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These notes are the result of my explorations into how the Myanmar script is used for the Burmese language in the context of the Unicode Myanmar block.
Unless you have a font that is Unicode 5.1 enabled, you should read the PDF version to see the examples. Each example has a superscript that links to a deconstruction of the characters involved in the lower part of the document. In major browsers, you should see the same information by mouseing over the example in the HTML version.
Myanmar is a tonal language and is syllable-based. The script is an abugida, ie. consonants carry an inherent vowel sound that is overridden using vowel signs.
Spaces are used to separate phrases, rather than words. Words can be separated with ZWSP to allow for easy wrapping of text.
Words are composed of syllables. These start with an consonant or initial vowel. An initial consonant may be followed by a medial consonant, which adds the sound j or w. After the vowel, a syllable may end with a nasalisation of the vowel or an unreleased glottal stop, though these final sounds can be represented by various different consonant symbols.
At the end of a syllable a final consonant usually has an 'asat' sign above it, to show that there is no inherent vowel.
In multisyllabic words derived from an Indian language such as Pali, where two consonants occur internally with no intervening vowel, the consonants tend to be stacked vertically, and the asat sign is not used.
Text runs from left to right.
There are a set of Myanmar numerals, which are used just like Latin digits.
Click on an image for detailed information about one of the following characters.
| Basic consonants: |
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| Other consonants: | 
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| Medial consonants |
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| Vowel signs: |
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| Compound vowels |
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| Independent vowels: | 
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| Combining marks: |
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| Symbols |
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| Punctuation: |
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| Digits: |
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| Pali & Sanskrit extensions |
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Unicode 5.1 lists 38 consonants (including 5 special forms). Native Myanmar words use a subset of the consonants that make up the traditional articulatory arrangement of indic scripts, however additional symbols are available for use in loan words, especially Indian loan words. These include the retroflex and voiced aspirated consonants. Yet more characters in the Myanmar Unicode block are used for variations for minority scripts based on myanmar. The latter are not dealt with here.
Syllable-final consonants and asat. When there is a consonant at the end of a syllable, it carries a visible mark called 'asat' to indicate that the inherent vowel is killed, eg. see the small 'c' like mark over the last character in ဝင် wĩ (enter). The U+103A MYANMAR SIGN ASAT is a new character provided in Unicode version 5.1 for this purpose. It is effectively a visible virama.
In native Myanmar, 9 characters (5 nasals, င ဉ ည န မ NGA, NYA, NNYA, NA and MA, and 4 stops, က စ တ ပ KA, CA, TA, PA) appear in syllable final position. In final position nasals are pronounced as a nasalization of the previous vowel, eg. ရင် yĩ (if), and all stops are pronounced ʔ, eg. မတ် maʔ (March).
Some syllables ending in nasal consonants use the anusvara rather than the ordinary consonant sign, eg. သိမ်း θèɪ̃ but သုံး θòʊ̃.
(Note that the ASAT is also used over ာ and ယ to produce vowel+tone combinations.)
Consonant stacking. In many multi-syllabic words (mostly derived from Pali), consonants that have no intervening inherent vowel are arranged such that the consonant cluster is stacked. The second consonant appears below the first, eg. မန္တလေး mã̀dəlè (Mandalay), and ဗုဒ္ဓ (Buddha). In some cases the lower character is abbreviated or reoriented, eg. က္ဌ.
This effect is achieved in Unicode by using the character U+1039 MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA between the consonants forming the cluster. Note that the virama is not visible.
Consonant repetition. Where the same consonant appears at the end of a syllable and the beginning of a new syllable in the same word they are commonly represented in the usual cluster form, eg. ပိန္နဲသီး pẽ̀nɛ̀dʰì (jackfruit).
In a few Burmese words, however, a doubled consonant is represented by a single consonant and asat, eg. ယောက်ျား yaʊʔcà (man, husband) and ကျွန်ုပ် (first person singular). Note how this produces a situation where an asat is used between a consonant and a medial or vowel sign. Refs: Hoskens
A repeated သ can be represented using U+103F MYANMAR LETTER GREAT SA ဿ. In modern Burmese, ဿ appears within words, whereas သ်သ is used across word boundaries. Refs: Uniprop, 3
Medial consonants. ယ YA, ဝ WA, ရ RA, and ဟ HA have special variant forms when used medially as modifiers of the syllable's vowel. They combine with the preceding characters, ie. ချက် cʰɛʔ (cook), ကြက် cɛʔ (chicken), နွား nwà (cow), and မှာ mʰa (in, at). It is also possible to find two medials associated with a consonant, eg. လျှ lʰjá or ʃá and မြွေ mwe (snake).
