Burmese phonology
The phonology of Burmese is fairly typical of a Southeast Asian language, involving phonemic tone or register, a contrast between major and minor syllables, and strict limitations on consonant clusters.
Consonants
Burmese has 34 consonant phonemes. Stops and affricates make a three-way contrast with voiced, voiceless, and voiceless aspirated. A two-way voicing contrast is also present with nasals and all approximants except for.Phonetic notes:
An additional rare occurs, but this only appears in toponyms and personal names that have retained Sanskrit or Pali pronunciations, ရာဇ raja. . Occasionally it is replaced with , pronounced or.
Medials and palatalisation
Burmese permits the palatalisation of certain consonants. Besides , which is often erroneously treated as a medial , Burmese only permits the palatal medial. This is derived from Old Burmese */-j-/ */-l-/ and */-ɹ-/, and is, therefore, reflected in various ways in different dialects. In MSB orthography, two spellings exist for the medial, one reflecting an original /-j-/, and one an original /-ɹ-/. Official government romanistion still reflects this fact, as Myanmar, in official romanistion is rendered mran-ma.The letter represents in initial position, but as a medial, it has completely merged with and. In OB inscriptions, this medial could be rendered with a subscript or "stacked" as in, a practice still used in the rare dialects, such as Tavoyan/Dawe where medial is still pronounced distinctly. Although the palatalisation of the labials is simple →, and the velar nasal predictably palatalises into a palatal nasal →. The palatalisation of leads, ostensibly to ; however, it often causes vowel raising or breaking, and may remain unchanged before. The velar stops palatalise into IPA|/n tʰ t d/IPA|/ɲ̊ sʰ s z/angbr|ဈangbr|စျ
The homorganic nasal and glottal stop
Only two consonants can occur word finally in native vocabulary: the homorganic or placeless nasal, and the homorganic or glottal stop. These bear some similarities to the Japanese moraic n, ン and sokuon っ.The glottal stop is the realisation of all four possible final consonants: , , , , and the retroflex found in loan words. It has the effect of shortening the vowel and precluding it from bearing tone. This itself is often referred to as the "checked" or "entering" tone, following Chinese nomenclature. It can be realised as a geminate of a following stop, although this is purely allophonic and optional as the difference between the sequence /VʔtV/ and /VtːV/ is only in the catch, and thus barely audible. The primary indicator of this final is the impact on the vowel.
The final nasal is the value of the four native final nasals: , , , , as well as the retroflex and nasalisation mark anusvara demonstrated here above ka which most often stands in for a homorganic nasal word medially as in တံခါး tankhá or else replaces final -m in both Pali and native vocabulary, especially after the OB vowel *u e.g. ငံ ngam, သုံး thóum, and ဆုံး sóum. It does not, however, apply to which is never realised as a nasal, but rather as an open front vowel or.
The final nasal is usually realised as nasalisation of the vowel. It may also allophonically appear as a homorganic nasal before stops. For example, in , which is pronounced.
Series of stops
is based on Brahmic script and can perfectly transcribe words from Pali, an Indic language. As a result, Burmese script uses far more symbols than Burmese needs for its phonemic inventory. Besides the set of retroflex consonants , , , , , and , which are pronounced as alveolar in Burmese. All stops come in sets of four: voiceless aspirated, voiceless, voiced, and voiced aspirated or murmured. The first set , , , and , as well as the second set , , , and are commonly used in Burmese. The voiced set , , , and are used in Burmese, but sparingly. They are frequently seen in loans from Pali. It may be possible to say that they exist only in loans; however, some of the words they appear in are so old and deeply integrated into the language that the three-way voicing/aspiration distinction can still be said to be an important part of the language. The final set , , , and are exceedingly rare. They are generally pronounced as voiced or, when following a syllable final stop, aspirated. The most common by far is used in the negative indicative verb particle ဘူး bhú or , and also in some common loans. Indeed, can be said to be the "default" spelling of in Burmese for loans and is restricted to older loans.Burmese voicing sandhi
Burmese exhibits voicing sandhi. Traditionally, Burmese has voiced voiceless unaspirated stops into voiced stops, which at first, was allophonic. However, due to the influx of phonemeic voiced stops from loan words, and owing to the extension of sandhi to voiceless aspirated stops as well – a feature which does not affect more conservative dialects – sandhi has become an important part of Burmese phonology and word building. In brief, the following shifts can occur in MSB:Additionally can become voiced under the same conditions, however this is purely allophonic since the voiced phone does not exist in any other context.
Sandhi can occur in two environments. In the first environment, consonants become voiced between vowels or after nasals. This is similar to rendaku in Japanese. This Therefore, can affect any consonant except the first consonant of the phrase or a consonant preceded by a stop.
