Burmese alphabet

The Burmese alphabet (Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ myanma akkha.ya, pronounced [mjəmà ʔɛʔkʰəjà]) is an abugida used for writing Burmese. It is ultimately adapted from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The Burmese alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. In recent decades, other, related alphabets, such as Shan and modern Mon, have been restructured according to the standard of the Burmese alphabet (see Mon–Burmese script.)Burmese is written from left to right and requires no spaces between words, although modern writing usually contains spaces after each clause to enhance readability and to avoid grammar complications. There are several systems of transliteration into the Latin alphabet; for this article, the MLC Transcription System is used.HistoryA Pali manuscript of the Buddhist text Mahaniddesa showing three different styles of the Burmese alphabet, (top) medium square, (centre) round and (bottom) outline round in red lacquer from the inside of one of the gilded coversThe Burmese alphabet was derived from the Pyu script, the Old Mon script, or directly from a South Indian script,[3] either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet.[1] The earliest evidence of the Burmese alphabet is dated to 1035, while a casting made in the 18th century of an old stone inscription points to 984.[1] Burmese calligraphy originally followed a square format but the cursive format took hold from the 17th century when popular writing led to the wider use of palm leaves and folded paper known as parabaiks.[4] A stylus would rip these leaves when making straight lines.[4] The alphabet has undergone considerable modification to suit the evolving phonology of the Burmese language.ArrangementAs with other Brahmic scripts, the Burmese alphabet is arranged into groups of five letters for stop consonants called wek (ဝဂ်, from Pali vagga) based on articulation. Within each group, the first letter is tenuis ("plain"), the second is the aspirated homologue, the third and fourth are the voiced homologues and the fifth is the nasal homologue. This is true of the first twenty-five letters in the Burmese alphabet, which are called grouped together as wek byi (ဝဂ်ဗျည်း, from Pali vagga byañjana). The remaining eight letters (⟨ယ⟩, ⟨ရ⟩, ⟨လ⟩, ⟨ဝ⟩, ⟨သ⟩, ⟨ဟ⟩, ⟨ဠ⟩, ⟨အ⟩) are grouped together as a wek (အဝဂ်, literal translation"}]],"parts":[{"template":{"target":{"wt":"Lit","href":"./Template:Lit"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"without group"}},"i":0}}]}">lit. 'without group'), as they are not arranged in any particular pattern.LettersA letter is a consonant or consonant cluster that occurs before the vowel of a syllable. The Burmese alphabet has 33 letters to indicate the initial consonant of a syllable and four diacritics to indicate additional consonants in the onset. Like other abugidas, including the other members of the Brahmic family, vowels are indicated in Burmese alphabet by diacritics, which are placed above, below, before or after the consonant character. A consonant character with no vowel diacritic has the inherent vowel [a̰] (often reduced to [ə] when another syllable follows in the same word).The following table provides the letter, the syllable onset in IPA and the way the letter is referred to in Burmese, which may be either

Affiliate Disclaimer: Lingalot is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate this site earns from qualifying purchases. We may also use affiliate links for other programmes. (See full affiliate disclosure.) If you want to be able to read and write in Burmese then the first step is learning the alphabet. This can be daunting at first but with the right resources you’ll master it in no time.This guide will give you the resources you need and tell you how to learn the Burmese alphabet.Table of ContentsHow Is Burmese Written?How Many Letters Are There In The Burmese Alphabet?Learn The Burmese Alphabet OnlineQuizletMemriseAsia Pearl TravelsLearn The Burmese Alphabet With YouTube VideosVideo Resource 1Video Resource 2Learn The Burmese Alphabet With Worksheets And BooksTracing BookReference BookHow Is Burmese Written?The Burmese alphabet is a Brahmic script adapted from either the Pyu Script or the Old Mon script, both of which are from South India. The Burmese script dates back at least to the year 1035, so it’s exact origins are not fully clear. Burmese is written from left to right and doesn’t require the use of any spaces between words. Modern writing does often include spaces to help with readability. The letters of the Burmese alphabet are rounded, this is because when the script was developed back in the 11th century, it was traditionally written on palm leaves. They had to use curved lines as the straight lines would have torn the leaves. So, how much do you actually need to learn?How Many Letters Are There In The Burmese Alphabet?The Burmese alphabet is an abugida which means each letter is made up of a consonant and a vowel. This is different to English where each letter is either a consonant or a vowel. The Burmese alphabet contains 33 letters. These letters indicate the consonant of that sound. These letters can be modified with a glyph known as a diacritic. This indicates the sound that will follow the consonant. These diacritics can be before, after, above or below the letter. As an example, the letter က represents the sound ‘k’. This symbol can be altered to ကိ. The little circle above the letter changes the sound to ‘ki’. There are many variations of each letter which indicate a different sound.Here are some more:ကံ့ is ‘kam’, ကပ် is ‘kap’ and ကိံ is ‘kim’. If there is no diacritic associated with the letter, it will be pronounced with an ‘a’ vowel sound so the symbol က on it’s own would be pronounced ‘ka’. This might sound complicated but there are plenty of resources out there to help you learn the Burmese alphabet. There’s lots of variety and different resources that meet different peoples needs.Let’s have a look at some.There’s plenty of great online resources that will help you learn the Burmese alphabet, many of which are completely free. QuizletQuizlet is an online learning tool that uses flashcards and games to help you learn! They have a free flashcard deck featuring the Burmese

