Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Burmese Language shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Burmese Language offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Burmese Language at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Burmese Language? Wrong! If the Burmese Language is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Burmese Language then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Burmese Language? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Burmese Language and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Burmese Language wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Burmese Language then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Burmese Language site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Burmese Language, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Burmese Language, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox Language|name=Burmese |familycolor=Sino-Tibetan |nativename=] (written Burmese)
] (spoken Burmese) |pronunciation=mjàNmàsà |region=[Myanmar, [Thailand, [Bangladesh, [Malaysia, the [United States, [United Kingdom, [Australia, [Laos and [Singapore |speakers=First language: 32 million
Second language: 10 million |familycolor=Sino-Tibetan |fam2=[Tibeto-Burman languages |fam3=Lolo-Burmese |fam4=Burmish |fam5=Southern |script=[Burmese alphabet |rank=34 |nation=[Myanmar |agency=[Myanmar Language Commission |iso1=my |iso2b=bur |iso2t=mya |iso3=mya |notice=Indic -->The Burmese language is the official language of Myanmar. Although the government officially recognizes the language as Myanmar, most continue to refer to the language as Burmese. It is the native language of the Bamar, Rakhine people, and other related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar. It is spoken by 32 million as a first language, and as a second language by ethnic minorities in Myanmar.

Burmese is a member of the Tibeto-Burman languages, which is a subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan languages family of languages. Burmese is a tonal language and analytic language. The language uses the Burmese script, derived from the Mon language and ultimately from the Brāhmī script.

Literary language and spoken language Burmese is classified into two categories. One is formal, used in literary works, official publications, radio broadcasts, and formal speeches. The other is colloquial, used in daily conversation. This is reflected in Burmese words for "language": ca refers to written, literary language, and ca.ka: refers to spoken language. Burmese therefore can mean either mranma ca (written Burmese), or mranma ca.ka: (spoken Burmese). The mranma portion of these names may be pronounced or, more colloquially, .

Diglossia Diglossia occurs to a large extent in Burmese. The discrepancy is quite large, and many linguists consider formal Burmese to be a separate language from colloquial Burmese. The written and prestige form of Burmese has undergone only a few changes and tends not to accommodate the colloquial phonology of standard Burmese today. The Burmese saying "the pronunciation is merely the sound, whilst the orthography is correct" ( ) reflects upon the differences between spoken and written Burmese, as spelling is often not an accurate reflection of pronunciation.

In addition, different particles (to modify nouns and verbs) are used in the prestige form than in the spoken form. Literate Burmese speakers are able to intuitively interpret ancient Burmese despite transcriptions that date many centuries due to innate pronunciation rules. For example, (hnai.), which serves as a postposition after nouns is only used in formal Burmese, and is (hma) in colloquial Burmese.

There are various branches of the colloquial form as well. One form is used when speaking to elders and teachers. Different pronouns referring to oneself (such as the usage of or ) are used. When speaking to a person of the same status or of younger age, (nga ) is used. When speaking to a Bhikkhu, a person must refer to the monk as poun-poun and to himself as (da. ga ). Burmese monks may speak to fellow monks using Pāli, and it is expected of faithful Buddhism in Myanmar to have a basic knowledge of Pāli.

Despite the large differences, Burmese speakers rarely distinguish formal and colloquial Burmese as separate languages, but rather as two registers of the same language.

Many have contended that a newer system of orthography for Burmese be created (one based on phonology), to accommodate such differences. In addition, some Burmese linguists have proposed to shift away from formal Burmese, as seen in the gradual changes in form on television broadcasts. However, formal Burmese remains well-established in Burmese. Another obstacle in reforming Burmese orthography are conservative Burmese dialects (that retain older pronunciations more similar to formal Burmese), which primarily come from coastal areas.