The second environment occurs around reduced syllables. When a syllable becomes reduced, the vowel and any final consonants are reduced to a short schwa. Reduction cannot occur in the final syllable of a word. When a syllable becomes reduced, if both the consonant preceding and following the schwa – i.e. the consonant of the reduced syllable and the consonant of the following syllable – are stops, then both will be voiced:
In some compound works, the phoneme, when following the nasalized final, can shift to a sound:
The phonemes, when following the nasalized final, can become in compound words:
Aspiration and devoicing
Although Burmese natively contrasts unaspirated and aspirated stops, there is an additional devoicing/aspirating feature. In OB, h- or a syllable beginning with /h/ could be prefixed to roots, merging over time with the consonant of the following syllable. In the case of the unaspirated stops, these are replaced with the aspirated letter, however words beginning with use a subscript diacritic called ha-to to indicate devoicing: , although as noted above, is incredibly rare. Devoicing in Burmese is not strong, particularly not on nasals. The sequence is pronounced closer to than and is more noticeable in its tone raising effects.In many Burmese verbs, pre-aspiration and post-aspiration distinguishes the causative and non-causative forms of verbs, where the aspirated initial consonant indicates active voice or a transitive verb, while an unaspirated initial consonant indicates passive voice or an intransitive verb:
Vowels
The vowels of Burmese are:In addition to the above monophthongs, Burmese also has nasal and oral diphthongs: . There is debate on the phonemicity of some of the above vowels. For example, argues that is an allophone of in closed syllables and is a reduced allophone of other vowels. The monophthongs,,, and occur only in open syllables ; the diphthongs, and occur only in closed syllables. only occurs in a minor syllable, and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable.
The close vowels and and the close portions of the diphthongs are somewhat mid-centralized in closed syllables, i.e. before and. Thus နှစ် is phonetically and ကြောင် is phonetically.
Although this analysis is correct from a purely phonetic point of view, it hides the diachronic nature of Burmese vowel development and mergers, and obfuscates the reasoning behind Burmese orthography.
Vowels in open syllables
Synchronically, there can be said to be a total of 10 vowels in Modern Standard Burmese open syllables: /a/ /u̯a/ /ɛ/ /u̯ɛ/ /e/ /u̯e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/. Although the vowels /u̯a/ /u̯ɛ/ /u̯e/ are commonly treated as medial-vowel sequences, reducing the vowel inventory of MSB in open syllables from 10 to 7, the behaviour of /u̯a/ /u̯ɛ/ /u̯e/ is unlike that of glide-vowel combinations.Diachronically, however, all of the MSB open syllable vowels are derived from Old Burmese open syllables or diphthongs. The four vowels of OB were */a/ */i/ */o/ */u/. Early in the development of Burmese */o/ broke to form */u̯a/. Additionally, any vowel could be followed by either of two glides: */j/ and */w/. The diphthongs which result from these glides were considered to be closed syllables in OB and as such, could not be followed by any other consonant. However, in MSB, all OB diphthongs have become monophthongs and are thus phonetically viewed as open syllables.
The following table shows the origins of MBS open vowels. The IPA is followed by the phoneme demonstrated in Burmese script on the consonant /p/ showing creaky tone, low tone, and high tone.
From the table it is clear that the vowels /ɛ/ /u̯ɛ/ /e/ /u̯e/ /ɔ/ /o/ can only exist in open syllables in MSB as they derive from vowel+glide combinations.
The /j/ offglide results in the e-class vowels */aj/→/ɛ/, */ij/→/e/, */u̯aj/→/u̯ɛ/, */uj/→/u̯e/ respectively. Note the symmetry with the base vowel system: The closed vowels */i/ and */u/ create the mid-closed vowels /e/ and /u̯e/ while */a/ and */o/ create the mid-open vowels /ɛ/ and /u̯ɛ/. Similarly, the rounded on-glide is a result of a rounded base vowel */u/ or */o/.
Currently, the /w/ offglide is only believed to have existed in */aw/ and */uw/ resulting in the MSB o-class vowels /ɔ/ and /o/ respectively. The absence of */iw/ and */ow/ in reconstructions is something of a mystery, however it is possible that, by analogy with the /j/ offglide, */aw/ */iw/ */ow/ */uw/ all existed, resulting in pairs with or without the rounded on-glide: /ɔ/ /o/ /u̯ɔ/ /u̯o/ which later merged. This may explain why the Burmese orthography indicates the vowel /o/ with both the diacritics for both the /i/ and /u/ vowels and, previously, a following consonantal /w/.
