Burmese phonology
Consonants[edit]
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 /j/.[1][2]
Consonant phonemes[3]
Nasal
Stop
Bilabial Dental Alveolar
Post-al.
Velar Laryngeal
/Palatal
voiced
m
n
ɲ
ŋ
voiceless
m̥
n̥
ɲ̊
ŋ̊
Voiced
b
d
dʒ
ɡ
plain
p
t
tʃ
k
tʰ
tʃʰ
kʰ
aspirated pʰ
voiced
Fricative
voiceless
aspirated
Approximant
ð
θ
ʔ
z
1
s
ʃ
sʰ2
voiced
l
voiceless
l̥
h
j
3
w
ʍ4
Phonetic notes:
^1 ⟨သ⟩, which was */s/ in Pali and OB, but was shifted forward by the shift of ⟨စ⟩ */ts/→/s/, is often transliterated as ⟨s⟩ and
transcribed /θ/ in MSB but its actual pronunciation is closer to /ɾ̪ʰ~ɾ̪θ~tθ̆/, a dental flap, often accompanied by aspiration or a slight
dental fricative, although it can also be voiced.[citation needed] It has a short release generated by moving the tongue back sharply from
an interdental position, and will sound to English speakers like a short dental fricative combined with elements of a tap or
stop. /ð/ is the voiced allophone of ⟨သ⟩ and is not itself a phoneme.
^2 /sʰ/ is a complex phoneme to define. It is a reflex of the earlier /tʃʰ/ and then /tsʰ/ consonants. It is still distinguished from /s/
although it is not so much aspirated as pronounced breathy, and imparts a slight breathy quality to the following vowel [citation
needed]
making [s̤] a more accurate transcription.
^3 /j/ is often realised as [ʝ], particularly word initially.[citation needed]
^4 /ʍ/ is rare, having disappeared from modern Burmese, except in transcriptions of foreign names and a handful of native words.
An additional rare /ɹ/ occurs,[4] but this only appears in toponyms and personal names that have retained Sanskrit or Pali
pronunciations (such as Amarapura, pronounced àməɹa̰pùɹa̰ and in English-derived words. Historically, /ɹ/ became /j/ in Burmese,
and is usually replaced by /j/ in Pāli loanwords, e.g. ရဟန္တာ ra.hanta [jəhàndà] ('monk'), ရာဇ raja. [jàza̰] ('king'). Occasionally it is
replaced with /l/ (e.g., တိရ စ္ဆာန် ti.rac hcan 'animal'), pronounced [təɹeɪʔ sʰã̀] or [təleɪʔ sʰã̀].
Medials and palatalisation[edit]
Burmese permits the palatalisation of certain consonants. Besides [u̯ ], which is often erroneously treated as a medial [w] (see
vowels)[clarification needed], 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 (demonstrated on
the consonant ⟨က⟩ /k/), one reflecting an original /-j-/ (⟨ကျ⟩ - /kj/), and one an original /-ɹ-/ (⟨ကက⟩ - /kɹ/). Official government
romanistion still reflects this fact, as Myanmar, in official romanistion is rendered mran-ma.
The letter ⟨လ⟩ represents /l/ in initial position, but as a medial, it has completely merged with /j/ and /ɹ/. In OB inscriptions, this
medial could be rendered with a subscript or "stacked" ⟨လ⟩ as in ⟨ကလ⟩, a practice still used in the rare dialects, such as
Tavoyan/Dawe where medial /l/ is still pronounced distinctly. Although the palatalisation of the labials is simple /m pʰ p b/ → [mʲ pç
pʲ bʲ], and the velar nasal predictably palatalises into a palatal nasal /ŋ/ → [n̠ ʲ]. The palatalisation of /l/ leads, ostensibly to [lʲ];
however, it often causes vowel raising or breaking, and may remain unchanged before /i/. The velar stops /kʰ k ɡ/ palatalise into [tʃʰ
tʃ dʒ]}}.
The alveolars /n tʰ t d/ and historical palatals /ɲ̊ sʰ s z/ cannot be followed by medials except in loan words, but even this is rare.
Indeed, the letter *jʰ ⟨ဈ⟩ [z, sʰ] is almost indistinguishable from the s+y sequence ⟨စျ⟩ and many combinations of alveolar+medial
will render poorly in certain font sets which were not designed to handle non-native combined graphs.
The homorganic nasal and glottal stop[edit]
Only two consonants can occur word finally in native vocabulary:[5] 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 /ʔ/ is the realisation of all four possible final consonants: ⟨ပ်⟩ /p/, ⟨တ်⟩ /t/, ⟨စ်⟩ /s/, ⟨က်⟩ /k/, and the
retroflex ⟨ဋ်⟩ /ʈ/ 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 /ɰ̃ / is the value of the four native final nasals: ⟨မ်⟩ /m/, ⟨န်⟩ /n/, ⟨ဉ်⟩ /ɲ/, ⟨င်⟩ /ŋ/, as well as the retroflex
⟨ဏ⟩ /ɳ/ (used in Pali loans) and nasalisation mark anusvara demonstrated here above ka (က → ကံ) which most often
stands in for a homorganic nasal word medially as in တံခ ါး tankhá ('door', and တံတ ါး tantá ('bridge') or else replaces
final -m ⟨မ်⟩ in both Pali and native vocabulary, especially after the OB vowel *u e.g. ငံ ngam ('salty'), သံါး thóum ('three;
use'), and ဆံါး sóum ('end'). It does not, however, apply to ⟨ည်⟩ which is never realised as a nasal, but rather as an open
front vowel [iː] [eː] or [ɛː]. 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 /mòʊɰ̃ dáɪɰ̃ / ('storm'), which is pronounced [mõ̀ũndãĩ́ ].
Series of stops[edit]
Burmese orthography 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 ⟨ဌ⟩ /ʈʰ/, ⟨ဋ⟩ /ʈ/, ⟨ဍ⟩ /ɖ/, ⟨ဎ⟩ /ɖʰ/, ⟨ဏ⟩ /ɳ/, and ⟨ဠ⟩ /ɭ/, 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 ⟨ဖ⟩ /pʰ/, ⟨ထ⟩ /tʰ/, ⟨ဆ⟩ /sʰ/, and ⟨ခ⟩ /kʰ/, as well as the second set ⟨ပ⟩ /p/, ⟨တ⟩ /t/, ⟨စ⟩ /s/, and ⟨က⟩ /k/ are
commonly used in Burmese. The voiced set ⟨ဗ⟩ /b/, ⟨ဒ⟩ /d/, ⟨ဇ⟩ /z/, and ⟨ဂ⟩ /ɡ/ 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 ⟨ဘ⟩ /bʰ/, ⟨ဓ⟩ /dʰ/, ⟨ဈ⟩ /zʰ/, and
⟨ဃ⟩ /ɡʰ/ are exceedingly rare. They are generally pronounced as voiced [b d z ɡ] or, when following a syllable final stop,
aspirated [pʰ tʰ sʰ kʰ]. The most common by far is ⟨ဘ⟩ used in the negative indicative verb particle ဘါး bhú [búː] or
[pʰúː], and also in some common loans. Indeed, ⟨ဘ⟩ can be said to be the "default" spelling of /b/ in Burmese for loans
and ⟨ဗ⟩ is restricted to older loans.
