Burmese language
Sino-Tibetan language of Myanmar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
 | This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Burmese. Click [expand] for important translation instructions.
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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.
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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.)
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References
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