Dedicated medial signs exist in Unicode 5.1 for each of these uses. They are combining characters.
Note that Pali and Sanskrit texts written in the Myanmar script, as well as in older orthographies of Burmese, sometimes render the consonants YA, RA, WA and HA in subjoined form. In those cases, U+1039 MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA and the regular form of the consonant are used. Refs: Unicode
The medial HA is used to create aspirated versions of consonants, and also to create the sound ʃ. The latter is represented by either ရှ or လျှ (see the example above), depending on the word, eg. ရှိတယ် ʃídɛ (to have).
Kinzi. When the first consonant in a consonant cluster is a non-word-final င it rises over the following letter and keeps its virama, rather than pushing the following consonant below it, eg. အင်္ဂလန် ɪ̃gəlã (England). This is called 'kinzi'. To achieve this, use the sequence U+1004 MYANMAR LETTER NGA, U+103A MYANMAR SIGN ASAT and U+1039 MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA, then continue with the next letter.
Changes in Unicode 5.1. In Unicode 5.0, U+103A MYANMAR SIGN ASAT did not exist, and U+1039 MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA had to be used for both visible and non-visible viramas. This approach was problematic in that, since there are no spaces between words, it is not easy to automatically ascertain whether a virama should appear above a consonant or cause the stacking effect. For example, should my sequence of characters appear like this, အမ်မီတာ , or like this အမ္မီတာ? To get around this in Unicode 5.0 you needed to use a zero-width non-joiner (ZWNJ) after the virama if you want it to remain visible (ie. the first example above would have been transcribed as øm̸ˣʲmītā and the second as øm̸mītā). The non-joiner prevents stacking. In practice, this meant that there were very many ZWNJ characters in Burmese text, since there are many syllable-final consonants needing ASAT, and typing Myanmar was therefore much more time-consuming than it needed to be.
Unicode 5.1 also introduced dedicated medial consonants. This makes it easier to type myanmar text, but also allows for easy distinction of subjoined variants of these consonants rather than the usual medial forms.
One or two other characters were introduced, such as the TALL AA (described below).
Aspirated consonants. Burmese aspirates many consonants. In some cases these are separate characters, in other cases the aspiration is indicated using 103E: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL HA. Aspirated sounds include the following, where the last six use MEDIAL HA: Refs: Mesher, 12
Voicing. Unvoiced syllable initial consonants are typically pronounced with voicing when they appear in non-initial syllables of a word or in particle suffixes, unless they follow a syllable with stopped tone or follow the အ prefix. Aspirated consonants lose their aspiration at the same time. For example, သတင်းစာ (farmer) is pronounced θədĩ̀za not θətĩ̀sa. Because of the rule about the stopped tone (ie. a syllable ending in a plosive consonant), however, တစ်ဆယ် (ten) is pronounced təsʰɛ not təzɛ.
Note that care needs to be taken with compound words, since they contain more than one word-initial syllable, eg. နားထောင် (listen) is pronounced nàtʰaʊ̃not nàdaʊ̃. Refs: Mesher, 175-176
There is also an irregular pattern of voicing initial consonants, particularly with place names. Mesher provides examples of words beginning with စ ပ တ and ထ, eg. စေတီ (table) is pronounced zedi not sedi; ပုဂံ (Pagan/Bagan) is pronounced bəgã not pəgã; ထားဝယ် (Tavoy/Dawei) is pronounced dəwe not tʰəwe. Refs: Mesher, 251
Other phonetic information. The combination of velar stop and RA or YA are pronounced as c, eg. ကြက် cɛʔ, ကျပ် caʔ.
Some conventions exist for representing foreign sounds. f is ဖ (usually pʰ), v is ဗ (usually b) or ဗွ (usually bw), eg. တီဗွီ tivi. A foriegn syllable final sound can be rendered by placing a second killed consonant after the syllable, sometimes in parentheses, eg. ဘတ်(စ်) bas (bus).
The Unicode 5.1 Myanmar block groups vowel characters into 8 independent vowels and 7 dependent vowels.
Inherent vowel. The inherent vowel is a. Most of the time, Mesher treats this phonetically as ə.
The independent form, used for syllable initial position, is represented using အ, eg. အတန်း ətã̀ (class). Note that this is classed as a consonant rather than a vowel by the Burmese, and is actually a vowel carrier with the inherent vowel.
