Burmese language Facts for Kids

This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Burmese (in Burmese ba-ma-sa, pronounced /baa-MAA-saa/) is a language spoken in Myanmar. Burmese is a Sino-Tibetan language, meaning that is close to Chinese and Tibetan.

Burmese has three tones (high, medium, low: plus two 'stops or abbreviated additional, qualifying 'tones), no gender {have natural gender e.g. saya (male teacher), sayama(female teacher)}, and no tense. Burmese has many English and Indian words(loan words) though is a very distinct and full language itself with a long history and substantial numbers of proudly articulated 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' 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.)

America = A-mè-ree-ka
France = Pyin-thit
Britain = In-ga-lan
Germany = Ja-ma-nee
Russia = Ra-sha
Thailand = Yoe-da-ya
Japan = Ja-pan
Chinese = Ta-yote
Indian = in-di-yah

Images for kids

After applying the linguistic comparative method to the database of comparative linguistic data developed by Laurent Sagart in 2019 to identify sound correspondences and establish cognates, phylogenetic methods are used to infer relationships among these languages and estimate the age of their origin and homeland.
The Myazedi inscription, dated to AD 1113, is the oldest surviving stone inscription of the Burmese language.
Sampling of various Burmese script styles
Myanmar3, the de jure standard Burmese keyboard layout

Burmese language facts for kids

Examples

Images for kids

See also