The national anthem still refers to bama pyi or the "country of Burma". The debate is almost exclusively confined to the English language. The use of the latter pleased his hosts – the Myanmar presidential adviser, Ko Ko Hlaing, called the wording "very positive" and an "acknowledgement of Myanmar's government" – but White House officials were quick to play down the move as a "diplomatic courtesy". As both names are used in the country – Burma is more popular, Myanmar is more literary – the decision was rooted more in a desire to show disapproval for the noxious regime.īarack Obama had reportedly considered avoiding either name but in the end used both Burma and Myanmar on Monday during his short visit to the country. Others, such as the US and the UK, did not. Early independence fighters did not see any problem with this, nor for several decades did the army generals who took power in 1962.īut, after widespread pro-democracy protests in 1988, things changed and Burma became Myanmar, or, more specifically, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Rangoon became Yangon.
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The British, during their time as colonial overlords, referred to Burma and to its principal city Rangoon. There are very specific rules on which consonants can be stacked on top of which.What's in a name? A lot if you're a south-east Asian country emerging from decades of military dictatorship. In Burmese writing, consonants can be written on top of each other. When a language is spoken in more than one country, Ethnologue designates one of the countries as primary, usually the country of origin. Nasal vowels are not found in English, but are found in other languages like French and Portuguese. The subtitle names the primary country for the language. Other special sounds indicate that the vowels is nasal. Candidates are expected to translate into non-dialectical, non-regional formal written form of Burmese following the current standard spelling, punctuation and accentuation rules as published in a current Burmese Dictionary by the Department of the Myanmar Language Commission, the Ministry of Education of the Union of Myanmar or in any other current Myanmar Dictionaries officially published. Some of these special consonants indicate that the word needs to end with a puff of air, like in "uh-oh" between the uh and the oh. When these consonants are combined with the vowels that are already written, they are called syllable rhymes. These consonants have a special mark on them (်) called asat. However, words are written with consonants to indicate special vowel sounds that are allowed at the end of Burmese words. For example, "cat" would not be a word in Burmese because it has a "t" sound at the end. Syllable rhymes īurmese words cannot end in a consonant sound. In the Burmese language, 'Myanmar' is simply the more formal version of 'Burma.' The country's name was changed only in English. These marks are း (high tone) and ့ (creaky tone, but can only be used when an ending consonants is written down too). In written Burmese, tones are indicated by special marks. That means that the meaning of a word can change by how fast or slow someone let air out of their throats. Special marks are written around the letters to show other vowels.īurmese is a tonal language. For example, က is pronounced as "kah." When a lone letter is followed by another syllable, it is pronounced with a "uh" sound. There are rules about which consonants can be changed this way.Įvery letter has a "ah" sound when it's alone. For example, ရ makes a y sound (like you) but ရ + ှ makes ရှ which makes a sh sound (like shoe). To make more consonants, special marks are written around or below consonants. Two letters, ၐ ( ś) and ၑ ( ṣ), are only used in words that are from Sanskrit. There are letters that are used in words from Pali. For example, ဝ + ာ is written as ဝါ (wah) to avoid confusion with တ (t). Some letters are written different in different cases to avoid confusion with other letters.
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For example, the first row of consonants are all sounds that are made when the tongue is against the back of the mouth. Instead, consonants are organized by the parts of the mouth they are made in. The Burmese alphabet is not organized the same way as the ABCs. When they are alone, they have an "ah" sound, although people use the "uh" sound when another syllable follows it. There are 33 consonants in the Burmese alphabet. Extra marks are added to indicate vowels and tones.
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The Burmese alphabet has 33 basic consonants. Eventually, these round letters became the Burmese alphabet as we know it today. They had to make the letters round because straight lines would split the leaf and ruin it.