Independent/initial vowels. The consonant အ is used as a support for vowel signs, and the combination of that and the vowel sign is the normal native way of showing independent/initial vowels, eg. အိတ် eɪʔ (bag).
Some independent/initial vowels have an alternative form that is used in some words only - typically Indian loan words, eg. ဧရာဝတီ ejawádi (Irawaddy river), ဩဂုတ် ɔ̀goʊʔ (August), and ဤ i (this). There are normally different forms for specific tones, and normally only one or two vowel+tone combinations have these forms.
Long vs. short vowels. The 'primary' vowels have 'short' and 'long' written forms that hark back to the earlier Indic script origins, but the distinction is used nowadays for indicating different tones.
Vowel sign placement. Vowel signs appear above, below, or to the left or right of the base consonant. There are also vowel sign combinations that appear both top and bottom, and left and right.
A consonant cluster is treated as a unit when it comes to vowel-signs, for example အငွေ øṅw̱e, where the left-combining E is displayed to the left of the NGA although the character appears after the WA in memory.
On the other hand, vowel signs that would normally appear below a consonant are normally displayed to the right if something else intrudes on that space, such as a stacked consonant eg. စက္ကူ sɛʔku (paper), or a medial consonant eg. အဖြူ əpʰju (white), or a consonant with a 'descender' eg. အညို əɲoʊ (brown).
Contextual shape changes. In order to avoid visual confusion, there are two forms of the long -aa vowel sign in Burmese. ဝာ wa is hard to distinguish from တ ta, so a taller form of AA is used, ie. ဝါ. This form, whether alone or as part of a complex vowel, is used after the following consonants: ခ ဂ င ဒ ပ ဝ, eg. ပေါင် paʊ̃ (thigh). Where there is no ambiguity, however, the normal shape is used, eg. ပြောင်းဖူး pjaʊ̃̀bù (corn).
Whereas in Unicode 5.0 the choice of appropriate form was left to the font or implementation during rendering, such contextual decisions are not appropriate for Sgaw Karen and other minority scripts, which only use the tall form, so U+102B MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN TALL AA was added to Unicode 5.1 as a separate character. Refs: Unicode
As mentioned earlier, there are also special long forms of MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN U and MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN UU when there is not enough room for them below a cluster. These forms need to be produced by the font, since there are no special characters for them.
Tones. There are four tones in Burmese, creaky, low, high and stopped. A vowel plus tone combination is called a rhyme. The tone of a syllable can be indicated by the vowel used, or by a combination of vowel and diacritic. The stopped tone only, but always, occurs where a syllable ends in a stop consonant.
Refs: Meshner 7
Vowels in open syllables. There are 7 main vowel sounds in open syllables. The following lists those sounds and their different representations for the three tones in Burmese, creaky, low and high, that apply to open syllables. (Combining symbols are shown with အ, and alternate independent forms are shown in parentheses.)
| Description | creaky | low | high | example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | Primary central | inherent | အာ | အား | လာ la (come) |
| i | Primary front | အိ (ဣ) | အီ (ဤ) | အီး | မီး mì (fire) |
| u | Primary back | အု (ဥ) | အူ (ဦ) | အူး | တူ tu (chopsticks) |
| e | High front mid | အေ့ (ဧ) | အေ | အေး | နှေး nʰè (slow) |
| o | High back mid | အို့ | အို | အိုး | ဆိုး sʰò (bad) |
| ɛ | Low front mid | အဲ့ | အယ် | အဲ | ဘယ် bɛ (which) |
| ɔ | Low back mid | အော့ | အော် (ဪ) | အော (ဩ) | ပျော် pjɔ (happy) |
The following table summarises the above in a way that allows you to see how the various tones are applied to open syllables using the native Myanmar characters. Where long vs. short forms exist, for the purposes of clarity in the table, the long form is taken here to be the standard form and the short form a variant.
creaky low high a inherent vowel no mark visarga i short form no mark visarga u short form no mark visarga e dot below no mark visarga o dot below no mark visarga ɛ dot below killed-y form no mark ɔ dot below asat no mark
Vowels in closed syllables. Vowels in 'closed' syllables end in a glottal stop or nasalisation. Historically, however, they ended in one of four nasals or four stops, and this is still reflected in the orthography. The vowel quality has also evolved in these syllables, typically producing diphthongs.
To indicate that the consonant is syllable-final, an asat is placed over it.
