The Burmese language (, or bama sa) is the official language of Myanmar (known until 1989 as Burma). Although the government recognizes the language as Myanmar, most continue to refer to it as Burmese. Burmese is a member of the Tibeto-Burman languages, which is a subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. It is spoken by 32 million as a first language, and as a second language by minorities in Burma (10 million people), such as the Chinese, Indians, Karen, Mon, and Shan. Burmese is the mother tongue of the Bamar, Rakhine, and Danu. The language utilizes the Burmese script, which derives from the Mon script and ultimately from the Brahmi script. The script has a rather round shape and is called sa-loun (round letters). Burmese is a tonal language, with four main tones.

Dialects and accents

The standard dialect of Burmese comes from Yangon, but there are several distinctive dialects in Upper Myanmar and Lower Myanmar. Dialects include Merguese, Yaw, Danu, and Palaw. The most noticeable feature of the Mandalay dialect is its use of the pronoun kya-naw for both males and females, whereas in Yangon, kya-ma refers to females. The Rakhine dialect (Arakanese) is most reminiscent of archaic Burmese, especially in its usage of r sound, which has become a y sound in standard Burmese. However, there is mutual intelligibility between dialects.

Burmese is classified broadly into two categories. One is formal, used in literary works, official publications, and radio broadcasts. The other is colloquial, which is used with family and friends. There are various branches of Burmese speech, as well. One form is used when speaking to elders and teachers. Different pronouns referring to oneself (such as the usage of kya-naw or kya-ma) are used. When speaking to a person of the same status or of younger age, nga is used. When speaking to a monk, a person must refer to the monk as poun-poun and to himself as da-ga (or herself as da-ga-ma). Burmese monks may speak to fellow monks using Pali, and it is expected of faithful Burmese Buddhists to have a basic knowledge of Pali.

Romanisation

There is no official romanisation system for Burmese. There have been attempts to make one, but none have been successful. The Burmese proverb yei ga ahman, pyou ga athan (The spelling is correct, the pronunciation is the voiced) expresses the fact that many Burmese words are spelled differently than they are pronounced. For example, the word for "Buddha" is pronounced pha-ya but spelled bu-ya. Replicating Burmese sounds in the Roman script is difficult. There is, however, a Pali-based romanisation system in existence, but

Script

See main article Burmese alphabet

The Burmese script derives from the Mon script, which was prevalent in Lower Burma. Notable features of the Burmese script are:

1. It is syllabic, with letters having an inherent vowel (à).
2. The rounded script came from the usage of palm leaves as primary writing material during ancient times.
3. Its tones are indicated by various diacritics and special letters added to the word.

Grammar

The word order of the Burmese language is subject-object-verb. The only exception to this rule is the verb ga (to be), 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 for 'to eat' is sá, and remains the same.

Adjectives

Adjectives may precede a noun (eg. chuo-dè lu - beautiful + dè + person) or follow a noun (eg. lu chuo - person + beautiful). Superlatives are usually indicated with the prefix à + adj. + suffix zon. 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 sá which means 'eat'.

• sá-dè - I eat

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

• sá-gè-dè = I ate

The suffix gè/kè 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 dè in this case denotes a factual statement rather than the present tense.

• sá-nei-dè = I am eating

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

• sá-bi = I am eating (now)

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 from 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 bi is used.

• sá-mè = I will eat

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

• sá-daw-mè = I will eat (straight-away)

The particle daw is used when the action is about to be performed immediately. Therefore it could be termed as the 'immediate future tense particle'. The particle mè is still imperative in this case.

Nouns

Nouns in Burmese are pluralised by the addition of the suffix dei (or tei if the word ends in a glottal stop). The suffix myá is also used, which by itself means 'many'.

• nwá - cow
• nwá-dei - cows
• myik - river
• myik-tei - rivers

The plural

• kelei (child) ngá (five) yauk (classifier) = 5 children

It should never be *kelei-dei ngá yauk.

Numerical Classifiers

Burmese, just as in neighbouring languages such as Thai, Chinese, and Malay, 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 *ke-lei nga (to mean 'five children') would be ungrammatical. There are many classifiers in Burmese, and some of the most commonly used ones are shown below.

