Burmese alphabet

The Burmese alphabet (Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ, MLCTS: mranma akkhara, pronounced [mjəmà ʔɛʔkʰəjà]) is an abugida used for writing Burmese, based on the Mon–Burmese script. It is ultimately adapted from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The Burmese alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. In recent decades, other, related alphabets, such as Shan and modern Mon, have been restructured according to the standard of the Burmese alphabet (see Mon–Burmese script). Burmese orthography is deep, with an indirect spelling-sound correspondence between graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds), due to its long and conservative written history and voicing rules.

Burmese is written from left to right and requires no spaces between words, although modern writing usually contains spaces after each clause to enhance readability and to avoid grammatical complications. There are several systems of transliteration into the Latin alphabet; for this article, the MLC Transcription System is used.

The rounded and even circular shapes dominating the script are thought to be due to the historical writing material, palm leaves, drawing straight lines on which can tear the surface.

The Burmese alphabet was derived from the Pyu script, the Old Mon script, or directly from a South Indian script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet. 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. Burmese calligraphy originally followed a square format, as petroglyphs were a primary writing medium in Old Burmese.

The medial diacritic la hswe (လဆွဲ) was used in old Burmese from the Bagan to Innwa periods (12th century – 16th century), and could be combined with other diacritics (ya pin, ha hto and wa hswe) to form ⟨◌္လျ⟩ ⟨◌္လွ⟩ ⟨◌္လှ⟩. Similarly, until the Innwa period, ya pin was also combined with ya yit to form ⟨◌ျြ⟩. During the early Bagan period, the rhyme /ɛ́/, now represented with the diacritic ⟨◌ဲ⟩ was represented with ⟨◌ါယ်⟩.

The transition to Middle Burmese in the 16th century included phonological changes (e.g., mergers of sound pairs that were distinct in Old Burmese) that were accompanied by changes in the underlying orthography. The high tone marker ⟨း⟩ was introduced in the 16th century (the high tone was previously indicated with ဟ်). Moreover, ⟨အ်⟩, which disappeared by the 16th century, was subscripted to represent the creaky tone (it is now indicated with ⟨◌့⟩). The diacritic combination ⟨◌ိုဝ်⟩ disappeared in the mid-1750s, having been replaced with the ⟨◌ို⟩ combination, introduced in 1638. The rounded cursive format of Burmese took hold from the 17th century when popular writing led to the wider use of palm leaves and folded paper known as parabaiks. A stylus would rip these leaves when making straight lines.

The standard tone markings found in modern Burmese can be traced to the 19th century. During this time, ⟨◌ော်⟩ replaced ⟨ဝ်⟩ to indicate the rhyme /ɔ̀/. From the 19th century onward, orthographers created spellers to reform Burmese spelling, because of ambiguities that arose over transcribing sounds that had been merged. British rule saw continued efforts to standardize Burmese spelling through dictionaries and spellers.

In August 1963, the socialist Union Revolutionary Government established the Literary and Translation Commission (the immediate precursor of the Myanmar Language Commission) to standardize Burmese spelling, diction, composition, and terminology. The latest spelling authority, named the Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan (မြန်မာ စာလုံးပေါင်း သတ်ပုံ ကျမ်း), was compiled in 1978 by the commission.