About Burmese as a Language
With a simple search on the Internet about the Burmese/Myanmar language you will typically land on Wikipedia pages . One of the first things you will read is about Myanmar as being part of the family of sino-tibetan languages .
On Wikipedia you can further read that this language family comprises about 400 languages including Chinese languages like Mandarin, which are pretty much dominant in terms of the number of speakers. Burmese takes the second place with about 35 million native speakers. As Burmese is the national language of Myanmar (with an estimated population of 54 million), there are in addition about 15 million people for whom Burmese is a (necessary) second language.
Burmese language has a number of characteristics of which we would like to present a few - those we consider most important - to give you an idea about the language.
Tones
Burmese is a tonal language which makes pronunciation and making sense of spoken words quite a challenge for most speakers of non-tonal languages. Burmese vowel sounds generally have three tones: a high tone, a low tone and a short (creaky) tone. For instance, the Burmese word ဝေ which sounds like 'way' carries a low even tone and conveys the meaning 'to distribute' while the word ဝေး, which still has the same rhyme 'way' but with a high tone or a sharper tone, means 'to be far'. Sometimes glottal stop which is a feature of the language is also considered a tone. However, we would rather regard Burmese glottal stops as closed syllables. Burmese also knows a short reduced vowel - also known as 'half vowel' or 'schwa' which is a term for a similar vowel sound in some European languages. The close example is the 'a' in the English words: about, ajar, ago etc.
Script
The script has a unique feature with an engraved circle structure and people generally consider it beautiful. The first traces of Burmese script go back to the late 10th or the early 11th century whilst its origin lies in India going back to Brahmi script of the 3rd century.
Words are mostly mono-syllabic or composed of monosyllables. In general Burmese syllables begin with a consonant (mostly termed as the head of a word) followed by a vowel sound which comes in either of the three tones or can be nasalised as well. Burmese consonants can be voiced or un-voiced, aspirated or non-aspirated, or take the form of a glottal stop. Script and pronunciation are linked, which makes learning the script worthy.
To make Burmese words more accessible to the rest of the world there are various methods to romanise the language, i.e. to transform the script into a Roman alphabetic structure. This can also be helpful to quickly learn vocabulary but does not convey a deeper sense of the language.
Pali Language
Burmese is largely influenced by Pali which is the language of Theravada Buddhism. It is the language in which many Buddhist texts were once written. Buddhism has a very strong influence on the life of Burmese people and has left its trace on the language. Pali is still studied and learnt in particular to have direct access to religious texts. Pali words in modern Burmese do not only denote religious terms but are also related to arts, politics and literature. Pali, therefore, has a similar role or significance as Latin and Ancient Greek for Europeans.
Word Order and Suffixes
The standard word order of a Myanmar sentence is Subject - Object - Verb and this grammatical norm is pretty stable but you will find a few variations. In general words themselves do not change. For example, you will not find a plural form of a noun. The plural sense is given by a suffix or particle affixed to the noun. Verbs are not conjugated but modified through suffixes that convey tense, mood, politeness, negation etc.
In our book we uniformly use the term 'suffix' to keep things simple. Suffixes are the main grammatical instrument to modify words and phrases in order to convey all the variety of contexts such as tenses, conditionals, forming nouns, pluralising nouns, pronouns or verbs and so on, just almost everything a language needs. This makes the grammar of Myanmar relatively easy to grasp and the attention of the learner can and in fact should be on tones and features of the script.
On Wikipedia you can further read that this language family comprises about 400 languages including Chinese languages like Mandarin, which are pretty much dominant in terms of the number of speakers. Burmese takes the second place with about 35 million native speakers. As Burmese is the national language of Myanmar (with an estimated population of 54 million), there are in addition about 15 million people for whom Burmese is a (necessary) second language.
Burmese language has a number of characteristics of which we would like to present a few - those we consider most important - to give you an idea about the language.
Tones
Burmese is a tonal language which makes pronunciation and making sense of spoken words quite a challenge for most speakers of non-tonal languages. Burmese vowel sounds generally have three tones: a high tone, a low tone and a short (creaky) tone. For instance, the Burmese word ဝေ which sounds like 'way' carries a low even tone and conveys the meaning 'to distribute' while the word ဝေး, which still has the same rhyme 'way' but with a high tone or a sharper tone, means 'to be far'. Sometimes glottal stop which is a feature of the language is also considered a tone. However, we would rather regard Burmese glottal stops as closed syllables. Burmese also knows a short reduced vowel - also known as 'half vowel' or 'schwa' which is a term for a similar vowel sound in some European languages. The close example is the 'a' in the English words: about, ajar, ago etc.