Burmese voicing sandhi[edit]
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:
/kʰ, k/ → /ɡ/
/tʃʰ, tʃ/ → /dʒ/
/sʰ, s/ → /z/
/tʰ, t/ → /d/
/pʰ, p/ → /b/
Additionally ⟨သ⟩ can become voiced under the same conditions, however this is purely allophonic since the
voiced [ɾ̪~ð̆ ~d̪̪̆ ] 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.[6] This Therefore, can affect any consonant except the first consonant of the
phrase or a consonant preceded by a stop.
e.g. "hot water": [jèbù] ရရပူ ← /jè/ + /pù/
The second environment occurs around reduced syllables (see reduction for more). When a syllable becomes reduced,
the vowel and any final consonants are reduced to a short schwa [ə̪̆]. 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:[6]
e.g. "promise": [ɡədḭ] ကတိ ← /ka̰/ + /tḭ/
In some compound works, the phoneme /dʒ/, when following the nasalized final /ɰ̃ /, can shift to a /j/ sound:
e.g. "blouse" (အကကျီ angkyi): /èɪɰ̃ dʒí/] → [èɪ̃jí].
The phonemes /p, pʰ, b, t, tʰ, d/, when following the nasalized final /ɰ̃ /, can become /m/ in compound words:
e.g. "to consult" တိင
ို ပ
် င်: /tàɪɰ̃ pɪ̀ɴ/ → [tàɪm mɪ̃]̀
e.g. "to apologize" ရတာင််းပန်: /táʊɰ̃ pàɴ/ → [táʊm mã̀]
e.g. "airplane" ရေယာဉ်ပျီ:ျံ /lèi jɪ̀ɰ̃ pjàɴ/ → [lèɪm mjã̀]
Aspiration and devoicing[edit]
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
⟨မ⟩ /m/ ⟨န⟩ /n/ ⟨ည⟩ /ɲ/ ⟨င⟩ /ŋ/ ⟨လ⟩ /l/ ⟨ရ⟩ /j/ ⟨ယ⟩ /j/ ⟨ဝ⟩ /w/ use a subscript diacritic called ha-to to indicate
devoicing: ⟨မှ နှ ညှ ငှ လှ ရှ ယှ ဝှ⟩ /m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊ l̥ ʃ ʃ ʍ/, although as noted above, /ʍ/ is incredibly rare. Devoicing in
Burmese is not strong, particularly not on nasals. The sequence /n̥a/ is pronounced closer
to [n̤a̤] than [n̥na] 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:[7]
e.g. "to cook" [tʃʰɛʔ], ချီက် vs. "to be cooked" [tʃɛʔ], ကျီက်
e.g. "to loosen" [pʰjè], ရ ြေ vs. "to be loosened" [pjè], ရ ပ
e.g. "to elevate" [m̥jɪ]̃ ,
ြှင် vs. "to be elevated" [mjɪ]̃ ,
င်
Vowels[edit]
The vowels of Burmese are:
Vowel phonemes[8][3][9]
Front
Close
oral
nasal
i
ĩ
Close-mid e
Open-mid (ɛ)
Open
Central
Back
oral
oral
nasal
u
ũ
nasal
(o)
(ə)
a
ɔ
ã
In addition to the above monophthongs, Burmese also has nasal and oral
diphthongs: /ai/ /au/ /ei/ /ou/ /ãĩ/ /ãũ/ /ẽĩ/ /õũ/.[10][3] There is debate on the phonemicity of some of the
above vowels. For example, Chang (2003) argues that [ɛ] is an allophone of /e/ in closed syllables
(those with a syllable coda) and [ə] is a reduced allophone of other vowels.[11] The
monophthongs /e/, /o/, /ə/, and /ɔ/ occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda); the
diphthongs /ai/, and /au/ occur only in closed syllables. [ə] only occurs in a minor syllable, and is the
only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below).
The close vowels /i/ and /u/ and the close portions of the diphthongs are somewhat mid-centralized ([ɪ,
ʊ]) in closed syllables, i.e. before /ɴ/ and /ʔ/. Thus န္ှစ္် /n̥iʔ/ ('two') is
phonetically [n̥ɪʔ] and ရ ကာင် /tʃàuɴ/ ('cat') is phonetically [tʃàʊɴ].
Although this analysis is (more or less) 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[edit]
Synchronically, there can be said to be a total of 10 vowels in Modern Standard Burmese (MSB) 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 (See the section on glides
below for a more complete explanation).
Diachronically, however, all of the MSB open syllable vowels are derived from Old Burmese (OB) 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 ⟨ပ⟩ /p/ showing (top to bottom) creaky tone, low
tone, and high tone.
Outcomes of OB vowel + final combinations (Open Syllables)
OB final
OB vowel
*a
*o
ပ
*Ø
*y
/a/
/ɛ/
ပ
*i
ပွ
/u̯ a/
ပွ
*u
ပိ
/i/
ပီ
ပ
/u/
ပ ါး
ပွ ါး
ပီါး
ပါး
ပဲ့
ပွွဲ့
ပပဲ့
ပပွွဲ့
ပယ်
ပ
/u̯ ɛ/
ပွယ်
ပွ
/e/
ပပ
/u̯ e/
ပပါး
/ɔ/
ပပေါ်
ပပ
ပပွ
ပပွါး
ပပ ဲ့
*w
ပ
ပိ ဲ့
/o/
ပိ
ပိါး
From the table it is clear that the vowels /ɛ/ /u̯ɛ/ /e/ /u̯e/ /ɔ/ /o/ can only exist in open syllables in MSB
(with some rare exceptions) 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 onglide 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[edit]
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/[12] က /k/ and the nasals: မ /m/ န /n/ ည / ဉ /ɲ/[13] င /ŋ/. All of the stops in final position are realised as a
glottal stop /ʔ/ (or, potentially, a geminate of a following stop) which shortens the vowel and precludes it
from bearing any tone.[14] 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 (short, high, creaky phonation).
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 (*/ip/
sleep) and အိတ် (*/it/ bag), both pronounced [ĕɪʔ]. In Tavoyan dialects however, the labial finals -m and p often cause vowel breaking (*/un/ -> /ũː/, */um/ -> /ãʊ/). 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[edit]
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[15] 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 စွမ်ါး (*suám
"power") is pronounced /su̯áːN/ while ဆွမ်ါး (*sʰuám "religious offering of food"), written with the same
rime and tone, is pronounced /s(ʰ)ʊ́ːN/.
In Tavoyan dialects, labial finals are often distinguished from coronal finals by breaking and rounding
vowels.
Vowels before dorsal finals[edit]
The velar finals ⟨က⟩ -k and ⟨င⟩ -ŋ can follow the vowels /a/ and /u̯a/ giving အက် /ɐʔ/ အွက် /u̯æʔ/ အင် /ɪ/̃
အွင် /u̯ɪ/̃ . 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 [ɛ~ɜ] 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 (as is becoming common in Yangon) and also
merge the -am -an -aŋ rimes allegedly resulting in /ăʔ/ /ãː/, although it is unclear whether these are truly
[a] or [æ] as in MSB..
The palatal finals ⟨စ⟩ and ⟨ည / ဉ⟩ 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 ⟨စ⟩ today is /ɪʔ/. The palatal final,
however, has two forms. The form ⟨ဉ⟩ represents /ĩ/ (or /ãɪ/ in Rakhine dialects) as would be expected.
