffix Template:Lang (pa) is frequently used after a verb to express politeness.Template:Sfn Moreover, Burmese pronouns relay varying degrees of deference or respect.Template:Sfn Polite speech (e.g., addressing teachers, officials, or elders) employs feudal-era third-person pronouns or kinship terms in lieu of first- and second-person pronouns.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Honorific vocabulary is used in Burmese to distinguish Buddhist clergy from the laity (householders), especially when speaking to or about bhikkhus (monks).Template:Sfn Distinct honorific vocabulary (often euphemistic) also distinguishes commoners from royals. The honorific markers Template:Lang (daw) and -Template:Lang (dawmu) are suffixed to nouns and verbs, respectively, in relation to Buddhist clergy and royals. Lexical items from standard Burmese, royal vocabulary, and clerical vocabulary are shown side by side in the table below:

Gloss Standard Polite Religious Royal
'eat' (verb) Template:Lang ca: သုံးဆောင် sum: hcaung Template:Lang bhuny: pe: Template:Lang pwai dau te
'sleep' (verb) Template:Lang ip Template:Lang kyin: Template:Lang cak tau khau
'die' (verb) Template:Lang se ကွယ်လွန် kwe lwan Template:Lang pyam tau mu Template:Lang nat rwa cam
'father' Template:Lang a hpe ဖခင် hpa hkang Template:Lang hka many: tau
'live, dwell' (verb) Template:Lang ne နေထိုင် ne htuing Template:Lang sa tin som: Template:Lang cam mran:

Vocabulary

Burmese has primarily inherited its monosyllabic vocabulary from Sino-Tibetan stock. The language has also adopted polysyllabic loanwords from Indo-European languages like Pali and English, as well as sesquisyllabic words from Mon, an Austroasiatic language.Template:Sfn Burmese loanwords are overwhelmingly in the form of nouns.Template:Sfn

Of the Indo-European languages, Pali, the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism, had the profoundest influence on enriching the Burmese vocabulary. Burmese has readily adopted words of Pali origin; this may be due to phonotactic similarities between the languages and the Burmese script's inherent ability to reproduce Pali spellings with complete accuracy.Template:Sfn Pali loanwords are often related to religion, government, arts, and science.Template:SfnTemplate:Primary source inline Burmese loanwords from Pali primarily take four forms:

  1. Direct loan: direct import of Pali words with no alteration in orthography
  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 Template:Lang (lTemplate:Lit) atop the last letter in the syllable to suppress the consonant's inherent vowelTemplate:Sfn
  3. Double loan: adoption of two different terms derived from the same Pali wordTemplate:Sfn
  4. Hybrid loan (e.g., neologisms or calques): construction of compounds combining native Burmese words with Pali or combine Pali wordsTemplate:Sfn
Category Gloss Burmese Pali
Direct loan 'life' Template:Lang jīva Template:Lang jīva
'life' ဘဝ bhava ဘဝ bhava
'music' ဂီတ gīta ဂီတ gīta
Abbreviated loan 'karma' Template:Lang kam Template:Lang kamma
'dawn' Template:Lang aruṇ Template:Lang aruṇa
'merit' Template:Lang kusuil Template:Lang kusala
Double loan 'arrogance' Template:Lang māna Template:Lang māna
'pride' Template:Lang mān
'strength' ဗလ bala ဗလ bala
'leader' ဗိုလ် buil
Hybrid loan 'airplane' Template:Lang leyāñpyaṃ<ref>Template:Lit; the 1st (လေ) and 3rd (ပျံ) elements are native Burmese words.</ref> Template:Lang (from yāna, 'vehicle')
'name' နာမည် nāmaññ<ref>A calque of native Burmese and Pali words for 'name,' the 2nd element is from Burmese အမည်.</ref> Template:Lang (from nāma, 'name')

Burmese has also adapted numerous words from Mon, traditionally spoken by the Mon people of Lower Burma. Most Mon loanwords are so well assimilated that they are not distinguished as loanwords, as Burmese and Mon were used interchangeably for several centuries in pre-colonial Burma.Template:Sfn Mon loans often relate to flora, fauna, administration, textiles, foods, boats, crafts, architecture, and music.Template:Sfn

