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 a majority or minority.
This article contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script.
A Burmese speaker, recorded in Taiwan
Burmese (Burmese: မြန်မာဘာသာ; MLCTS: Mranma bhasa; pronounced[mjəmàbàθà]) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar, where it is the official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Bamar, the country's principal ethnic group. Burmese is also spoken by the indigenous tribes in Chittagong Hill Tracts (Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Cox's Bazar) in Bangladesh, and in Tripura state in India. The Constitution of Myanmar officially refers to it as the Myanmar language in English,[2] 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.[3] In 2007, it was spoken as a first language by 33 million.[4] Burmese is spoken as a second language by another 10 million people, including ethnic minorities in Myanmar like the Mon and also by those in neighboring countries.[5] In 2022, the Burmese-speaking population was 38.8 million.[citation needed]
Burmese is a tonal, pitch-register, and syllable-timed language,[6] largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with a subject–object–verb word order. It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Burmese alphabet is ultimately descended from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabets.
^ abBurmese at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Myanmar at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Intha at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Taungyo at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Rakhine at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Marma ("မရမာ") at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Tavoyan dialects at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008), Chapter XV, Provision 450
^Bradley 1996.
^Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. Burmese (Burmese: မြန်မာဘာသာ;...
hundred languages spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma). Burmese, spoken by two-thirds of the population, is the official language. Languages spoken...
mixed incidences of adoption. In the Burmeselanguage, Burma is known as Myanmar Pyi (Burmese: မြန်မာပြည်). Myanmar Pyi is the written, literary name of...
(/rəˈkaɪn/; Burmese: ရခိုင်ဘာသာ, MLCTS: ra.hkuing bhasa [ɹəkʰàɪɴ bàθà]), also known as Arakanese, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Myanmar, primarily...
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. Burmese Indians...
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. The Burmese alphabet...
a Burmese-based alphabet taught in the 1970s and 1980s. Burmese Sign Language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Nobutaka Kamei, 2004. "Sign language in...
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. Burmese cuisine...
The Burmese cat (Burmese: ဗမာကြောင်, Băma kyaung, Thai: ทองแดง or ศุภลักษณ์, RTGS: Thongdaeng or Supphalak, meaning copper colour) is a breed of domestic...
(Burmese: မြန်မာ ကိန်းဂဏန်းများ, Burmese pronunciation: [mjàɰ̃mà kéiɰ̃ ɡa̰náɰ̃ mjá]) are a set of numerals traditionally used in the Burmeselanguage,...
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. Burmese names (Burmese:...
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. Myanmar, officially...
Tatmadaw (Burmese: တပ်မတော်; MLCTS: tatma.taw, IPA: [taʔmədɔ̀], lit. 'Grand Armed Forces') or Sit-Tat (Burmese: စစ်တပ်) is the military of Myanmar (formerly...
Southeast Asia Burmese people BurmeselanguageBurmese alphabet Burmese cuisine Burmese culture Burmese cat Burmese chicken Burmese (horse), a horse given to...
Chinese Burmese, also Sino-Burmese or Tayoke (Burmese: တရုတ်), are Burmese citizens of Han Chinese ethnicity. They are a group of overseas Chinese born...
Burmese Americans (Burmese: မြန်မာဇာတိနွယ် အမေရိကန် [mjəmà nwɛ̀bwá ʔəmèjḭkàɰ̃]) are Americans of full or partial Burmese ancestry, encompassing individuals...
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. The Shan language is...
Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. The Bamar (Burmese:...
Burmese English (also called Myanmar English) is the register of the English language used in Myanmar (Burma), spoken as first or second language by an...
Burmese people or Myanma people (Burmese: မြန်မာလူမျိုး) are citizens or people from Myanmar (Burma), irrespective of their ethnic or religious background...
presidents of Myanmar (also known as Burma) since the Burmese Declaration of Independence in 1948. 1948–1962: President of the Union of Burma 1962–1974:...
Romanization of the Burmese alphabet is representation of the Burmeselanguage or Burmese names in the Latin alphabet. The MLC romanization system (1980)...
contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script. Yangon (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်;...
Burmese Gurkhas (Burmese: ဂေါ်ရခါးလူမျိုးများ; Nepali: गोरखाली) are a group of Nepali language speaking Burmese people of Khas/Gurkha ethnic group living...
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