The far more common ⟨ည⟩ however has lost its nasal characteristic and is realised variously as /ɛ/ (မည်
/mɛ̀/ literary future/irrealis marker, written မယ် in colloquial language), /i/ (ပပည် /pʲì/ "country" pronounced
as ပပီ "end, finish"), and less often /e/ (ရည် /jè/ "juice", pronounced identically to ပရ "water"). Tavoyan
dialects restrict the pronunciation to /ɛ/ exclusively, while Rakhine dialects use /e/.
The rimes */aʊk/ (ပအ က်) */aʊŋ/ (ပအ င်) 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 (အိက်) and (အိင်) 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[edit]
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 (and its inherent length, intensity, and phonation) no
supgrasegmental features can really be said to be phonemic.
Finals in loans[edit]
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 ⟨အိ⟩ or ⟨အ⟩ 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 သက် (semen) is
pronounced exactly as သပ် (salad) /ɾ̪ɔʊʔ/ (or /θɔʊʔ/ following conventional transcription).
In loan words, usually from Pali, လ /l/ ရ /ɹ~j/ ဝ /w/ သ /s/[16] 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 (which would ortherwise
have to carry an asat or form a ligature with the following stop). In Burmese it continues this function as
it is found not only in loaned vocabulary but also in native words e.g. သံါး /ɾ̪óʊːN/ (or /θóʊːN/) "three" or
"to use" which derives from proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-sum.
The consonant ⟨ယ⟩ 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 (although, as noted above, this is an etymologically
accurate rendering of /ɛ/ which originated from the *ay sequence).
Finally, loaned vocabulary can also, uniquely, add a
final after the vowel /e/. An example of this is the common Pali word ပမတတ 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.
Notes on glides[edit]
Note that, the vocalic onglide /u̯/ is usually transcribed both in phonetic transcription and in romanisation
as /w/. This is due to the fact that, phonetically, it behaves as a medial, however, here the transcription
/u̯/ is used to emphasise that it is a part of the vowel and not a true medial like /-j-/ (romanised -y-). /-j-/
is derived from OB */-j-/ */-l-/ and */-ɹ-/, and is, therefore, reflected in various ways in different dialects. In
MSB orthography two spellings exist for the medial (demonstrated on the consonant က /k/), one
reflecting an original /-j-/ (ကျ - ky), and one an original /-ɹ-/ (ကက - kr) and official government romanistion
still reflects this fact (Myanmar, in official romanistion is rendered mran-ma). However, in MSB, */ɹ/, for
which there is also a unique initial letter ⟨ရ⟩, is pronounced /j/ in all instances (usually realised as [ʝ]
initially) except in loan words. The letter for /l/ ⟨လ⟩ is still pronounced as /l/ in initial position, but as a
medial, it has completely merged with /-j-/ and /-ɹ-/. In OB inscriptions this medial could be rendered with
a subscript or “stacked” လ as in ⟨ကလ⟩, a practice still used in the rare dialects, such as Tavoyan/Dawe
where the /-l-/ medial is still pronounced distinctly. These medials behave differently than the /u̯/ onglide
in the following ways:
a medial */-j-/ */-l-/ */-ɹ-/ can be placed before the on-glide /u̯/, whereas two medials can never
be used in the same syllable.

the use of /u̯/ is restricted by the vowel nucleus (only used with /a/ /ɛ/ /e/) and may in some
cases drastically change the pronunciation of the vowel e.g. in Yangon /wa/ before a final becomes [ʊ],
while /a/ before a final becomes [æ]. However, it cannot affect the pronunciation of the initial.

glides are restricted by the preceding initial, and often change its pronunciation. Bearing in
mind that MSB does not reliably indicate the development of */-l-/, /m/ /pʰ/ /p/ /b/ can apparently be
followed by any glide, in which case the glide becomes [ʲ]. Similarly /kʰ/ /k/ and /g/ can be followed by
any glide, in which case the cluster becomes [tʃʰ] [tʃ] or [dʒ] respectively. /ŋ/ can be followed by /-ɹ-/ but
not /-j-/ in which case the cluster becomes [ɲ], merging with the palatal nasal letter ⟨ည / ဉ⟩. And finally,

/l/ can be followed by /-j-/ but not /-ɹ-/. This is rare and in Yangon MSB this represents the only case
where the medial impacts the vowel, whereby the sequence လျ */ljaː/ is realised [lea̯] and လျင်
becomes *lyaŋ > lyiŋ becomes [lɪə̃]. Although there is a lot of variation in the pronunciation of these
syllables. Tavoyan front vowels are frequently raised following /-j-/.
There is, at least in Yangon MSB, no difference
between an initial /j/ /ɹ/ /w/ and a null initial with /-j-/ /-ɹ-/ /u̯/. This extends to a /w/ initial followed by a /u̯/
onglide. Therefore, in Yangon (and likely much of MSB) /wa/, /Øu̯a/, and /wu̯a/ are pronounced
identically.
Tones[edit]
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 (loudness),
duration, and vowel quality. However, some linguists consider Burmese a pitch-register
language like Shanghainese.[17]
Like most East and South-East Asian languages (Notably Chinese), the Burmese tone system
developed in the following way:
Syllables ending on a stop (-p, -t, -k) developed a unique tone, called checked or entering tone following
Chinese nomenclature (入 rù). Other syllables (i.e. those ending on a nasal, a glide, or no final) are
believed to have been able to end on an additional glottal stop [ʔ] and/or be glottalised [ˀ] 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 (上
shǎng), level (平 píng), and departing (去 qù) 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 /a/ as an example.
Tone
Symbol
Burmese (shown Phonation
on a)
Low
နိ ်သျံ
High
Creaky
Checked
တက်သျံ
သက်သျံ
တိင
ို သ
် ျံ
Duration Intensity Pitch
à
normal
medium
á
sometimes
slightly breathy
a̰
tense or creaky,
sometimes
medium
with lax glottal
stop
aʔ
centralized
vowel quality,
final glottal
stop
long
short
low
low, often
slightly
rising[9]
high
high, often
with a fall
before a
pause[9]
high
high, often
slightly
falling[9]
high
high
(in citation;
can vary in
context)[9]
For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone:

Low ခ /kʰà/ "shake"

High ခ ါး /kʰá/ "be bitter"

Creaky ခ /kʰa̰/ "to strike"

Checked ခတ် /kʰæʔ/ "to beat"
In syllables ending with /ɰ̃/, the checked tone is excluded:

Low ခံ /kʰæ̀ɰ̃/ "undergo"

High ခန်ါး /kʰǽɰ̃/ "dry up"

Creaky ခန ် ဲ့/kʰæ̰ɰ̃/ "appoint"
As with many East and South-East Asian languages, the phonation of the initial consonant can trigger
a tone split - which explains why pairs of tones in Vietnamese correspond with single Burmese tones,
and why languages like Thai, Lao, and Cantonese have significantly more than 4 tones. Although this
feature has been historically absent from Burmese, a tone split is underway currently. Sonorants with
a ha-to (devoicing mark - see section on consonants) raise the tone of the following vowel.
Customarily, this distinction is transcribed with the letter h in romanisation and is explicitly marked on
the consonant in Burmese script e.g. မ (ma "woman") vs မှ (hma "from"). In earlier times this
distinction was borne primarily on the consonant in the form of devoicing/murmuring, then later
imparted a breathy quality to the vowel itself. More recently this has translated into a general tone
raising, even in checked syllables (i.e. those ending on a stop -p -t -k) representing the first time tonal
distinctions have occurred in such syllables e.g. ပပမ က် (*mruk /mʲaʊʔ/ "north") vs ပပမှ က် (*hmruk
/m̤ʲá̤ʊʔ/ "to raise"). Consequently, Burmese can be described as having 8 tones. Note that this does
not apply to devoiced r ရှ, y ယှ, or ly လျှ as this results in [ʃ] with no breathy phonation. In some
dialects, for instance those around Inle Lake, devoiced l လှ results in a voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/,
making tone raising unlikely.
