Burmese alphabet
From Freepedia
- Note: You may need a Burmese Unicode Font to see the characters on this page.
Image:Myazedistoneinscription.jpg
The Burmese alphabet is a script in the Brahmic family used in Myanmar for writing Burmese, Mon, and Kayin (Karen). The characters are rounded in appearance, because the traditional palm leaves used for writing would have been ripped by straight lines. Like English, it is written from left to right.
There are about 33 consonants က (pronounced ka) to ဠ (pronounced la). However, the last letter in the alphabet (အ; aa), although recognized as a consonant, is actually a vowel. Since the a is the only lettered vowel, when used with diacritics, it creates other vowel sounds. Like other members of the Brahmic family, the sounds of these are modified by accents put above, below or beside the character.
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Diacritics
There are seven diactric marks that alter the vowel sound of a character.
- ာ which sits to the right of a consonant and changes the sound to a longer aa sound.
- ိ a small circle over a character, changes the pronunciation to an ee sound.
- ီ
- ု lies below a consonant.
- ူ
- ေ stands to the left of a consonant, changing the sound to an e as in the English word vet.
- ဲ
One or more of these accents can be added to a consonant to change its sound. For instance ဟ is pronounced 'ha'. With the addition of the accent ိ, ဟိ is pronounced 'hee'. If another accent ( ု) is added, ဟို is said as ho.
Digits
A decimal numbering system is used, and numbers are written in the same order as arabic numerals.
The numerals from zero to nine are: Image:Burmese numbers.jpg(Unicode 1040 to 1049). The number 1945 would be written as Image:Burmese 1945.jpg. Delimiters (such as commas) to separate numbers are not used.
Punctuation
There are two break characters in Burmese, drawn as one or two downward strokes (၊ or ။), that act as a comma and a full stop respectively.
Burmese in Unicode
The Unicode range for Burmese (Myanmar) is U+1000 ... U+109F.| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | ||
| 1000 | က | ခ | ဂ | ဃ | င | စ | ဆ | ဇ | ဈ | ဉ | ည | ဋ | ဌ | ဍ | ဎ | ဏ | |
| 1010 | တ | ထ | ဒ | ဓ | န | ပ | ဖ | ဗ | ဘ | မ | ယ | ရ | လ | ဝ | သ | ဟ | |
| 1020 | ဠ | အ | ဢ | ဣ | ဤ | ဥ | ဦ | ဧ | ဨ | ဩ | ဪ | ါ | ာ | ိ | ီ | ု | |
| 1030 | ူ | ေ | ဲ | ဳ | ဴ | ဵ | ံ | ့ | း | ္ | ် | ျ | ြ | ွ | ှ | ဿ | |
| 1040 | ၀ | ၁ | ၂ | ၃ | ၄ | ၅ | ၆ | ၇ | ၈ | ၉ | ၊ | ။ | ၌ | ၍ | ၎ | ၏ | |
| 1050 | ၐ | ၑ | ၒ | ၓ | ၔ | ၕ | ၖ | ၗ | ၘ | ၙ | ၚ | ၛ | ၜ | ၝ | ၞ | ၟ | |
| 1060 | ၠ | ၡ | ၢ | ၣ | ၤ | ၥ | ၦ | ၧ | ၨ | ၩ | ၪ | ၫ | ၬ | ၭ | ၮ | ၯ | |
| 1070 | ၰ | ၱ | ၲ | ၳ | ၴ | ၵ | ၶ | ၷ | ၸ | ၹ | ၺ | ၻ | ၼ | ၽ | ၾ | ၿ | |
| 1080 | ႀ | ႁ | ႂ | ႃ | ႄ | ႅ | ႆ | ႇ | ႈ | ႉ | ႊ | ႋ | ႌ | ႍ | ႎ | ႏ | |
| 1090 | ႐ | ႑ | ႒ | ႓ | ႔ | ႕ | ႖ | ႗ | ႘ | ႙ | ႚ | ႛ | ႜ | ႝ | ႞ | ႟ |