Dialects and accents Despite its Upper Myanmar origins, the standard language of Burmese today comes from Yangon, because of the largest city's media influence. It used to be that the speech from Mandalay represented standard Burmese. Still most differences between Yangon (Lower Myanmar) and Mandalay (Upper Myanmar) are not in the accent or pronunciation but in the vocabulary usage. For example, the most noticeable feature of the Mandalay dialect is its use of the pronoun (kya. nau ) for both males and females, whereas in Yangon, (kya. ma. ) refers to females. Moreover, Upper Myanmar speech still differentiates maternal and paternal sides of relatives whereas Lower Myanmar speech does not.

However, more distinctive accent and word usage differences emerge in the peripheral areas of the Ayeyarwady valley. Dialects include Merguese, Yaw, Palaw, Beik (Myeik), and Dawei (Tavoyan). The Rakhine dialect (Arakanese) is most reminiscent of archaic Burmese, especially in its usage of the sound, which has become a sound in standard Burmese. Dialects in Tanintharyi Division (such as Beik) often reduce the intensity of the glottal stop. The Dawei dialect has preserved the medial, which is only found in Old Burmese transcriptions. Despite vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutually intelligible languages among the dialects.

Vocabulary The majority of Burmese vocabulary is of Tibeto-Burman stock. However, the Burmese language has been influenced by Pali, English, and Mon, and to a lesser extent, by Chinese, Sanskrit and Hindi.

Here is a sample of loan words found in Burmese:

As a result, Burmese tends to have many synonyms of the same word, each having certain usages, such as formal, literary, colloquial, and poetic. One example is the word "moon", which can be la (Tibeto-Burman), sanda or san (both Pali derivatives of chanda), or thaw-da (from Sanskrit).

Script The Burmese script is characterized by its circular letters and diacritics. It is an abugida, with all letters having an inherent vowel (a. or ). Tone markings are in the form of diacritics placed to the left, right, top, and bottom of letters, but are not always indicative of the proper tone. Likewise, written Burmese has preserved all nasalised finals (), which have merged to in spoken Burmese. The exception is , which, in spoken Burmese, can be one of many open vowels (). Likewise, other consonantal finals () have been reduced to . Similar mergings are seen in other languages, including Shanghainese#Rimes, and to a lesser extent, Standard Cantonese#Current Shifts.

Evidence of written Burmese dates to the early 12th century AD, from the Myazedi stone inscription (written 1113), which was a story written about Prince Yazukuma in Pyu, Mon language, Pali, and Burmese. During the reign of King Anawrahta, the Mon script, which descended from the Brāhmī script, was adopted for transcribing Burmese. Many changes to suit the phonology of Burmese were made. Standardised tone marking was not achieved until the 1700s. Much of the orthography in written Burmese today can be traced back to middle Burmese, which had a wider range of finals. However, during colonial rule under the British India, spelling was standardised through dictionaries and spellers.

Phonology The transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Consonants The consonants of Burmese are as follows:

{|class="wikitable"!! Bilabial consonant! Dental consonant! Alveolar consonant! Postalveolar consonant
and palatal consonant! Velar consonant and
Labiovelar consonant! Glottal consonant! Placeless|-! Plosive consonant and Affricate consonant|align=center | | colspan="2" align=center | | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |  |-! Nasal consonant| align=center | | colspan="2" align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |  | align=center | |-! Fricative consonant|  | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |  | align=center | |  |-! Approximant consonant|  | colspan="2" align=center | | align=center | | align=center | | colspan="2" |  |-! Lateral consonant|  | colspan="2" align=center | | colspan="4" |  |}The approximant is rare, and is only used in place names that have preserved Sanskrit or Pali pronunciations (e.g. Amarapura, which is pronounced ) and in English-derived words. Historically, became in Burmese, and is usually replaced by in Pāli loanwords, e.g. (ra.hanta) "monk", (raja.) "king". Occasionally it is replaced with , as in the case of the Pali-derived word for "animal" (ti.rac hcan), which can be pronounced or . Likewise, is rare, having disappeared from modern Burmese, except in transcriptions of foreign names. is uncommon, except as a voiced consonant allophone of .

