Rhode Island College
M.Ed. In TESL Program
Language Group Specific Informational Reports
Produced by Graduate Students in the M.Ed. In TESL Program
In the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development
Language Group: Burmese
Author: Jeff Grifka
Program Contact Person: Nancy Cloud ([email protected])
THE BURMESE
LANGUAGE
Jeff Grifka
TESL 539
Summer 2011
BACKGROUND
The Burmese or Myanmar script
came from the Mon script, which
derived from a southern Indian
script during the 8th century. The
earliest known inscriptions in the
Burmese script date from the 11th
century.
c. 1058–present
Burmese is spoken by 32 million
as a first language and as a
second language by 10 million,
particularly ethnic minorities in
Burma and those in neighboring
countries.
(http://www.appliedlanguage.com/ )
CLASSIFICATIONS AND FEATURES:
The language is classified into two categories: Formal and
Colloquial.
Formal is used in literary works, official publications, radio broadcasts,
and formal speeches.
Colloquial is used in daily conversation and spoken.
Diglossia occurs in Burmese, it is quite evident in speech and
writing.
The language type is called Abugida. The language system is
based on consonants. Vowel use is secondary in this
language.
Type of writing system: syllabic alphabet - each letter has an
inherent vowel [a]. Other vowels sounds are indicated using
separate letters or diacritics which appear above, below, in
front of, after or around the consonant.
FEATURES CONTINUED:
Script Features:
The rounded appearance of letters is a result of the
use of palm leaves as the traditional writing material.
Straight lines would have torn the leaves. The
Burmese name for the script is ca-lonh 'round script'.
Tone Burmese Symbol: Letter a
[ŋà] Normal phonation, medium duration, low intensity,
low (often slightly rising) pitch.
[ŋá] Sometimes slightly breathy, relatively long, high
intensity, high pitch; often with a fall before a pause.
[ŋa̰] Tense or creaky phonation (sometimes with lax
glottal stop), medium duration, high intensity, high
(often slightly falling) pitch.
Wikipedia
CONSONANTS:
The Burmese alphabet
consists of 33 consonants.
The first 25 consonants are
distributed into five
classes: gutturals, palatals,
cerebrals, dentals and
labials.
The rest are called liquids,
sibilant and aspirate.
•
Judson
(http://www.worldtranslationcenter.com/)
LANGUAGE USE TODAY:
Diglossia occurs to a large extent in the Burmese
language and is fairly noticeable in writing and
speech.
The written/literary form of Burmese has undergone
only a few changes and tends not to accommodate the
spoken/colloquial phonology of standard Burmese
language today.
Due to innate pronunciation rules, literate Burmese
speakers are able to intuitively interpret ancient
Burmese despite the potentially ancient nature of the
inscriptions.
Demonstrating that the modern method of expression
makes the language clearer and more
comprehensible.
Source: Omniglot
PHONOLOGY ISSUES:
Vowels cause many problems for Burmese learners of
English.
The language consists of 10 vowels (a, i, u, ou, o, [O], ei, e,
[E]).
The tone of each vowel is expressed in either a high pitch
or low pitch tone.
Example: Low /kʰà/ "shake"
High /kʰá/ "be bitter"
Creaky /kʰa̰/ "fee"
Checked /kʰaʔ/ "draw off"
The least marked high vowels take the creaky
tone(a special kind of phonation in which the
arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn
together, as a result, the vocal folds are compressed
rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and
compact) the mid vowels take the level tone and the
low vowels take the heavy tone.
The rules in English are much different and confuse
learners.
PHONOLOGY CONTINUED:
The Burmese language is pronounced by the
placement of the tongue and this can be an issue
when learning English:
Ex: “k” is used in the English language one way, the letter
can be translated to mean something by the way it’s
pronounced.
Regional varieties that could pose a problem to
Burmese English language learners:
Ex: people in New England pronounce the English
language much different from someone in Texas.
Learners may get confused with the different accents.
Letter issues:
Ex: few Burmese people can pronounce the letter “r” and
in their language substitute the letter “y” instead.
GRAMMAR: SYNTAX
The basic word order of the Burmese language is
subject-object-verb.
Burmese is monosyllabic (i.e., every word is a
root to which a particle but not another word may
be prefixed).