The sound values of vowel signs used in open and closed syllables differs systematically as follows.
i becomes eɪ, eg. အိန် ʔeɪ̃; အိတ် ʔeɪʔ.
u becomes oʊ, eg.အုန် ʔoʊ̃; အုတ် ʔoʊʔ.
ɔ becomes aʊ, eg. အောင် ʔaʊ̃; အောက် ʔaʊʔ.
o becomes aɪ, eg. အိုင် ʔaɪ̃; အိုက် ʔaɪʔ.
The inherent a is a lot more complicated, becoming one of ɪ, e, a, or ɛ.
The list of most common sounds are given below. There are other combinations of vowel and final consonant found in Burmese words of Indian origin, which often stick to the original Indian spelling, however, they tend to follow Myanmar pronunciation, eg. ဓာတ် daʔ, ဗိုလ် bo, ဥယ္ယာဉ် úyĩ.
Vowels in closed syllables ending in nasals. The following table lists the main sounds in Burmese where the syllable ends in a nasal.
| င | ည | န | မ | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ã | အန် | အမ် | ပန်း pã̀ (flower) | ||
| ĩ | အင် | ဝင် wɪ̃ (enter) | |||
| ɛ | အည် | ||||
| ũ | အွန် | ဇွန်း zũ̀ (spoon) | |||
| eĩ | အိန် | အိမ် | အိမ် eĩ̀ (house) | ||
| oʊ̃ | အုန် | အုမ် | ရန်ကုန် yãkoʊ̃ (Rangoon) | ||
| aʊ̃ | အောင် | ကောင်း kaʊ̃̀ (good) | |||
| aɪ̃ | အိုင် | ဆိုင် sʰaɪ̃ (store) |
Note how အည် doesn't end in a nasalisation. There is another consonant, ဉ, which has come to be used to produce nasalisation.
These syllables are by default low in tone, but creaky and high tones can be indicated using -့ and -း in a very regular way. Note that the tone mark appears at the end of the syllable, not immediately after the vowel, eg. အုန့် and ကောင်း.
Vowels in closed syllables ending in stops. The following table lists the main sounds in Burmese where the syllable ends in a stop.
| က | စ | တ | ပ | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aʔ | အတ် | အပ် | ဖတ် pʰaʔ (read) | ||
| iʔ | အစ် | နှစ် nʰiʔ (year) | |||
| ɛʔ | အက် | ကြက် ceʔ (chicken) | |||
| ũ | အွတ် | လွတ်လပ် luʔlaʔ (independent) | |||
| eiʔ | အိတ် | အိပ် | အရိပ် ayeiʔ (shadow) | ||
| oʊʔ | အုတ် | အုပ် | စာအုပ် saoʊʔ (book) | ||
| aʊʔ | အောက် | နောက် naʊʔ (next) | |||
| aɪʔ | အိုက် | လိုက် laɪʔ (follow) |
These syllables are all unmarked 4th (stopped) tone.
Vocalic weakening. A process called vocalic weakening affects the first syllables of certain words (mostly nouns and adverbs), eg. ထမင် is pronounced tʰəmĩ́, not tʰámí̃; ဘုရား is pronounced pʰəyà, not pʰúyà.
The following table shows the order in which characters should be typed and stored in memory for a given syllable. Refs: Unicode
| kinzi | င U+1004 ် U+103A ္ U+1039 |
|---|---|
| consonants/vowels | [ က U+1000 .. ဪ U+102A | ဿ U+103F | ၎ U+104E ] |
| asat* | ် U+103A |
| subscript consonant | ္ U+1039 [ က U+1000 .. မ U+1019 | လ U+101C | သ U+101E | ဠ U+1020 | အ U+1021 ] |
| medial ya | ျ U+103B |
| medial ra | ြ U+103C |
| medial wa | ွ U+103D |
| medial ha | ှ U+103E |
| vowel sign e | ေ U+1031 |
| vowel sign i, ii, ai | [ ိ U+102D | ီ U+102E | ဲ U+1032] |
| vowel sign u, uu | [ ု U+102F | ူ U+1030] |
| vowel sign tall aa, aa | [ ါ U+102B | ာ U+102C] |
| anusvara | ံ U+1036 |
| asat sign | ် U+103A |
| dot below | ့ U+1037 |
| visarga | း U+1038 |
The following is a selection of examples of situations where OpenType or similar font features are needed to produce Burmese text as expected. It is not an exhaustive list.