The phones are often pronounced as , as , as , and as in Compound (linguistics)s. , when following a nasalised final can become a sound. For example, "blouse" ( ang kyi) can be pronounced or . However, this effect only occurs in compound words.

The placeless nasal is realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel or as a nasal homorganic to the following consonant; thus "storm" is pronounced .

Vowels The vowels of Burmese are:

{]s! colspan="2" align="center"| Diphthongs]! align="center"| Back vowel! align="center"| Front vowel offglide! align="center"| Back vowel offglide|-! align="center"| close vowel| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"|| align="center"||-! align="center"| Close-mid vowel| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"| |-! align="center"| Mid vowel| colspan="2" align="center"|| align="center"|| align="center"||-! align="center"| Open-mid vowel| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"|| align="center"||-! align="center"| Open vowel|| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"| |}

The monophthongs , , , and occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda); the diphthongs , , , and occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda).

Tones Burmese is a tonal language, which means phoneme contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone (linguistics) of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch (music), but also phonation, intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel quality. There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table the tones are shown marked on the vowel as an example; the phonetic descriptions are from Wheatley (1987){], medium duration, low intensity, low (often slightly rising) pitch|-| High ()| | Sometimes slightly breathy voice, relatively long, high intensity, high pitch; often with a fall before a pause|-| Creaky ()| | Tenseness or creaky voice phonation (sometimes with lax glottal stop), medium duration, high intensity, high (often slightly falling) pitch]; can vary in context)|}

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

In syllables ending with , the Checked tone is excluded:

Syllable structure The syllable structure of Burmese is C(G)V((V)C), which is to say the syllable onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a semivowel, and the syllable 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 syllable coda are and . Some representative words are:

A syllable whose vowel is has some restrictions:

Some examples of words containing -syllables:

Grammar The word order of the Burmese language is subject (grammar)-object (grammar)-verb. The only exception to this rule is the verb 'to be', (kà. ), which is placed directly after the subject. Pronouns in Burmese vary according to the gender and status of the audience. Burmese is monosyllabic, that is, every word is a root to which a particle but not another word may be prefixed (Ko, 1924, p viii). Sentence structure determines syntactical relations, and verbs are not conjugated but have particles suffixed to them. For example, the verb 'to eat' is (ca: ), and remains the same.

Adjectives Adjectives may precede a noun (e.g. hkyau: tai. lu "beautiful" + + "person") or follow a noun (e.g. lu hkyau: "person" + "beautiful"). Superlatives are usually indicated with the prefix (a. ) + adj. + (hcum: ). Numeric adjectives follow the noun.

Verbs The roots of Burmese verbs are almost always suffixed with at least one particle which conveys such information as tense, intention, politeness, mood etc. In fact, the only time in which no particle is attached to a verb is in 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.

The most commonly used verb particles and their usage are shown below with the verb root (ca: ) which means "eat".

The suffix tai can be viewed as a particle marking the present tense and/or a factual statement.

The suffix (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 emphasise that the action happened before another event that is also currently being discussed, the particle becomes imperative. Note that the suffix (tai ) in this case denotes a factual statement rather than the present tense.

(ne ) is a particle used to denote that the action is in progression, and is equivalent to the English '-ing'.

This particle or tense has no equivalence in English. It is used when an action which another person or persons expected to be performed by the subject is finally being performed. So in the above example, if someone had been expecting you to eat and you have finally started eating, the particle (pri ) is used.

This particle is used to indicate the future tense or an action which is yet to be performed.

The particle (tau. ) is used when the action is about to be performed immediately. Therefore it could be termed as the "immediate future tense particle". The particle (mai ) is still imperative in this case.

Nouns Nouns in Burmese are pluralised by the addition of the suffix (twe or if the word ends in a glottal stop). The suffix mya (or nè, which means "few") is also used, which by itself means "many". The suffix day, which also pluralises nouns, is only used colloquially and mya is used literally and formally.