Reduced syllables have the rime [ə̀], 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 (there are four nominal tones transcribed in
written Burmese), "high" (applied to words that terminate with a stop or check, high-rising pitch) and
"ordinary" (unchecked and non-glottal words, with falling or lower pitch), with those tones
encompassing a variety of pitches.[18] 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." [18][19]
Syllable structure[edit]
The syllable structure of Burmese is C(G)V((V)C), 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 /ʔ/ and /ɴ/. Some representative words are:
CV မယ် /mè/ 'girl'
CVC မက် /mɛʔ/ 'crave'
CGV ပပမ /mjè/ 'earth'
CGVC မျက် /mjɛʔ/ 'eye'
CVVC ပမ င် /màʊɰ̃ / (term of address for young men)
CGVVC ပပမ င်ါး /mjáʊɰ̃ / 'ditch'
A minor syllable has some restrictions:
It contains /ə/ as its only vowel
It must be an open syllable (no coda consonant)
It cannot bear tone
It has only a simple (C) onset (no glide after the consonant)
It must not be the final syllable of the word
Some examples of words containing minor syllables:
ခလတ် /kʰə.loʊʔ/ 'knob'
ပပလွ /pə.lwè/ 'flute'
သပရ ် /θə.jɔ̀/ 'mock'
ကလက် /kə.lɛʔ/ 'be wanton'
ထမင်ါးရည် /tʰə.mə.jè/ 'rice-water'
An insatiable appetite for ancient and modern tongues
Classification: Tibeto-Burman, Lolo-Burmese, Burmish. A few minor languages of Yunnan and northern Myanmar are
closely related to Burmese, especially Lhao Vo (or Maru) and Zaiwa (or Atsi).
Overview. Burmese has the largest number of speakers among the Tibeto-Burman languages and, along with Tibetan,
has the longest written record. The Burmese settled in the lowlands of Burma drained by the Irrawaddy River and
emerged in history with the kingdom of Pagan in the 9th century. They fell under the spell of Indian culture and
Buddhism, transmitted by the Mon and Pyu peoples, which left a deep imprint in the Burmese lexicon and were the
source of its script.
Burmese is a tonal language and has a complex consonantal system. It has little or no inflectional morphology and
grammatical functions are carried out mainly by particles and word order.
Distribution. Burmese is spoken in Myanmar (formerly Burma), especially in the plains of the centre and south drained
by the Irrawaddy River. Burmese expatriates are found in small communities in Asia and around the world. One of the
largest lives in Bangladesh.
Myanmar is a multilingual country where up to one-hundred languages are spoken by ethnic minorities. From the
numerical viewpoint the most important are Mon and Karen in the south and southeast, Shan in the east and north,
and Kachin in the north. Kachin and Karen belong to Tibeto-Burman, Shan to Tai-Kadai, and Mon to Austroasiatic.
Besides, there are many smaller minority languages, found mostly in mountainous regions.
Speakers. About 35 million people in Myanmar speak Burmese as a first language (2/3 of the population). There are also
about 10 million or more second language speakers in the country. In Bangladesh live an additional 300,000 speakers.
Status. Burmese is the official language of Myanmar. It is the mother tongue of the Burman ethnic majority, who
constitute about two-thirds of the country’s population. The rest speaks several dozen languages belonging to TibetoBurman and other families.
Varieties.
Burmese has a colloquial style used in spoken informal contexts and a literary style used in official formal settings.
Besides, it has several dialects: Standard Burmese based on the speech of the lower valleys of the Irrawaddy and
Chindwin rivers, Arakanese in the south-west, Tavoyan in the south-east, Intha around Inle Lake, and Danu in the Shan
state.
Periods.
1100-1500. Old Burmese: attested by stone inscriptions and fragments of palm-leaf manuscripts written in ink, it has
considerable phonetic differences with the modern language but lesser ones at the grammatical level.
1500-1700. Middle Burmese: certain pairs of sounds merged giving rise to some confusion in spelling. These, plus other
sound changes, created a gap between the literary and the spoken language.
1700-present. Modern Burmese: differences between literary and spoken Burmese tend to diminish and the script has
been stabilized.
Oldest Documents
-The earliest attestation of Burmese is the twelfth-century Rajakumar inscription (1112 CE), found close to Myazedi
Pagoda, recording the offering of a gold Buddha image. It is written in four languages: Pali, Burmese, Mon and Pyu.
-Other early stone inscriptions, belonging to the Pagan and Ava periods and dating from the 12th-14th centuries.
Phonology
Word structure: Most native Burmese words are sesquisyllabic. A reduced or minor syllable is followed by a major or full
syllable. Some words have two minor syllables, instead of one, prefixed to a major one. Minor syllables are toneless,
have only an initial consonant and a vowel realized as schwa. The structure of major syllables is C1(w/y)V (C2). In them,
phonological contrasts are concentrated in the initial consonant (C1) and the vowel (V). The only possible medial
consonants are the glides w and y, and the only possible final consonants are a nasal or the glottal stop. Neither initial
nor final consonant clusters are possible. Each major syllable has one of four possible tones.
Vowels (8): Seven vowels are found in major syllables, while in minor syllables all vowels tend to schwa (ə).
Burmese has four diphthongs (ei, ai, au, ou), which are always followed by a nasal or the glottal stop.
Consonants (30-33): Burmese has three series of stops and affricates: voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated and
voiced. It also has a full set of voiceless nasals, that are relatively rare in the world’s languages.
*sounds between brackets are of marginal use.
*[r] is rare and is only used in place names that have preserved Sanskrit or Pali pronunciations.
*[ʍ] is the voiceless counterpart of [w].
*[ɬ] is a voiceless lateral.
Tones: Like many Southeast Asian languages, Burmese is tonal. The tonal contrasts involve not only differences in pitch
and vowel length but also differences in voice quality (clear, breathy or creaky). The presence or absence of a glottal
stop at the end of a syllable is considered to be part of the tonal system. Burmese has four tones:
1) low: long, low, clear voice.
2) high: long, high, sometimes breathy voice.
3) creaky: short, high, creaky voice (pronounced with tension or constriction in the throat).
4) checked: very short, mid-high, clear voice with final glottal stop (which shortens the duration of the vowel).
Script and Orthography
Burmese is written from left to right in an alphabetic script derived,
ultimately, from the Brāhmī alphabet of India that is the ancestor of all Indic
scripts and of several Southeast Asian ones. Transmission of the script was
indirect: Brāhmī → a southern Indian script → Mon script → Burmese. The
Burmese script is also used to write other languages of Myanmar, like Shan
and Karen.
The Burmese alphabet has 33 consonants which represent not only native
sounds but also retroflex and voiced aspirated sounds found only in Indic
loanwords, like those of Sanskrit and Pali origin. A consonant sign without
any added vowel has an inherent vowel a; to represent other vowels, vowel
signs are added before, after, above or below consonant signs. The
arrangement of the alphabet reflects that of its Indian models. Below each
character figures its most common transliteration, and its phonetic
equivalent in the International Phonetic Alphabet between square brackets.