As a natural consequence of British rule in Burma, English has been another major source of vocabulary, especially with regard to technology, measurements, and modern institutions. English loanwords tend to take one of three forms:

  1. Direct loan: adoption of an English word, adapted to the Burmese phonologyTemplate:Sfn
  2. Neologism or calque: translation of an English word using native Burmese constituent wordsTemplate:Sfn
  3. Hybrid loan: construction of compound words by joining native Burmese words to English wordsTemplate:Sfn

To a lesser extent, Burmese has also imported words from Sanskrit (religion), Hindi (food, administration, and shipping), and Chinese (games and food).Template:Sfn 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:

Gloss Burmese Source
'suffering' Template:Lang Template:IPA Pali dukkha
'radio' Template:Lang Template:IPA English radio
'crab' Template:Lang Template:IPA Mon Template:Lang
'flatter' Template:Lang Template:IPA Hokkien 扶𡳞脬 (phô͘-lān-pha)
'wife' Template:Lang Template:IPA Sanskrit जनी (janī)
'noodle' Template:Lang Template:IPA Shan Template:Lang Template:IPA
'foot' (unit) Template:Lang Template:IPA Portuguese pé
'flag' Template:Lang Template:IPA Template:Langx ʿalam
'storeroom' Template:Lang Template:IPA 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 Template:Lang (Template:Lit) in lieu of Template:Lang, a direct English transliteration.Template:Sfn Another example is the word "vehicle", which is officially Template:Lang Template:IPA (derived from Pali) but Template:Lang Template:IPA (from English car) in spoken Burmese. Some previously common English loanwords have fallen out of use with the adoption of indigenous neologisms. An example is the word "university", formerly Template:Lang Template:IPA, from English university, now Template:Lang Template:IPA, a Pali-derived neologism created by the Burmese government and derived from the Pali spelling of Taxila (Template:Lang Takkasīla), an ancient university town in modern-day Pakistan.Template:Sfn

Some Burmese words have many synonyms, each with specific usages, such as formal, literary, colloquial, and poetic. An example is the word "moon", which can be Template:Lang Template:IPA (native Tibeto-Burman), Template:Lang Template:IPA (derivatives of Pali canda 'moon'), or Template:Lang Template:IPA (Sanskrit).Template:Sfn

Phonology

Template:Main

Consonants

The consonants of Burmese are as follows:

Consonant phonemesTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Post-al./
Palatal 		Velar Laryngeal
Nasal Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Stop/
Affricate 		Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Fricative Template:Small Template:IPA link ([[[:Template:IPA link]]~Template:IPA link]) Template:IPA link
Template:Small Template:IPA link ([[[:Template:IPA link]]~Template:IPA link]) Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Approximant Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Template:Small Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

According to Template:Harvcoltxt, contrary to their use of symbols θ and ð, consonants of Template:Lang are dental stops (Template:IPA), rather than fricatives (Template:IPA) or affricates.Template:Sfn These phonemes, alongside Template:IPA, are prone to merger with Template:IPA.Template:Sfn

An alveolar Template:IPA can occur as an alternate of Template:IPA in some loanwords.

The final nasal Template:IPA is the value of the four native final nasals: Template:Angbr Template:IPA, Template:Angbr Template:IPA, Template:Angbr Template:IPA, Template:Angbr Template:IPA, as well as the retroflex Template:Angbr Template:IPA (used in Pali loans) and nasalisation mark anusvara demonstrated here above ka (က → ကံ) which most often stands in for a homorganic nasal word medially as in Template:Lang Template:Transliteration 'door', and Template:Lang Template:Transliteration 'bridge', or else replaces final -m Template:Angbr in both Pali and native vocabulary, especially after the OB vowel *u e.g. Template:Lang Template:Transliteration 'salty', သုံး thóum ('three; use'), and ဆုံး Template:Transliteration 'end'. It does not, however, apply to Template:Angbr which is never realised as a nasal, but rather as an open front vowel Template:IPA Template:IPA or Template:IPA. The final nasal is usually realised as nasalisation of the vowel. It may also allophonically appear as a homorganic nasal before stops. For example, in Template:IPA ('storm'), which is pronounced Template:IPA.