The plural suffix however is not used when the noun is quantified by being counted.

Numerical classifiers Burmese, just as in neighbouring languages such as Thai language, Bengali language, and Chinese language, uses nominal classifiers when nouns are being counted or quantified. This approximately equates to English expressions such as "two slices of bread" or "a cup of coffee". In the above example, yauk is the classifier used when referring to people. Classifiers are imperative when counting nouns, so (hka.le: nga: literally "children five") is ungrammatical. There are many classifiers in Burmese, and some of the most commonly used ones are shown below.

{|class="wikitable"|-! Burmese !! MLC transcription !! Phonetic transcription !! Usage !! Remarks|-| || pa: || || for people || Used exclusively for monks and nuns of the Buddhist order|-| || hli: || || for slices || Used in context of food|-| || kaung || || for animals |||-| || hku. || || general classifier || Used with almost all nouns except for animate objects|-| || hkwak || || For open containers with liquid |||-| || lum: || || for round objects |||-| || pra: || || for flat objects |||-| || cang: || or || for vehicles |||-| || cu. || or || for groups |||-| || u: || || for people || Used in formal context and also used for monks and nuns|-| || yauk || || for people || Used in informal context|}

Pronouns Subject pronouns begin sentences. In the imperative forms, the subject is omitted. There are certain pronouns used for different audiences. Object pronouns must have a -go attached immediately after the pronoun. Proper nouns are often substituted for pronouns. In addition, nga and nein are rarely used. One's status (wa) in relation to the audience determines the pronouns used. The basic pronouns are:

{| class="wikitable"|-! Burmese !! MLC transcription !! Phonetic transcription !! English !! Remarks|-| || nga || || I/me || Informal, used with family and friends|-| || nga tui. || or || we || Informal|-|
|| kywan tau
kywan ma.||
|| I/me || Formal, used by males
Formal (lit. "servant"), used by females|-|
|| da. ga
da. ga ma. ||
|| I/me || Formal, used while speaking to a monk or nun (lit. "donor") exclusively|-​​​|
|| ta. pany. tau
ta. pany. tau ma. ||
|| I/me || Formal, used while speaking to a monk or nun (lit. "disciple") exclusively|-| || nang || or || you || Informal|-| || nang tui. || || you all || Informal|-| || mang: || || you || Informal, used among close friends|-| || a hrang || || you || Formal, used by females|-| || hkang bya: || or || you || Formal|-| || su || || he/she || Informal|-| || su tui. || || they || Informal|-| || ai: (da) ha || || it/that || Informal, used rudely to refer to animate objects|}

Reduplication Reduplication is prevalent in colloquial Burmese, and is used to intensify or weaken adjectives' meanings. For example, (hkyau: ), which means "beautiful" is reduplicated, the intensity of the adjective's meaning increases.

Romanisation and transcription There is no official Romanization system for Burmese. There have been attempts to make one, but none have been successful. Replicating Burmese sounds in the Latin script is complicated. There is a Pāli-based transcription system in existence, which was devised by the Myanma Language Commission (MLC). However, it only transcribes sounds in formal Burmese and is based on the orthography rather than the phonology. Several colloquial transcription systems have been proposed, but none is overwhelmingly preferred over others.

Transcription of Burmese is not standardized, as seen in the varying English transcriptions of Burmese place names.

References

External links

{{Infobox Language|name=Burmese |familycolor=Sino-Tibetan |nativename=] (written Burmese)
] (spoken Burmese) |pronunciation=mjàNmàsà |region=[Myanmar, [Thailand, [Bangladesh, [Malaysia, the [United States, [United Kingdom, [Australia, [Laos and [Singapore |speakers=First language: 32 million
Second language: 10 million |familycolor=Sino-Tibetan |fam2=[Tibeto-Burman languages |fam3=Lolo-Burmese |fam4=Burmish |fam5=Southern |script=[Burmese alphabet |rank=34 |nation=[Myanmar |agency=[Myanmar Language Commission |iso1=my |iso2b=bur |iso2t=mya |iso3=mya |notice=Indic -->The Burmese language is the official language of Myanmar. Although the government officially recognizes the language as Myanmar, most continue to refer to the language as Burmese. It is the native language of the Bamar, Rakhine people, and other related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar. It is spoken by 32 million as a first language, and as a second language by ethnic minorities in Myanmar.