Glyphs for subscripted consonants tend to be smaller than their full forms, eg. သဒ္ဒါ θəda (grammar), and may be rotated, eg. က္ဌ.
The shape of MEDIAL RA changes according to what it surrounds, eg. compare the two different widths in the word ကြက်သွန်ဖြူ cɛʔθũbju (garlic) and shortening at the top right of ဝန်ကြီး wũcì (minister). The joining behaviour of MEDIAL YA also differs, eg. ချက် cɛʔ (cook) vs ကျွန်မတို့ cəmádó (female we).
The ASAT varies its position and shape according to context, eg. လမ်း lã̀ (road), but ဒေါ်လေး dɔlè (aunt), and ရွှေပဲသီး ʃwebɛ̀ (snow peas).
The shape of NA changes when something appears below it, eg.နို့နဲ့ nónɛ́ (with milk). Similarly, the bottom of NYA ဉ also changes in the following context, ပဉ္စမ pjɪ̃zəmá́ (fifth).
The placement of the DOT BELOW, used as a tone mark, varies slightly according to context, eg. ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ pìgɛ́dɛ́ (last, ago) and တချို့ təcʰoʊ (some), as does that of MEDIAL HA, eg. it is smaller than usual in ကောက်ညှင်း kaʊʔnʰjɪ̃̀ (sticky rice).
Other examples noted above include the change of shape and position of VOWEL SIGN U and VOWEL SIGN UU when other items appear below the base consonant, and the production of the kinzi.
Spaces are used to separate phrases, rather than words. Words can be separated with ZWSP to allow for easy wrapping of text.
The Unicode 4.1 Myanmar block lists 2 punctuation characters. Punctuation is commonly limited to ၊ and ။, with significance close to comma and full stop, respectively.
1000: MYANMAR LETTER KA
Myanmar consonant
k, eg. ကား kà (car).
ʔ in final position in native syllables, eg. ဘက် bɛʔ (side).
g where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix).
1001: MYANMAR LETTER KHA
Myanmar consonant
kʰ
g where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix).
1002: MYANMAR LETTER GA
Myanmar consonant
g
1003: MYANMAR LETTER GHA
Myanmar consonant
g
Rarely used in modern Burmese.
1004: MYANMAR LETTER NGA
Myanmar consonant
ŋ , eg. ငါး ŋà (fish).
Vowel nasalisation in final position in native syllables, eg. ဝင် wĩ (enter).
When this is the first consonant in a consonant cluster and non-word-final, it rises over the second letter and keeps its virama, rather than pushing the second consonant below it, eg. အင်္ဂလန် ɪ̃gəlã (England). This is called 'kinzi'.
Before Unicode 5.1 it was occasionally difficult to automatically detect whether a kinzi followed by a medial consonant spans two syllables or not. This has been fixed in Unicode 5.1. The required sequence of characters to represent a kinzi is:
1004: 
MYANMAR LETTER NGA
103A: 
MYANMAR SIGN ASAT
1039: 
MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA
1002: 
MYANMAR LETTER GA (or whatever else follows the kinzi)
1005: MYANMAR LETTER CA
Myanmar consonant
s , eg. စာအှပ် saoʊʔ (book).
ʔ in final position in native syllables, eg. ရစ် jiʔ (pheasant).
z where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix), but also, irregularly, in word-initial position, eg. စေတီ zedi (table).
z in combination with ျ, eg. စျေး zè (market).
1006: MYANMAR LETTER CHA
Myanmar consonant
sʰ
z where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix).
1007: MYANMAR LETTER JA
Myanmar consonant
z
1008: MYANMAR LETTER JHA
Myanmar consonant
z, eg. ဈေး zè (market).
Rarely used.
1009: MYANMAR LETTER NYA
Myanmar consonant
ɲ.
Rare in initial position. It is also uncommon in final position, but it has come to be used to produce nasalisation, whereas U+100A: MYANMAR LETTER NNYA ည produces none, ie. ညဉ် ɲĩ, but ညည်း ɲì. Eg. လေယာဉ် lejĩ (airplane).
100A: MYANMAR LETTER NNYA
Myanmar consonant
ɲ, eg. ညာ ɲa (right).
Unlike other nasals, this is silent in syllable final position, eg. ညည်း ɲì, အမည်း amɛ̀ (black). Compare with U+1009 MYANMAR LETTER NYA ဉ, which does produce nasalisation at the end of a syllable.