Low tone is unmarked. High tone is marked with a visarga (similar to a colon)
in the script and with a grave accent in transliteration. Creaky tone is
marked with a subscript dot in the script and by an acute accent in
transliteration Checked tone is indicated by a hook and is transliterated with
an apostrophe.
*the affricates [tʃ], [tʃʰ], [dʒ] are usually written ky, khy and gy, respectively.
*the palatal fricative [ʃ] is transliterated sh.
*the voiced palatal nasal [ɲ] is transliterated ny.
*the voiced velar nasal [ŋ] is transliterated ng.
*the voiceless nasals are distinguished from the voiced ones in writing by
adding an h: hm, hn, hny, hng.
*the voiceless lateral and glide are distinguished from the voiced ones in
writing by adding an h: hl, hw.
Morpho-syntax
Burmese is an isolating language with little or no inflectional morphology. Words are not inflected for person, number,
gender, case, tense, aspect or mood. Grammatical functions are carried out mainly by particles and word order.
Prefixation, reduplication and compounding serve to derive new words from preexisting ones (derivational morphology).
a)Noun
There is no grammatical gender. When natural gender has to be specified, -má (female) might be added after the noun
e.g. yáhàŋ ('monk'), yáhàŋ-má ('nun'). Plurality may be indicated by the general plural markers -te or -tó, or by the more
formal marker -myà which usually has a restrictive sense: lu ('man'), lu-te ('people'), lu-myà ('a certain number of
people').
When context is insufficient, syntactical relations may be expressed by particles following the noun,
like ha (subject), ká (contrasted subject, agent, topic, source), ko (object or goal), hma (location), nɛ́ (instrument,
company, manner), yɛ́/kɛ ́ (possession), mó (cause), p'ó (purpose).
Burmese, like many of the languages of mainland Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, requires classifiers when nouns are
modified by a number. They encompass several broad semantic and conceptual groups like: monks (pà), ordinary people
(yauʔ), animals (kaun), clothes (t'ɛ), sacred objects (s'u), round things (lòun), etc. Numeral and classifier follow the
quantified noun in an appositional relationship.
Nouns are easily formed from verbs by prefixation and/or partial reduplication. Nominal compounds are commonplace.
b)Pronoun
For the first and second persons there are a variety of pronouns marking degrees of politeness and familiarity. Except for
the first person and second person pronouns ŋa and nin, Burmese pronouns derive from nouns. Kinship terms, titles,
and names can function also as pronouns, like s'əya ('teacher') or meisʔ'we ('friend'). Deictic pronouns distinguish
proximal and distal: di ('this, these, here'), ho ('that, those, there'). The interrogative pronouns are bɛθu ('who?')
and bago ('what?'). Pronouns can be made plural by the addition of the suffix -tó.
c)Verb
New verbs are created by compounding and not, like nouns, by affixation or reduplication. The verbal phrase often
consists of one or more head-verbs followed by auxiliary verbs, particles and markers. Person, number and voice are not
indicated. There are no real passives. Aspect (more than tense) is expressed by postpositional particles like:
mɛ: imperfective (incomplete action)
gɛ, kɛ́: perfective (complete action)
ne: progressive (ongoing action)
pyi: inceptive (beginning of an action)
Mood is also conveyed by postpositional particles:
pa: polite imperative
chiŋ: desiderative
ta' /hnain: potential
yá: necessitative
yiŋ: conditional
The negative marker is mɛ; an interrogative marker is la.
d) Word Order
In Burmese, the verb and its modifiers occupy the final position in the clause, with nominals and other complements
before it. The order of elements before the verb is in principle free though it is affected by topicalisation (the topic tends
to be mentioned first). Within the noun phrase, the order of constituents is, primarily, modifier before modified:
demonstratives precede their head, so do genitive phrases and other nominal modifiers, as well as most relative clauses.
There is neither agreement between constituents nor concord within them.
Lexicon
Mon, an Austroasiatic language of southern Myanmar, influenced Burmese vocabulary in the early period acting also
as a nexus with Indian culture. A number of Sanskrit loanwords were adopted through the intermediation of Mon. The
spread of Theravada Buddhism in the country made Pali an even greater source of new lexical material, particularly in
the domains of religion, philosophy and high culture.
Myanmar was under British colonial rule between 1886-1948 and English lent many words to Burmese; some of them
were later replaced by native or Indic forms but new ones appeared in the fields of science and technology, politics and
business. English loanwords are sometimes combined with Burmese words in compounds to coin new technical
vocabulary.
Basic Vocabulary
As there is no standard transliteration for Burmese and as there is considerable disagreement between spelling and
pronunciation, we give below the vocabulary in the International Phonetic Alphabet notation):
one: tiʔ
two: n̥ iʔ
three: θòuŋ
four: lèi
five: ŋà
six: ʧʰaʊʔ
seven: kʰú n̥ iʔ
eight: ʃiʔ
nine: kò
ten: sʰe
hundred: ya
father: əpha
mother: əmei
older brother: əko
younger brother: ɲi (of male), maʊ̃ (of female)
older sister: əmá
younger sister: n̥əma (of male), ɲimá (of female)
son: θà
daughter: θamì
head: gàʊ̃
eye: myeʔ
leg/foot: ʧʰi
heart: n̥əlòʊ̃
tongue: ʃa
Maltese Phonology
The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Maltese
language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-mt}}
and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
Consonants
Vowels
IPA
Example
English approximation
IPA
Example
English approximation
b
ballun
boy
a
fatt
RP cat
d
dar
duck
ɐː / æː
rani
dz
gazzetta
pads
somewhat likeRP father or
somewhat like Australian rate
dʒ
ġelat
jail
eː
dehra
hey
f
fwieħa
four
ɛ
belt
met
ɡ
gallettina game
ɝ
merħba[2]
American nurse
ə
intom, Mdina (in
between m and d)[3]
minimum
iː
għid less focused a
sound than in the
word dik
beet
ɪ
wisa
bit
ɛː
wied,
met but longer
oː
sod, għum
Scottish no
h ħ ħadem
hat or Arabic ḥarām ‫اْ ام ََر‬
j
jum
yes
k
kelb
scar
l
ɫ libsa
look
m
mara
mole
n
nadif
no
p
paġna
spat
ɹ r re
real or American better[1]
øː
ewwel (may be realised
as a Diphthong)
RP code or French ceux
s
saqaf
sow
ɔ/ɒ
moħħ
awe or off
ʃ
xadina
shell
uː
mur
pool
t
tieqa
stake
ʊ
kuntratt
look
ts
zokk
sits
yː
iwaħħax
tʃ
ċavetta
chew
somewhat like RP acute
or French tu
v
vazun
vet
w
warda
wall
għajn
Australian late
z
żaqq
zoo
ʔ
Luqa
Cockney button
Suprasegmentals
IPA Explanation
◌ˤ
pharyngealised vowel
◌ː
long vowel or geminate consonant[4]
.
syllable break
ˈ
stress
Diphthongs
æː(ɪ̯)
eʊ̯ øʊ̯ øː ewwel
RP code or French ceux
aʊ̯ ɑʊ̯
għawn
how
oɪ̯
bojod
boy
Phonology
Consonants
Consonant phonemes[32][33]
Labial
Nasal
Dental/
Palatal Velar Pharyngeal Glottal
Alveolar
m
Plosive
p b
Affricate
Fricative
f
v
n
t
d
t͡s
d͡z
t͡ ʃ
d͡ʒ
s
z
ʃ
ʒ
Trill
r
Approximant
l
k ɡ
j
ʔ
ħ
w
Vassalli's Storja tas-Sultân Ċiru (1831), is an example of Maltese orthography in the 19th century, before the later
standardisation introduced in 1924. Note the similarities with the various varieties of romanized Arabic.
Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced. Voicing is carried over from the last segment
in obstruent clusters; thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e.g. /niktbu/ is
realised [ˈniɡdbu] "we write" (similar assimilation phenomena occur in languages like French or Czech). Maltese
has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and voiceless stops have no audible release, making voiceless–voiced
pairs phonetically indistinguishable.[34]
Gemination is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a
stressed vowel. Stressed, word-final closed syllables with short vowels end in a long consonant, and those with a long
vowel in a single consonant; the only exception is where historic *ʕ and *ɣ meant the compensatory lengthening of the
succeeding vowel. Some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters.[35]
The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters.[36] /t/ and /d/ are usually dental, whereas /t͡s
d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not wordinitial).[37] /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e.g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ "newspaper" and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ "television".[38] The
pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ is velar ([x]) or glottal ([h]) for some speakers.[39]
Vowels[edit]
Maltese has five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/, written a e i o u; six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː ɪː iː ɔː ʊː/, written a, e, ie, i, o, u, all of
which (with the exception of ie /ɪː/) can be known to represent long vowels in writing only if they are followed by an
orthographic għ or h (otherwise, one needs to know the pronunciation; e.g. nar (fire) is pronounced /na:r/); and
seven diphthongs, /ɐɪ ɐʊ ɛɪ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ ɔʊ/, written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu.[40]
Stress[edit]
Stress is generally on the penultimate syllable, unless some other syllable is heavy (has a long vowel or final consonant),
or unless a stress-shifting suffix is added. (Suffixes marking gender, possession, and verbal plurals do not cause the stress
to shift). Historically when vowel a and u were long or stressed they were written as â or û, for example in the
word baħħâr (sailor) to differentiate from baħħar (to sail), but nowadays these accents are mostly omitted.
When two syllables are equally heavy, the penultimate takes the stress, but otherwise the heavier syllable does,
e.g. bajjad [ˈbɐj.jɐt] 'he painted' vs bajjad [bɐj.ˈjɐːt] 'a painter'.
Historical phonology[edit]
Many Classical Arabic consonants underwent mergers and modifications in Maltese:
Classic
‫ ت‬/t ‫ ث‬/θ ‫ ط‬/tˤ ‫ د‬/d ‫ ض‬/dˤ ‫ ذ‬/ð ‫ ظ‬/ðˤ ‫ س‬/s ‫ ص‬/sˤ ‫ ح‬/ħ ‫ خ‬/χ ‫ ع‬/ʕ ‫ غ‬/ɣ ‫ ق‬/q
al
‫ ه‬/h/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
Arabic
Maltes
e
/t/
/d/
/s/
/ħ/
/Vː/
/ʔ~k
/
not
pronounc
ed
Orthography[edit]
Alphabet[edit]
Main articles: Maltese alphabet and Maltese Braille
The modern system of Maltese orthography was introduced in 1924.[41] Below is the Maltese alphabet,
with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation:
Letter Name
IPA (Alphabet
Name(s))
Maltese
example
IPA
(orthographically
representing)
Approximate English pronunciation
Aa
a
a:
anġlu (angel)
ɐ, a:, æ:
similar to 'u' in nut in RP [a:] similar to father
in Irish English [æ:] similar to cat in American
English, in some dialects it may be [ɒ:] in some
locations as in what in some American English
Dialects
Bb
be
be:
ballun (ball)
b
bar, but at the end of a word it is devoiced
to [p].
Ċċ
ċe
͡
tʃe:
ċavetta (key)
t ͡ʃ
church (note: undotted 'c' has been replaced
by 'k', so when 'c' does appear, it is to be
spoken the same way as 'ċ')
Dd
de
de:
dar (home)
d
day, but at the end of a word it is devoiced
to [t].
Ee
e
e:
envelopp
(envelope)
e:, ɛ, ø:, ə
[e:] somewhat like beet in some English
dialects/French é when long [ɛ] end when
short ,it is often changed to [ø:, œ] when
following and more often when followed by
a w, when at the end in an unstressed syllable
it is pronounced as schwa [ə, Vᵊ] butter
Ff
effe
ɛf(ː)ᵊ
fjura (flower)
f
far
Ġġ
ġe
dʒ͡ ø:
ġelat (ice
cream)
d͡ʒ
gem, but at the end of a word it is devoiced
to [tʃ].
Gg
ge
ge:
gallettina
(biscuit)
ɡ
game, but at the end of a word it is devoiced
to [k].
(ˤ)ː, ħː
has the effect of lengthening
and pharyngealising associated
vowels (għi and għu are [i ̞(ˤ)j] (may be
transcribed as [ə(ˤ)j]) and [oˤ]). When found at
the end of a word or immediately before 'h' it
has the sound of a double 'ħ' (see below).
GĦ
għ
ajn
ajn, æ:n
għasfur (bird)
Hh
akka
ak(:)ɐ
hu (he)
Ħħ
ħe
ħe:, he:, xe:
ħanut (shop)
Ii
i
i:
ikel (food)
not pronounced unless it is at the end of a
word, in which case it has the sound of 'ħ'.
ħ
no English equivalent; sounds similar
to /h/ but is articulated with a lowered larynx.
i ̞:, i:, ɪ
[i ̞:] bite(the way commonly realized in Irish
English or [i:] in other words as beet but more
forward) and when short as [ɪ] bit, occasionally
'i' is used to display il-vokali tal-leħen(the
vowel of the voice) as in words like l-iskola or liMdina ,in this case it takes the schwa sound.
IE ie
ie
i:ᵊ, ɛ:
ieqaf (stop)
ɛ:, iːᵊ
sounds similar to /ie/, as in yield, but opened
up slightly towards /ɛ/ some English dialects
may produce this sound when realizing words
that have ea as in dead or meat
Jj
je
jə, jæ, jɛ
jum (day)
j
yard
Kk
ke
kə, kæ, kɛ
kelb (dog)
k
kettle
Ll
elle
ɛl(:)ᵊ
libsa (dress)
l
line
Mm
emme
ɛm(:)ᵊ
mara (woman) m
march
Nn
enne
ɛn(:)ᵊ
nanna
(granny)
n
next
Oo
o
o:
ors (bear)
o, ɔ, ɒ
[o] as in somewhere between similar to
Scottish English o in no [ɔ] like 'aw' in RP law,
but short or [ɒ] as in water in some American
dialects.
Pp
pe
pe:, pə
paġna (page,
sheet)
p
part
Qq
qe
ʔø, ʔ(ʷ)ɛ,
ʔ(ʷ)æ, ʔ(ʷ)ə
qattus (cat)
ʔ
glottal stop, found in the Cockney English
pronunciation of "bottle" or the phrase "uhoh" /ʔʌʔoʊ/.