Vowels

The vowels of Burmese are:

Vowel phonemes
Monophthongs Diphthongs
Front Central Back Front offglide Back offglide
Close Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Close-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA Template:IPA
Open-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Open Template:IPA link Template:IPA Template:IPA

The monophthongs Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda); the diphthongs Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda). Template:IPA only occurs in a minor syllable, and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below).

The close vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA and the close portions of the diphthongs are somewhat mid-centralized (Template:IPA) in closed syllables, i.e. before Template:IPA and Template:IPA. Thus Template:Lang Template:IPA ('two') is phonetically Template:IPA and Template:Lang Template:IPA ('cat') is phonetically Template:IPA.

Tones

Burmese is a tonal language, which means phonemic contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch, but also phonation, intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel quality. Some linguists consider Burmese a pitch-register language like Shanghainese.Template:Sfn Spoken Burmese exhibits tone sandhi in the form of a shift from a low to an induced creaky tone, to indicate possession.<ref name=":22"/>

There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table, the tones are shown marked on the vowel Template:IPA as an example.

Tone Burmese IPA
(shown on a)		 Symbol
(shown on a)		 Phonation Duration Intensity Pitch
Low Template:Lang Template:IPA Template:IPA modal medium low low, often slightly risingTemplate:Sfn
High Template:Lang Template:IPA Template:IPA sometimes slightly breathy long high high, often with a fall before a pauseTemplate:Sfn
Creaky Template:Lang Template:IPA Template:IPA tense or creaky, sometimes with lax glottal stop medium high high, often slightly fallingTemplate:Sfn
Checked Template:Lang Template:IPA Template:IPA centralized vowel quality, final glottal stop short high high (in citation; can vary in context)Template:Sfn

For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone:

In syllables ending with Template:IPA, the checked tone is excluded:

In spoken Burmese, some linguists classify two real tones (there are four nominal tones transcribed in written Burmese), "high" (applied to words that terminate with a stop or check, high-rising pitch) and "ordinary" (unchecked and non-glottal words, with falling or lower pitch) that encompass a variety of pitches.Template:Sfn The "ordinary" tone consists of a range of pitches. Linguist L. F. Taylor wrote, "conversational rhythm and euphonic intonation possess importance" not found in related tonal languages and "its tonal system is now in an advanced state of decay."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Spoken Burmese exhibits tone sandhi in the form of a shift from a low to an induced creaky tone: to indicate possession and to pronounce low-toned numerals in conjunction with other digits.<ref name=":22"/> For the former, this does not occur in literary Burmese, which uses ၏ Template:IPA as postpositional marker for possessive case instead of Template:Lang Template:IPA. Examples include:

Template:Fs interlinear

Template:Fs interlinear

Template:Fs interlinear

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 Template:IPA and Template:IPA. Some representative words are:

Structure Example IPA Meaning
CV Template:Lang Template:IPA title for young women
CVC Template:Lang Template:IPA 'to crave'
CGV Template:Lang Template:IPA 'earth'
CGVC Template:Lang Template:IPA 'eye'
CVVC Template:Lang Template:IPA term of address for young men
CGVVC Template:Lang Template:IPA 'ditch'

A minor syllable has some restrictions:

  • It contains Template:IPA as its only vowel
  • It must be an open syllable (no coda consonant)
  • It cannot bear tone
  • It has only a simple (C) onset (no glide after the consonant)
  • It must not be the final syllable of the word

The Mon language is attributed with the development of frequent sesquisyllabic reduction in Burmese words, a pattern that does not appear in other Burmic languages.<ref name=":22"/> Some examples of words containing minor syllables:

Writing system

Template:Main

Sampling of various Burmese script styles

The Burmese alphabet consists of 33 letters and 12 vowels and is written from left to right. It requires no spaces between words, although modern writing usually contains 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 Template:Lang a. Template:IPA or Template:IPA. The consonants are arranged into six consonant groups (called Template:Lang vag) based on articulation, like other Brahmi scripts. Tone markings and vowel modifications are written as diacritics placed to the left, right, top, and bottom of letters.Template:Sfn

