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Language Information

Burmese is spoken by about two-thirds of the population of Burma, now officially called Myanmar, or about 30 million people. It is one of the Tibeto--Burman languages, which constitute a branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. The distinctive Burmese alphabet consists almost entirely of circles or portions of circles used in various combinations. It evolved at a time when writing was generally done on palm leaves, the letters traced by means of a stylus. Thus straight lines were impossible because they would cause the leaf to split. There are forty-two letters in all thirty-two consonants and ten vowels.

Family: Sino-Tibeto
Subgroup: Tibeto-Burman z

Writing Sample

Translation

From Meza Mountain's melancholy shade my heart turns home-ward.
There Bo tree roots now run with water poured by festive hands.
Here gray sands lie about me, desolate.

Thoughts span the wastes that lie between.
Pulsing, throbbing, longing
Toward Shwe'bo, seat of victory where
Great Bo Daw sits enthroned among the myriad shrines.
Deep in obeisance I incline.

Sun rays fold me round about when cold winds
Whining, mourning, thrusting,
Search and chill. No shield I find
When sad, disconsolate remembrances come crowding.
Here pure, clear waters sound unceasingly.

Dews fall and fill the skies as thick as rain
Gathering, darkening, glooming,
The far off mountain summits breasting,
The whole of heaven's vault to mists of blue is changing.

AWAY-YAUK-MIN ("The Exiled Noble"), Mèza-gyaung