Editing Burmese language (section)

{{Short description|Official language of Myanmar}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Burmese
| nativename       = မြန်မာဘာသာ, Mranma bhasa
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|my|mjəmà bàθà|}}
| states           = {{ubl|[[Myanmar]]|[[Thailand]]|[[China]] ([[Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture|Dehong]])|[[India]] ([[Mizoram]], [[Manipur]] and [[Tripura]])}}
| speakers         = [[first language|L1]]: {{sigfig|33.163850|2}} million
| date             = 2007
| ref              = e27
| speakers2        = [[second language|L2]]: {{sigfig|10.001840|2}} million (no date)<ref name=e27/>
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| familycolor      = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2             = [[Tibeto-Burman]]
| fam3             = [[Lolo-Burmese]]
| ancestor         = [[Old Burmese]]
| ancestor2        = [[Middle Burmese]]
| script           = {{ubl|[[Mon–Burmese script]] ([[Burmese alphabet]])|[[Burmese Braille]]}}
| nation           = {{flag|Myanmar}}
| agency           = [[Myanmar Language Commission]]
| iso1             = my
| iso2b            = bur
| iso2t            = mya
| iso3             = mya
| lc1              = mya
| ld1              = [[Myanmar]]
| lc2              = int
| ld2              = [[Intha-Danu language|Intha]]
| lc3              = tco
| ld3              = [[Taungyo]]
| lc4              = rki
| ld4              = [[Rakhine language|Rakhine]]
| lc5              = rmz
| ld5              = Marma
| lingua           = 77-AAA-a
| map              = Idioma birmano.png
| mapsize          = 
| mapcaption       = Areas where Burmese is spoken (dark blue signifies areas where it is more widely spoken). This map does not indicate whether the language is a majority or minority.
| notice           = IPA-MY
| glotto           = mran1234
| glottorefname    = Burmese
| minority         = 
| fam4             = [[Burmish]]
| lc6              = Tay
| ld6              = [[Tavoyan dialects]]
| mapalt           = Myanmar
| pushpin_map      = 
| pushpin_label    = 
| altname          = Myanmar language
| coordinates      = 
| pushpin_map_caption = 
| pushpin_map_alt  = 
}}
{{Contains special characters|Burmese}}
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Naw speaking Burmese.webm|thumb|A Burmese speaker, recorded in Taiwan]]
'''Burmese''' ({{Lang-my-name-MLCTS|MY=မြန်မာဘာသာ|MLCTS=Mranma bhasa}}; {{IPA|my|mjəmà bàθà|pron}}) is a [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman language]] spoken in [[Myanmar]],<ref name=":0" /> where it is the [[official language]], lingua franca, and the native language of the [[Bamar people|Bamar]], the country's largest ethnic group. Burmese dialects are also spoken by the indigenous tribes in Bangladesh's [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]], India's [[Mizoram]], [[Manipur]], [[Tripura]] states and the [[Burmese diaspora]]. The [[Constitution of Myanmar]] officially refers to it as the '''Myanmar language''' in English,<ref>Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008), Chapter XV, Provision 450</ref> though most English speakers continue to refer to the language as ''Burmese'', after ''Burma''—a name with co-official status until 1989 (see [[Names of Myanmar]]). Burmese is the most widely-spoken language in the country, where it serves as the [[lingua franca]].{{sfn|Bradley|1996}} In 2019, Burmese was spoken by 42.9 million people globally, including by 32.9 million speakers as a first language, and an additional 10 million speakers as a second language.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=Burmese |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mya |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820164330/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mya |archive-date=2019-08-20 |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{e27|mya|Burmese}}</ref> A 2023 [[World Bank]] survey found that 80% of the country's population speaks Burmese.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 2023 |title=Myanmar Subnational Phone Surveys (MSPS) of the World Bank: Coverage, Reliability and Representativeness |url=https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099060523053037887/pdf/P179106053122a04508fcd015baf80eadf5.pdf |website=World Bank |quote=The share of population that speaks Burmese as the most common language with other members of households is about 10 percentage points higher than independent estimates of Burmese languages speakers in Myanmar. However, these independent estimates of the share of Burmese speakers are dated as language information was not collected in the last census.}}</ref>

Burmese is a [[Tone (linguistics)#Tonal languages|tonal]], [[Register (phonology)|pitch-register]], and [[Isochrony|syllable-timed language]],{{sfn|Chang|2003}} largely [[Monosyllabic language|monosyllabic]] and [[Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] with a [[subject–object–verb]] word order. Burmese is distinguished from other major Southeast Asian languages by its extensive case marking system and rich morphological inventory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Language Burmese |url=https://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_brm |access-date=2024-12-10 |website=WALS Online}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Jenny |first=Mathias |title=25 The national languages of MSEA: Burmese, Thai, Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese |date=2021-08-23 |work=The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A comprehensive guide |pages=599–622 |editor-last=Sidwell |editor-first=Paul |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110558142-025/html |access-date=2024-12-06 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783110558142-025 |isbn=978-3-11-055814-2 |editor2-last=Jenny |editor2-first=Mathias|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is a member of the [[Lolo-Burmese languages|Lolo-Burmese grouping]] of the [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan language family]]. The [[Burmese alphabet]] is ultimately descended from a [[Brahmic script]], either the [[Kadamba alphabet|Kadamba]] or [[Pallava alphabet|Pallava]] alphabets.