Orthographic changes subsequent to shifts in phonology (such as the merging of the Template:IPA and Template:IPA medials) rather than transformations in Burmese grammatical structure and phonology, which by contrast has remained stable between Old Burmese and modern Burmese.Template:SfnTemplate:Clarify For example, during the Pagan era, the medial Template:IPA Template:Lang was transcribed in writing, which has been replaced by medials Template:IPA Template:Lang and Template:IPA Template:Lang in modern Burmese (e.g. "school" in old Burmese Template:Lang Template:IPA → Template:Lang Template:IPA in modern Burmese).Template:Sfn Likewise, written Burmese has preserved all nasalized finals Template:IPA, which have merged to Template:IPA in spoken Burmese. (The exception is Template:IPA, which, in spoken Burmese, can be one of many open vowels Template:IPA.) Similarly, other consonantal finals Template:IPA have been reduced to Template:IPA. Similar mergers are seen in other Sino-Tibetan languages like Shanghainese and, to a lesser extent, Cantonese.

Written Burmese dates to the early Pagan period. Burmese orthography originally followed a square block format, but the cursive format took hold from the 17th century when increased literacy and the resulting explosion of Burmese literature led to wider use of palm leaves and folded paper known as parabaiks (Template:Lang).Template:Sfn

Grammar

Template:Main The basic word order of the Burmese language in syntactic construction is subject-object-verb. Pronouns vary according to the gender and status of the audience and are often omitted. Affixes are used to convey information. Verbs are almost always suffixed and nouns declined.

In Burmese, words do not always clearly fall into a part of speech. Generally, words are split into nominals, verbs, adverbs and markers.Template:Sfn

Case affixes

Burmese is an agglutinative language with an extensive case system in which nouns are suffixed to determine their syntactic function in a sentence or clause. Sometimes the case markers are different between the two registers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The case markers are:

High register Low register
Subject thi (သည်), ká (က), hma (မှာ) ha (ဟာ), ká (က)
Object ko (ကို) ko (ကို)
Recipient à (အား)
Allative thó (သို့)
Ablative hmá (မှ), ká (က) ká (က)
Locative hnai (၌), hma (မှာ), twin (တွင်) hma (မှာ)
Comitative hnín (နှင့်) né (နဲ့)
Instrumental hpyin (ဖြင့်), hnin (နှင့်)
Possessive í (၏) yé (ရဲ့)

Verbs

The roots of Burmese verbs almost always have affixes that convey information like tense, aspect, intention, politeness, mood, etc. Many affixes also have formal/literary and colloquial equivalents. In fact, the only case in which no suffix is attached to a verb is in imperative commands.

Property verbs

Burmese does not have adjectives per se. Rather, it has verbs that carry the meaning "to be X", where X is equivalent to an English adjective.Template:Sfn These verbs, called property verbs, can modify a noun by means of the suffix Template:Lang tai. Template:IPA in colloquial Burmese (literary form: Template:Lang sau: Template:IPA), which is suffixed as follows:

Template:Fs interlinear

Property verbs may also form a compound with the noun (e.g. Template:Lang lu hkyau: Template:IPA 'person' + 'be beautiful') and reduplicated with a verb to form an adverb (e.g. Template:Lang kaun kaun thwa: Template:IPA meaning "to go well".Template:Sfn

Comparatives are usually ordered: X + Template:Lang htak pui Template:IPA + adjective, where X is the object being compared to. Superlatives are indicated with the prefix Template:Lang a. Template:IPA + adjective + Template:Lang hcum: Template:IPA.

Nouns

Nouns in Burmese are pluralized by suffixing Template:Lang twe Template:IPA (or Template:IPA if the word ends in a glottal stop) in colloquial Burmese or Template:Lang mya: Template:IPA in formal Burmese. The suffix Template:Lang tou. Template:IPA, which indicates a group of persons or things, is also suffixed to the modified noun. Unlike in English, mass nouns can be modified with plural markers. An example is below:

Template:Fs interlinear

Plural suffixes are not used when the noun is quantified with a number, instead a measure word or classifier is used.

Template:Fs interlinear

Numerical classifiers

Template:Main Template:Unsourced section Burmese uses numerical classifiers (also called measure words) when nouns are counted or quantified. This is similar to neighboring languages like Thai, Bengali, and Chinese. Measure words are like English expressions such as "two slices of bread" or "a cup of coffee". Classifiers are required when counting nouns, so Template:Lang hka.le: nga: Template:IPA (Template:Lit) is incorrect, since the measure word for people Template:Lang yauk Template:IPA is missing; it must suffix the numeral.

