Burmese (2)

Author: Zhou Siqian et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-09-01
Features: Burmese is the official language of the Union of Myanmar and belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Burmese script is a monosyllabic alphabetic script with thirty-three consonant letters. Vowels are divided into three types: basic vowels, short vowels, and nasal vowels. Burmese is a tonal language with four tones: high-falling, low-level, high-level, and short tones, where tones differentiate word meanings. The Burmese script is circular and written from left to right. Vowels and tones are represented by symbols. Burmese has both spoken and written forms, which differ somewhat. The basic word order in Burmese is subject + object + predicate. Various elements in Burmese sentences generally require auxiliary words, and grammatical relationships are often expressed through these auxiliary words. Burmese exhibits frequent phonetic changes, where writing and pronunciation differ.