Burmese alphabet facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Burmese |
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| Type | Abugida |
| Spoken languages | Burmese, Pali and Sanskrit |
| Time period | c. 984 or 1035–present |
| Parent systems |
Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
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| Unicode range | U+1000–U+104F |
| ISO 15924 | Mymr |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | |
The Burmese alphabet is a special writing system. It is used for the Burmese language and other languages. It also helps write religious texts in Sanskrit and Pali. Unlike the ABCs, Burmese letters are very round. They often look like circles.
Some people in Myanmar use this alphabet for their own languages. They add special letters for sounds unique to their language. Burmese text is always read from left to right.
Aku sayang kamu
Contents
How the Burmese Alphabet Started
The Burmese alphabet has a cool history. Long ago, monks wrote on palm leaves. If they used straight lines, the leaves would split. So, they made the letters round to protect the leaves. Over time, these round letters became the Burmese alphabet we see today.
Understanding Burmese Letters
The Burmese alphabet has 33 main consonants. Small marks are added to these letters. These marks show different vowel sounds and tones.
Consonants: The Building Blocks
There are 33 consonants in the Burmese alphabet. When a consonant is by itself, it usually makes an "ah" sound. But if another syllable follows it, it sounds more like "uh."
The Burmese alphabet is not arranged like our ABCs. Instead, consonants are grouped by where they are made in your mouth. For example, the first group of consonants are all sounds made with your tongue at the back of your mouth.
Some letters are written slightly differently. This helps avoid confusion with other similar-looking letters. For instance, ဝ + ာ is written as ဝါ (wah). This prevents it from looking like တ (t).
Some letters are only used in words from the ancient language of Pali. These include ဃ (gh), ဈ (jh), ဋ (ṭ), ဌ (ṭh), ဍ (ḍ), ဎ (ḍh), ဏ (ṇ), ဓ (dh), and ဠ (ḷ).
Two letters, ၐ (ś) and ၑ (ṣ), are only found in words from Sanskrit. They are pronounced the same as သ.
You can make even more consonant sounds. Special marks are placed around or below consonants. These marks are ျ, ြ, ွ, and ှ. They change the sound of the consonant. For example, ရ makes a 'y' sound (like in you). But ရ + ှ makes ရှ, which sounds like 'sh' (as in shoe). There are rules about which consonants can use these special marks.
Vowels: Changing Sounds
Every consonant has a basic "ah" sound when it's alone. For example, က is pronounced "kah." If another syllable comes after it, the sound changes to "uh."
To show other vowel sounds, special marks are added around the letters. These marks tell you how to pronounce the vowel.
Tones: The Music of Words
Burmese is a tonal language. This means the meaning of a word can change based on how you say it. It depends on how fast or slow you let air out of your throat. In written Burmese, special marks show these tones.
The mark း indicates a high tone. The mark ့ shows a creaky tone. This creaky tone mark can only be used when an ending consonant is also written.
Syllable Rhymes: Special Endings
Burmese words cannot end with a harsh consonant sound like 't' in "cat." However, words are written with consonants to show special vowel sounds. These sounds are allowed at the end of Burmese words. These consonants have a special mark called asat (်). When these consonants combine with vowels, they form what are called syllable rhymes.
Some of these special consonants mean the word ends with a puff of air. This is like the sound between "uh" and "oh" in "uh-oh." Examples are က်, စ်, တ်, ပ်.
Other special sounds mean the vowel is nasal. Nasal vowels are not common in English. But you can find them in languages like French and Portuguese. Examples include င်, ည် ဉ်, န်, မ်.
Stacking Consonants
In Burmese writing, consonants can sometimes be placed on top of each other. This is called stacking. There are very specific rules about which consonants can be stacked and how.
Burmese Numbers
The Burmese alphabet also has its own way of writing numbers.
၀ is 0 ၁ is 1 ၂ is 2 ၃ is 3 ၄ is 4 ၅ is 5 ၆ is 6 ၇ is 7 ၈ is 8 ၉ is 9
Images for kids
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A Pali manuscript of the Buddhist text Mahaniddesa. It shows three different styles of Burmese script. These are (top) medium square, (centre) round, and (bottom) outline round in red lacquer. This image is from the inside of one of the gilded covers.
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This image shows the stroke order and direction for writing Burmese consonants.
See also
In Spanish: Alfabeto birmano para niños