Burmese is a member of the Tibeto-Burman languages, which is a subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan languages family of languages. Burmese is a tonal language and analytic language. The language uses the Burmese script, derived from the Mon language and ultimately from the Brāhmī script.

Literary language and spoken language Burmese is classified into two categories. One is formal, used in literary works, official publications, radio broadcasts, and formal speeches. The other is colloquial, used in daily conversation. This is reflected in Burmese words for "language": ca refers to written, literary language, and ca.ka: refers to spoken language. Burmese therefore can mean either mranma ca (written Burmese), or mranma ca.ka: (spoken Burmese). The mranma portion of these names may be pronounced or, more colloquially, .

Diglossia Diglossia occurs to a large extent in Burmese. The discrepancy is quite large, and many linguists consider formal Burmese to be a separate language from colloquial Burmese. The written and prestige form of Burmese has undergone only a few changes and tends not to accommodate the colloquial phonology of standard Burmese today. The Burmese saying "the pronunciation is merely the sound, whilst the orthography is correct" ( ) reflects upon the differences between spoken and written Burmese, as spelling is often not an accurate reflection of pronunciation.

In addition, different particles (to modify nouns and verbs) are used in the prestige form than in the spoken form. Literate Burmese speakers are able to intuitively interpret ancient Burmese despite transcriptions that date many centuries due to innate pronunciation rules. For example, (hnai.), which serves as a postposition after nouns is only used in formal Burmese, and is (hma) in colloquial Burmese.

There are various branches of the colloquial form as well. One form is used when speaking to elders and teachers. Different pronouns referring to oneself (such as the usage of or ) are used. When speaking to a person of the same status or of younger age, (nga ) is used. When speaking to a Bhikkhu, a person must refer to the monk as poun-poun and to himself as (da. ga ). Burmese monks may speak to fellow monks using Pāli, and it is expected of faithful Buddhism in Myanmar to have a basic knowledge of Pāli.

Despite the large differences, Burmese speakers rarely distinguish formal and colloquial Burmese as separate languages, but rather as two registers of the same language.

Many have contended that a newer system of orthography for Burmese be created (one based on phonology), to accommodate such differences. In addition, some Burmese linguists have proposed to shift away from formal Burmese, as seen in the gradual changes in form on television broadcasts. However, formal Burmese remains well-established in Burmese. Another obstacle in reforming Burmese orthography are conservative Burmese dialects (that retain older pronunciations more similar to formal Burmese), which primarily come from coastal areas.

Dialects and accents Despite its Upper Myanmar origins, the standard language of Burmese today comes from Yangon, because of the largest city's media influence. It used to be that the speech from Mandalay represented standard Burmese. Still most differences between Yangon (Lower Myanmar) and Mandalay (Upper Myanmar) are not in the accent or pronunciation but in the vocabulary usage. For example, the most noticeable feature of the Mandalay dialect is its use of the pronoun (kya. nau ) for both males and females, whereas in Yangon, (kya. ma. ) refers to females. Moreover, Upper Myanmar speech still differentiates maternal and paternal sides of relatives whereas Lower Myanmar speech does not.

However, more distinctive accent and word usage differences emerge in the peripheral areas of the Ayeyarwady valley. Dialects include Merguese, Yaw, Palaw, Beik (Myeik), and Dawei (Tavoyan). The Rakhine dialect (Arakanese) is most reminiscent of archaic Burmese, especially in its usage of the sound, which has become a sound in standard Burmese. Dialects in Tanintharyi Division (such as Beik) often reduce the intensity of the glottal stop. The Dawei dialect has preserved the medial, which is only found in Old Burmese transcriptions. Despite vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutually intelligible languages among the dialects.