• bá - for people (monks and nuns exclusively)
• hli - for slices (e.g. breads)
• kaung - for animals
• ku - general classifier (can be used with almost any noun except animate objects)
• kwet - for containers with liquids (e.g. cups)
• lóun - for round objects
• pyá - for flat objects
• sín or zín - for vehicles (e.g. cars, ox carts)
• su - for a group
• ú - for people (formal)
• yauk - for people (informal)

Pronouns

Subject pronouns begin a sentence. 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 nei are rarely used. One's status (wa) determines the pronouns used. The basic pronouns are:

• nga - I/me (informal, used with family and friends)
• kyaw-naw - I/me (formal, male)
• kyaw-mya - I/me (formal, female)
• da-ga - I/me (lit. "donor", used while speaking to a monk)
• da-be-daw - I/me (lit. "student", used while speaking to a monk)
• nei - you (informal, used with family and friends)
• min - you (informal)
• a-shin - you (formal)
• ka-mya - you (formal)
• nga-do - we
• nei-do - you all
• thu - he/she
• thu-do - they
• (ai) ha - it, that

Phonology

The transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Consonants

The consonants of Burmese are as follows:

The approximants /r/ and /ʍ/ are rare, as is except as a voiced allophone of /θ/.

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

Vowels

The vowels of Burmese are:

The monophthongs /e/, /o/, /ə/, and /ɔ/ occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda); the diphthongs /ei/, /ou/, /ai/, and /au/ occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda).

Tones

Burmese is a tonal language, which means phonemic constrasts 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. There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table the tones are shown marked on the vowel /a/ as an example; the phonetic descriptions are from Wheatley (1987)

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

• Low /kʰà/ 'shake'
• High /kʰá/ 'be bitter'
• Creaky /kʰa̰/ 'fee'
• Checked /kʰaʔ/ 'draw off'

In syllables ending with /N/, the Checked tone is excluded:

• Low /kʰàN/ 'undergo'
• High /kʰáN/ 'dry up'
• Creaky /kʰa̰N/ 'appoint'

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 rhyme 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 /ʔ/ and /N/. Some representative words are:

• CV /mè/ 'girl'
• CVC /mɛʔ/ 'crave'
• CGV /mjè/ 'earth'
• CGVC /mjɛʔ/ 'eye'
• CVVC /màuN/ (term of address for young men)
• CGVVC /mjáuN/ 'ditch'

A syllable whose vowel is /ə/ has some restrictions:

• 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 the final syllable of the word

Some examples of words containing /ə/-syllables:

• /kʰə.louʔ/ 'knob'
• /pə.lwè/ 'flute'
• /θə.jɔ̀/ 'mock'
• /kə.lɛʔ/ 'be wanton'
• /tʰə.mə.jè/ 'rice-water'

Vocabulary

The majority of Burmese vocabulary is of Tibeto-Burman stock, but a large percentage of learnt and educated words associated with religion (Buddhism), philosophy, government, and the arts are derived from the ancient Indian language Pali. Many English words, particularly those relating to modern institutions (e.g. business, government) have become a part of the Burmese language. Nearly all of the used measurements are from English, although a Burmese system does exist. Hindi loan words are found in Burmese, many of which are associated to food or cooking.

Bibliography

• Becker, Alton L. (1984). Biography of a sentence: A Burmese proverb. In E. M. Bruner (Ed.), Text, play, and story: The construction and reconstruction of self and society (pp. 135-155). Washington, D.C.: American Ethnological Society.
• Bernot, Denise (1980). Le prédicat en birman parlé. Paris: SELAF. ISBN 2-85297-072-4
• Cornyn, William Stewart; & Roop, D. Haigh. (1944). Outline of Burmese grammar. Language dissertation (No. 38). Baltimore, Md.: Linguistic society of America.
• Cornyn, William Stewart; & Roop, D. Haigh. (1968). Beginning Burmese. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Green, Antony D. (2005). Word, foot, and syllable structure in Burmese. In Studies in Burmese linguistics, ed. J. Watkins, 1–25. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0858835592.
• Ko, Taw Sein (1924). Elementary Handbook of the Burmese Language. Rangoon: American Baptist Mission Press.
• Okell, John (1969). A Reference Grammar of Colloquial Burmese. London: Oxford University Press.
• Roop, D. Haigh. (1972). An introduction to the Burmese writing system. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Watkins, Justin W. (2001). Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese. Journal of the Inernational Phonetic Association, 31 (2), 291-295.
• Wheatley, Julian K. (1987). Burmese. In Handbook of the World's Major Languages, ed. B. Comrie, 834-54. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-520521-9.

Birmanische Sprache Birma keel Birman ბირმული ენაmy:ဗမာစာ Birmaans ビルマ語 Burmesisk språk Língua birmanesa Бирманский язык Burman kieli Burmesiska ภาษาพม่า 缅甸语