View source for Burmese language

{{Short description|Official language of Myanmar}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Burmese
| nativename       = မြန်မာဘာသာ, Mranma bhasa
| pronunciation    = {{IPA-my|mjəmà bàθà|}}
| states           = {{ubl|[[Myanmar]]|[[China]] ([[Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture|Dehong]])|[[Thailand]] ([[Mae Hong Son province|Mae Hong Son]])|[[India]] ([[Mizoram]], [[Manipur]] and [[Tripura]])|[[Bangladesh]] ([[Chittagong Division|Chittagong]])}}
| speakers         = [[first language|L1]]: {{sigfig|33.163850|2}} million
| date             = 2007
| ref              = e27
| speakers2        = [[second language|L2]]: {{sigfig|10.001840|2}} million (no date)<ref name=e27/>
| familycolor      = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2             = [[Tibeto-Burman]]
| fam3             = [[Lolo-Burmese]]
| ancestor         = [[Old Burmese]]
| ancestor2        = [[Middle Burmese]]
| script           = {{ubl|Myanmar|[[Mon–Burmese script]]|[[Burmese Braille]]}}
| nation           = {{flag|Myanmar}}
| agency           = [[Myanmar Language Commission]]
| iso1             = my
| iso2b            = bur
| iso2t            = mya
| iso3             = mya
| lc1              = mya
| ld1              = [[Myanmar]]
| lc2              = int
| ld2              = [[Intha-Danu language|Intha]]
| lc3              = tco
| ld3              = [[Taungyo]]
| lc4              = rki
| ld4              = [[Rakhine language|Rakhine]]
| lc5              = rmz
| ld5              = Marma ("မရမာ")
| lingua           = 77-AAA-a
| map              = Idioma birmano.png
| mapsize          = 
| mapcaption       = Areas where Burmese is spoken (dark blue signifies areas where it is more widely spoken). This map does not indicate whether the language is a majority or minority.
| notice           = IPA-MY
| glotto           = mran1234
| glottorefname    = Burmese
| minority         = 
| fam4             = [[Burmish]]
| lc6              = Tay
| ld6              = [[Tavoyan dialects]]
| mapalt           = Myanmar
| pushpin_map      = 
| pushpin_label    = 
| altname          = Myanmar language
| coordinates      = 
| pushpin_map_caption = 
| pushpin_map_alt  = 
}}
{{Contains special characters|Burmese}}[[File:WIKITONGUES- Naw speaking Burmese.webm|thumb|A Burmese speaker, recorded in Taiwan]]
'''Burmese''' ({{Lang-my-name-MLCTS|MY=မြန်မာဘာသာ|MLCTS=Mranma bhasa}}; {{IPA-my|mjəmà bàθà|pron}}) is a [[Sino-Tibetan language ]] spoken in [[Myanmar]],<ref name=":0" /> where it is the [[official language]], lingua franca, and the native language of the [[Bamar people|Bamar]], the country's principal ethnic group. Burmese is also spoken by the indigenous tribes in [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]] ([[Rangamati]], [[Bandarban District|Bandarban]], [[Khagrachhari District|Khagrachari]], [[Cox's Bazar]]) in Bangladesh, and in [[Tripura|Tripura state]] in India. 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 that had historically been predominantly used for the country. Burmese is the most widely-spoken language in the country, where it serves as the [[lingua franca]].{{sfn|Bradley|1996}} In 2007, it was spoken as a [[first language]] by 33 million.<ref name="NE100">Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in ''[[Nationalencyklopedin]]''</ref> Burmese is spoken as a [[second language]] by another 10 million people, including ethnic minorities in Myanmar like the [[Mon people|Mon]] and also by those in neighboring countries.<ref name=":0">{{e27|mya|Burmese}}</ref> In 2022, the Burmese-speaking population was 38.8 million.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Burmese is a [[Tone (linguistics)#Tonal languages|tonal]], [[Register (phonology)|pitch-register]], and [[Isochrony|syllable-timed language]],{{sfn|Chang|2003}} largely [[Monosyllabic language|monosyllabic]] and [[Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] with a [[subject–object–verb]] word order. It is a member of the [[Lolo-Burmese languages|Lolo-Burmese grouping]] of the [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan language family]]. The [[Burmese alphabet]] is ultimately descended from a [[Brahmic script]], either the [[Kadamba alphabet|Kadamba]] or [[Pallava alphabet|Pallava]] alphabets.

== Classification ==
Burmese belongs to the [[Burmish languages|Southern Burmish]] branch of the [[Sino-Tibetan languages]], of which Burmese is the most widely spoken of the non-[[Sinitic languages|Sinitic]] languages.{{sfn|Bradley|1993|p=147}} Burmese was the fifth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to develop a writing system, after [[Classical Chinese]], [[Pyu language (Sino-Tibetan)|Pyu]], [[Old Tibetan]] and [[Tangut language|Tangut]].{{sfn|Bradley|1993|p=147}}

=== Dialects ===
The majority of Burmese speakers, who live throughout the [[Irrawaddy River]] Valley, use a number of largely similar dialects, while a minority speak non-standard dialects found in the peripheral areas of the country. These dialects include:
* [[Tanintharyi Region]]: [[Myeik dialect|Merguese]] (Myeik, Beik), [[Tavoyan dialects|Tavoyan]] (Dawei), and [[Palaw]]
* [[Magway Region]]: [[Yaw dialect|Yaw]]
* [[Shan State]]: [[Intha-Danu language|Intha]], [[Taungyo]], and [[Danu language|Danu]]

[[Arakanese language|Arakanese]] in [[Rakhine State]] and [[Marma people|Marma]] in [[Bangladesh]] are also sometimes considered dialects of Burmese and sometimes as separate languages.

Despite vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is [[mutual intelligibility]] among Burmese dialects, as they share a common set of tones, consonant clusters, and written script. However, several Burmese dialects differ substantially from standard Burmese with respect to vocabulary, lexical particles, and rhymes.

==== Irrawaddy River valley ====
Spoken Burmese is remarkably uniform among Burmese speakers,{{sfn|Barron|Okell|Yin|VanBik|2007|pp=16-17}} particularly those living in the Irrawaddy valley, all of whom use variants of Standard Burmese. The [[standard language|standard dialect]] of Burmese (the [[Mandalay]]-[[Yangon]] [[dialect continuum]]) comes from the Irrawaddy River valley. Regional differences between speakers from [[Upper Burma]] (e.g., Mandalay dialect), called ''anya tha'' ({{lang|my|အညာသား}}) and speakers from [[Lower Burma]] (e.g., Yangon dialect), called ''auk tha'' ({{lang|my|အောက်သား}}), largely occur in vocabulary choice, not in pronunciation. Minor lexical and pronunciation differences exist throughout the Irrawaddy River valley.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} For instance, for the term {{lang|my|ဆွမ်း}}, "food offering [to a monk]", Lower Burmese speakers use {{IPA-my|sʰʊ́ɰ̃|}} instead of {{IPA-my|sʰwáɰ̃|}}, which is the pronunciation used in Upper Burma.

The standard dialect is represented by the Yangon dialect because of the modern city's media influence and economic clout. In the past, the Mandalay dialect represented standard Burmese. The most noticeable feature of the Mandalay dialect is its use of the first person pronoun {{lang|my|ကျွန်တော်}}, ''kya.nau'' {{IPA-my|tɕənɔ̀|}} by both men and women, whereas in Yangon, the said pronoun is used only by male speakers while {{lang|my|ကျွန်မ}}, ''kya.ma.'' {{IPA-my|tɕəma̰|}} is used by female speakers. Moreover, with regard to [[kinship terminology]], Upper Burmese speakers differentiate the maternal and paternal sides of a family, whereas Lower Burmese speakers do not.

The [[Mon language]] has also influenced subtle grammatical differences between the varieties of Burmese spoken in Lower and Upper Burma.{{sfn|Jenny|2013}} In Lower Burmese varieties, the verb ပေး ('to give') is colloquially used as a permissive causative marker, like in other Southeast Asian languages, but unlike in other Tibeto-Burman languages.{{sfn|Jenny|2013}} This usage is hardly used in Upper Burmese varieties, and is considered a sub-standard construct.{{sfn|Jenny|2013}}

==== Outside the Irrawaddy basin ====
{{Main|Arakanese language|Tavoyan dialects|Intha dialect|Yaw dialect|Myeik dialect}}
More distinctive non-standard varieties emerge as one moves farther away from the Irrawaddy River valley toward peripheral areas of the country. These varieties include the [[Yaw dialect|Yaw]], Palaw, [[Myeik dialect|Myeik]] (Merguese), [[Tavoyan dialects|Tavoyan]] and [[Intha-Danu language|Intha dialects]]. Despite substantial vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutual intelligibility among most Burmese dialects. Below is a summary of lexical similarity between major Burmese dialects:<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=Myanmar |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/country/MM/languages |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161010180533/http://www.ethnologue.com/country/MM/languages |archive-date=2016-10-10 |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World}}</ref>

{{static row numbers}} 
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers static-row-header-text" 
! Dialects
! Burmese
! [[Intha-Danu language|Danu]]
! [[Intha-Danu language|Intha]]
! [[Arakanese language|Rakhine]]
![[Tavoyan dialects|Taungyo]]
|-
! Burmese 
| 100% 
| 93% 
| 95% 
| 91% 
| 89%
|-
! [[Intha-Danu language|Danu]]
| 93% 
| 100% 
| 93% 
| 85-94% 
| 91%
|-
! [[Intha-Danu language|Intha]] 
| 95% 
| 93% 
| 100% 
| 90% 
| 89%
|-
! [[Arakanese language|Rakhine]]
| 91% 
| 85-94% 
| 90% 
| 100% 
| 84-92%
|-
! [[Tavoyan dialects|Taungyo]]
| 89% 
| N/A 
| 89% 
| 84-92% 
| 100%
|-
! Marma 
| N/A 
| N/A 
| N/A 
| 85% 
| N/A
|}

Dialects in [[Tanintharyi Region]], including Palaw, Merguese, and Tavoyan, are especially conservative in comparison to Standard Burmese. The Tavoyan and Intha dialects have preserved the {{IPA|/l/}} medial, which is otherwise only found in Old Burmese inscriptions. They 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> while Tavoyan has 400,000. The grammatical constructs of Burmese dialects in Southern Myanmar show greater Mon influence than Standard Burmese.{{sfn|Jenny|2013}}

The most pronounced feature of the [[Arakanese language]] of [[Rakhine State]] is its retention of the {{IPAblink|ɹ}} sound, which has become {{IPAblink|j}} in standard Burmese. Moreover, Arakanese features a variety of vowel differences, including the merger of the {{lang|my|ဧ}} {{IPA|[e]}} and {{lang|my|ဣ}} {{IPA|[i]}} vowels. Hence, a word like "blood" {{lang|my|သွေး}} is pronounced {{IPA-my|θw'''é'''|}} in standard Burmese and {{IPA-my|θw'''í'''|}} 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 Kingdom|Pagan]] to [[Ava Kingdom|Ava]] dynasties); Middle Burmese from the 16th to the 18th century ([[Taungoo Dynasty|Toungoo]] to early [[Konbaung Dynasty|Konbaung]] dynasties); modern Burmese from the mid-18th century to the present. [[Word order]], grammatical structure, and vocabulary have remained markedly stable well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g., [[function word]]s).{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989|p=5}}{{sfn|Wheatley|2013}}