Vocabulary The majority of Burmese vocabulary is of Tibeto-Burman stock. However, the Burmese language has been influenced by Pali, English, and Mon, and to a lesser extent, by Chinese, Sanskrit and Hindi.

Here is a sample of loan words found in Burmese:

As a result, Burmese tends to have many synonyms of the same word, each having certain usages, such as formal, literary, colloquial, and poetic. One example is the word "moon", which can be la (Tibeto-Burman), sanda or san (both Pali derivatives of chanda), or thaw-da (from Sanskrit).

Script The Burmese script is characterized by its circular letters and diacritics. It is an abugida, with all letters having an inherent vowel (a. or ). Tone markings are in the form of diacritics placed to the left, right, top, and bottom of letters, but are not always indicative of the proper tone. Likewise, written Burmese has preserved all nasalised finals (), which have merged to in spoken Burmese. The exception is , which, in spoken Burmese, can be one of many open vowels (). Likewise, other consonantal finals () have been reduced to . Similar mergings are seen in other languages, including Shanghainese#Rimes, and to a lesser extent, Standard Cantonese#Current Shifts.

Evidence of written Burmese dates to the early 12th century AD, from the Myazedi stone inscription (written 1113), which was a story written about Prince Yazukuma in Pyu, Mon language, Pali, and Burmese. During the reign of King Anawrahta, the Mon script, which descended from the Brāhmī script, was adopted for transcribing Burmese. Many changes to suit the phonology of Burmese were made. Standardised tone marking was not achieved until the 1700s. Much of the orthography in written Burmese today can be traced back to middle Burmese, which had a wider range of finals. However, during colonial rule under the British India, spelling was standardised through dictionaries and spellers.

Phonology The transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Consonants The consonants of Burmese are as follows:

{|class="wikitable"!! Bilabial consonant! Dental consonant! Alveolar consonant! Postalveolar consonant
and palatal consonant! Velar consonant and
Labiovelar consonant! Glottal consonant! Placeless|-! Plosive consonant and Affricate consonant|align=center | | colspan="2" align=center | | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |  |-! Nasal consonant| align=center | | colspan="2" align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |  | align=center | |-! Fricative consonant|  | align=center | | align=center | | align=center | |  | align=center | |  |-! Approximant consonant|  | colspan="2" align=center | | align=center | | align=center | | colspan="2" |  |-! Lateral consonant|  | colspan="2" align=center | | colspan="4" |  |}The approximant is rare, and is only used in place names that have preserved Sanskrit or Pali pronunciations (e.g. Amarapura, which is pronounced ) and in English-derived words. Historically, became in Burmese, and is usually replaced by in Pāli loanwords, e.g. (ra.hanta) "monk", (raja.) "king". Occasionally it is replaced with , as in the case of the Pali-derived word for "animal" (ti.rac hcan), which can be pronounced or . Likewise, is rare, having disappeared from modern Burmese, except in transcriptions of foreign names. is uncommon, except as a voiced consonant allophone of .

The phones are often pronounced as , as , as , and as in Compound (linguistics)s. , when following a nasalised final can become a sound. For example, "blouse" ( ang kyi) can be pronounced or . However, this effect only occurs in compound words.

The placeless nasal is realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel or as a nasal homorganic to the following consonant; thus "storm" is pronounced .

Vowels The vowels of Burmese are:

{]s! colspan="2" align="center"| Diphthongs]! align="center"| Back vowel! align="center"| Front vowel offglide! align="center"| Back vowel offglide|-! align="center"| close vowel| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"|| align="center"||-! align="center"| Close-mid vowel| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"| |-! align="center"| Mid vowel| colspan="2" align="center"|| align="center"|| align="center"||-! align="center"| Open-mid vowel| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"|| align="center"||-! align="center"| Open vowel|| align="center"| | align="center"| | align="center"| |}

The monophthongs , , , and occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda); the diphthongs , , , and occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda).

