Burmese    ဗမာစကား (Burmese [báma sákà])

Burmese, or Myanmar, is a member of the Lolo-Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is spoken mainly in Myanmar (Burma), where it is the official language. In 2007 there were about 33 million people who spoke Burmese as a first language. There are also thought to be another 10 million who speak it as a second language.

Burmese at a glance

  • Native name: မြန်မာဘာသာ [mjəmà bàðà]
  • Language family: Sino-Tibetan, Lolo-Burmese, Burmish
  • Number of speakers: c. 43 million
  • Spoken in: Burma (Myanmar)
  • First written: 11th century
  • Writing system: Burmese script
  • Status: official language in Burma (Myanmar)

Standard Burmese is spoken in the Irrawaddy River valley. Within that area there are minor differences in vocabulary and pronunciation between the Mandalay dialect of Upper Burma and the Yangon dialect of Lower Burma. Burmese dialects in other parts of Burma differ more from the standard, but they are all more or less mutually intelligible.

There are two registers of Burmese: high and low. The high register is used in formal literature, newspapers, radio and formal speeches. The low register is used in television, comics, informal literature, and everyday conversation. Since the 1960s some Burmese writers have promoted the use of the low register, and have suggest the abandoning of the high register.

The name Myanmar (မြန်မာ [mjəmà]) is the high register name for the country, and Burma (ဗမာ [bəmà]) is the low register name. Both names derive from the Bamar people (ဗမာလူမျိုး [bəmà lùmjó]), the largest ethnic group in Burma. The full official name of the country is the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar" (ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် [pjìdàʊɴzṵ θàɴməda̰ mjəmà nàɪɴŋàɴdɔ̀]).

Written Burmese

The Burmese or Myanmar script developed from the Mon script, which was adapted from a southern Indian script during the 8th century. The earliest known inscriptions in the Burmese script date from the 11th century.

Notable Features

Consonants

Burmese consonants

Notes

Stacked consonants

Stacked consonants

Independent vowels and vowel diacritics

Independent vowels and vowel diacritics

Medial consonant diacritics with မ (m)

Medial consonant diacritics with မ (m)

Syllable rhymes with က (k)

Syllable rhymes with က (k)

Other symbols

Other symbols

Numerals

Burmese numerals

Sample Text in Burmese

လူတိုင်းသည် တူညီ လွတ်လပ်သော ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာဖြင့် လည်းကောင်း၊ တူညီလွတ်လပ်သော အခွင့်အရေးများဖြင့် လည်းကောင်း၊ မွေးဖွားလာသူများ ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုသူတို့၌ ပိုင်းခြား ဝေဖန်တတ်သော ဉာဏ်နှင့် ကျင့်ဝတ် သိတတ်သော စိတ်တို့ရှိကြ၍ ထိုသူတို့သည် အချင်းချင်း မေတ္တာထား၍ ဆက်ဆံကျင့်သုံးသင့်၏။

Hear a recording of this text by Lynnie T. Htoo

Transliteration

lutuing:sany tu-nyi lwatlapsau: gun.sikhka.hprang. lany:kaung:, tu-nyi-lwatlapsau: ahkwang.-are:mya:hprang. lany:kaung:, mwe:hpwa:la.su-mya: hpracsany. htuisutui.hnai puing:hkra: wehpantatsau: nyanhnang. kyang.wat si.tatsau: cittui.hri.kra.rwe htuisutui.sany ahkyang:hkyang: mettahta:rwe hcakhcamkyang.sum:sang.e.

IPA transcription

lù.dáɪ̯ɴ.ðè tù.ɲì lʊʔ.laʔ.θɔ́ go̰ʊ̯ɴ.ðeɪ̯ʔ.kʰa̰.pʰjɪ̰ɴ lé.gáʊ̯ɴ | tù.ɲì lʊʔ.laʔ.θɔ́ ʔə.kʰwɪ̰ɴ.ʔə.jé.mjá.pʰjɪ̰ɴ lé.gáʊ̯ɴ | mwé.pʰwá.la̰.ðù.mjá pʰjɪʔ.θè || tʰò.ðù.do̰-n̥aɪ̯ʔ páɪ̯ɴ.ʨʰá wè.pʰàɴ.taʔ.θɔ́ ɲàɴ.n̥ɪ̰ɴ ʨɪ̰ɴ.wʊʔ θḭ.daʔ.θɔ́ seɪ̯ʔ.to̰.ʃḭ.ʥa̰-ɥḛ tʰò.ðù.do̰.ðè ʔə.ʨʰɪ́ɴ.ʥɪ́ɴ meʔ.ta̰.dá-ɥḛ sʰeʔ.sʰàɴ.ʥɪ̰ɴ.ðóʊ̯ɴ.ðɪ̰ɴ-ḭ​