100B: MYANMAR LETTER TTA
Myanmar consonant
t
Rarely used in modern Burmese.
100C: MYANMAR LETTER TTHA
Myanmar consonant
t
This character is rotated in conjuncts, eg. က္ဌ.
Rarely used in modern Burmese.
100D: MYANMAR LETTER DDA
Myanmar consonant
d
Rarely used in modern Burmese.
100E: MYANMAR LETTER DDHA
Myanmar consonant
d
Rarely used in modern Burmese.
100F: MYANMAR LETTER NNA
Myanmar consonant
n, eg. ဂဏန်း gənã̀ (crab).
Rarely used.
1010: MYANMAR LETTER TA
Myanmar consonant
t , eg. တက် tɛʔ (to be able to).
ʔ in final position in native syllables, eg. အိတ် eɪʔ (bag).
d where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix), but also, irregularly, in word-initial position, eg. ထားဝယ် dəwe (Tavoy/Dawei).
1011: MYANMAR LETTER THA
Myanmar consonant
tʰ
d where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix).
1012: MYANMAR LETTER DA
Myanmar consonant
d
1013: MYANMAR LETTER DHA
Myanmar consonant
d
1014: MYANMAR LETTER NA
Myanmar consonant
n, eg. နာရီ naji (hour)
Nasalises the vowel in final position in native syllables, eg. ဇွန်း zũ̀ (spoon).
1015: MYANMAR LETTER PA
Myanmar consonant
p, eg. ပိုက်ဆံ paɪʔsʰã (money).
ʔ in final position in native syllables, eg. သိပ် θeɪʔ (very).
b where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix), but also, irregularly, in word-initial position, eg. ပုဂံ bəgã (Pagan/Bagan).
1016: MYANMAR LETTER PHA
Myanmar consonant
pʰ
This is used to represent the foriegn sound f.
b where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix).
1017: MYANMAR LETTER BA
Myanmar consonant
b
Also used to represent the foriegn sound v or occasionally in the combination ဗွ bw̱, eg. တီဗွီ tivi.
1018: MYANMAR LETTER BHA
Myanmar consonant
b
pʰ sometimes at the beginning of words or particles, eg. ဘုရား pʰəjà (pagoda).
1019: MYANMAR LETTER MA
Myanmar consonant
m, eg. မာ ma (hard).
Nasalises the vowel in final position in native syllables, eg. အိမ် eɪ̃ (house, home).
101A: MYANMAR LETTER YA
Myanmar consonant
j
In final position with asat this indicates the low tone of the vowel အဲ ɛ, eg. ဘယ် bɛ (which).
For the medial form see 103B: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL YA.
101B: MYANMAR LETTER RA
Myanmar consonant
j, eg. ရေ je (water).
r in loan words, eg. ရေဒီယို rediyo (radio).
ʃ when followed by medial ha, eg. ရှိတယ် ʃíde (to have).
For the medial form see 103C: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL RA.
101C: MYANMAR LETTER LA
Myanmar consonant
l
ʃ or hlj in the combination လျှ
Silent at the end of some Pali words, eg. တက္ကသိုလ် təʔkəθo (university); ဗိုလ် bo (lieutenant).
101D: MYANMAR LETTER WA
Myanmar consonant
w
For the medial form see 103D: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL WA.
101E: MYANMAR LETTER SA
Myanmar consonant
θ eg. သိုး θõ̀ (three).
ð where affected by sandhi (typically non-word-initial, and not preceded by a glottal stop or အ prefix), eg. ပန်းသီး pã̀ðì (apple).
When doubled, the result is commonly the special character U+103F MYANMAR LETTER GREAT SA ဿ, rather than သ္သ.
101F: MYANMAR LETTER HA
Myanmar consonant
h eg. ဟုတ်ကဲ့ hoʔké (yes).
For the medial form see 103E: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL HA.
1020: MYANMAR LETTER LLA
Myanmar consonant
l eg. စကြဝဠာ sɛʔcawəla (universe).
Rarely used.
1021: MYANMAR LETTER A
Myanmar consonant / independent vowel
ʔ as a vowel support sign. For example, အိ is the standard Burmese way to represent an independent i vowel.
As an independent vowel without any other vowel sign attached it signals the creaky tone, and sounds like:
a or ə in open syllables, eg. အရိပ် ajeɪʔ (shadow).
ɪ in closed syllables, eg. အင်္ဂလန် ɪ̃gəlã (England).