=== Old Burmese ===
{{Main|Old Burmese}}
{{further|Nanzhao Kingdom}}
[[File:Myazedi-Inscription-Burmese.JPG|thumb|upright|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 called [[Old Burmese]], dating to the 11th and 12th century stone inscriptions of [[Bagan|Pagan]]. The earliest evidence of the [[Burmese alphabet]] is dated to 1035, while a casting made in the 18th century of an old stone inscription points to 984.{{sfn|Aung-Thwin|2005|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}}

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 (Burma)|Pyu language]].{{sfn|Jenny|2013}} These indirect borrowings can be traced back to orthographic idiosyncrasies in these loanwords, such as the Burmese word "to worship", which is spelt ပူဇော် ({{IAST|pūjo}}) instead of ပူဇာ ({{IAST|pūjā}}), as would be expected by the original Pali orthography.{{sfn|Jenny|2013}}

=== Middle Burmese ===
{{Main|Middle Burmese}}
The transition to [[Middle Burmese]] occurred in the 16th century.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989|p=5}} The transition to Middle Burmese included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of [[Minimal pair|sound pairs]] that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in the underlying [[orthography]].{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989|p=5}}

From the 1500s onward, Burmese kingdoms saw substantial gains in the populace's [[literacy rate]], which manifested itself 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]], both in terms of genres and works.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} During this period, the [[Burmese alphabet]] began employing cursive-style circular letters typically used in [[palm-leaf manuscript]]s, as opposed to the traditional square block-form letters used in earlier periods.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} The orthographic conventions used in written Burmese today can largely be traced back 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, [[Burmese chronicles|royal chronicles]], and religious texts.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} A major reason for the uniformity of the Burmese language was the near-universal presence of Buddhist monasteries (called ''[[kyaung]]'') in Burmese villages. These ''kyaung'' 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%).{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|p=189}}

The expansion of the Burmese language into [[Lower Myanmar|Lower Burma]] also coincided with the emergence of Modern Burmese. As late as the mid-1700s, [[Mon language|Mon]], an [[Austroasiatic languages|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.{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|pp=202-206}}{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} 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.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}}{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|pp=202-206}}

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 been merged.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}} 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.{{sfn|Adas|2011|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8Czd7xXIf3MC&pg=PA67 67–77]}} [[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.{{sfn|Allott|1983}}

In the 1930s, the Burmese language saw a linguistic revival, precipitated by the establishment of an independent [[University of Yangon|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.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} Student protests in December of that year, triggered by the introduction of English into [[University Entrance Examination|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, was subsequently launched.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} 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 lead-up to the independence of Burma in 1948.{{sfn|Allott|1983}}

The 1948 [[Constitution of Myanmar|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 of modernizing the Burmese language in order to replace English across all disciplines.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} 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 that was accelerated by the [[Burmese Way to Socialism]].{{sfn|Allott|1983}} In August 1963, the socialist [[Union Revolutionary Council|Union Revolutionary Government]] established the Literary and Translation Commission (the immediate precursor of the [[Myanmar Language Commission]]) to standardize Burmese spelling, diction, composition, and terminology. The latest spelling authority, named the ''Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan'' ({{lang|my|မြန်မာ စာလုံးပေါင်း သတ်ပုံ ကျမ်း}}), was compiled in 1978 by the commission.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}}

== Registers ==
Burmese is a diglossic language with two distinguishable [[Register (sociolinguistics)|registers]] (or [[Diglossia|diglossic varieties]]):{{sfn|Bradley|2010|p=99}}
# Literary High (H) form{{sfn|Bradley|1995|p=140}} ({{lang|my|မြန်မာစာ}} ''mranma ca''): the high variety (formal and written), used in literature (formal writing), newspapers, radio broadcasts, and formal speeches
# Spoken Low (L) form{{sfn|Bradley|1995|p=140}} ({{lang|my|မြန်မာစကား}} ''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.{{sfn|Bradley|2010|p=99}} Literary Burmese, which has not changed significantly since the 13th century, is the register of Burmese taught in schools.{{sfn|Allott|1983}}{{sfn|Bradley|2019}} In most cases, the corresponding affixes in the literary and spoken forms are totally unrelated to each other.{{sfn|Bradley|1996|p=746}} Examples of this phenomenon include the following lexical terms:
* "this" (pronoun): {{small|HIGH}} {{lang|my|ဤ}} ''i'' → {{small|LOW}} {{lang|my|ဒီ}} ''di''
* "that" (pronoun): {{small|HIGH}} {{lang|my|ထို}} ''htui'' → {{small|LOW}} {{lang|my|ဟို}} ''hui''
* "at" (case): {{small|HIGH}} {{lang|my|၌}} ''hnai.'' {{IPA|[n̥aɪʔ]}} → {{small|LOW}} {{lang|my|မှာ}} ''hma'' {{IPA|[m̥à]}}
* plural (suffix): {{small|HIGH}} {{lang|my|များ}} ''mya:'' → {{small|LOW}} {{lang|my|တွေ}} ''twe''
* possessive (case): {{small|HIGH}} {{lang|my|၏}} ''i.'' → {{small|LOW}} {{lang|my|ရဲ့}} ''re.''
* "and" (conjunction): {{small|HIGH}} {{lang|my|နှင့်}} ''hnang.'' → {{small|LOW}} {{lang|my|နဲ့}} ''ne.''
* "if" (conjunction): {{small|HIGH}} {{lang|my|လျှင်}} ''hlyang'' → {{small|LOW}} {{lang|my|ရင်}} ''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 spearheaded efforts to abandon the literary form, asserting that the spoken vernacular form ought to be used.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989|pp=5–21}}{{sfn|Aung Bala|1981|pp=81–99}} Some Burmese linguists such as [[Minn Latt]], a Czech academic, proposed moving away from the high form of Burmese altogether.{{sfn|Aung Zaw|2010|p=2}} Although the literary form is heavily used in written and official contexts (literary and scholarly works, radio news broadcasts, and novels), the recent trend has been to accommodate the spoken form in informal written contexts.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}} Nowadays, television news broadcasts, comics, and commercial publications use the spoken form or a combination of the spoken and simpler, less ornate formal forms.{{sfn|Bradley|2010|p=99}}

The following sample sentence reveals that differences between literary and spoken Burmese mostly occur in affixes:
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em ; font-size:85%"
|-
|+"When the [[8888 Uprising]] occurred, approximately 3,000 people died."
|--style="font-size:80%; text-transform:uppercase"
!
||noun||verb||style="background:lightyellow"|Affix||noun||style="background:lightyellow"|Affix||adj.||style="background:lightyellow"|Affix||verb||Affix||Affix|| style="background:lightyellow" |part.
|-
! Literary<br />{{small|(HIGH)}}
|rowspan="2"|{{lang|my|ရှစ်လေးလုံးအရေးအခင်း}}<br />hracle:lum:a.re:a.hkang:||rowspan="2"|{{lang|my|ဖြစ်}}<br />hprac||style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|သောအခါက}}<br />sau:a.hkaka.||rowspan="2"|{{lang|my|လူ}}<br />lu||style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|ဦးရေ}}<br />u:re||rowspan="2"|{{lang|my|၃၀၀၀}}<br />3000||style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|မျှ}}<br />hmya.||{{lang|my|သေဆုံး}}<br />sehcum:||rowspan="2"|{{lang|my|ခဲ့}}<br />hkai.||{{lang|my|ကြ}}<br />kra.||style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|သည်။}}<br />sany
|-
!Spoken<br />{{small|(LOW)}}
|style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|တုံးက}}<br />tum:ka.||style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|အယောက်}}<br />a.yauk||style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|လောက်}}<br />lauk||{{lang|my|သေ}}<br />se||-||style="background:lightyellow"|{{lang|my|တယ်။}}<br />tai
|-
|-
!Gloss
|The Four Eights Uprising||happen||style="background:lightyellow"|when||people||style="background:lightyellow"|measure word||3,000||style="background:lightyellow"|approximately||die||past tense||plural marker||style="background:lightyellow"|sentence final
|-
|}

Burmese has politeness levels and [[honorific]]s that take the speaker's status and age in relation to the audience into account. The suffix {{lang|my|ပါ}} ''pa'' is frequently used after a verb to express politeness.{{sfn|San San Hnin Tun|2001|p=39}} Moreover, [[Burmese pronouns]] relay varying degrees of deference or respect.{{sfn|Taw Sein Ko|1924|pp=68-70}} In many instances, polite speech (e.g., addressing teachers, officials, or elders) employs feudal-era third person pronouns or [[Burmese kinship|kinship terms]] in lieu of first- and second-person pronouns.{{sfn|San San Hnin Tun|2001|pp=48-49}}{{sfn|San San Hnin Tun|2001|p=26}} Furthermore, with regard to vocabulary choice, spoken Burmese clearly distinguishes the Buddhist clergy (monks) from the laity ([[Householder (Buddhism)|householders]]), especially when speaking to or about [[bhikkhu]]s (monks).{{sfn|Houtman|1990|pp=135-136}} The following are examples of varying vocabulary used for Buddhist clergy and for laity:

* "sleep" (verb): {{lang|my|ကျိန်း}} ''kyin:'' {{IPA|[tɕẽ́ʲ]}} for monks vs. {{lang|my|အိပ်}} ''ip'' {{IPA|[eʲʔ]}} for laity
* "die" (verb): {{lang|my|ပျံတော်မူ}} ''pyam tau mu'' {{IPA|[pjã̀ dɔ̀ mù]}} for monks vs. {{lang|my|သေ}} ''se'' {{IPA|[t̪è]}} for laity

== Vocabulary ==
Burmese primarily has a monosyllabic received Sino-Tibetan vocabulary. Nonetheless, many words, especially loanwords from [[Indo-European languages]] like English, are polysyllabic, and others, from Mon, an Austroasiatic language, are [[minor syllable|sesquisyllabic]].{{sfn|Wheatley|2013}} Burmese loanwords are overwhelmingly in the form of [[noun]]s.{{sfn|Wheatley|2013}}

Historically, [[Pali]], the liturgical language of [[Theravada]] [[Buddhism]], had a profound influence on Burmese vocabulary. Burmese has readily adopted words of Pali origin; this may be due to [[phonotactics|phonotactic]] similarities between the two languages, alongside the fact that the script used for Burmese can be used to reproduce Pali spellings with complete accuracy.{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=64}} Pali [[loanword]]s are often related to religion, government, arts, and science.{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=64}}{{primary source inline|date=January 2021}}