Alphabet. There’s loads of different ways to study the flashcards with Quizlet. Use this deck on Quizlet to learn the basic 33 consonants.Once you’re feeling confident with those, you can use this deck on Quizlet to study the diacritics and the sounds they make.I’d recommend using the ‘Learn’ feature which creates a personalised study plan just for you and uses spaced repetition to help you master the alphabet. You can also learn with games such as ‘Match’ where you match the corresponding letters.MemriseMemrise is an online language learning app that uses fun games to help it’s users learn their chosen language. They have a free Burmese alphabet course that will teach you to recognise the Burmese letters and the sounds they make. It’s really interactive and gradually introduces all the letters slowly so you have time to consolidate them all. There’s also plenty of opportunities to practice what you’ve learnt. The only issue is that it doesn’t have sound so I’d suggest using another resource alongside it to ensure you have the correct pronunciation. The next resource is perfect for this.Asia Pearl TravelsThis website is a great reference point for the Burmese alphabet. It shows all the letters in a handy table. The best part is that you can click on any letter and hear the pronunciation.This website discusses the different forms of each letter, including fantastic explanations of how the script works and how the diacritics alter the sounds. Click here to visit their website.Learn The Burmese Alphabet With YouTube VideosYouTube is a fantastic resource for learning any language as there are so many videos uploaded everyday from all around the world. Videos are really useful resources as they will help you to improve your pronunciation. It’s important to know how to say the letters of the alphabet correctly. I’ve selected a few handy videos that you can use to help you learn the Burmese alphabet.Video Resource 1Bob Lyle has an excellent series of videos where he teaches you the Burmese alphabet in depth. He goes into lots of detail and breaks it down into really simple terms covering all the 33 consonants and all the different modifications and vowel sounds. You can check the full playlist for this series here.Check out one of the videos below: Video Resource 2This video by Professor Bo is great at teaching the pronunciation of the 33 consonants in Burmese. It goes over each letter individually and Professor Bo gives lots of tips and helpful explanations to help you master the sounds. Check it out below: Learn The Burmese Alphabet With Worksheets And BooksWorksheets and workbooks are especially good for learning how to write Burmese letters. If you want to be able to read and write in Burmese then try out some of these resources.Tracing BookYou can use a Burmese handwriting workbook, like this one, to practice writing the letters. Once you’re confident, you can then practice writing them yourself.Reference BookIf you’re looking for a book that goes into lots of detail then

"k": क (ka) कि (ki) कु (ku) के (ke) कॊ (ko)5. SyllabariesSyllabaries also represent syllables with a single symbol. However, with syllabary scripts, there isn't an element that looks the same across syllables with the same sound.In the Japanese script hiragana, characters that represent a "k" plus a vowel sound don't have a similar appearance:か (ka) き (ki)く (ku)け (ke)こ (ko)6. LogographiesEach character in a logographic script represents an entire word (or a smaller unit of meaning).The Chinese script hànzì is a logography: Each character has a meaning, and this meaning remains relatively stable even when the character is combined with other characters (although this may not be immediately evident through translation). For example:你 (nǐ) “you”好 (hǎo) “good”你好 (nǐ hǎo) “hello”Sometimes, the pronunciation of a character varies depending on which other characters it’s combined with, but its general meaning remains the same.A note about transliterationTransliteration is the process of representing the pronunciation of one script in the conventions of another script. For example, in the section above, the pronunciations in parentheses for the Hindi, Japanese, and Chinese symbols are transliterations of the pronunciation into the Roman alphabet. When something is transliterated into this specific alphabet, you may also hear it referred to as Romanization.Some languages have a single, fairly standard set of transliteration conventions, but others may have multiple systems of conventions developed by various people at different times.Now that's worth writing home about!Learning about writing systems is a fun way to see just how differently people and cultures around the world represent their languages.For more answers to your language and script questions, get in touch with us by emailing [email protected] major scripts of the worldNote that some of the languages listed here may also be written in other scripts. Script Type Example languages Arabic abjad Arabic, Persian (with modifications), Urdu (with modifications) Aramaic abjad Aramaic Armenian Alphabet Armenian Balinese abugida Austronesian Balinese, Old Javanese, Sanskrit Bengali (or Bangla) abugida Bengali (Bangla) Burmese abugida Burmese, Pali Canadian syllabics abugida (though sometimes classified as a syllabary) Cree, Inuktitut, Ojibwe Cherokee syllabary Cherokee Coptic alphabet Coptic Cuneiform logography Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, Old