.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Burmese. Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Burmese article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the Simple English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing Burmese Wikipedia article at [[:my:Burmese]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template ((Translated|my|Burmese)) to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Burmese
Myanmar language
မြန်မာ
PronunciationIPA: [mjəmà]
[mjəmà ]
Native toMyanmar, Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts), India (Tripura), China (Yunnan), Thailand (Mae Hong Son and Tak)
RegionMyanmar
EthnicityBarma people
EraBurmesee25
Second language: 10 million (no date)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Early forms
Old Burmese
  • Middle Burmese
Mon–Burmese (Burmese alphabet)
Burmese Braille
Official status
Official language in
Myanmar
Southeast Asia
Regulated byMyanmar Language Commission
Language codes
ISO 639-1my
ISO 639-2bur (B)
mya (T)
ISO 639-3Variously:
mya
int
tco
rki
rmz
Tay
Glottolognucl1310
Linguasphere77-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 article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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

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Burmese is written in Burmese script.

Tones

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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

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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

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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.)

References

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  1. Cite error: The named reference e25 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).