The Burmese alphabet has 33 letters to indicate the initial consonant of a syllable and four diacritics to indicate additional consonants in the onset. 'without group'), as they are not arranged in any particular pattern.Ī letter is a consonant or consonant cluster that occurs before the vowel of a syllable. This is true of the first twenty-five letters in the Burmese alphabet, which are called grouped together as wek byi (ဝဂ်ဗျည်း, from Pali vagga byañjana). Within each group, the first letter is tenuis ("plain"), the second is the aspirated homologue, the third and fourth are the voiced homologues and the fifth is the nasal homologue. The alphabet has undergone considerable modification to suit the evolving phonology of the Burmese language.Īs with other Brahmic scripts, the Burmese alphabet is arranged into groups of five letters for stop consonants called wek (ဝဂ်, from Pali vagga) based on articulation. A stylus would rip these leaves when making straight lines.
Burmese calligraphy originally followed a square format but the cursive format took hold from the 17th century when popular writing led to the wider use of palm leaves and folded paper known as parabaiks. 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. 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. There are several systems of transliteration into the Latin alphabet for this article, the MLC Transcription System is used.Īlphabet History A Pali manuscript of the Buddhist text Mahaniddesa showing three different styles of the Burmese alphabet, (top) medium square, (centre) round and (bottom) outline round in red lacquer from the inside of one of the gilded covers 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.)īurmese 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 grammar ambiguity. The Burmese alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. It is ultimately adapted from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The Burmese alphabet ( Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ myanma akkha.ya, pronounced ) is an abugida used for writing Burmese.
0 kommentar(er)