Burmese loanwords from Pali primarily take four forms:
# Direct loan: direct import of Pali words with no alteration in orthography
#* "life": Pali {{lang|my|ဇီဝ}} ''[[jiva]]'' → Burmese {{lang|my|ဇီဝ}} ''jiva''
# Abbreviated loan: import of Pali words with accompanied syllable reduction and alteration in orthography, usually by means of a placing a diacritic, called ''[[virama|athat]]'' {{lang|my|အသတ်}} (lit. 'nonexistence') atop the last letter in the syllable to suppress the consonant's inherent vowel{{sfn|Unicode Consortium|2012|p=370}}
#* "[[karma]]": Pali {{lang|my|က'''မ္မ'''}} ''kam'''ma''''' → Burmese {{lang|my|ကံ}} ''ka'''m'''''
#* "dawn": Pali {{lang|my|အရု'''ဏ'''}} ''aru'''ṇa''''' → Burmese {{lang|my|အရု'''ဏ်'''}} ''aru'''ṇ'''''
#* "merit": Pali {{lang|my|ကုသ'''လ'''}} ''kusa'''la''''' → Burmese {{lang|my|ကုသို'''လ်'''}} ''kusui'''l'''''
# Double loan: adoption of two [[Doublet (linguistics)|different terms]] derived from the same Pali word{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=64}}
#* Pali {{lang|my|မာန}} ''māna'' → Burmese {{lang|my|မာန}} {{IPA|[màna̰]}} ('arrogance') and {{lang|my|မာန်}} {{IPA|[mã̀]}} ('pride')
# Hybrid loan (e.g., [[neologism]]s or [[calque]]s): construction of [[Compound (linguistics)|compounds]] combining native Burmese words with Pali or combine Pali words:{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=65}}
#* "airplane": {{lang|my|လေယာဉ်ပျံ}} {{IPA|[lè jɪ̀m bjã̀]}}, lit. 'air machine fly', ← {{lang|my|လေ}} (native Burmese, 'air') + {{lang|my|ယာဉ်}} (from Pali ''yana'', 'vehicle') + {{lang|my|ပျံ}} (native Burmese word, 'fly'){{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=65}}

Burmese has also adapted numerous words from Mon, traditionally spoken by the [[Mon people]], who until recently formed the majority in [[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.{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999}} Mon loans are often related to flora, fauna, administration, textiles, foods, boats, crafts, architecture, and music.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}}

As a natural consequence of [[British rule in Burma]], [[English language|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:
# Direct loan: adoption of an English word, adapted to the Burmese phonology{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=81}}
#* "democracy": English ''democracy'' → Burmese {{lang|my|ဒီမိုကရေစီ}}
# Neologism or calque: translation of an English word using native Burmese constituent words{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=67}}
#* "human rights": English 'human rights' → Burmese {{lang|my|လူ့အခွင့်အရေး}} ({{lang|my|လူ့}} 'human' + {{lang|my|အခွင့်အရေး}} 'rights')
# Hybrid loan: construction of compound words by joining native Burmese words to English words{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=94}}
#* 'to sign': {{lang|my|ဆိုင်းထိုး}} {{IPA|[sʰã́ɪ̃ tʰó]}} ← {{lang|my|ဆိုင်း}} (English, ''sign'') + {{lang|my|ထိုး}} (native Burmese, 'inscribe').

To a lesser extent, Burmese has also imported words from [[Sanskrit]] (religion), [[Hindi]] (food, administration, and shipping), and [[Chinese language|Chinese]] (games and food).{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}} Burmese has also imported a handful of words from other European languages such as [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]].

Here is a sample of loan words found in Burmese:
* suffering: {{lang|my|ဒုက္ခ}} {{IPA|[dowʔkʰa̰]}}, from Pali ''[[dukkha]]''
* radio: {{lang|my|ရေဒီယို}} {{IPA|[ɹèdìjò]}}, from [[English language|English]] ''radio''
* method: {{lang|my|စနစ်}} {{IPA|[sənɪʔ]}}, from Mon
* springroll: {{lang|my|ကော်ပြန့်}} {{IPA|[kɔ̀pjã̰]}}, from [[Hokkien]] 潤餅 (''jūn-piáⁿ'')
* wife: {{lang|my|ဇနီး}} {{IPA|[zəní]}}, from Hindi ''jani''
* noodle: {{lang|my|ခေါက်ဆွဲ}} {{IPA|[kʰaʊʔ sʰwɛ́]}}, from [[Shan language|Shan]] {{lang|my|ၶဝ်ႈသွႆး}} {{IPA|[kʰāu sʰɔi]}}
* foot (unit of measurement): {{lang|my|ပေ}} {{IPA|[pè]}}, from Portuguese ''pé''
* flag: {{lang|my|အလံ}} {{IPA|[əlã̀]}}, {{lang-ar|علم}} ''ʿalam''
* storeroom: {{lang|my|ဂိုဒေါင်}} {{IPA|[ɡòdã̀ʊ̃]}}, from [[Malay language|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 ([[neologism]]s). For instance, for the word "television", Burmese publications are mandated to use the term {{lang|my|ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား}} (lit. 'see picture, hear sound') in lieu of {{lang|my|တယ်လီဗီးရှင်း}}, a direct English transliteration.{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=68}} Another example is the word "vehicle", which is officially {{lang|my|ယာဉ်}} {{IPA|[jɪ̃̀]}} (derived from Pali) but {{lang|my|ကား}} {{IPA|[ká]}} (from English ''car'') in spoken Burmese. Some previously common English loanwords have fallen out of use with the adoption of neologisms. An example is the word "university", formerly {{lang|my|ယူနီဗာစတီ}} {{IPA|[jùnìbàsətì]}}, from English ''university'', now {{lang|my|တက္ကသိုလ်}} {{IPA|[tɛʔkət̪ò]}}, a Pali-derived neologism recently created by the Burmese government and derived from the Pali spelling of [[Taxila]] ({{lang|my|တက္ကသီလ}} ''Takkasīla''), an ancient university town in modern-day Pakistan.{{sfn|Wheatley|Tun|1999|p=68}}

Some words in Burmese may have many synonyms, each having certain usages, such as formal, literary, colloquial, and poetic. One example is the word "moon", which can be {{lang|my|လ}} {{IPA|la̰}} (native Tibeto-Burman), {{lang|my|စန္ဒာ/စန်း}} {{IPA|[sàndà]/[sã́]}} (derivatives of Pali ''[[chandra|canda]]'' 'moon'), or {{lang|my|သော်တာ}} {{IPA|[t̪ɔ̀ dà]}} (Sanskrit).{{sfn |MLC|1993}}

== Phonology ==
{{main|Burmese phonology}}

=== Consonants ===
The consonants of Burmese are as follows:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto; text-align: center;"
|+Consonant phonemes{{sfn|Chang|2003|p=63}}{{Sfn|Watkins|2001}}
|-
!colspan=2|
![[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Postalveolar consonant|Post-al.]]/<br />[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Laryngeal consonant|Laryngeal]]
|-
! rowspan=2|[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
! {{small|[[voicing (phonetics)|voiced]]}}
| {{IPA link|m}}
|  
| {{IPA link|n}}
| {{IPA link|ɲ}}
| {{IPA link|ŋ}}
|
|-
! {{small|voiceless}}
| {{IPA link|m̥}}
|  
| {{IPA link|n̥}}
| {{IPA link|ɲ̊}}
| {{IPA link|ŋ̊}}
|
|-
! rowspan=3|[[Stop consonant|Stop]]/<br />[[Affricate]]
! {{small|voiced}}
| {{IPA link|b}}
|
| {{IPA link|d}}
| {{IPA link|dʒ}}
| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
|
|-
! {{small|voiceless}}
| {{IPA link|p}}
|
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA link|tʃ}}
| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
! {{small|[[aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]]}}
| {{IPA link|pʰ}}
|
| {{IPA link|tʰ}}
| {{IPA link|tʃʰ}}
| {{IPA link|kʰ}}
|
|-
! rowspan=3|[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! {{small|voiced}}
| 
| {{IPA link|ð}} ([{{IPA link|d̪ð}}~{{IPA link|d̪}}])
| {{IPA link|z}}
| 
| 
| 
|-
! {{small|voiceless}}
| 
| {{IPA link|θ}} ([{{IPA link|t̪θ}}~{{IPA link|t̪}}])
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}}
| 
| 
|-
! {{small|aspirated}}
| 
| 
| {{IPA link|sʰ}}
| 
| 
| {{IPA link|h}}
|-
!rowspan=2|[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
! {{small|voiced}}
| 
| 
| {{IPA link|l}}
| {{IPA link|j}}
| {{IPA link|w}}
| 
|-
! {{small|voiceless}}
| 
| 
| {{IPA link|l̥}}
|
| {{IPA link|ʍ}}
| 
|}

According to {{Harvcoltxt|Jenny|San San Hnin Tun|2016|p=15}}, contrary to their use of symbols θ and ð, consonants of {{Lang|my|သ}} are dental stops ({{IPA|/t̪, d̪/}}), rather than fricatives ({{IPA|/θ, ð/}}) or affricates.{{Sfn|Jenny|San San Hnin Tun|2016|p=15}} These phonemes, alongside {{IPA|/sʰ/}}, are prone to merger with {{IPA|/t, d, s/}}.{{Sfn|Jenny|San San Hnin Tun|2016|p=30}}

An alveolar {{IPA|/ɹ/}} can occur as an alternate of {{IPA|/j/}} in some loanwords.

The final nasal {{IPA|/ɰ̃/}} is the value of the four native final nasals: {{angbr|မ်}} {{IPA|/m/}}, {{angbr|န်}} {{IPA|/n/}}, {{angbr|ဉ်}} {{IPA|/ɲ/}}, {{angbr|င်}} {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, as well as the retroflex {{angbr|ဏ}} {{IPA|/ɳ/}} (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 {{lang|my|တံခါး}} {{transliteration|my|tankhá}} 'door', and {{lang|my|တံတား}} {{transliteration|my|tantá}} 'bridge', or else replaces final ''-m'' {{angbr|မ်}} in both Pali and native vocabulary, especially after the OB vowel *u e.g. {{lang|my|ငံ}} {{transliteration|my|ngam}} 'salty', သုံး ''thóum'' ('three; use'), and ဆုံး {{transliteration|my|sóum}} 'end'. It does not, however, apply to {{angbr|ည်}} which is never realised as a nasal, but rather as an open front vowel {{IPA|[iː]}} {{IPA|[eː]}} or {{IPA|[ɛː]}}.
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 {{IPA|/mòʊɰ̃dáɪɰ̃/}} ('storm'), which is pronounced {{IPA|[mõ̀ũndã́ĩ]}}.