The standard word order of quantified words is: quantified noun + numeral adjective + classifier, except in round numbers (numbers that end in zero), in which the word order is flipped, where the quantified noun precedes the classifier: quantified noun + classifier + numeral adjective. The only exception to this rule is the number 10, which follows the standard word order.

Measurements of time, such as "hour", Template:Lang "day", Template:Lang or "month", Template:Lang do not require classifiers.

Below are some of the most commonly used classifiers in Burmese.

Burmese MLC IPA Usage Remarks
Template:Lang yauk Template:IPA for people Used in informal context
Template:Lang u: Template:IPA for people Used in formal context and also used for monks and nuns
Template:Lang pa: Template:IPA for people Used exclusively for monks and nuns of the Buddhist order
Template:Lang kaung Template:IPA for animals
Template:Lang hku. Template:IPA general classifier Used with almost all nouns except for animate objects
Template:Lang lum: Template:IPA for round objects
Template:Lang pra: Template:IPA for flat objects
Template:Lang cu. Template:IPA for groups Can be Template:IPA.

Affixes

Burmese makes prominent use of affixes (called Template:Lang)—words affixed to words to indicate tense, aspect, case, formality etc. Clausal affixes often indicate various notions that do not directly translate to English, like insistence and emphasis. For example, the affix Template:Lang [sʰò] conveys the speaker's attitude to the situation questioning the speaker and can be translated as "didn't you say that...".Template:Sfn Affixes also indicate the mood of the clause. For example, Template:Lang Template:IPA is a suffix used to indicate the imperative mood. While Template:Lang ('work' + suffix indicating politeness) does not indicate the imperative, Template:Lang ('work' + suffix indicating imperative mood + suffix indicating politeness) does.

Some affixes modify the word's part of speech. Among the most prominent of these is the prefix Template:Lang Template:IPA, which is prefixed to verbs to form nouns or adverbs. For instance, the word Template:Lang means "to enter", but combined with Template:Lang, it means "entrance" Template:Lang. Moreover, in colloquial Burmese, there is a tendency to omit the second Template:Lang in words that follow the pattern Template:Lang + noun/adverb + Template:Lang + noun/adverb, like Template:Lang, which is pronounced Template:IPA and formally pronounced Template:IPA.

Pronouns

Template:Main Burmese exhibits pronoun avoidance. Pronouns are avoided for politeness, with kinship terms, titles, or other forms of address used instead, This is called "negative politeness": speakers avoid directly addressing people. Pronouns account for social distinctions linguistically, reflecting gender, relative age, kinship, social status, and intimacy.<ref name=":14">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":03">Template:Cite web</ref> Burmese kinship terms are commonly substituted for pronouns. For example, an older person may use Template:Lang dau le: Template:IPA ('aunt') or Template:Lang u: lei: Template:IPA ('uncle') to refer to himself, while a younger person may use either Template:Lang sa: Template:IPA ('son') or Template:Lang sa.mi: Template:IPA ('daughter').

Burmese has developed an elaborate hierarchical system of pronouns that are grammatically underspecified, but highly marked for the complex relation between speaker and addressee according to their relative social position.<ref name=":14"/> In Burmese, the polite forms of first-person pronouns Template:Lang (kya. nau Template:IPA, Template:Lit) for males, and Template:Lang (kya. ma. Template:IPA, Template:Lit) for females humble the speaker, while the polite forms of second-person pronouns Template:Lang (min Template:IPA; Template:Lit), Template:Lang (khang bya: Template:IPA; Template:Lit)<ref>From Burmese Template:Lang, lit. "lord master"</ref> or Template:Lang (hrang Template:IPA; Template:Lit) elevate the addressee.<ref name=":14"/>Template:Sfn The original pronouns Template:Lang nga Template:IPA ('I/me') and Template:Lang nang Template:IPA ('you') have been relegated to use with people of higher or equivalent status, although most speakers prefer to use third-person pronouns.Template:Sfn

Burmese also uses case markers to mark subject pronouns, although these are generally dropped in spoken Burmese.