Finals
MSB recognises 8 finals in native vocabulary which are all distinguished from their initial forms with the c-shaped superscript diacritic asat which for ease of reading, is omitted here: the stops: ပ /p/ တ /t/ စ /c/ က /k/ and the nasals: မ /m/ န /n/ ည / ဉ /ɲ/ င /ŋ/. All of the stops in final position are realised as a glottal stop /ʔ/ which shortens the vowel and precludes it from bearing any tone. All of the nasals on the other hand nasalise the vowel but are not pronounced as consonants unless there is a following nasal or stop. Syllables ending on nasals can bear any of the three tones, but rarely have tone 1.Finals are broadly grouped into two sets: front and back finals. Front finals include the labial and alveolar finals -m -n and -p -t which are not distinguished in MSB, leading to mergers such as အိပ် and အိတ်, both pronounced . In Tavoyan dialects however, the labial finals -m and -p often cause vowel breaking. The back finals include the palatal finals -c -ɲ and velar -k -ŋ, although their uses are even more complex.
Current reconstruction holds that the OB vowel-offglide sequences – which today are /ɛ/ /u̯ɛ/ /e/ /u̯e/ /ɔ/ /o/ in MSB – counted as a closed syllables and thus could not be followed by a final. As a result, most closed syllables in MSB are built around the 4 basic vowels /a/ /i/ /u̯a/ /u/.
Vowels before labial and coronal finals
The 4 basic vowels /a/ /i/ /u̯a/ /u/ can all occur before the labial and coronal finals. In MSB before the -p and -t finals they are pronounced /æʔ/ /eɪʔ/ /u̯æʔ~ʊʔ/ /ɔʊʔ/ respectively. Similarly, before the -m and -n finals, vowels use the same qualities except that they are nasalised and are pronounced long by default thus giving: /æ̃/ /ẽɪ/ /u̯æ̃~ʊ̃/ /ɔ̃ʊ/.The variation between /ʊ̆ʔ/ /ʊ̃ː/ and /u̯æ̆ʔ/ /u̯æ̃ː/ is regional. North-central dialects in and around Mandalay tend to use the original opening diphthong while southern dialects in and around Yangon tend to use the monophthong. Both pronunciations are universally accepted and understood. In more conservative dialects /i/ /u/ and */o/ may not break, and thus remain /ĭʔ/ /ĩ/, /ŭʔ/ /ũ/, and /ɔ̆ʔ/ /ɔ̃/, additionally */an/ may move back, not forward, leaving /ɔ̃/ and not /æ̃/, but all of these features are considered non-standard.
Some exceptions do exist to this rule, however, as even in Yangon Burmese the word စွမ်း is pronounced /su̯áːN/ while ဆွမ်း, written with the same rime and tone, is pronounced /sʊ́ːN/.
In Tavoyan dialects, labial finals are often distinguished from coronal finals by breaking and rounding vowels.
Vowels before dorsal finals
The velar finals -k and -ŋ can follow the vowels /a/ and /u̯a/ giving အက် /ɐʔ/ အွက် /u̯æʔ/ အင် /ɪ̃/ အွင် /u̯ɪ̃/. The pronunciation of -ak is becoming /æʔ/ in Yangon Burmese, merging with -ap and -at. Older speakers will pronounce the vowel higher and as a front-central vowel in the range. The fronting of *a before *ŋ to /ɪ/ is a distinctive feature of MSB, not shared by other varieties of Burmese. Rakhine/Arakhanese dialects shift the /a/ back before both the stop and nasal to become /ɔ̆ʔ/ /ɔ̃ː/. Tavoyan/Dawei dialects merge both the -ap -at -ak rimes and also merge the -am -an -aŋ rimes allegedly resulting in /ăʔ/ /ãː/, although it is unclear whether these are truly or as in MSB..The palatal finals and occur only with the inherent vowel /a/ and derive from OB *ik and *iŋ. The spelling reflects the shifts of *ik > *ac and *iŋ > aɲ. The final today is /ɪʔ/. The palatal final, however, has two forms. The form represents /ĩ/ as would be expected. The far more common however has lost its nasal characteristic and is realised variously as /ɛ/, /i/, and less often /e/. Tavoyan dialects restrict the pronunciation to /ɛ/ exclusively, while Rakhine dialects use /e/.
The rimes */aʊk/ */aʊŋ/ derive from OB *uk and *uŋ breaking to /aʊ/ before a velar final. The change in spelling reflects this sound shift and should not be taken to indicate an OB *awk *awŋ or *ɔk *ɔŋ sequence. In Tavoyan they are realised as /ɔ̆ʔ/ and /ɔ̃ː/ respectively.
The rimes and are somewhat problematic from a linguistic perspective. Written with the compound vowel diacritic for /o/ and pronounced /ăɪʔ/ and /ãɪ/ respectively, they are currently believed to represent either loans from foreign languages or from more conservative dialects of Burmese. They do not fit into the normal table of rimes and their shared orthography with the /o/ vowel is coincidental.
