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Burmese language
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== History == The Burmese language's early forms include [[Old Burmese]] and [[Middle Burmese]]. Old Burmese dates from the 11th to the 16th century ([[Pagan Kingdom|Pagan]] to [[Ava Kingdom|Ava]] dynasties); Middle Burmese from the 16th to the 18th century ([[Taungoo Dynasty|Toungoo]] to early [[Konbaung Dynasty|Konbaung]] dynasties); modern Burmese from the mid-18th century to the present. While Burmese phonology has evolved significantly, [[word order]], grammatical structure, and vocabulary have remained markedly stable well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g., [[function word]]s).{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989|p=5}}{{sfn|Wheatley|2013}}<ref name=":22"/> === Old Burmese === {{Main|Old Burmese}} {{further|Nanzhao Kingdom}} [[File:Myazedi-Inscription-Burmese.JPG|thumb|upright|The [[Myazedi inscription]], dated to AD 1113, is the oldest surviving stone inscription of the Burmese language.]] The earliest attested form of the Burmese language is called [[Old Burmese]], dating to the 11th and 12th century stone inscriptions of [[Bagan|Pagan]]. The earliest evidence of the [[Burmese alphabet]] is dated to 1035, while a casting made in the 18th century of an old stone inscription points to 984.{{sfn|Aung-Thwin|2005|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} Owing to the linguistic prestige of Old Pyu in the [[Pagan Kingdom]] era, Old Burmese borrowed a substantial corpus of vocabulary from Pali via the [[Pyu language (Burma)|Pyu language]].{{sfn|Jenny|2013}} These indirect borrowings can be traced back to orthographic idiosyncrasies in these loanwords, such as the Burmese word "to worship", which is spelt ပူဇော် ({{IAST|pūjo}}) instead of ပူဇာ ({{IAST|pūjā}}), as would be expected by the original Pali orthography.{{sfn|Jenny|2013}} In the mid-15th century, bilingual Pali-Burmese texts called ''nissaya'' (နိဿယ) emerged.<ref name=":1" /> These texts played a significant role in shaping the standard language, leading Burmese postpositional markers to be reinterpreted as equivalents of Pali inflections, giving them new grammatical roles that were compatible with their original use but not inherent to them.<ref name=":1" /> Over time, these markers became integral to the morphological structure of Burmese and were seen as more obligatory in literary Burmese, and to a lesser extent, colloquial Burmese.<ref name=":1" /> === Middle Burmese === {{Main|Middle Burmese}} The transition to [[Middle Burmese]] occurred in the 16th century.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989|p=5}} The transition to Middle Burmese included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of [[Minimal pair|sound pairs]] that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in the underlying [[orthography]].{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989|p=5}} From the 1500s onward, Burmese kingdoms saw substantial gains in the populace's [[literacy rate]], which manifested itself in greater participation of laymen in scribing and composing legal and historical documents, domains that were traditionally the domain of Buddhist monks, and drove the ensuing proliferation of [[Burmese literature]], both in terms of genres and works.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} During this period, the [[Burmese alphabet]] began employing cursive-style circular letters typically used in [[palm-leaf manuscript]]s, as opposed to the traditional square block-form letters used in earlier periods.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} The orthographic conventions used in written Burmese today can largely be traced back to Middle Burmese. === Modern Burmese === Modern Burmese emerged in the mid-18th century. By this time, male literacy in Burma stood at nearly 50%, which enabled the wide circulation of legal texts, [[Burmese chronicles|royal chronicles]], and religious texts.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} A major reason for the uniformity of the Burmese language was the near-universal presence of Buddhist monasteries (called ''[[kyaung]]'') in Burmese villages. These ''kyaung'' served as the foundation of the pre-colonial monastic education system, which fostered uniformity of the language throughout the Upper Irrawaddy valley, the traditional homeland of Burmese speakers. The [[1891 Census of India]], conducted five years after the annexation of the entire [[Konbaung Kingdom]], found that the former kingdom had an "unusually high male literacy" rate of 62.5% for Upper Burmans aged 25 and above. For all of [[British Burma]], the literacy rate was 49% for men and 5.5% for women (by contrast, [[British India]] more broadly had a male literacy rate of 8.44%).