Sentence structure determines syntactical
relations and verbs are not conjugated. Instead
they have particles suffixed to them. For
example, the verb "to eat," (ca: [sà]) is itself
unchanged when modified.
Burmese is not a tense-marking language.
Source: agc.army.mil
LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES:
Errors learners make in translations from the Burmese
language to English:
Myint Su (1971) outlined many errors in her study that
exhibit non-discrimination by the learner between items
which have fewer meaning equivalents in Burmese:
Ex: Pyo can mean: ask, talk, speak and say
This results in the following errors:
Ex: Listen what the teacher speaks.
They talk that they get a new car.
My mother talks me to try for an examination.
These language issues can lead to miscommunications
when words are used in this manner.
Laufer-Dvorkin
LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES CONTINUED:
The lexical set of lend, borrow, hire, rent and let pose
translation issues. There are two Burmese equivalents:
Hoi means either lend or borrow.
Hgna can mean any of the five (lend, borrow, hire, rent, or
let)
This non-isomorphism explains the following errors that
are commonly made:
Ex: He lends the book from his friend.
I will borrow my bicycle to your father.
Landowners hire their wide lands to the poor.
Their inabilities to use the vocabulary properly can be
confusing to the person they are communicating with.
Laufer-Dvorkin
BURMESE COMMUNICATION STYLES
Never touch a person’s hair, head or cheek, even if you
consider it as a friendly gesture. Myanmar people would not
consider it friendly, and will think you are rude.
Don’t touch any part of a lady’s body. You might end up in a
police station.
Never raise your underwear above your head. This is
considered very rude.
http://www.myanmar2day.com/myanmar-culture-custom/2008/12/myanmar-etiquette-general-rules
Patting a child on the head not only is improper but is
thought to be dangerous to the child's well-being.
It is considered improper to lose one's temper or show much
emotion in public
A person should not point the feet at anyone
http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Burma.html#ixzz1OV51lZ37
/
STANDARD BURMESE KEYBOARD
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language)
If you notice, the capitalized symbols are much different
from the lower case symbols in the Burmese language.
Burmese language
HELPFUL ONLINE SITES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3McoyGA4SI
http://viss.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/10-things-i-
hate-about-the-burmese-language/
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/language.htm
http://www.sil.org/~hopplep/dissertation/chapters/Ch
apter_2_Burmese_Grammar.pdf
RESOURCES:
Books
Judson, A. (1866). Grammar of the Burmese language. Rangoon: American Mission Press.
Laufer-Dvorkin, B. (1991). Similar Lexical forms in interlanguage, x + 250, DM 124.
Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Internet Sites
Advameg, Inc. (2011). Burma. Countries and their cultures. Retrieved on June 4, 2011,
from: http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Burma.html
Ager, S. (2012). Burmese. Omniglot: Writing systems & languages of the world. Retrieved
May 25, 2011, from: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/burmese.htm
Burmese language. (2011). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on May
19, 2011, from:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/85560/ Burmese-language
Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Northern Illinois University. (2008). Burmese
language. Retrieved May 18, 2011, from:
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/language.htm
Chit Hlaing, F. K. L. (n.d.). Burmese [PDF]. Retrieved May 18, 2011, from:
http://www.agc.army.mil/Burma/Burmese_Language_Facts.pdf
Today in Myanmar. (2009). Myanmar etiquette – General rules. Retrieved on June 4, 2011,
from: http://www.myanmar2day.com/myanmar-culture-custom/2008/12/myanmar-
etiquette-general-rules/
Maps
Applied Language Solutions. (No photographer). Retrieved May 20, 2011, from:
http://www.appliedlanguage.com/maps_of_the_world/map_of_burma.shtml
Images
Burmese language. (2011). InWikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved May18, 2011
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language
World Translation Center. (No photographer). Retrieved May 18, 2011, from:
http://www.worldtranslationcenter.com/Burmese_Translation.php
M.Ed. in TESL Program
Nancy Cloud, Director
Educational Studies Department
Rhode Island College, HBS 206 #5
600 Mt. Pleasant Avenue
Providence, RI 02908
Phone (401) 456-8789
Fax (401) 456-8284
[email protected]
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