=== Vowels ===
The [[vowel]]s of Burmese are:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto; text-align: center;"
|+ Vowel phonemes
! rowspan="2" align="center"|
! colspan="3" align="center"| [[Monophthong]]s
! colspan="2" align="center"| [[Diphthong]]s
|-
! align="center"| [[Front vowel|Front]]
! align="center"| [[Central vowel|Central]]
! align="center"| [[Back vowel|Back]]
! align="center"| [[Front vowel|Front]] offglide
! align="center"| [[Back vowel|Back]] offglide
|-
! align="center"| [[close vowel|Close]]
| align="center"| {{IPA link|i}}
| align="center"|
| align="center"| {{IPA link|u}}
| align="center"|
| align="center"|
|-
! align="center"| [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| align="center"| {{IPA link|e}}
| rowspan="2" align="center"| {{IPA link|ə}}
| align="center"| {{IPA link|o}}
| align="center"| {{IPA|ei}}
| align="center"| {{IPA|ou}}
|-
! align="center"| [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
| align="center"| {{IPA link|ɛ}}
| align="center"| {{IPA link|ɔ}}
| align="center"|
| align="center"|
|-
! align="center"| [[Open vowel|Open]]
| align="center"|
| align="center"| {{IPA link|a}}
| align="center"|
| align="center"| {{IPA|ai}}
| align="center"| {{IPA|au}}
|-
|}

The monophthongs {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/o/}}, {{IPA|/ə/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ/}} occur only in open syllables (those without a [[syllable coda]]); the diphthongs {{IPA|/ei/}}, {{IPA|/ou/}}, {{IPA|/ai/}} and {{IPA|/au/}} occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda). {{IPA|/ə/}} only occurs in a [[minor syllable]], and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below).

The close vowels {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/u/}} and the close portions of the diphthongs are somewhat mid-centralized ({{IPA|[ɪ, ʊ]}}) in closed syllables, i.e. before {{IPA|/ɰ̃/}} and {{IPA|/ʔ/}}. Thus {{lang|my|နှစ်}} {{IPA|/n̥iʔ/}} ('two') is phonetically {{IPA|[n̥ɪʔ]}} and {{lang|my|ကြောင်}} {{IPA|/tɕàũ/}} ('cat') is phonetically {{IPA|[tɕàʊ̃]}}.

=== Tones ===
Burmese is a [[tonal language]], which means [[phoneme|phonemic]] contrasts can be made on the basis of the [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only [[pitch (music)|pitch]], but also [[phonation]], intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel quality. However, some linguists consider Burmese a [[Register (phonology)|pitch-register language]] like [[Shanghainese]].{{sfn|Jones|1986|pp=135-136}}

There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table, the tones are shown marked on the vowel {{IPA|/a/}} as an example.
{|class="wikitable"
! Tone || Burmese || IPA<br />(shown on ''a'') || Symbol<br />(shown on ''a'') || Phonation || Duration || Intensity || Pitch
|-
| Low || {{lang|my|နိမ့်သံ}} || {{IPA|[aː˧˧˦]}} || {{IPA|à}} || modal || medium || low || low, often slightly rising{{sfn|Wheatley|1987}}
|-
| High || {{lang|my|တက်သံ}} || {{IPA|[aː˥˥˦]}} || {{IPA|á}} || sometimes slightly [[breathy voice|breathy]] || long || high || high, often with a fall before a pause{{sfn|Wheatley|1987}}
|-
| Creaky || {{lang|my|သက်သံ}} || {{IPA|[aˀ˥˧]}} || {{IPA|a̰}} || [[tenseness|tense]] or [[creaky voice|creaky]], sometimes with lax [[glottal stop]] || medium || high || high, often slightly falling{{sfn|Wheatley|1987}}
|-
| Checked || {{lang|my|တိုင်သံ}} || {{IPA|[ăʔ˥˧]}} || {{IPA|aʔ}} || centralized vowel quality, final glottal stop || short || high || high (in [[citation form|citation]]; can vary in context){{sfn|Wheatley|1987}}
|}

For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone:
* Low {{lang|my|ခါ}} {{IPA|/kʰ'''à'''/}} "shake"
* High {{lang|my|ခါး}} {{IPA|/kʰ'''á'''/}} "be bitter"
* Creaky {{lang|my|ခ}} {{IPA|/kʰ'''a̰'''/}} "to wait upon; to attend on"
* Checked {{lang|my|ခတ်}} {{IPA|/kʰ'''aʔ'''/}} "to beat; to strike"

In syllables ending with {{IPA|/ɰ̃/}}, the checked tone is excluded:
* Low {{lang|my|ခံ}} {{IPA|/kʰ'''à'''ɰ̃/}} "undergo"
* High {{lang|my|ခန်း}} {{IPA|/kʰ'''á'''ɰ̃/}} "dry up (usually a river)"
* Creaky {{lang|my|ခန့်}} {{IPA|/kʰ'''a̰'''ɰ̃/}} "appoint"

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), with those tones encompassing a variety of pitches.{{sfn|Taylor|1920|pp=91–106}} The "ordinary" tone consists of a range of pitches. Linguist L. F. Taylor concluded that "conversational rhythm and euphonic intonation possess importance" not found in related tonal languages and that "its tonal system is now in an advanced state of decay."{{sfn|Taylor|1920}}{{sfn|Benedict|1948|pp=184–191}}

=== Syllable structure ===
The [[syllable]] structure of Burmese is C(G)V((V)C), which is to say the [[syllable onset|onset]] consists of a consonant optionally followed by a [[semivowel|glide]], and the [[syllable rime|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|coda]] are {{IPA|/ʔ/}} and {{IPA|/ɰ̃/}}. Some representative words are:
* CV {{lang|my|မယ်}} {{IPA|/mɛ̀/}} (title for young women)
* CVC {{lang|my|မက်}} {{IPA|/mɛʔ/}} 'to crave'
* CGV {{lang|my|မြေ}} {{IPA|/mjè/}} 'earth'
* CGVC {{lang|my|မျက်}} {{IPA|/mjɛʔ/}} 'eye'
* CVVC {{lang|my|မောင်}} {{IPA|/màʊɰ̃/}} (term of address for young men)
* CGVVC {{lang|my|မြောင်း}} {{IPA|/mjáʊɰ̃/}} 'ditch'

A [[minor syllable]] has some restrictions:
* It contains {{IPA|/ə/}} 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

Some examples of words containing minor syllables:
* {{lang|my|ခလုတ်}} {{IPA|/kʰə.loʊʔ/}} 'switch, button'
* {{lang|my|ပလွေ}} {{IPA|/pə.lwè/}} 'flute'
* {{lang|my|သရော်}} {{IPA|/θə.jɔ̀/}} 'mock'
* {{lang|my|ကလက်}} {{IPA|/kə.lɛʔ/}} 'be wanton'
* {{lang|my|ထမင်းရည်}} {{IPA|/tʰə.mə.jè/}} 'rice-water'

== Writing system ==
{{Main|Burmese alphabet}}
[[File:Vendeurs de plantes médicinales vers Kyaiktiyo Paya.jpg|thumb|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 {{lang|my|အ}} ''a.'' {{IPA|[a̰]}} or {{IPA|[ə]}}. The consonants are arranged into [[Burmese alphabet#Arrangement|six consonant groups]] (called {{lang|my|ဝဂ်}}) 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.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}}

Orthographic changes subsequent to shifts in phonology (such as the merging of the {{IPA|[-l-]}} and {{IPA|[-ɹ-]}} medials) rather than transformations in Burmese grammatical structure and phonology, which by contrast, has remained stable between Old Burmese and modern Burmese.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}}{{Clarify|date=November 2022}} For example, during the Pagan era, the medial {{IPA|[-l-]}} {{lang|my|္လ}} was transcribed in writing, which has been replaced by medials {{IPA|[-j-]}} {{lang|my|ျ}} and {{IPA|[-ɹ-]}} {{lang|my|ြ}} in modern Burmese (e.g. "school" in old Burmese {{lang|my|က္လောင်}} {{IPA|[klɔŋ]}} → {{lang|my|ကျောင်း}} {{IPA|[tɕã́ʊ̃]}} in modern Burmese).{{sfn|Khin Min|1987}} Likewise, written Burmese has preserved all nasalized finals {{IPA|[-n, -m, -ŋ]}}, which have merged to {{IPA|[-ɰ̃]}} in spoken Burmese. (The exception is {{IPA|[-ɲ]}}, which, in spoken Burmese, can be one of many open vowels {{IPA|[i, e, ɛ]}}.) Similarly, other consonantal finals {{IPA|[-s, -p, -t, -k]}} have been reduced to {{IPA|[-ʔ]}}. Similar mergers are seen in other Sino-Tibetan languages like [[Shanghainese#Finals|Shanghainese]], and to a lesser extent, [[Standard Cantonese#Current Shifts|Cantonese]].

Written Burmese dates to the [[Pagan Kingdom#Early Pagan|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 the wider use of palm leaves and folded paper known as ''parabaiks'' ({{lang|my|ပုရပိုက်}}).{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|p=136}}

== Grammar ==
The basic [[word order]] of the Burmese language is [[subject (grammar)|subject]]-[[object (grammar)|object]]-[[verb]]. Pronouns in Burmese vary according to the gender and status of the audience, although pronouns are often omitted. Affixes are used to convey information. Verbs are almost always suffixed and nouns declined.

===Case affixes===

Burmese is an [[agglutinative language]] with an extensive [[Grammatical case|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>{{Cite web |last=Jenny |first=Mathias |date=26 August 2009 |title=DIFFERENTIAL OBJECT MARKING IN BURMESE|url=https://www.comparativelinguistics.uzh.ch/staff/mathiasjenny/download/Differential_object_marking_in_Burmese.pdf}}</ref>

The case markers are:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!High register
!Low register
|-
!Subject
|thi (သည်), ká (က), hma (မှာ)
|ha (ဟာ), ká (က)
|-
!Object
|ko (ကို)
| rowspan="3" |ko (ကို)
|-
!Recipient
|à (အား)
|-
![[Allative case|Allative]]
|thó (သို့)
|-
![[Ablative case|Ablative]]
|hmá (မှ), ká (က)
|ká (က)
|-
![[Locative case|Locative]]
|hnai (၌), hma (မှာ), twin (တွင်)
|hma (မှာ)
|-
![[Comitative case|Comitative]]
|hnín (နှင့်)
| rowspan="2" |né (နဲ့)
|-
![[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]
|hpyin (ဖြင့်), hnin (နှင့်)
|-
!Possessive
|í (၏)
|yé (ရဲ့)
|}

=== Adjectives ===
Burmese does not have [[adjective]]s per se. Rather, it has verbs that carry the meaning "to be X", where X is an English adjective. These verbs can modify a noun by means of the suffix {{lang|my|တဲ့}} ''tai.'' {{IPA|[dɛ̰]}} in colloquial Burmese (literary form: {{lang|my|သော}} ''sau:'' {{IPA|[t̪ɔ́]}}), which is suffixed as follows:
:Colloquial: {{lang|my|ချောတဲ့လူ}} ''hkyau: tai. lu'' {{IPA|[tɕʰɔ́ dɛ̰ lù]}}
:Formal: {{lang|my|ချောသောလူ}} ''hkyau: so: lu''
:Gloss: "beautiful" + adjective particle + 'person'

Adjectives may also form a [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] with the noun (e.g. {{lang|my|လူချော}} ''lu hkyau:'' {{IPA|[lù tɕʰɔ́]}} 'person' + 'be beautiful').

