Languages of Myanmar

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Languages of Myanmar (Burma)
Austroasiatic and Indo-Aryan languages
ForeignEnglish, Mandarin Chinese
SignedBurmese sign language
Keyboard layout
QWERTY/Burmese layout
A map of languages used in Burma

There are approximately a hundred languages spoken in Myanmar (also known as Burma).[1] Burmese, spoken by two-thirds of the population, is the official language.[2]

Languages spoken by ethnic minorities represent six

language families: Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, Tai–Kadai, Indo-European, Austronesian and Hmong–Mien,[3] as well as an incipient national standard for Burmese sign language.[4]

Burmese

Further information: Burmese language
A Burmese speaker, recorded in Taiwan.

Burmese is the native language of the Bamar people and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as that of some ethnic minorities in Burma like the Mon. In 2007, Burmese was spoken by 33 million people as a first language.[5] Burmese is spoken as a second language by another 10 million people, particularly ethnic minorities in Burma and those in neighbouring countries.[6]

Burmese is a

Tibetan, and Tangut.[7]

As far as

parallel corpus development as well as development of search engine and WordNet for the Burmese language.[8]

Indigenous languages

Aside from Myanmar (Burmese) and its dialects, the hundred or so languages of Myanmar include

Chin languages (spoken by 780,000), and Mon (Mon–Khmer, spoken by 750,000).[1][3]
Most of these languages use the Myanmar (Burmese) script.

In Myanmar, usage of its minority languages is discouraged.[9]

It is not clear if there are one or two Burmese sign languages.[citation needed]

Sino-Tibetan

Austroasiatic

Kra-Dai

Austronesian

Hmong-Mien

Indo-Aryan

Dravidian

English as a second language

Newspapers in the street of Yangon (February 2006) including publications also in English

Today, Burmese is the primary language of instruction, and English is the secondary language taught.[9] English was the primary language of instruction in higher education from late 19th century to 1964, when Gen. Ne Win mandated educational reforms to "Burmanise".[10] English continues to be used by educated urbanites and the national government.

See also

  • Burmese English

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Goddard 2005
  2. ^ Burmese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  3. ^ a b Myanmar in Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  4. ^ Mathur & Napoli, 2010, Deaf around the World: The Impact of Language
  5. ^ Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
  6. ^ Burmese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  7. ^ a b Bradley 1993, p. 147.
  8. ^ a b Saini 2016, p. 1.
  9. ^ a b Lintner 2003, p. 189
  10. ^ Thein 2004, p. 16

References

Bibliography

External links
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