Tones Burmese is a tonal language, which means phoneme contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone (linguistics) of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch (music), but also phonation, intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel quality. There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table the tones are shown marked on the vowel as an example; the phonetic descriptions are from Wheatley (1987){], medium duration, low intensity, low (often slightly rising) pitch|-| High ()| | Sometimes slightly breathy voice, relatively long, high intensity, high pitch; often with a fall before a pause|-| Creaky ()| | Tenseness or creaky voice phonation (sometimes with lax glottal stop), medium duration, high intensity, high (often slightly falling) pitch]; can vary in context)|}

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

In syllables ending with , the Checked tone is excluded:

Syllable structure The syllable structure of Burmese is C(G)V((V)C), which is to say the syllable onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a semivowel, and the syllable 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 syllable coda are and . Some representative words are:

A syllable whose vowel is has some restrictions:

Some examples of words containing -syllables:

Grammar The word order of the Burmese language is subject (grammar)-object (grammar)-verb. The only exception to this rule is the verb 'to be', (kà. ), which is placed directly after the subject. Pronouns in Burmese vary according to the gender and status of the audience. Burmese is monosyllabic, that is, every word is a root to which a particle but not another word may be prefixed (Ko, 1924, p viii). Sentence structure determines syntactical relations, and verbs are not conjugated but have particles suffixed to them. For example, the verb 'to eat' is (ca: ), and remains the same.

Adjectives Adjectives may precede a noun (e.g. hkyau: tai. lu "beautiful" + + "person") or follow a noun (e.g. lu hkyau: "person" + "beautiful"). Superlatives are usually indicated with the prefix (a. ) + adj. + (hcum: ). Numeric adjectives follow the noun.

Verbs The roots of Burmese verbs are almost always suffixed with at least one particle which conveys such information as tense, intention, politeness, mood etc. In fact, the only time in which no particle is attached to a verb is in 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.

The most commonly used verb particles and their usage are shown below with the verb root (ca: ) which means "eat".

The suffix tai can be viewed as a particle marking the present tense and/or a factual statement.

The suffix (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 emphasise that the action happened before another event that is also currently being discussed, the particle becomes imperative. Note that the suffix (tai ) in this case denotes a factual statement rather than the present tense.

(ne ) is a particle used to denote that the action is in progression, and is equivalent to the English '-ing'.

This particle or tense has no equivalence in English. It is used when an action which another person or persons expected to be performed by the subject is finally being performed. So in the above example, if someone had been expecting you to eat and you have finally started eating, the particle (pri ) is used.

This particle is used to indicate the future tense or an action which is yet to be performed.

The particle (tau. ) is used when the action is about to be performed immediately. Therefore it could be termed as the "immediate future tense particle". The particle (mai ) is still imperative in this case.

Nouns Nouns in Burmese are pluralised by the addition of the suffix (twe or if the word ends in a glottal stop). The suffix mya (or nè, which means "few") is also used, which by itself means "many". The suffix day, which also pluralises nouns, is only used colloquially and mya is used literally and formally.

The plural suffix however is not used when the noun is quantified by being counted.

Numerical classifiers Burmese, just as in neighbouring languages such as Thai language, Bengali language, and Chinese language, uses nominal classifiers when nouns are being counted or quantified. This approximately equates to English expressions such as "two slices of bread" or "a cup of coffee". In the above example, yauk is the classifier used when referring to people. Classifiers are imperative when counting nouns, so (hka.le: nga: literally "children five") is ungrammatical. There are many classifiers in Burmese, and some of the most commonly used ones are shown below.