ɛ (as an exception to the above) in closed syllables ending with ည်,
103F: MYANMAR LETTER GREAT SA
Myanmar consonant ligature
θ Used to represent a doubled သ. In modern Burmese, ဿ appears within words, whereas သ်သ is used across word boundaries. Refs: Uniprop, 3
103C: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL RA
Myanmar medial consonant
j, eg. eg. ပြည် pjɛ (country).
c in combination with an unvoiced velar stop, eg. ကြက် cɛʔ (chicken).
ɟ in combination with a voiced velar stop, eg. ကြား ɟà (between [particle]).
103D: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL WA
Myanmar medial consonant
w eg. သွား θwà (to go).
103E: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL HA
Myanmar medial consonant
Adds heavy aspiration to the preceding consonant, eg. နှာ nʰa (nose). Used when there is no consonant that is aspirated in its own right.
Special combinations:
ʃ when following ရ, eg. ရှိတယ် ʃíde (to have).
ʃ when combined with လ and ျ.
103B: MYANMAR CONSONANT SIGN MEDIAL YA
Myanmar medial consonant
y
c in combination with an unvoiced velar stop, eg. ကျား ca (tiger).
ɟ in combination with a voiced velar stop, eg. ဂျပန် ɟəpã (Japan).
1023: MYANMAR LETTER I
Myanmar independent vowel
í Alternative character for 'short' version of primary front vowel, used in syllable initial position, and indicating creaky tone, cf. အိ which uses the vowel support character and vowel-sign.
Used in some words only (typically Indian loan words).
1024: MYANMAR LETTER II
Myanmar independent vowel
i Alternative character for 'long' version of primary front vowel, used in syllable initial position, and indicating low tone, cf. အီ which uses the vowel support character and vowel-sign.
Used in some words only (typically Indian loan words). Also used in Burmese literary form for 'this'; alternative spelling is ဒီ.
1025: MYANMAR LETTER U
Myanmar independent vowel
ú, eg. ဥ ú (egg). Alternative character for 'short' version of primary back vowel, used in syllable initial position, and indicating creaky tone, cf. အု which uses the vowel support character and vowel-sign.
Used in some words only (typically Indian loan words).
1026: MYANMAR LETTER UU
Myanmar independent vowel
ù, eg. ဦး ù (uncle, Mr.). Alternative character for 'long' version of primary back vowel, used in syllable initial position, and indicating low tone, cf. အူ which uses the vowel support character and vowel-sign.
Used in some words only (typically Indian loan words).
1027: MYANMAR LETTER E
Myanmar independent vowel
e Alternative character for high front mid vowel, used in syllable initial position, and indicating creaky tone. Cf. အေ့ which uses the vowel support character and vowel-sign.
Used in some words only (typically Indian loan words), eg. ဧရာဝတီ ejawádi (Irawaddy river), ဧက eká (acre).
1029: MYANMAR LETTER O
Myanmar independent vowel
ɔ̀ Alternative character for low back mid vowel, used in syllable initial position, and indicating high tone. Cf. အော which uses the vowel support character and vowel-signs.
Used in some words only (typically Indian loan words), eg. ဩဂုတ် ɔ̀goʊʔ (August), ဩဇာသီး ɔ̀zaðì (custard apple).
102A: MYANMAR LETTER AU
Myanmar independent vowel
ɔ Alternative character for low back mid vowel, used in syllable initial position, and indicating low tone. Cf. အော် which uses the vowel support character and vowel-signs.
Used in some words only (typically Indian loan words).
102C: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN AA
Myanmar long vowel sign
On its own:
a in open syllables. Low tone by default. For high tone use visarga အား. For low tone use inherent vowel, instead.
A tall version of this sign is used when the combination of vowel+consonant could be confused with other consonants, eg. ပါ pa avoids confusion with ဟ h.
With MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN E: အော
The vowel signs surround the base character, eg. မော mɔ.
ɔ in open syllables. High tone by default. For creaky tone use low dot, အော့. For high tone use asat, အော်.
aʊ in closed syllables. Usually combines with the following finals, င က.
အော gives the independent/initial vowel ɔ for most native words. The alternative initial characters ဪ (low tone) and ဩ (high tone) are used in some words - particularly Indian loan words.
102D: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN I
Myanmar short vowel sign
On its own:
i in open syllables. Creaky tone by default (because it is a short form). For high and low tones use 102E: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN II.
eɪ in closed syllables. Usually combines with the following finals: န မ တ ပ.