[[Comparative]]s are usually ordered: X + {{lang|my|ထက်ပို}} ''htak pui'' {{IPA|[tʰɛʔ pò]}} + adjective, where X is the object being compared to. [[Superlative]]s are indicated with the prefix {{lang|my|အ}} ''a.'' {{IPA|[ʔə]}} + adjective + {{lang|my|ဆုံး}} ''hcum:'' {{IPA|[zṍʊ̃]}}.

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

The most commonly used verb affixes and their usage are shown below with an example verb root {{lang|my|စား}} ''ca:'' {{IPA|[sá]}} ('to eat'). Alone, the statement {{lang|my|စား}} is imperative.

The affix {{lang|my|တယ်}} ''tai'' {{IPA|[dɛ̀]}} (literary form: {{lang|my|သည်}} ''sany'' {{IPA|[d̪ì]}}) can be viewed as an affix marking the present tense and/or a factual statement:

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|စား တယ်
|ca: tai
|[sá dɛ̀]
|'I eat'}}

The affix {{lang|my|ခဲ့}} ''hkai.'' {{IPA|[ɡɛ̰]}} denotes that the action took place in the past. However, this affix is not always necessary to indicate the past tense such that it can convey the same information without it. But to emphasize that the action happened before another event that is also currently being discussed, the affix becomes imperative. The affix {{lang|my|တယ်}} ''tai'' {{IPA|[dɛ̀]}} in this case denotes a factual statement rather than the present tense:

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|စား ခဲ့ တယ်
|ca: hkai. tai
|[sá ɡɛ̰ dɛ̀]
|'I ate'}}

The affix {{lang|my|နေ}} ''ne'' {{IPA|[nè]}} is used to denote an action in progression. It is equivalent to the English '-ing'.

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|စား နေ တယ်
|ca: ne tai
|[sá nè dɛ̀]
|'I am eating'}}

This affix {{lang|my|ပြီ}} ''pri'' {{IPA|[bjì]}}, which is used when an action that had been expected to be performed by the subject is now finally being performed, has no equivalent in English. So in the above example, if someone had been expecting the subject to eat, and the subject has finally started eating, the affix {{lang|my|ပြီ}} is used as follows:

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|(စ) စား ပြီ
|(ca.) ca: pri
|[(sə) sá bjì]
|'I am [now] eating'}}

The affix {{lang|my|မယ်}} ''mai'' {{IPA|[mɛ̀]}} (literary form: {{lang|my|မည်}} ''many'' {{IPA|[mjì]}}) is used to indicate the future tense or an action which is yet to be performed:

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|စား မယ်
|ca: mai
|[sá mɛ̀]
|'I will eat'}}

The affix {{lang|my|တော့}} ''tau.'' {{IPA|[dɔ̰]}} is used when the action is about to be performed immediately when used in conjunction with {{lang|my|မယ်}}. Therefore, it could be termed as the "immediate future tense suffix".

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|စား တော့ မယ်
|ca: tau. mai
|[sá dɔ̰ mɛ̀]
|'I'm going to eat [right away]'}}

When {{lang|my|တော့}} is used alone, however, it is imperative:

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|စား တော့
|ca: tau.
|[sá dɔ̰]
|'eat [now]'}}

Verbs are negated by the prefix {{lang|my|မ}} ''ma.'' {{IPA|[mə]}}. Generally speaking, there are other suffixes on verb, along with {{lang|my|မ}}.

The verb suffix {{lang|my|နဲ့}} ''nai.'' {{IPA|[nɛ̰]}} (literary form: {{lang|my|နှင့်}} ''hnang.'' {{IPA|[n̥ɪ̰̃]}}) indicates a command:

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|မစား နဲ့
|ma.ca: nai.
|[məsá nɛ̰]
|'don't eat'}}

The verb suffix {{lang|my|ဘူး}} ''bhu:'' {{IPA|[bú]}} indicates a statement:

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3
|မစား ဘူး
|ma.ca: bhu:
|[məsá bú]
|'[I] don't eat'}}

=== Nouns ===
[[Noun]]s in Burmese are pluralized by suffixing {{lang|my|တွေ}} ''twe'' {{IPA|[dwè]}} (or {{IPA|[twè]}} if the word ends in a glottal stop) in colloquial Burmese or {{lang|my|များ}} ''mya:'' {{IPA|[mjà]}} in formal Burmese. The suffix {{lang|my|တို့}} ''tou.'' {{IPA|[to̰]}}, which indicates a group of persons or things, is also suffixed to the modified noun. An example is below:
* {{lang|my|မြစ်}} ''mrac'' {{IPA|[mjɪʔ]}} "river"
* {{lang|my|မြစ်တွေ}} ''mrac twe'' {{IPA|[mjɪʔ tè]}} "rivers" [colloquial]
* {{lang|my|မြစ်များ}} ''mrac mya:'' {{IPA|[mjɪʔ mjá]}} "rivers" [formal]
* {{lang|my|မြစ်တို့}} ''mrac tou:'' {{IPA|[mjɪʔ to̰]}} "rivers"

Plural suffixes are not used when the noun is quantified with a number.

{{fs interlinear|lang=my|indent=3|glossing4=yes
|ကလေး ၅ ယောက်
|hka.le: nga: yauk
|{{IPA|/kʰəlé}} {{IPA|ŋá}} {{IPA|jaʊʔ/}}
|child five CL
|"five children"}}

Although Burmese does not have grammatical gender (e.g. masculine or feminine nouns), a distinction is made between the sexes, especially in animals and plants, by means of suffix particles. Nouns are masculinized with the following suffixes: {{lang|my|ထီး}} ''hti:'' {{IPA|[tʰí]}}, {{lang|my|ဖ}} ''hpa'' {{IPA|[pʰa̰]}}, or {{lang|my|ဖို}} ''hpui'' {{IPA|[pʰò]}}, depending on the noun, and feminized with the suffix {{lang|my|မ}} ''ma.'' {{IPA|[ma̰]}}. Examples of usage are below:
* {{lang|my|ကြောင်ထီး}} ''kraung hti:'' {{IPA|[tɕã̀ʊ̃ tʰí]}} "male cat"
* {{lang|my|ကြောင်မ}} ''kraung ma.'' {{IPA|[tɕã̀ʊ̃ ma̰]}} "female cat"
* {{lang|my|ကြက်ဖ}} ''krak hpa.'' {{IPA|[tɕɛʔ pʰa̰]}} "rooster/cock"
* {{lang|my|ထန်းဖို}} ''htan: hpui'' {{IPA|[tʰã́ pʰò]}} "male [[toddy palm]] plant"

==== Numerical classifiers ====
{{Main|Burmese numerical classifiers}}
Like its neighboring languages such as [[Thai language|Thai]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], and [[Chinese language|Chinese]], Burmese uses numerical classifiers (also called measure words) when nouns are counted or quantified. This approximately equates to English expressions such as "two slices of bread" or "a cup of coffee". Classifiers are required when counting nouns, so {{lang|my|ကလေး ၅}} ''hka.le: nga:'' {{IPA|[kʰəlé ŋà]}} (lit. 'child five') is incorrect, since the measure word for people {{lang|my|ယောက်}} ''yauk'' {{IPA|[jaʊʔ]}} is missing; it needs to suffix the numeral.

The standard word order of quantified words is: quantified noun + numeral adjective + classifier, except in [[round number]]s (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", {{lang|my|နာရီ}} "day", {{lang|my|ရက်}} or "month", {{lang|my|လ}} do not require classifiers.

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

{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Burmese !! [[MLC Transcription System|MLC]] !! [[Help:IPA/Burmese|IPA]] !! Usage !! Remarks
|-
| {{lang|my|ယောက်}} || yauk || {{IPA|[jaʊʔ]}} || for people || Used in informal context
|-
| {{lang|my|ဦး}} || u: || {{IPA|[ʔú]}} || for people || Used in formal context and also used for monks and nuns
|-
| {{lang|my|ပါး}} || pa: || {{IPA|[bá]}} || for people || Used exclusively for monks and nuns of the Buddhist order
|-
| {{lang|my|ကောင်}} || kaung || {{IPA|[kã̀ʊ̃]}} || for animals ||
|-
| {{lang|my|ခု}} || hku. || {{IPA|[kʰṵ]}} || general classifier || Used with almost all nouns except for animate objects
|-
| {{lang|my|လုံး}} || lum: || {{IPA|[lṍʊ̃]}} || for round objects ||
|-
| {{lang|my|ပြား}} || pra: || {{IPA|[pjá]}} || for flat objects ||
|-
| {{lang|my|စု}} || cu. || {{IPA|[sṵ]}} || for groups || Can be {{IPA|[zṵ]}}.
|}

=== Affixes ===
The Burmese language makes prominent usage of [[affix]]es (called {{lang|my|ပစ္စည်း}} in Burmese), which are untranslatable words that are suffixed or prefixed to words to indicate tense, aspect, case, formality etc. For example, {{lang|my|စမ်း}} {{IPA|[sã́]}} is a suffix used to indicate the imperative mood. While {{lang|my|လုပ်ပါ}} ('work' + suffix indicating politeness) does not indicate the imperative, {{lang|my|လုပ်စမ်းပါ}} ('work' + suffix indicating imperative mood + suffix indicating politeness) does. Affixes are often stacked next to each other

Some affixes modify the word's [[part of speech]]. Among the most prominent of these is the prefix {{lang|my|အ}} {{IPA|[ə]}}, which is prefixed to verbs and adjectives to form nouns or adverbs. For instance, the word {{lang|my|ဝင်}} means "to enter", but combined with {{lang|my|အ}}, it means "entrance" {{lang|my|အဝင်}}. Moreover, in colloquial Burmese, there is a tendency to omit the second {{lang|my|အ}} in words that follow the pattern {{lang|my|အ}} + noun/adverb + {{lang|my|အ}} + noun/adverb, like {{lang|my|အဆောက်အအုံ}}, which is pronounced {{IPA|[əsʰaʊʔ ú]}} and formally pronounced {{IPA|[əsʰaʊʔ əõ̀ʊ̃]}}.

=== Pronouns ===
{{main|Burmese pronouns}}
Subject [[pronoun]]s begin sentences, though the subject is generally omitted in the imperative forms and in conversation. Grammatically speaking, subject markers ({{lang|my|က}} {{IPA|[ɡa̰]}} in colloquial, {{lang|my|သည်}} {{IPA|[t̪ì]}} in formal) must be attached to the subject pronoun, although they are also generally omitted in conversation. Object pronouns must have an object marker ({{lang|my|ကို}} {{IPA|[ɡò]}} in colloquial, {{lang|my|အား}} {{IPA|[á]}} in formal) attached immediately after the pronoun. Proper nouns are often substituted for pronouns. One's status in relation to the audience determines the pronouns used, with certain pronouns used for different audiences.