{|class="wikitable"|-! Burmese !! MLC transcription !! Phonetic transcription !! Usage !! Remarks|-| || pa: || || for people || Used exclusively for monks and nuns of the Buddhist order|-| || hli: || || for slices || Used in context of food|-| || kaung || || for animals |||-| || hku. || || general classifier || Used with almost all nouns except for animate objects|-| || hkwak || || For open containers with liquid |||-| || lum: || || for round objects |||-| || pra: || || for flat objects |||-| || cang: || or || for vehicles |||-| || cu. || or || for groups |||-| || u: || || for people || Used in formal context and also used for monks and nuns|-| || yauk || || for people || Used in informal context|}

Pronouns Subject pronouns begin sentences. In the imperative forms, the subject is omitted. There are certain pronouns used for different audiences. Object pronouns must have a -go attached immediately after the pronoun. Proper nouns are often substituted for pronouns. In addition, nga and nein are rarely used. One's status (wa) in relation to the audience determines the pronouns used. The basic pronouns are:

{| class="wikitable"|-! Burmese !! MLC transcription !! Phonetic transcription !! English !! Remarks|-| || nga || || I/me || Informal, used with family and friends|-| || nga tui. || or || we || Informal|-|
|| kywan tau
kywan ma.||
|| I/me || Formal, used by males
Formal (lit. "servant"), used by females|-|
|| da. ga
da. ga ma. ||
|| I/me || Formal, used while speaking to a monk or nun (lit. "donor") exclusively|-​​​|
|| ta. pany. tau
ta. pany. tau ma. ||
|| I/me || Formal, used while speaking to a monk or nun (lit. "disciple") exclusively|-| || nang || or || you || Informal|-| || nang tui. || || you all || Informal|-| || mang: || || you || Informal, used among close friends|-| || a hrang || || you || Formal, used by females|-| || hkang bya: || or || you || Formal|-| || su || || he/she || Informal|-| || su tui. || || they || Informal|-| || ai: (da) ha || || it/that || Informal, used rudely to refer to animate objects|}

Reduplication Reduplication is prevalent in colloquial Burmese, and is used to intensify or weaken adjectives' meanings. For example, (hkyau: ), which means "beautiful" is reduplicated, the intensity of the adjective's meaning increases.

Romanisation and transcription There is no official Romanization system for Burmese. There have been attempts to make one, but none have been successful. Replicating Burmese sounds in the Latin script is complicated. There is a Pāli-based transcription system in existence, which was devised by the Myanma Language Commission (MLC). However, it only transcribes sounds in formal Burmese and is based on the orthography rather than the phonology. Several colloquial transcription systems have been proposed, but none is overwhelmingly preferred over others.

Transcription of Burmese is not standardized, as seen in the varying English transcriptions of Burmese place names.

References

External links



Burmese Language
Detailed lessons from Northern Illinois University, in three sections: the Burmese script; beginning Burmese; intermediate Burmese.

Burmese language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the government officially recognizes the language as Myanmar in English, most continue to refer to the language as ...

Department of South East Asia: Burmese Language Resources
Resources for Learning Burmese Introduction. This list of study materials and teaching centres is maintained by Justin Watkins, Senior Lecturer in Burmese/Myanmar at SOAS.

South East Asia: Burmese Language Teaching
The School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London

Omniglot language book store - Burmese
Omniglot language book store

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Yamada Language Center: Burmese Fonts
More Fonts ... Additional font resources - Not finding what you need? Try this list of other font sites.

Burmese
A basic survey of Burmese phonetics and grammar, as well as of the place of the Burmese language within the Sino-Tibetan family. List of phrases, with English equivalents.

Learn Burmese | Burmese language course | Tailor made Burmese lessons
Learn Burmese, Burmese language course, Burmese school ... Jacques Aronov, Nuclear Safety Engineer, French Institute for Radiological Protection & Nuclear Safety

Burmese - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burmese could refer to: Burma, a country in Southeast Asia; Burmese language; Bamar, the people; Burmese culture; Burmese script; Burmese English, the dialect of English spoken in ...

 

Burmese Language



 
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