{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|p=189}} The expansion of the Burmese language into [[Lower Myanmar|Lower Burma]] also coincided with the emergence of Modern Burmese. As late as the mid-1700s, [[Mon language|Mon]], an [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] language, was the principal language of Lower Burma, employed by the Mon people who inhabited the region. Lower Burma's shift from Mon to Burmese was accelerated by the Burmese-speaking [[Konbaung Dynasty]]'s victory over the Mon-speaking [[Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom]] in 1757. By 1830, an estimated 90% of the population in Lower Burma self-identified as Burmese-speaking Bamars; huge swaths of former Mon-speaking territory, from the [[Irrawaddy Delta]] to upriver in the north, spanning Bassein (now Pathein) and Rangoon (now Yangon) to Tharrawaddy, Toungoo, Prome (now Pyay), and Henzada (now Hinthada), were now Burmese-speaking.{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|pp=202-206}}{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}} The language shift has been ascribed to a combination of population displacement, intermarriage, and voluntary changes in self-identification among increasingly Mon–Burmese bilingual populations in the region.{{sfn|Lieberman|2018|p={{page needed|date=November 2021}}}}{{sfn|Lieberman|2003|pp=202-206}} Standardized tone marking in written Burmese was not achieved until the 18th century. From the 19th century onward, orthographers created spellers to reform Burmese spelling, because of ambiguities that arose over transcribing sounds that had been merged.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}} British rule saw continued efforts to standardize Burmese spelling through dictionaries and spellers. Britain's gradual annexation of Burma throughout the 19th century, in addition to concomitant economic and political instability in Upper Burma (e.g., increased tax burdens from the Burmese crown, British rice production incentives, etc.) also accelerated the migration of Burmese speakers from Upper Burma into Lower Burma.{{sfn|Adas|2011|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8Czd7xXIf3MC&pg=PA67 67–77]}} [[British rule in Burma]] eroded the strategic and economic importance of the Burmese language; Burmese was effectively subordinated to the [[English language]] in the colonial educational system, especially in higher education.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} In the 1930s, the Burmese language saw a linguistic revival, precipitated by the establishment of an independent [[University of Yangon|University of Rangoon]] in 1920 and the inception of a Burmese language major at the university by [[Pe Maung Tin]], modeled on [[Anglo Saxon language]] studies at the University of Oxford.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} Student protests in December of that year, triggered by the introduction of English into [[University Entrance Examination|matriculation examinations]], fueled growing demand for Burmese to become the medium of education in British Burma; a short-lived but symbolic parallel system of "national schools" that taught in Burmese, was subsequently launched.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} The role and prominence of the Burmese language in public life and institutions was championed by Burmese nationalists, intertwined with their demands for greater autonomy and independence from the British in the lead-up to the independence of Burma in 1948.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} The 1948 [[Constitution of Myanmar|Constitution of Burma]] prescribed Burmese as the [[official language]] of the newly independent nation. The [[Burma Translation Society]] and Rangoon University's Department of Translation and Publication were established in 1947 and 1948, respectively, with the joint goal of modernizing the Burmese language in order to replace English across all disciplines.{{sfn|Allott|1983}} Anti-colonial sentiment throughout the early post-independence era led to a reactionary switch from English to Burmese as the national medium of education, a process that was accelerated by the [[Burmese Way to Socialism]].{{sfn|Allott|1983}} In August 1963, the socialist [[Union Revolutionary Council|Union Revolutionary Government]] established the Literary and Translation Commission (the immediate precursor of the [[Myanmar Language Commission]]) to standardize Burmese spelling, diction, composition, and terminology. The latest spelling authority, named the ''Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan'' ({{lang|my|မြန်မာ စာလုံးပေါင်း သတ်ပုံ ကျမ်း}}), was compiled in 1978 by the commission.{{sfn|Herbert|Milner|1989}}
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