The basic pronouns are:

Person Singular Plural*
Informal Formal Informal Formal
First-person Template:Lang
nga
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang‡
kywan to
Template:IPA

Template:Lang†
kywan ma.
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang
nga tui.
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang‡
kywan to tui.
Template:IPA

Template:Lang†
kywan ma. tui.
Template:IPA
Second-person Template:Lang
nang
Template:IPA

Template:Lang
mang:
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang‡
khang bya:
Template:IPA

Template:Lang†
hrang
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang
nang tui.
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang‡
khang bya: tui.
Template:IPA

Template:Lang†
hrang tui.
Template:IPA
Third-person Template:Lang
su
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang
(a.) sang
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang
su tui.
Template:IPA 		Template:Lang
sang tui.
Template:IPA
* The basic particle to indicate plurality is Template:Lang tui., colloquial Template:Lang dui..
‡ Used by male speakers.
† Used by female speakers.

Burmese also uses religious personal pronouns, often reserved for speaking with Buddhist monks and nuns with its own set of complexity.

Kinship terms

Template:Main Kinship terms vary across Burmese dialects. Upper Burmese dialects still differentiate maternal and paternal sides of a family, unlike Lower Burmese dialects:

Term Upper Burmese Lower Burmese Myeik dialect
  • Paternal aunt (older)
  • Paternal aunt (younger)
  • Maternal aunt (older)
  • Maternal aunt (younger)
  • Paternal uncle (older)
  • Paternal uncle (younger)
  • Maternal uncle (older)
  • Maternal uncle (younger)

1 The youngest (paternal or maternal) aunt may be called Template:Lang Template:IPA, and the youngest paternal uncle Template:Lang Template:IPA.

In a testament to the power of media, the Yangon-based speech is gaining currency even in Upper Burma. Upper Burmese-specific usage, while historically and technically accurate, is increasingly viewed as distinctly rural or regional speech. In fact, some usages are already considered strictly regional Upper Burmese speech and are likely to die out. For example:

Term Upper Burmese Standard Burmese
  • Elder brother (to a male)
  • Elder brother (to a female)
  • Younger brother (to a male)
  • Younger brother (to a female)
  • Elder sister (to a male)
  • Elder sister (to a female)
  • Younger sister (to a male)
  • Younger sister (to a female)

In general, the male-centric names of old Burmese for familial terms have been replaced in standard Burmese with formerly female-centric terms, which are now used by both sexes. One holdover is the use of Template:Lang ('younger brother to a male') and Template:Lang ('younger brother to a female'). Terms like Template:Lang ('elder brother to a male') and Template:Lang ('younger sister to a male') now are used in standard Burmese only as part of compound words like Template:Lang ('brothers') or Template:Lang ('brother and sister').

Reduplication

Reduplication is prevalent in Burmese and is used to intensify or weaken property verbs' meanings. For example, if Template:Lang Template:IPA "beautiful" is reduplicated, then the intensity of the verb's meaning increases. Many Burmese words, especially verbs with two syllables, such as Template:Lang Template:IPA "beautiful", when reduplicated (Template:Lang → Template:Lang Template:IPA) become adverbs. This is also true of some Burmese verbs and nouns (e.g. Template:Lang 'a moment' → Template:Lang 'frequently'), which become adverbs when reduplicated.

Some nouns are also reduplicated to indicate plurality. For instance, Template:Lang Template:IPA ('country'), but when reduplicated to Template:Lang Template:IPA, it means "many countries", as in Template:Lang Template:IPA ('international'). Another example is Template:Lang, which means "a kind", but the reduplicated form Template:Lang means "multiple kinds".

A few measure words can also be reduplicated to indicate "one or the other":

Numerals

Template:Main

Burmese numerals in various fonts

Burmese digits are traditionally written using a set of numerals unique to the Mon–Burmese script, although Arabic numerals are also used in informal contexts. The cardinal forms of Burmese numerals are primarily inherited from the Proto-Sino-Tibetan language, with some larger numbers like "ten million" borrowed from Sanskrit or Pali. The ordinal forms of primary Burmese numerals are directly borrowed from Pali.<ref name="bbe">Template:Cite book</ref> Ordinal numbers beyond ten are suffixed Template:Lang (Template:Lit).