Script
The script has a unique feature with an engraved circle structure and people generally consider it beautiful. The first traces of Burmese script go back to the late 10th or the early 11th century whilst its origin lies in India going back to Brahmi script of the 3rd century.
Words are mostly mono-syllabic or composed of monosyllables. In general Burmese syllables begin with a consonant (mostly termed as the head of a word) followed by a vowel sound which comes in either of the three tones or can be nasalised as well. Burmese consonants can be voiced or un-voiced, aspirated or non-aspirated, or take the form of a glottal stop. Script and pronunciation are linked, which makes learning the script worthy.
To make Burmese words more accessible to the rest of the world there are various methods to romanise the language, i.e. to transform the script into a Roman alphabetic structure. This can also be helpful to quickly learn vocabulary but does not convey a deeper sense of the language.
Pali Language
Burmese is largely influenced by Pali which is the language of Theravada Buddhism. It is the language in which many Buddhist texts were once written. Buddhism has a very strong influence on the life of Burmese people and has left its trace on the language. Pali is still studied and learnt in particular to have direct access to religious texts. Pali words in modern Burmese do not only denote religious terms but are also related to arts, politics and literature. Pali, therefore, has a similar role or significance as Latin and Ancient Greek for Europeans.
Word Order and Suffixes
The standard word order of a Myanmar sentence is Subject - Object - Verb and this grammatical norm is pretty stable but you will find a few variations. In general words themselves do not change. For example, you will not find a plural form of a noun. The plural sense is given by a suffix or particle affixed to the noun. Verbs are not conjugated but modified through suffixes that convey tense, mood, politeness, negation etc.
In our book we uniformly use the term 'suffix' to keep things simple. Suffixes are the main grammatical instrument to modify words and phrases in order to convey all the variety of contexts such as tenses, conditionals, forming nouns, pluralising nouns, pronouns or verbs and so on, just almost everything a language needs. This makes the grammar of Myanmar relatively easy to grasp and the attention of the learner can and in fact should be on tones and features of the script.
References
HA very good language overview is provided by the Department of the Languages and Cultures of South East Asia of the University of London (SOAS). This Department has been a leader in Burmese language studies which is in particular due to the work of John Okell whose publications and language courses are a benchmark for everyone interested in studying Burmese. At the SOAS Website you can also find his excellent 'Burmese by Ear' audio files and the related reference document for free download.
A great source for Myanmar language study is Kenneth Wong who teaches Burmese at California University of Berkeley and provides free speaking lessons for beginners on YouTube. Do not miss his Kennethwongsf.blogspot.com and enjoy the great art on his website.
The Centre for Burma Studies at the Northern Illinois University is the key institution for Burma studies (not only the language but in particular art and culture) in the United States. They used to develop online material and courses which are still available and worth having a look at the lessons - and enjoy the cartoons.
Writing Myanmar script as such is not too difficult but writing it nicely is worth an effort. A Website of the Cornell University (New York) provides a useful animation.
The online dictionary of S.E.A.L.A.N.G library can also be of help, in particular if you want to do some work on your own initiative.
On Facebook we recommend joining the group BurmeseMyanmarLanguageLearning.
German speakers might also be interested in Uta Gärtner's work.
You might want to have a look at a website offering nicely made audio lessons.
You can also have a look at the following site: https://cracking-burmese.com
This site contains information and language examples including phrases
A great source for Myanmar language study is Kenneth Wong who teaches Burmese at California University of Berkeley and provides free speaking lessons for beginners on YouTube. Do not miss his Kennethwongsf.blogspot.com and enjoy the great art on his website.
The Centre for Burma Studies at the Northern Illinois University is the key institution for Burma studies (not only the language but in particular art and culture) in the United States. They used to develop online material and courses which are still available and worth having a look at the lessons - and enjoy the cartoons.
Writing Myanmar script as such is not too difficult but writing it nicely is worth an effort. A Website of the Cornell University (New York) provides a useful animation.
The online dictionary of S.E.A.L.A.N.G library can also be of help, in particular if you want to do some work on your own initiative.
On Facebook we recommend joining the group BurmeseMyanmarLanguageLearning.
German speakers might also be interested in Uta Gärtner's work.
You might want to have a look at a website offering nicely made audio lessons.
You can also have a look at the following site: https://cracking-burmese.com
This site contains information and language examples including phrases