Burmese language

Burmese
Burmese
Myanmar language; မြန်မာ
Pronunciation	IPA: [mjəmà] ; [mjəmà ]
Native to	Myanmar, Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts), India (Tripura), China (Yunnan), Thailand (Mae Hong Son and Tak)
Region	Myanmar
Ethnicity	Barma people
Era	Burmesee25; Second language: 10 million (no date)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman?) Lolo-Burmese Burmish Burmese; ; ; ;
Early forms:	Old Burmese Middle Burmese Burmese; ;
Writing system	Mon–Burmese (Burmese alphabet); Burmese Braille
Official status
Official language in	Myanmar Southeast Asia
Regulated by	Myanmar Language Commission
Language codes
ISO 639-1	my
ISO 639-2	bur (B); mya (T)
ISO 639-3	Variously:; mya; int; tco; rki; rmz; Tay
Linguasphere	77-AAA-a
	Areas where Burmese is spoken (in dark blue those areas where it is more widely spoken).(The map does not indicate where the language is majority or minority.)
	This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
	This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Template:Expand Burmese

Burmese (in Burmese ba-ma-sa, pronounced /baa-MAA-saa/) is a language spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma). Burmese is a Sino-Tibetan language, meaning that is close to Chinese and Tibetan.

Writing system

Burmese is written in Burmese script.

Tones

Burmese is a tonal language. Burmese has three tones (high, medium, low: plus two 'stops or abbreviated additional, qualifying 'tones)

Burmese has no gender. For instance, the word သူ (pronounced "thew") could mean "he" or "she". However, some words have natural gender e.g. ဆရာ saya (male teacher) and ဆရာမ sayama (female teacher).

Unlike in English, verbs in Burmese do not change based on tense. Instead, other words are added after to show tense.

Loan words

Burmese has many English and Indian words (loan words) due to colonization by the British and interaction with the neighboring country of India. However, Burmese is a very distinct and full language itself with a long history and many different dialects.

Examples

Here are some examples of words and sentences in Burmese.

Hello = min-ga-la-ba

How are you? = Nei kaun la?

I am (name) = Cha-naw yè nan-bè ga _______

(Kya-naw is replaced with kya-ma for females.

What is your name? = Ka-mya na mei be' lo khal le' (OR) na mei be' lo khal le' (You can omit "Ka-mya=You")

Are you from Burma? = Nae ba-ma pyi ga la da la?

(Note: To ask if someone is from other countries, just replace ba-ma pyi with any of the countries below.)

America = A-mè-ree-ka
France = Pyin-thit
Britain = In-ga-lan
Germany = Ja-ma-nee
Russia = Ra-sha
Thailand = Yoe-da-ya
Japan = Ja-pan
Chinese = Ta-yote
Indian = in-di-yah

Burmese Language Media

A Burmese speaker, recorded in Taiwan.
The Myazedi inscription, dated to AD 1113, is the oldest surviving stone inscription of the Burmese language.
Sampling of various Burmese script styles
Myanmar3, the de jure standard Burmese keyboard layout