Burmese numerals follow the nouns they modify, with the exception of round numbers, which precede the nouns they modify and are subject to tone sandhi shifts.

Romanization and transcription

Template:Main Burmese has no official romanization system.Template:Citation needed There have been attempts to make one, but none has succeeded. Replicating Burmese sounds in Latin script is complicated. The Pali-based transcription system MLC, devised by the Myanmar Language Commission (MLC), transcribes only sounds in formal Burmese and is based on the Burmese alphabet rather than the phonology.

Several colloquial transcription systems have been proposed but none is overwhelmingly preferred.

Transcription of Burmese is not standardized, as seen in the varying English transcriptions of Burmese names. For instance, a Burmese personal name like Template:Lang Template:IPA may be variously romanized as Win, Winn, Wyn, or Wynn, while Template:Lang Template:IPA may be romanized as Khaing, Khine, or Khain.

Computer fonts and standard keyboard layout

Template:See also

Myanmar3, the de jure standard Burmese keyboard layout

The Burmese alphabet can be entered from a standard QWERTY keyboard and is supported by the Unicode standard, meaning it can be read and written on most modern computers and smartphones.

Burmese has complex character rendering requirements, where tone markings and vowel modifications are noted with diacritics. These can be placed before consonants (as with Template:Lang), above them (as with Template:Lang), or around them (as with Template:Lang). These character clusters are built with multiple keystrokes. In particular, the inconsistent placement of diacritics as a feature of the language presents a conflict between an intuitive WYSIWYG typing approach and a logical consonant-first storage approach.Template:Clarify

Since its introduction in 2007, the most popular Burmese font, Zawgyi, has been near-ubiquitous in Myanmar. Linguist Justin Watkins argues that its ubiquitous use harms Myanmar languages, including Burmese, by preventing efficient sorting, searching, processing and analyzing Myanmar text through flexible diacritic ordering.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Zawgyi is not Unicode-compliant, but occupies the same code space as Unicode Myanmar font. As it is not defined as a standard character encoding, Zawgyi is not built in to any major operating systems as standard. However, allow for its position as the de facto (but largely undocumented) standard within the country, telcos and major smartphone distributors (such as Huawei and Samsung) ship phones with Zawgyi font overwriting standard Unicode-compliant fonts, which are installed on most internationally distributed hardware.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Facebook also supports Zawgyi as an additional language encoding for their app and website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As a result, almost all SMS alerts (including those from telcos to their customers), social media posts, and other web resources may be incomprehensible on these devices without the custom Zawgyi font installed at the operating system level. These may include devices purchased overseas or distributed by companies that do not customize software for the local market.

Keyboards with a Zawgyi layout are the most commonly available for purchase domestically.

Until recently,Template:When Unicode compliant fonts have been more difficult to type than Zawgyi, as they have a stricter, less forgiving and arguably less intuitive method for ordering diacritics. However, intelligent input software such as Keymagic<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and recentTemplate:When versions of smartphone soft-keyboards including Gboard and ttKeyboard<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> allow for more forgiving input sequences and Zawgyi keyboard layouts which produce Unicode-compliant text.

A number of Unicode-compliant Burmese fonts exist. The national standard keyboard layout is known as the Myanmar3 layout, and it was published along with the Myanmar3 Unicode font. The layout, developed by the Myanmar Unicode and NLP Research Center, has a smart input system to cover the complex structures of Burmese and related scripts.

In addition to the development of computer fonts and standard keyboard layout, much research remains to be done on Burmese, specifically for Natural Language Processing (NLP) areas like WordNet, Search Engine, development of parallel corpus for Burmese, and development of a formally standardized and dense domain-specific corpus of Burmese.Template:Sfn

The Myanmar government has designated 1 October 2019 as "U-Day" to officially switch to Unicode.<ref name="japantimes">Template:Cite web</ref> The full transition is estimated to take two years.<ref name="mmti_Myan">Template:Cite web</ref>

Example text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Burmese:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Lang

The romanization of the text into the Latin alphabet:

Template:Transliteration

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

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Notes

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References

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Bibliography

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