Polite pronouns are used to address elders, teachers, and strangers, through the use of feudal-era third person pronouns in lieu of first- and second-person pronouns. In such situations, one refers to oneself in third person: {{lang|my|ကျွန်တော်}} ''kya. nau'' {{IPA|[tɕənɔ̀]}} for men and {{lang|my|ကျွန်မ}} ''kya. ma.'' {{IPA|[tɕəma̰]}} for women, both meaning "your servant", and refer to the addressee as {{lang|my|မင်း}} ''min'' {{IPA|[mɪ̃́]}} ('your highness'), {{lang|my|ခင်ဗျား}} ''khang bya:'' {{IPA|[kʰəmjá]}} ('master, lord') ({{etymology|my|သခင်ဘုရား|lord master}}) or {{lang|my|ရှင်}} ''hrang'' {{IPA|[ʃɪ̃̀]}} "ruler/master".{{sfn|Bradley|1993|pp=157–160}} So ingrained are these terms in the daily polite speech that people use them as the first and second person pronouns without giving a second thought to the root meaning of these pronouns.

When speaking to a person of the same status or of younger age, {{lang|my|ငါ}} ''nga'' {{IPA|[ŋà]}} ('I/me') and {{lang|my|နင်}} ''nang'' {{IPA|[nɪ̃̀]}} ('you') may be used, although most speakers choose to use third person pronouns.{{sfn|Bradley|1993}} For example, an older person may use {{lang|my|ဒေါ်လေး}} ''dau le:'' {{IPA|[dɔ̀ lé]}} ('aunt') or {{lang|my|ဦးလေး}} ''u: lei:'' {{IPA|[ʔú lé]}} ('uncle') to refer to himself, while a younger person may use either {{lang|my|သား}} ''sa:'' {{IPA|[t̪á]}} ('son') or {{lang|my|သမီး}} ''sa.mi:'' {{IPA|[t̪əmí]}} ('daughter').

The basic pronouns are:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:0 auto"
|-
! rowspan="2" style="width:5em;" | Person
! colspan="2" style="width:20em;" | Singular
! colspan="2" style="width:20em;" | Plural*
|-
|-
| style="width:10em" | '''Informal'''
| style="width:10em" | '''Formal'''
| style="width:10em" | '''Informal'''
| style="width:10em" | '''Formal'''
|-
! First person
| {{lang|my|ငါ}} <br /><small>''nga''</small><br />{{IPA|[ŋà]}}
| {{lang|my|ကျွန်တော်}}<sup>‡</sup> <br /><small>''kywan to''</small><br />{{IPA|[tɕənɔ̀]}}<br /><br />{{lang|my|ကျွန်မ}}<sup>†</sup> <br /><small>''kywan ma.''</small> <br />{{IPA|[tɕəma̰]}}
| {{lang|my|ငါဒို့}} <br /><small>''nga tui.''</small><br />{{IPA|[ŋà do̰]}}
| {{lang|my|ကျွန်တော်တို့}}<sup>‡</sup> <br /><small>''kywan to tui.''</small><br />{{IPA|[tɕənɔ̀ do̰]}}<br /><br />{{lang|my|ကျွန်မတို့}}<sup>†</sup> <br /><small>''kywan ma. tui.''</small> <br />{{IPA|[tɕəma̰ do̰]}}
|-
! Second person
| {{lang|my|နင်}} <br /><small>''nang''</small><br />{{IPA|[nɪ̃̀]}}<br /><br />{{lang|my|မင်း}} <br /><small>''mang:''</small><br />{{IPA|[mɪ̃́]}}
| {{lang|my|ခင်ဗျား}}<sup>‡</sup> <br /><small>''khang bya:''</small><br />{{IPA|[kʰəmjá]}}<br /><br />{{lang|my|ရှင်}}<sup>†</sup> <br /><small>''hrang''</small><br />{{IPA|[ʃɪ̃̀]}}
| {{lang|my|နင်ဒို့}} <br /><small>''nang tui.''</small><br />{{IPA|[nɪ̃̀n do̰]}}
| {{lang|my|ခင်ဗျားတို့}}<sup>‡</sup> <br /><small>''khang bya: tui.''</small><br />{{IPA|[kʰəmjá do̰]}}<br /><br />{{lang|my|ရှင်တို့}}<sup>†</sup> <br /><small>''hrang tui.''</small><br />{{IPA|[ʃɪ̃̀n do̰]}}
|-
! Third person
| {{lang|my|သူ}} <br /><small>''su''</small><br />{{IPA|[t̪ù]}}
| {{lang|my|(အ)သင်}} <br /><small>''(a.) sang''</small><br />{{IPA|[(ʔə)t̪ɪ̃̀]}}
| {{lang|my|သူဒို့}} <br /><small>''su tui.''</small><br />{{IPA|[t̪ù do̰]}}
| {{lang|my|သင်တို့}} <br /><small>''sang tui.''</small><br />{{IPA|[t̪ɪ̃̀ do̰]}}
|-
|}
:<nowiki>*</nowiki> The basic particle to indicate plurality is {{lang|my|တို့}} ''tui.'', colloquial {{lang|my|ဒို့}} ''dui.''.
:<sup>‡</sup> Used by male speakers.
:<sup>†</sup> Used by female speakers.

Other pronouns are reserved for speaking with [[bhikkhu]]s (Buddhist monks). When speaking to a bhikkhu, pronouns like {{lang|my|ဘုန်းဘုန်း}} ''bhun: bhun:'' (from {{lang|my|ဘုန်းကြီး}} ''phun: kri:'' 'monk'), {{lang|my|ဆရာတော်}} ''chara dau'' {{IPA|[sʰəjàdɔ̀]}} ('royal teacher'), and {{lang|my|အရှင်ဘုရား}} ''a.hrang bhu.ra:'' {{IPA|[ʔəʃɪ̃̀ pʰəjá]}} ('your lordship') are used depending on their status {{lang|my|ဝါ}}. When referring to oneself, terms like {{lang|my|တပည့်တော်}} ''ta. paey. tau'' ('royal disciple') or {{lang|my|ဒကာ}} ''da. ka'' {{IPA|[dəɡà]}}, ('donor') are used. When speaking to a monk, the following pronouns are used:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:0 auto"
|-
! rowspan="2" style="width:5em;" | Person
! colspan="2" style="width:20em;" | Singular
|-
| style="width:10em" | '''Informal'''
| style="width:10em" | '''Formal'''
|-
! First person
| {{lang|my|တပည့်တော်}}<sup>†</sup> <br /><small>''ta.paey. tau''</small>
| {{lang|my|ဒကာ}}<sup>†</sup> <br /><small>''da. ka''</small><br />{{IPA|[dəɡà]}}
|-
! Second person
| {{lang|my|ဘုန်းဘုန်း}}<br /><small>''bhun: bhun:''</small><br />{{IPA|[pʰṍʊ̃ pʰṍʊ̃]}}<br /><br />{{lang|my|(ဦး)ပဉ္စင်း}}<br /><small>''(u:) pasang:''</small><br />{{IPA|[(ʔú) bəzín]}}
| {{lang|my|အရှင်ဘုရား}} <br /><small>''a.hrang bhu.ra:''</small><br />{{IPA|[ʔəʃɪ̃̀ pʰəjá]}}<br /><br />{{lang|my|ဆရာတော်}}<sup>‡</sup><br /><small>''chara dau''</small><br />{{IPA|[sʰəjàdɔ̀]}}
|-
|}
:<sup>†</sup> The particle ''ma.'' {{lang|my|မ}} is suffixed for women.
:<sup>‡</sup> Typically reserved for the [[abbot|chief monk]] of a [[kyaung]] (monastery).

In colloquial Burmese, possessive pronouns are contracted when the root pronoun itself is low toned. This does not occur in literary Burmese, which uses ၏ {{IPA|[ḭ]}} as postpositional marker for possessive case instead of {{lang|my|ရဲ့}} {{IPA|[jɛ̰]}}. Examples include the following:
* {{lang|my|ငါ}} {{IPA|[ŋà]}} "I" + {{lang|my|ရဲ့}} (postpositional marker for possessive case) = {{lang|my|ငါ့}} {{IPA|[ŋa̰]}} "my"
* {{lang|my|နင်}} {{IPA|[nɪ̃̀]}} "you" + {{lang|my|ရဲ့}} (postpositional marker for possessive case) = {{lang|my|နင့်}} {{IPA|[nɪ̰̃]}} "your"
* {{lang|my|သူ}} {{IPA|[t̪ù]}} "he, she" + {{lang|my|ရဲ့}} (postpositional marker for possessive case) = {{lang|my|သူ့}} {{IPA|[t̪ṵ]}} "his, her"
The contraction also occurs in some low toned nouns, making them possessive nouns (e.g. {{lang|my|အမေ့}} or {{lang|my|မြန်မာ့}}, "mother's" and "Myanmar's" respectively).

=== Kinship terms ===
{{Main|Burmese kinship}}
Minor pronunciation differences do exist within regions of Irrawaddy valley. For example, the pronunciation {{IPA|[sʰʊ̃́]}} of {{lang|my|ဆွမ်း}} "food offering [to a monk]" is preferred in Lower Burma, instead of {{IPA|[sʰwã́]}}, which is preferred in Upper Burma. However, the most obvious difference between Upper Burmese and Lower Burmese is that Upper Burmese speech still differentiates maternal and paternal sides of a family:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="250"|Term
! width="250"|Upper Burmese
! width="250"|Lower Burmese
! width="250"|Myeik dialect
|-
|
* Paternal aunt (older)
* Paternal aunt (younger)
|
* {{lang|my|အရီးကြီး}} {{IPA|[ʔəjí dʑí]}} (or {{IPA|[jí dʑí]}})
* {{lang|my|အရီးလေး}} {{IPA|[ʔəjí lé]}} (or {{IPA|[jí lé]}})
| rowspan=2 |
* {{lang|my|ဒေါ်ကြီး}} {{IPA|[dɔ̀ dʑí]}} (or {{IPA|[tɕí tɕí]}})
* {{lang|my|ဒေါ်လေး}} {{IPA|[dɔ̀ lé]}}
| rowspan=2 |
* {{lang|my|မိကြီး}} {{IPA|[mḭ dʑí]}}
* {{lang|my|မိငယ်}} {{IPA|[mḭ ŋɛ̀]}}
|-
|
* Maternal aunt (older)
* Maternal aunt (younger)
|
* {{lang|my|ဒေါ်ကြီး}} {{IPA|[dɔ̀ dʑí]}} (or {{IPA|[tɕí tɕí]}})
* {{lang|my|ဒေါ်လေး}} {{IPA|[dɔ̀ lé]}}
|-
|
* Paternal uncle (older)
* Paternal uncle (younger)
|
* {{lang|my|ဘကြီး}} {{IPA|[ba̰ dʑí]}}
* {{lang|my|ဘလေး}} {{IPA|[ba̰ lé]}}<sup>1</sup>
| rowspan=2 |
* {{lang|my|ဘကြီး}} {{IPA|[ba̰ dʑí]}}
* {{lang|my|ဦးလေး}} {{IPA|[ʔú lé]}}
| rowspan=2 |
* {{lang|my|ဖကြီး}} {{IPA|[pʰa̰ dʑí]}}
* {{lang|my|ဖငယ်}} {{IPA|[pʰa̰ ŋɛ̀]}}
|-
|
* Maternal uncle (older)
* Maternal uncle (younger)
|
* {{lang|my|ဦးကြီး}} {{IPA|[ʔú dʑí]}}
* {{lang|my|ဦးလေး}} {{IPA|[ʔú lé]}}
|}
<sup>1</sup> The youngest (paternal or maternal) aunt may be called {{lang|my|ထွေးလေး}} {{IPA|[dwé lé]}}, and the youngest paternal uncle {{lang|my|ဘထွေး}} {{IPA|[ba̰ dwé]}}.