The closed syllable vowel inventory
Just as open syllables have ten vowels, so too do closed syllables: /æ/ /ɪ/ /ɛ~ɜ/ /u̯æ~ʊ/ /u̯ɛ/ /u̯ɪ/ /eɪ/ /oʊ/ /aɪ/ /aʊ/. It is worth noting that in Yangon MSB no vowel quality exists in both closed and open syllables, and that therefore nasalisation and the glottal stop cannot be said to be contrastive features in and of themselves. In fact, with the exception of tone no supgrasegmental features can really be said to be phonemic.Finals in loans
Following the breaking of *u to /aʊ/ before velars and the palatalisation of velars after *i, new vocabulary entered the language with sequences of /i/ or /u/ followed by a velar. Such words are written with the vowel or and followed by the velar final, and are pronounced as though they ended on a labial or coronal final. Thus, လိင် /lèɪN/ "sex" is pronounced as လိမ် "to twist, cheat" and သုက် is pronounced exactly as သုပ် /ɾ̪ɔʊʔ/.In loan words, usually from Pali, လ /l/ ရ /ɹ~j/ ဝ /w/ သ /s/ are found but are silent and do not affect the vowel, which continues to behave as an open syllable vowel. Also from Pali are the retroflex finals ဋ /ʈ/ and ဏ /ɳ/ which merge with their alveolar counterparts.
The superscript diacritic anusvara is a convention inherited from Pali. It is used across Brahmic scripts in homorganic nasal+plosive sequences as a shorthand for the nasal. In Burmese it continues this function as it is found not only in loaned vocabulary but also in native words e.g. သုံး /ɾ̪óʊːN/ "three" or "to use" which derives from proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-sum.
The consonant is also seen with an asat diacritic, but this is the standard spelling for the vowel /ɛ/ with tone 2 and is not viewed in any way as a final.
Finally, loaned vocabulary can also, uniquely, add a final after the vowel /e/. An example of this is the common Pali word မေတ္တာ mettā, from Sanskrit मैत्र maitra. This is exclusively used to transcribe an /e/ vowel in closed syllables in loans, but cannot occur in native vocabulary, although many such loans, particularly from Pali, may be centuries old.
Tones
Burmese is a tonal language, which means phonemic contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch, but also phonation, intensity, duration, and vowel quality. However, some linguists consider Burmese a pitch-register language like Shanghainese.Like most East and South-East Asian languages, the Burmese tone system developed in the following way:
Syllables ending on a stop developed a unique tone, called checked or entering tone following Chinese nomenclature. Other syllables are believed to have been able to end on an additional glottal stop and/or be glottalised or alternatively they could end on a fricative, likely either /s/ or /h/. The loss of these final glottal and fricative created the Burmese creaky and high tones respectively. Low tone is the result of syllables which had neither a glottal nor fricative ending.
In this way, The Burmese creaky, low, and high tones correspond to the Middle Chinese rising, level, and departing tones respectively, as well as the Vietnamese tone pairs of sắc & nặng, ngang & huyền, and hỏi & ngã respectively.
Creaky tone and high tone both have distinctive phonations—creaky and breathy respectively. They are also notably shorter and longer than low tone respectively.
In the following table, the four tones are shown marked on the vowel as an example.
| Tone | Burmese | Symbol | Phonation | Duration | Intensity | Pitch |
| Low | နိမ့်သံ | normal | medium | low | low, often slightly rising | |
| High | တက်သံ | sometimes slightly breathy | long | high | high, often with a fall before a pause | |
| Creaky | သက်သံ | tense or creaky, sometimes with lax glottal stop | medium | high | high, often slightly falling | |
| Checked | တိုင်သံ | centralized vowel quality, final glottal stop | short | high | high |
For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone:
- Low ခါ "shake"
- High ခါး "be bitter"
- Creaky ခ "to strike"
- Checked ခတ် "to beat"
- Low "undergo"
- High "dry up"
- Creaky "appoint"
Reduced syllables have the rime , which is short and low. This is not considered to be a distinct tone, but rather the absence of distinct tone or rime all together.
In spoken Burmese, some linguists classify two real tones, "high" and "ordinary", with those tones encompassing a variety of pitches. The "ordinary" tone consists of a range of pitches. Linguist L. F. Taylor concluded that "conversational rhythm and euphonic intonation possess importance" not found in related tonal languages and that "its tonal system is now in an advanced state of decay."
Syllable structure
The syllable structure of Burmese is CV, which is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide, and the rime consists of a monophthong alone, a monophthong with a consonant, or a diphthong with a consonant. The only consonants that can stand in the coda are and. Some representative words are:- CV 'girl'
- CVC 'crave'
- CGV 'earth'
- CGVC 'eye'
- CVVC
- CGVVC 'ditch'
- It contains as its only vowel
- It must be an open syllable
- It cannot bear tone
- It has only a simple onset
- It must not be the final syllable of the word
- 'knob'
- 'flute'
- 'mock'
- 'be wanton'
- 'rice-water'