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Burmese Alphabet
Myanmar Script
The Myanmar script is an abugida derived from the Mon script, which came from the Brahmic family. It has 33 consonants with vowels indicated by diacritical marks. The letters are rounded because the script was traditionally written on palm leaves — straight lines would split the leaf.
Consonants
| Character | Name | Romanization | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| က | Ka | k | like 'k' in 'key' |
| ခ | Kha | kh | like 'k' (aspirated) |
| ဂ | Ga | g | like 'g' in 'go' |
| ဃ | Gha | gh | like 'g' (breathy) |
| င | Nga | ng | like 'ng' in 'sing' |
| စ | Sa | s / ts | like 's' in 'sun' |
| ဆ | Hsa | hs | like 's' (aspirated) |
| ဇ | Za | z | like 'z' in 'zebra' |
| ည | Nya | ny | like 'ny' in 'canyon' |
| တ | Ta | t | like 't' in 'top' |
| ထ | Hta | ht | like 't' (aspirated) |
| ဒ | Da | d | like 'd' in 'dog' |
| ဓ | Dha | dh | like 'd' (breathy) |
| န | Na | n | like 'n' in 'night' |
| ပ | Pa | p | like 'p' in 'pen' |
| ဖ | Hpa | hp | like 'p' (aspirated) |
| ဗ | Ba | b | like 'b' in 'book' |
| ဘ | Bha | bh | like 'b' (breathy) |
| မ | Ma | m | like 'm' in 'moon' |
| ယ | Ya | y | like 'y' in 'yes' |
| ရ | Ra | r | like 'r' in 'run' |
| လ | La | l | like 'l' in 'lamp' |
| ဝ | Wa | w | like 'w' in 'water' |
| သ | Tha | th | like 'th' in 'thin' |
| ဟ | Ha | h | like 'h' in 'house' |
| ဠ | Lla | ḷ | a retroflex 'l' |
| အ | A | a | like 'a' in 'father' |
Vowel Diacritics
| Character | Name | Romanization | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ာ | Aa | ā | like 'a' in 'father' (long) |
| ိ | I | i | like 'i' in 'sit' |
| ီ | Ii | ī | like 'ee' in 'meet' |
| ု | U | u | like 'u' in 'put' |
| ူ | Uu | ū | like 'oo' in 'moon' |
| ေ | E | e | like 'e' in 'they' |
| ဲ | Ai | ai | like 'i' in 'site' |
| ောာ | O | o | like 'o' in 'go' |