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:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="250"|Term
! width="250"|Upper Burmese
! width="250"|Standard Burmese
|-
|
* Elder brother (to a male)
* Elder brother (to a female)
|
* {{lang|my|နောင်}} {{IPA|[nã̀ʊ̃]}}
* {{lang|my|အစ်ကို}} {{IPA|[ʔəkò]}}
|
* {{lang|my|အစ်ကို}} {{IPA|[ʔəkò]}}
|-
|
* Younger brother (to a male)
* Younger brother (to a female)
|colspan="2"|
* {{lang|my|ညီ}} {{IPA|[ɲì]}}
* {{lang|my|မောင်}} {{IPA|[mã̀ʊ̃]}}
|-
|
* Elder sister (to a male)
* Elder sister (to a female)
|colspan="2"|
* {{lang|my|အစ်မ}} {{IPA|[ʔəma̰]}}
|-
|
* Younger sister (to a male)
* Younger sister (to a female)
|
* {{lang|my|နှမ}} {{IPA|[n̥əma̰]}}
* {{lang|my|ညီမ}} {{IPA|[ɲì ma̰]}}
|
* {{lang|my|ညီမ}} {{IPA|[ɲì ma̰]}}
|}
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 {{lang|my|ညီ}} ('younger brother to a male') and {{lang|my|မောင်}} ('younger brother to a female'). Terms like {{lang|my|နောင်}} ('elder brother to a male') and {{lang|my|နှမ}} ('younger sister to a male') now are used in standard Burmese only as part of compound words like {{lang|my|ညီနောင်}} ('brothers') or {{lang|my|မောင်နှမ}} ('brother and sister').

=== Reduplication ===
[[Reduplication]] is prevalent in Burmese and is used to intensify or weaken adjectives' meanings. For example, if {{lang|my|ချော}} {{IPA|[tɕʰɔ́]}} "beautiful" is reduplicated, then the intensity of the adjective's meaning increases. Many Burmese words, especially adjectives with two syllables, such as {{lang|my|လှပ}} {{IPA|[l̥a̰pa̰]}} "beautiful", when reduplicated ({{lang|my|လှပ}} → {{lang|my|လှလှပပ}} {{IPA|[l̥a̰l̥a̰ pa̰pa̰]}}) become [[adverb]]s. This is also true of some Burmese verbs and nouns (e.g. {{lang|my|ခဏ}} 'a moment' → {{lang|my|ခဏခဏ}} 'frequently'), which become adverbs when reduplicated.

Some nouns are also reduplicated to indicate plurality. For instance, {{lang|my|ပြည်}} {{IPA|[pjì]}} ('country'), but when reduplicated to {{lang|my|အပြည်ပြည်}} {{IPA|[əpjì pjì]}}, it means "many countries", as in {{lang|my|အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ}} {{IPA|[əpjì pjì sʰã̀ɪ̃ jà]}} ('international'). Another example is {{lang|my|အမျိုး}}, which means "a kind", but the reduplicated form {{lang|my|အမျိုးမျိုး}} means "multiple kinds".

A few measure words can also be reduplicated to indicate "one or the other":
* {{lang|my|ယောက်}} (measure word for people) → {{lang|my|တစ်ယောက်ယောက်}} ('someone')
* {{lang|my|ခု}} (measure word for things) → {{lang|my|တစ်ခုခု}} ('something')

==Numerals==
{{Main|Burmese numerals}}
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 numeral|cardinal forms]] of Burmese numerals are primarily inherited from the [[Proto-Sino-Tibetan language]], with cognates with modern-day Sino-Tibetan languages, including the [[Chinese varieties|Chinese]] and [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]]. Numerals beyond 'ten million' are borrowed from Indic languages like Sanskrit or Pali. Similarly, the [[Ordinal numeral|ordinal forms]] of primary Burmese numerals (i.e., from first to tenth) are borrowed from [[Pali language|Pali]], the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism.<ref name="bbe">{{cite book |last=Okell |first=John |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/file53735.pdf |title=Burmese By Ear |date=2002 |publisher=The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |isbn=186013758X |access-date=2013-10-20 |archive-date=2021-04-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420002442/https://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/file53735.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Ordinal numbers beyond ten are suffixed {{my|မြောက်}} ({{Lit|to raise}}).

Burmese numerals follow the nouns they modify, with the exception of [[round number]]s, which precede the nouns they modify. Moreover, numerals are subject to several [[tone sandhi]] and voicing rules that involve tone changes (low tone → creaky tone) and voicing shifts depending on the pronunciation of surrounding words. A more thorough explanation is found on [[Burmese numerals]].

== Romanization and transcription ==
{{Main|Romanization of Burmese}}
There is no official [[romanization]] system for Burmese.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} There have been attempts to make one, but none have been successful. Replicating Burmese sounds in the Latin script is complicated. There is a Pali-based transcription system in existence, [[MLC Transcription System]] which was devised by the [[Myanmar Language Commission]] (MLC). However, it only transcribes 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 over others.

Transcription of Burmese is not standardized, as seen in the varying English transcriptions of Burmese names. For instance, a Burmese personal name like {{lang|my|ဝင်း}} {{IPA|[wɪ̃́]}} may be variously romanized as Win, Winn, Wyn, or Wynn, while {{lang|my|ခိုင်}} {{IPA|[kʰã̀ɪ̃]}} may be romanized as Khaing, Khine, or Khain.

== Computer fonts and standard keyboard layout ==
{{see also|Zawgyi font#Unicode incompatibility}}
[[File:Myanmar-Keyboard-Layout.png|thumb|upright=2|Myanmar3, the ''de jure'' standard Burmese keyboard layout]]
The Burmese alphabet can be entered from a standard [[QWERTY keyboard]] and is supported within the Unicode standard, meaning it can be read and written from most modern computers and smartphones.

Burmese has [[Complex text layout|complex character rendering]] requirements, where tone markings and vowel modifications are noted using diacritics. These can be placed before consonants (as with {{lang|my|ေ}}), above them (as with {{lang|my|ိ}}) or even around them (as with {{lang|my|ြ}}). These character clusters are built using 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.{{Clarify inline|date=July 2024}}

Since its introduction in 2007, the most popular Burmese font, [[Zawgyi font|Zawgyi]], has been near-ubiquitous in Myanmar. Linguist Justin Watkins argues that the ubiquitous use of Zawgyi harms Myanmar languages, including Burmese, by preventing efficient sorting, searching, processing and analyzing Myanmar text through flexible diacritic ordering.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watkins|first=Justin|title=Why we should stop Zawgyi in its tracks. It harms others and ourselves. Use Unicode! |url=http://www.themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/Presentation_Why_Stop_Zawgyi_Use_Unicode_Phandeeyar_Aug2016.pdf}}</ref>

Zawgyi is not [[Unicode]]-compliant, but occupies the [[Myanmar (Unicode block)|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>{{Cite web|url=http://frontiermyanmar.net/en/features/battle-of-the-fonts|title=Battle of the fonts|last=Hotchkiss |first=Griffin|date=23 March 2016|work=Frontier}}</ref> Facebook also supports Zawgyi as an additional language encoding for their app and website.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.lwinmoe.org/2015/12/facebook-nods-to-zawgyi-and-unicode.html|title=Facebook nods to Zawgyi and Unicode}}</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 who do not customize software for the local market.

Keyboards which have a Zawgyi keyboard layout printed on them are the most commonly available for purchase domestically.

Until recently, 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>{{Cite web|url=https://keymagic.net/|title=Keymagic Unicode Keyboard Input Customizer}}</ref> and recent versions of smartphone soft-keyboards including [[Gboard]] and ttKeyboard<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.myopenware.ttkeyboard.latin&hl=en|title=TTKeyboard – Myanmar Keyboard}}</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, there is still a lot of scope of research for the Burmese language, specifically for Natural Language Processing (NLP) areas like WordNet, Search Engine, development of parallel corpus for Burmese language as well as development of a formally standardized and dense domain-specific corpus of Burmese language.{{sfn|Saini|2016|p=8}}

The Myanmar government has designated 1 October 2019 as "U-Day" to officially switch to Unicode.<ref name="japantimes">{{Cite web
| title = Unicode in, Zawgyi out: Modernity finally catches up in Myanmar's digital world 
| work = The Japan Times
| date =  Sep 27, 2019 
| access-date = 24 December 2019
| url = https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/27/business/tech/unicode-in-zawgyi-out-myanmar/
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930200403/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/27/business/tech/unicode-in-zawgyi-out-myanmar/#.XZJfwW3P2Uk |archive-date=2019-09-30
| quote = Oct. 1 is "U-Day," when Myanmar officially will adopt the new system. ... Microsoft and Apple helped other countries standardize years ago, but Western sanctions meant Myanmar lost out.
}}</ref> The full transition is estimated to take two years.<ref name="mmti_Myan">{{Cite web
| title = Myanmar switch to Unicode to take two years: app developer
| author = Saw Yi Nanda
| work = The Myanmar Times
| date = 21 Nov 2019
| access-date = 24 December 2019
| url = https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-switch-unicode-take-two-years-app-developer.html
| archive-date = 24 December 2019
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191224084815/https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-switch-unicode-take-two-years-app-developer.html
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

