Like other abugidas, including the other members of the Brahmic family, vowels are indicated in Burmese script by diacritics, which are placed above, below, before or after the consonant character. The Burmese script has 33 letters to indicate the initial consonant of a syllable and four diacritics to indicate additional consonants in the onset.
LettersĪ letter is a consonant or consonant cluster that occurs before the vowel of a syllable. The remaining eight letters ((Burmese: ယ), (Burmese: ရ), (Burmese: လ), (Burmese: ဝ), (Burmese: သ), (Burmese: ဟ), (Burmese: ဠ), (Burmese: အ)) are grouped together as a wek (Burmese: အဝဂ်,), as they are not arranged in any particular pattern. This is true of the first twenty-five letters in the Burmese alphabet, which are called grouped together as wek byi (Burmese: ဝဂ်ဗျည်း, from Pali). 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. ArrangementĪs with other Brahmic scripts, the Burmese alphabet is arranged into groups of five letters for stop consonants called wek (Burmese: ဝဂ်, from Pali) based on articulation. Aung-Thwin therefore argues that Mon script descended from Burmese script and not vice versa. There is however a paleographic link between the Burmese script and Pyu script, and there were close cultural, linguistic, historic and political ties between Pyu and Burmese speakers for at least two to three centuries before the first contact between Burmese speakers and Mon speakers. The scholar Aung-Thwin has argued that the Burmese script most likely descended from the Pyu script and not from the Old Mon script, as there is no historical record of Mon migration from Dvaravati to Lower Burma, no inscription found in the Dvaravati script in Lower Burma, no proven relationship between the writing systems of Dvaravati and Pagan, and there are no dated Old Mon inscriptions except for those written in the Burmese script, in the entire country of Myanmar. The Burmese alphabet is an adaptation of the Pyu script, or Old Mon script and it is ultimately of South Indian origin, from either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet. There are several systems of transliteration into the Latin alphabet for this article, the MLC Transcription System is used. The alphabet has undergone considerable modification to suit the evolving phonology of the Burmese language. A stylus would rip these leaves when making straight lines. 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. 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. (See Burmese script.)īurmese is written from left to right and requires no spaces between words, although modern writing usually contains spaces after each clause to enhance readability. In recent decades, other, related alphabets, such as Shan and modern Mon, have been restructured according to the standard of the now-dominant Burmese alphabet. The Burmese alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. It is ultimately a Brahmic script adapted from either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India and more immediately an adaptation of Pyu script or Old Mon script. The Burmese alphabet (Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ|MLCTS=mranma akkha.ra, in Burmese pronounced as /mjəmà ʔɛʔkʰəjà/) is an abugida used for writing Burmese.