Transliteration and transcription by Otavio

Translation

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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample videos in Burmese

Information about Burmese | Phrases | Numbers | Tower of Babel | Burmese courses on: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk [affilate links]

Start speaking Burmese with uTalk

Links

Information about the Burmese language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_alphabet

Online Burmese lessons
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Burmese/
http://www.youtube.com/user/BurmeseLanguage

Burmese phrases
http://ilanguages.org/burmese_phrases.php
http://www.asiapearltravels.com/language/lesson28.php
http://wikitravel.org/en/Burmese_phrasebook
http://seap.einaudi.cornell.edu/system/files/Burmese Language Phrases with Audio_0.pdf
http://www.asianhorizons.co.uk/tours-of-burma-phrases-burmese/
http://www.englishspeak.com/my/english-lessons.cfm

Online Burmese dictionaries
https://www.myordbok.com
https://www.burmese-dictionary.org/
https://www.myanmar-dictionary.org/ http://sealang.net/burmese/
http://www.lexilogos.com/english/burmese_dictionary.htm

Free Burmese fonts
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/seasite.htm
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Myanmar.html
http://www.angelfire.com/country/burmesefont/

Online Burmese radio
http://www.voanews.com/burmese/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/
https://soundcloud.com/dvbradio

Online Burmese news
http://www.dnevnik.bg
http://www.voanews.com/burmese/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/

Languages written with the Myanmar / Burmese script

Aiton, Akha, Arakanese, Burmese, Eastern Pwo Karen, Jingpho, Khamti, Marma, Palaung, Pa'O, S'gaw Karen, Tai Laing, Tai Phake, Western Pwo

Lolo-Burmese languages

Akha, Burmese/Myanmar, Lahu, Lipo, Marma, Nisu, Nuosu, Sani

Abugidas / Syllabic alphabets

Ahom, Aima, Arleng, Badagu, Badlit, Basahan, Balinese, Balti-A, Balti-B, Batak, Baybayin, Bengali, Bhaiksuki, Bhujimol, Bilang-bilang, Bima, Blackfoot, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Carrier, Chakma, Cham, Cree, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dham Lipi, Dhankari / Sirmauri, Ditema, Dives Akuru, Dogra, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Fox, Fraser, Gond, Goykanadi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gunjala Gondi, Gupta, Gurmukhi, Halbi Lipi, Hanifi, Hanuno'o, Hočąk, Ibalnan, Incung, Inuktitut, Jaunsari Takri, Javanese, Kaithi, Kadamba, Kamarupi, Kannada, Kawi, Kharosthi, Khema, Khe Prih, Khmer, Khojki, Khudabadi, Kirat Rai, Kōchi, Komering, Kulitan, Kurukh Banna, Lampung, Lanna, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Lota Ende, Magar Akkha, Mahajani, Malayalam, Meitei (Modern), Manpuri (Old), Marchen, Meetei Yelhou Mayek, Meroïtic, Masarm Gondi, Modi, Mon, Mongolian Horizontal Square Script, Multani, Nandinagari, Newa, New Tai Lue, Ojibwe, Odia, Ogan, Pahawh Hmong, Pallava, Phags-pa, Purva Licchavi, Qiang / Rma, Ranjana, Rejang (Kaganga), Sasak, Savara, Satera Jontal, Shan, Sharda, Sheek Bakrii Saphaloo, Siddham, Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sukhothai, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagbanwa, Takri, Tamil, Tanchangya (Ka-Pat), Tani, Thaana, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tigalari, Tikamuli, Tocharian, Tolong Siki, Vatteluttu, Warang Citi

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 19.09.24

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