== Example text ==
Article 1 of the ''[[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]'' in Burmese:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Burmese/Myanmar |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/human-rights/universal-declaration/translations/burmesemyanmar |website=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207211627/https://www.ohchr.org/en/human-rights/universal-declaration/translations/burmesemyanmar |archive-date= Dec 7, 2023 }}</ref><blockquote>{{lang|my|လူတိုင်းသည် တူညီ လွတ်လပ်သော ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာဖြင့် လည်းကောင်း၊ တူညီလွတ်လပ်သော အခွင့်အရေးများဖြင့် လည်းကောင်း၊ မွေးဖွားလာသူများ ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုသူတို့၌ ပိုင်းခြား ဝေဖန်တတ်သော ဉာဏ်နှင့် ကျင့်ဝတ် သိတတ်သော စိတ်တို့ရှိကြ၍ ထိုသူတို့သည် အချင်းချင်း မေတ္တာထား၍ ဆက်ဆံကျင့်သုံးသင့်၏။}}</blockquote>The [[Romanization of Burmese|romanization]] of the text into the [[Latin alphabet]]:<blockquote>{{transl|my|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{{!}}{{!}}}}</blockquote>Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English:<ref>{{cite news |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights |newspaper=United Nations |url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213051510/https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |archive-date= Dec 13, 2023 }}</ref><blockquote>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.</blockquote>

==See also==
{{Portal|Language}}
* {{portal-inline|Myanmar}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|20em}}

== References ==
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  | publisher=Myanmar Language Commission
  | url=http://sealang.net/burmese
  | isbn=978-1-881265-47-4
  }}
* {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|Nishi|30 October 1998}}|last=Nishi|first=Yoshio|date=30 October 1998|title=The Development of Voicing Rules in Standard Burmese|journal=Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology|volume=23|issue=1|pages=253–260|url=https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=4137&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21|format=PDF}}
* {{cite journal|last=Nishi|first=Yoshio|date=31 March 1998|title=The Orthographic Standardization of Burmese: Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Speculations|journal=Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology|volume=22|pages=975–999|url=http://camel.minpaku.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10502/3159/1/KH_022_4_005.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022161953/http://camel.minpaku.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10502/3159/1/KH_022_4_005.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 October 2013}}
* {{cite book|last=Okell|first=John|title=Burmese By Ear or Essential Myanmar|publisher=The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|location=London|year=2002|isbn=978-1-86013-758-7|url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/file53735.pdf|access-date=2013-10-20|archive-date=2021-04-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420002442/https://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/file53735.pdf|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite journal
  | surname1 = Sagart | given1 = Laurent | author1-link = Laurent Sagart
  | surname2 = Jacques | given2 = Guillaume | author2-link = Guillaume Jacques
  | surname3 = Lai | given3 = Yunfan
  | surname4 = Ryder | given4 = Robin
  | surname5 = Thouzeau | given5 = Valentin
  | surname6 = Greenhill | given6 = Simon J.
  | surname7 = List | given7 = Johann-Mattis
  | title = Dated language phylogenies shed light on the history of Sino-Tibetan
  | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
  | volume = 116 | issue = 21 | pages = 10317–10322 | year = 2019
  | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1817972116 | doi-access = free | pmid = 31061123 | pmc = 6534992
  }}
**{{cite press release |date=May 6, 2019 |title=Origin of Sino-Tibetan language family revealed by new research |website=ScienceDaily |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190506151822.htm }}
* {{cite journal
  | last=Saini
  | first=Jatinderkumar R.
  | date=30 June 2016
  | title=First Classified Annotated Bibliography of NLP Tasks in the Burmese Language of Myanmar
  | journal=Revista InforComp (INFOCOMP Journal of Computer Science)
  | volume=15
  | issue=1
  | url=http://infocomp.dcc.ufla.br/index.php/INFOCOMP/article/view/511/484
  | pages=1–11
  }}
* {{cite book|author1=San San Hnin Tun|others=[[Vicky Bowman]]|title=Burmese Phrasebook|publisher=Lonely Planet|year=2001|isbn=978-1-74059-048-8}}
* {{Cite thesis|author=San San Hnin Tun|title=Discourse Marking in Burmese and English: A Corpus-Based Approach|url=http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/1963/1/442283.pdf|year=2006|publisher=University of Nottingham|access-date=2013-10-20|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-10-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021035314/http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/1963/1/442283.pdf}}
* {{cite book
  | author = Taw Sein Ko
  | title = Elementary Handbook of the Burmese Language
  | year = 1924
  | publisher = American Baptist Mission Press
  | location = Rangoon
}}
* {{cite journal
  | last=Taylor
  | first=L. F.
  | year=1920
  | title=On the tones of certain languages of Burma
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  | doi=10.1017/S0041977X00101685
  | volume=1
  | issue=4
  | pages=91–106
  | jstor=607065
  | s2cid=179005822
 }}
* {{cite book|author=Unicode Consortium|title=The Unicode Standard Version 6.1 – Core Specification|editor=Julie D. Allen|publisher=The Unicode Consortium|location=Mountain View, CA|pages=368–373|date=April 2012|chapter=11. Southeast Asian Scripts|isbn=978-1-936213-02-3|chapter-url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.1.0/ch11.pdf|display-editors=etal}}
* {{cite journal |first=Justin W. |last=Watkins |year=2001 |title=Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese |journal=[[Journal of the International Phonetic Association]] |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=291–295 |doi=10.1017/S0025100301002122 |s2cid=232344700 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/334DD11C94575EF39A51109B008FB090/S0025100301002122a.pdf/burmese.pdf }}
* {{cite journal
  | last1=Wheatley
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  | last2 = Tun
  | first2 = San San Hnin
  | year=1999
  | title=Languages in contact: The case of English and Burmese
  | journal=The Journal of Burma Studies
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| pages=61–99
 | doi=10.1353/jbs.1999.0001
 | s2cid=60685584
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* {{cite book|last=Wheatley|first=Julian|editor=Randy J. LaPolla |editor2=Graham Thurgood|title=Sino-Tibetan Languages|chapter=12. Burmese|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-1-135-79717-1}}
* {{cite book | last = Wheatley | first = Julian K. | editor = B. Comrie | title = Handbook of the world's major languages | year = 1987 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | isbn = 978-0-19-520521-3 | pages = 834–54 | chapter = Burmese}}
* {{cite book|last=Yanson|first=Rudolf A.|title=Aspiration in the Burmese Phonological System: A Diachronic Account|editor=Nathan Hill|publisher=BRILL|year=2012|series=Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages IV|pages=17–29|isbn=978-90-04-23202-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Yanson|first=Rudolf|editor=Uta Gärtner |editor2=Jens Lorenz|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |year=1994|title=Tradition and Modernity in Myanmar|pages=366–426|chapter=Chapter 3. Language|isbn=978-3-8258-2186-9}}
{{refend}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book | last = Becker | first = Alton L. | editor = E. M. Bruner | title = Text, play, and story: The construction and reconstruction of self and society | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/textplaystorycon00brunrich | chapter-url-access = registration | year = 1984 | publisher = American Ethnological Society | location = Washington, D.C. | pages = [https://archive.org/details/textplaystorycon00brunrich/page/135 135–55] | chapter = Biography of a sentence: A Burmese proverb| isbn = 9780942976052 }}
* {{cite book | last = Bernot | first = Denise | title = Le prédicat en birman parlé | year = 1980 | publisher = SELAF | location = Paris | language = fr | isbn = 978-2-85297-072-4}}
* {{cite book | last = Cornyn | first = William Stewart | title = Outline of Burmese grammar | year = 1944 | publisher = Linguistic Society of America | location = Baltimore | url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Outline_of_Burmese_Grammar}}
* {{cite book | last = Cornyn | first = William Stewart |author2=D. Haigh Roop | title = Beginning Burmese | year = 1968 | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven}}
* {{cite book | last = Cooper | first = Lisa |author2=Beau Cooper |author3=Sigrid Lew | chapter = A phonetic description of Burmese obstruents | chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/13008225 | title = 45th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics | year = 2012 | location = Nanyang Technological University, Singapore}}
* {{cite book | last = Green | first = Antony D. | editor = J. Watkins | title = Studies in Burmese linguistics | year = 2005 | publisher = Pacific Linguistics | location = Canberra | isbn = 978-0-85883-559-7 | pages = 1–25 | chapter = Word, foot, and syllable structure in Burmese}}
* {{cite book | last = Okell | first = John | title = A reference grammar of colloquial Burmese | year = 1969 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = London | isbn = 978-0-7007-1136-9}}
* {{cite book | last = Roop | first = D. Haigh | title = An introduction to the Burmese writing system | year = 1972 | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven | isbn = 978-0-300-01528-7}}
* {{cite book | author = Taw Sein Ko | author-link = Taw Sein Ko | title = Elementary handbook of the Burmese language | year = 1924 | publisher = American Baptist Mission Press | location = Rangoon | url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924022058931 | ref=none }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Waxman|first1=Nathan|last2=Aung|first2=Soe Tun|s2cid=110774660|title=The Naturalization of Indic Loan-Words into Burmese: Adoption and Lexical Transformation|journal=Journal of Burma Studies |date=2014 |volume=18|issue=2|pages=259–290|doi=10.1353/jbs.2014.0016}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{InterWiki|code=my}}
{{wiktionary category}}
{{EB1911 poster|Tibeto-Burman Languages}}
{{Wikivoyage|Burmese phrasebook|Burmese|a phrasebook}}
* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/burmese.htm Omniglot: Burmese Language]
* [http://www.burmeselesson.com/ Learn Burmese online]
* [http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Burmese/ Online Burmese lessons]
* [http://www.soas.ac.uk/sea/burmese/ Burmese language resources] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901020843/http://www.soas.ac.uk/sea/burmese/ |date=2009-09-01 }}) – [[School of Oriental and African Studies|SOAS]]
* {{Cite web| title = E-books for children with narration in Burmese
| work = Unite for Literacy library
| access-date = 2014-06-21
| url = http://www.uniteforliteracy.com/
}}
* [http://mcf.org.mm/myanmar-unicode.html Myanmar Unicode and NLP Research Center] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220126204423/http://mcf.org.mm/myanmar-unicode.html |date=2022-01-26 }}
*[http://www.myanmarlanguage.org/article/download-unicode-fonts-and-keyboards Myanmar 3 font and keyboard]
*[http://www.myanmar-dictionary.org/ Burmese online dictionary] ([[Unicode]])
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110810232141/http://ayar.co/ Ayar Myanmar online dictionary]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180510185408/http://themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/Ethnologue_Map_Main_Spoken_Languages_of_MyanmarNeighbour_MIMU1300v02_27Nov2017_A1.pdf Ethnologue Map Main Spoken Languages of Myanmar Neighbor]
* [https://code.google.com/p/kanaung/downloads/list Download KaNaungConverter_Window_Build200508.zip from the Kanaung project page and Unzip] [https://code.google.com/p/kanaung/downloads/detail?name=KaNaungConverter_Window_Build200508.zip&can=2&q= Ka Naung Converter Engine]

{{Burmese language}} {{Lolo-Burmese languages}} {{Languages of Burma}}
{{Authority control}} {{Burma (Myanmar) topics}} {{Asia in topic|Languages of}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burmese Language}}
[[Category:Languages of Myanmar| ]]
[[Category:Burmese language| ]]
[[Category:Analytic languages]]
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[[Category:Languages of India]]
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