အိ gives the independent/initial vowel i for most native words. Special initial character ဣ is used in some words - particularly Indian loan words.
With MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN U: အို
The vowel signs surround the base character vertically, eg. အို mo.
o in open syllables. Low tone by default. For creaky, use low dot, အို့. For high, use visarga, အိုး.
aɪ in closed syllables. Usually combines with the following finals: င က.
အို gives the independent/initial vowel o for most native words.
102E: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN II
Myanmar long vowel sign
i in open syllables. Low tone by default (because it is a long form). For high tone, use anusvara အီး. For creaky tone, use 102D: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN I.
အီ gives the independent/initial vowel for most native words. Special initial character ဤ is used in some words - particularly Indian loan words.
102F: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN U
Myanmar short vowel sign
On its own:
u in open syllables. Creaky tone by default (because it is a short form). For high and low tones use 1030: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN UU.
oʊ in closed syllables. Usually combines with the following finals န မ တ ပ.
အု gives the independent/initial vowel for most native words. The alternative initial character ဥ is used in some words - particularly Indian loan words.
With MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN I: အို
The vowel signs surround the base character vertically, eg. အို mo.
o in open syllables. Low tone by default. For creaky, use low dot, အို့. For high, use visarga, အိုး.
aɪ in closed syllables. Usually combines with the following finals: င က.
အို gives the independent/initial vowel o for most native words.
1030: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN UU
Myanmar long vowel sign
u in open syllables. Low tone by default (because it is a long form). For high tone, use anusvara အူး. For creaky tone, use 102F: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN U.
အူ gives the independent/initial vowel for most native words. Special initial character ဦ is used in some words - particularly Indian loan words.
1031: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN E
Myanmar vowel sign
On its own, open syllables:
Appears to the left of the consonant or consonant cluster, eg. မေ me.
e in open syllables. Low tone by default. For creaky tone, use low dot အေ့. For high tone, use visarga အေး.
အေ gives the independent/initial vowel for most native words. The alternative initial character ဧ is used in some words - particularly Indian loan words - and has creaky tone.
With MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN AA: အော
The vowel signs surround the base character, eg. မော mɔ.
ɔ in open syllables. High tone by default. For creaky tone, use low dot, အော့. For high tone, use asat, အော်.
aʊ in closed syllables. Usually combines with the following finals, င က.
အော gives the independent/initial vowel ɔ for most native words. The alternative initial characters ဪ (low tone) and ဩ (high tone) are used in some words - particularly Indian loan words.
1032: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN AI
Myanmar vowel sign
ɛ in open syllables. High tone by default. For creaky tone, use low dot အဲ့. For low tone, use 101A: MYANMAR LETTER YA with asat အယ်.
102B: MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN TALL AA
Myanmar long vowel sign
In order to avoid visual confusion, there are two forms of the long -aa vowel sign in Burmese. ဝာ wa is hard to distinguish from တ ta, so a taller form of AA is used, ie. ဝါ.
This form, whether alone or as part of a complex vowel, is used after the following consonants: ဝ ခ ဂ င ဒ ပ, eg. ပေါင် paʊ̃ (thigh). Where there is no ambiguity, however, the normal shape is used, eg. ပြောင်းဖူး pjaʊ̃̀bù (corn).
On its own:
a in open syllables. Low tone by default. For high tone use visarga အါး. For low tone use inherent vowel, instead.
With MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN E: အေါ
The vowel signs surround the base character, eg. မဂါ mɔ.
ɔ in open syllables. High tone by default. For creaky tone use low dot, အေါ့. For high tone use asat, အေါ်, eg. ဒေါ်လေး dɔlè (aunt).
aʊ in closed syllables. Usually combines with the following finals, င က.
အေါ gives the independent/initial vowel ɔ for most native words. The alternative initial characters ဪ (low tone) and ဩ (high tone) are used in some words - particularly Indian loan words.
1036: MYANMAR SIGN ANUSVARA
Myanmar combining mark
This character is sometimes used for the syllable-final nasal consonant, rather than the ordinary မ or န consonant sign, eg. သိမ် θèɪ̃, but သုံး θòʊ̃.
1037: MYANMAR SIGN DOT BELOW
Myanmar combining mark
Used to indicate creaky tone. For open vowels, it is used for the following:
အေ့, အို့, အဲ့, and အော့.
1038: MYANMAR SIGN VISARGA
Myanmar combining mark
Used to indicate high tone. For open vowels, it is used for the following:
အာ