Rr
erre
ɛɹ(:)ᵊ, æɹ(:)ᵊ,
ɚ(:)ᵊ or ɛr(:)ᵊ, re (king)
ær(:)ᵊ, ər(:)ᵊ
r, ɹ
[r] as in General American English Butter
,or ɹ road (r realization changes depending on
dialect or location in the word)
Ss
esse
ɛs(:)ᵊ
sliem (peace)
s
sand
Tt
te
te:
tieqa
(window)
t
tired
u, ʉ, ʊ
[u] as in General American English boot or in
some dialects it may be realized as [ʉ] as in
some American English realizations of student,
short u is [ʊ] put
Uu
u
u:, ʉ
uviera (egg
cup)
Vv
ve
vø:, ve:, və
vjola (violet)
v
vast, but at the end of a word it is devoiced
to [f] may be said as [w] in the word Iva(yes)
sometimes this is just written as Iwa.
Ww
ve doppja
/u
doppja/we
vedɒp(:)jɐ,
u:dɒp(:)jɐ,
wø:
widna (ear)
w
west
ʃə, ʃø:
xadina
(monkey)
ʃ/ʒ
shade, sometimes as measure; when doubled
the sound is elongated, as in "Cash shin" vs.
"Cash in".
żraben (shoes)
z
maze, but at the end of a word it is devoiced
to [s].
zalza (sauce)
t͡s / d͡z
pizza
Xx
xe
Żż
że/żeta
Zz
ze
zə, zø:,
ze:t(ɐ)
t͡sə, t͡sø:,
t͡se:t(ɐ)
Final vowels with grave accents (à, è, ì, ò, ù) are also found in some Maltese words of Italian origin, such
as libertà ("freedom"), sigurtà (old Italian: sicurtà, "security"), or soċjetà (Italian: società, "society").
The official rules governing the structure of the Maltese language are found in the official guidebook issued by
the Akkademja tal-Malti, the Academy of the Maltese language, which is named Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija, that
is, Knowledge on Writing in Maltese. The first edition of this book was printed in 1924 by the Maltese government's
printing press. The rules were further expanded in the 1984 book, iż-Żieda mat-Tagħrif, which focused mainly on the
increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the Academy issued the Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq ilKitba Maltija, which updated the previous works.[42] All these works were included in a revised and expanded
guidebook published in 1996.[citation needed]
The National Council for the Maltese Language (KNM) is the main regulator of the Maltese language (see Maltese
Language Act, below) and not the Akkademja tal-Malti. However, these orthography rules are still valid and official.
Written Maltese[edit]
Since Maltese evolved after the Italo-Normans ended Arab rule of the islands, a written form of the language was not
developed for a long time after the Arabs' expulsion in the middle of the thirteenth century. Under the rule of
the Knights Hospitaller, both French and Italian were used for official documents and correspondence. During the British
colonial period, the use of English was encouraged through education, with Italian being regarded as the next-most
important language.
In the late eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, philologists and academics such as Mikiel Anton
Vassalli made a concerted effort to standardise written Maltese. Many examples of written Maltese exist from before
this period, always in the Latin alphabet, Il Cantilena being the earliest example of written Maltese. In 1934, Maltese was
recognised as an official language.
Sample[edit]
The Maltese language has a tendency to have both Semitic vocabulary and also vocabulary derived from Romance
languages, primarily Italian. Below are two versions of the same translations, one in vocabulary derived mostly from
Semitic root words while the other uses Romance loanwords (from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe,
see p. 17):
English
Maltese (Semitic vocabulary)
Maltese (Romance vocabulary)
The Union is founded on the values of
respect for human dignity, freedom,
democracy, equality, the rule of law
and respect for human rights,
including the rights of persons
belonging to minorities. These values
are common to the Member States in
a society in which pluralism, nondiscrimination, tolerance, justice,
solidarity and equality between
women and men prevail.
L-Għaqda hija mibnija fuq is-siwi ta'
għadir għall-ġieħ il-bniedem, ta'
ħelsien, ta' għażil il-ġemgħa, ta'
ndaqs bejn il-ġnus, tas-saltna taddritt* u tal-għadir għall-ħaqq talbniedem, wkoll il-ħaqq ta' wħud li
huma f'minoranzi*. Dan is-siwi
huwa mqassam bejn il-Pajjiżi*
Msieħba, f'nies li tħaddan il-kotrija,
li ma tgħejjibx, li ddann, li tgħaqqad
u li tiżen indaqs in-nisa u l-irġiel.
L-Unjoni hija mibnija fuq il-valuri ta'
rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, ta'
libertà, ta' demokrazija, ta' ugwaljanza,
ta' l-istat tad-dritt u tar-rispett għaddrittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet
ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti minn
minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni
għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà
karatterizzata mill-pluraliżmu, in-nondiskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, ilġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza
bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel.
*Note: the words dritt (pl. drittijiet), minoranza (pl. minoranzi), pajjiż (pl pajjiżi) are derived
from diritto (right), minoranza (minority) and paese (county) respectively.
Vocabulary[edit]
Although the original vocabulary of the language was Siculo-Arabic, it has incorporated a large number of borrowings
from Romance sources of influence (Sicilian, Italian, and French), and more recently Germanic ones (from English).[43]
The historical source of modern Maltese vocabulary is 52% Italian/Sicilian, 32% Siculo-Arabic, and 6% English, with some
of the remainder being French.[10][44] Today, most function words are Semitic. In this way, it is similar to English, which
is a Germanic language that had large influence from Norman French. As a result of this, Romance language-speakers
may easily be able to comprehend conceptual ideas expressed in Maltese, such as "Ġeografikament, l-Ewropa hi parti
tas-superkontinent ta' l-Ewrasja" (Geographically, Europe is part of the Supercontinent of Eurasia), while not
understanding a single word of a functional sentence such as "Ir-raġel qiegħed fid-dar" (The man is in the house), which
would be easily understood by any Arabic speaker.
Romance[edit]
An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese-English Dictionary shows that words of Romance
origin make up 52% of the Maltese vocabulary,[10] although other sources claim from as low as 40%,[11] to as high as
55%. This vocabulary tends to deal with more complicated concepts. They are mostly derived from Sicilian and thus
exhibit Sicilian phonetic characteristics, such as /u/ in place of /o/, and /i/ in place
of /e/ (e.g. tiatru not teatro and fidi not fede). Also, as with Old Sicilian, /ʃ/ (English 'sh') is written 'x' and this produces
spellings such as: ambaxxata /ambaʃːaːta/ ('embassy'), xena /ʃeːna/ ('scene' cf. Italian ambasciata, scena).
Maltese
Sicilian
Italian
English
skola
scola
scuola
school
gvern
cuvernu
governo
government
repubblika ripùbblica repubblica republic
re
re
re
cognate:regent; translation: king [45]
natura
natura
natura
nature
pulizija
pulizzìa
polizia
police
ċentru
centru
centro
centre
teatru
tiatru
teatro
theatre
A tendency in modern Maltese is to adopt further influences from English and Italian. Complex Latinate English words
adopted into Maltese are often given Italianate or Sicilianate forms,[10] even if the resulting words do not appear in
either of those languages. For instance, the words "evaluation", "industrial action", and "chemical armaments" become
"evalwazzjoni", "azzjoni industrjali", and "armamenti kimiċi" in Maltese, while the Italian terms are valutazione, vertenza
sindacale, and armi chimiche respectively. English words of Germanic origin are generally preserved relatively
unchanged.
