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WANT MORE?For in-depth languageinformation and handyphrases, check out LonelyPlanet’s Burmese Phrasebook.You’ll find it at shop.lonelyplanet.com, or youcan buy Lonely Planet’siPhone phrasebooks at theApple App Store.LanguagelanguageBurmese is part of the Tibeto-Burman languagefamily. As the national language ofMyanmar (Burma), it has over 40 millionspeakers, of whom more than 30 million use itas their first language. The variety of Burmeseof Mandalay and Yangon, spoken throughoutthe central area of Myanmar, is considered thestandard language. Many other languages arespoken in Myanmar, but with Burmese you’llbe understood in the whole country.There are two varieties of Burmese – oneused in writing and formal situations, theother in speaking and informal context. Themain differences are in vocabulary, especiallythe most common words (eg ‘this’ is di inspoken Burmese, but i in the written language).The phrases in this chapter are in theinformal spoken variety, which is appropriatefor all situations you’re likely to encounter.Note that many Burmese nouns are borrowedfrom English, though the meaning andsound may be somewhat different.In Burmese, there’s a difference betweenaspirated consonants (pronounced with apuff of air after the sound) and unaspiratedones – you’ll get the idea if you hold yourhand in front of your mouth to feel yourbreath, and say ‘pit’ (where the ‘p’ is aspirated)and ‘spit’ (where it’s unaspirated).These aspirated consonants in our pronunciationguides are said with a puff of air afterthe sound: ch (as in ‘church’), k (as in ‘kite’), ş(as in ‘sick’), t (as in ‘talk’); the following onesare pronounced with a puff of air before thesound: hl (as in ‘life’), hm (as in ‘me’), hn (as in‘not’), hng ( as in ‘sing’), hny (as in ‘canyon’).Note also that the apostrophe (’) representsthe sound heard between ‘uh-oh’, th is pronouncedas in ‘thin’ and ţh as in ‘their’.There are three distinct tones in Burmese(the raising and lowering of pitch on certainsyllables). They are indicated in our pronunciationguides by the accent mark above thevowel: high creaky tone, as in ‘heart’ (á), plainhigh tone, as in ‘car’ (à), and the low tone (a –no accent). Note also that ai is pronounced asin ‘aisle’, aw as in ‘law’, and au as in ‘brown’.BASICSBurmese equivalents of the personal pronouns‘I’ and ‘you’ have masculine andfeminine forms, depending on the genderof the person indicated by the pronoun.These forms are marked as ‘m/f’ in phrasesthroughout this chapter. Depending on thepronoun (ie ‘I’ or ‘you’), these abbreviationsrefer to the speaker or the person addressed.Hello. mgçlapå" ming·guh·la·baGoodbye. q∑a;my\ena\" thwà·me·nawYes. hut\k´." hoh’·géNo. hc\.Ac\;" híng·ìnExcuse me. eSar^;ena\" sàw·rì·nawSorry. eSar^;ena\" sàw·rì·nawPlease. tSit\elak\" duh·şay’·lau’Thank you. ek¥;z¨; jày·zùtc\påty\" ding·ba·deYou’re welcome. rpåty\" yá·ba·deHow are you? enekac\;la;" nay·gàung·làFine. And you? ekac\;påty\" gàung·ba·deKc\b¥a;/rċ\era" king·myà/shing·yàw (m/f)