Burmese alphabet

Burmese
မြန်မာအက္ခရာ
Script type
Time period
c. 984 or 1035–present
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
LanguagesBurmese, Rakhine, Pali and Sanskrit
Related scripts
Parent systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Mymr (350), ​Myanmar (Burmese)
Unicode
Unicode alias
Myanmar
U+1000–U+104F
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Burmese alphabet (Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ myanma akkha.ya, pronounced [mjəmà ʔɛʔkʰəjà]) is an abugida used for writing Burmese. It is ultimately adapted from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The Burmese alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. 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.)

Burmese 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 complications. There are several systems of transliteration into the Latin alphabet; for this article, the MLC Transcription System is used.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference mat-2005-167-178-197-200 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Diringer, David (1948). Alphabet a key to the history of mankind. p. 411.