Some impacts of African Romance on Arabic and Berber spoken in the Maghreb are theorised, which may then have
passed into Maltese.[46] For example, in calendar month names, the word furar "February" is only found in the
Maghreb and in Maltese - proving the word's ancient origins. The region also has a form of another Latin named month
in awi/ussu < augustus.[46] This word does not appear to be a loan word through Arabic, and may have been taken over
directly from Late Latin or African Romance.[46] Scholars theorise that a Latin-based system provided forms such
as awi/ussu and furar in African Romance, with the system then mediating Latin/Romance names through Arabic for
some month names during the Islamic period.[47] The same situation exists for Maltese which mediated words
from Italian, and retains both non-Italian forms such as awissu/awwissu and frar, and Italian forms such as april.[47]
Siculo-Arabic[edit]
Siculo-Arabic is the ancestor of the Maltese language,[10] and supplies between 32%[10] and 40%[11] of the language's
vocabulary.
Siculo-Arabic
Maltese
Arabic
English
(in Sicilian)
bebbuxu
babbaluciu
‫( ببوش‬babbūš)
(Moroccan)
snail
ġiebja
gebbia
‫( جب‬jabb)
cistern
ġunġlien
giuggiulena
‫( جنجالن‬junjulān)
sesame seed
saqqajja
saia
‫( ساقية‬sāqiyyah)
canal
kenur
tanura
‫( تنور‬tannūr)
oven
żagħfran
zaffarana
‫( زعفران‬zaʿfarān)
saffron
żahra
zagara
‫( زهرة‬zahrah)
blossom
żbib
zibbibbu
‫( زبيب‬zabīb)
raisins
zokk
zuccu
‫( ساق‬sāq)
tree trunk
tebut
tabbutu
‫( تابوت‬tābūt)
coffin
kapunata caponata
qassata
cassata
(non-Arabic origin)
caponata
savoury pastry pie
Żammit (2000) found that 40% of a sample of 1,821 Quranic Arabic roots were found in Maltese, a lower percentage
than found in Moroccan (58%) and Lebanese Arabic (72%).[48] An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in
Aquilina's Maltese-English Dictionary shows that 32% of the Maltese vocabulary is of Arabic origin,[10] although another
source claims 40%.[11][49] Usually, words expressing basic concepts and ideas, such
as raġel (man), mara (woman), tifel (boy), dar (house), xemx (sun), sajf (summer), are of Arabic origin. Moreover, belles
lettres in Maltese tend to aim mainly at diction belonging to this group.[31]
The Maltese language has merged many of the original Arabic consonants, in particular the emphatic consonants, with
others that are common in European languages. Thus, original Arabic /d/, /ð/, and /dˤ/ all merged into Maltese /d/. The
vowels, however, separated from the three in Arabic (/a i u/) to five, as is more typical of other European languages (/a ɛ
i o u/). Some unstressed short vowels have been elided. The common Arabic greeting as salāmu 'alaykum is cognate
with is-sliem għalikom in Maltese (lit. the peace for you, peace be with you), as are similar greetings in other Semitic
languages (e.g. shalom ʿalekhem in Hebrew).
Since the attested vocabulary of Siculo-Arabic is limited, the following table compares cognates in Maltese and some
other varieties of Arabic (all forms are written phonetically, as in the source):[50]
Negev
Yemenite
Maltese Cairene Damascene Iraqi
Moroccan Modern Standard Arabic English
(bedouin) (Sanaani)
qalb
'alb
'aleb
qalb
galb
galb
qalb
‫( ق لب‬qalb)
heart
waqt
wa't
wa'et
—
wagt
wagt
waqt
‫( وق ت‬waqt)
time
qamar
'amar
'amar
qamaɣ gumar
gamar
qmar
‫( ق مم‬qamar)
moon
kelb
kalb
kaleb
kalb
čalb
kalb
kalb
‫( ك لب‬kalb)
dog
English[edit]
It is estimated that English loanwords, which are becoming more commonplace, make up 20% of the Maltese
vocabulary,[11] although other sources claim amounts as low as 6%.[10] This percentage discrepancy is due to the fact
that a number of new English loanwords are sometimes not officially considered part of the Maltese vocabulary; hence,
they are not included in certain dictionaries.[10] Also, English loanwards of Latinate origin are very often Italianised, as
discussed above. English loanwords are generally transliterated, although standard English pronunciation is virtually
always retained. Below are a few examples:
Maltese English
futbol
football
baskitbol basketball
klabb
club
friġġ
fridge
Note "fridge", which is a frequent shortening of "refrigerator", a Latinate word which might be expected to be rendered
as rifriġeratori (Italian uses two different words: frigorifero or refrigeratore).
Grammar[edit]
Maltese grammar is fundamentally derived from Siculo-Arabic, although Romance and English noun pluralisation
patterns are also used on borrowed words.
Adjectives and adverbs[edit]
Adjectives follow nouns. There are no separately formed native adverbs, and word order is fairly flexible. Both nouns
and adjectives of Semitic origin take the definite article (for example, It-tifel il-kbir, lit. "The boy the elder"="The elder
boy"). This rule does not apply to adjectives of Romance origin.
Nouns[edit]
Nouns are pluralised and also have a dual marker. Semitic plurals are complex; if they are regular, they are marked by iet/-ijiet, e.g., art, artijiet "lands (territorial possessions or property)" (cf. Arabic -at and Hebrew -ot/-oth) or -in (cf.
Arabic -īn and Hebrew -im). If irregular, they fall in the pluralis fractus (broken plural) category, in which a word is
pluralised by internal vowel changes: ktieb, kotba " book", "books"; raġel, irġiel "man", "men".
Words of Romance origin are usually pluralised in two manners: addition of -i or -jiet. For
example, lingwa, lingwi "languages", from Sicilian lingua, lingui.
Words of English origin are pluralised by adding either an "-s" or "-jiet", for example, friġġ, friġis from the word fridge.
Some words can be pluralised with either of the suffixes to denote the plural. A few words borrowed from English can
amalgamate both suffixes, like brikksa from the English brick, which can adopt either collective form brikks or the plural
form brikksiet.
Article[edit]
The proclitic il- is the definite article, equivalent to "the" in English and "al-" in Arabic.
The Maltese article becomes l- before or after a vowel.
l-omm (the mother)
rajna l-Papa (we saw the Pope)
il-missier (the father)
The Maltese article assimilates to a following coronal consonant (called konsonanti xemxin "sun consonants"), namely:
Ċ iċ-ċikkulata (the chocolate)
D id-dar (the house)
N in-nar (the fire)
R ir-razzett (the farm)
S is-serrieq (the saw)
T it-tifel (the boy)
X ix-xemx (the sun)
Ż iż-żarbuna (the shoe)
Z iz-zalzett (the sausage)
Maltese il- is coincidentally identical in pronunciation to one of the Italian masculine articles, il. Consequently, many
nouns borrowed from Standard Italian did not change their original article when used in Maltese. Romance vocabulary
taken from Sicilian did change where the Sicilian articles u and a, before a consonant, are used. In spite of its Romance
appearance, il- is related to the Arabic article al-.[citation needed]
Verbs[edit]
Verbs show a triliteral Semitic pattern, in which a verb is conjugated with prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (for
example ktibna, Arabic katabna, Hebrew kathabhnu (Modern Hebrew: katavnu) "we wrote"). There are two tenses:
present and perfect. The Maltese verb system incorporates Romance verbs and adds Maltese suffixes and prefixes to
them (for example, iddeċidejna "we decided" ← (i)ddeċieda "decide", a Romance verb + -ejna, a Maltese first person
plural perfect marker).