Burmese · မြန်မာဘာသာ

About Burmese

Language family

Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman branch

Where it's spoken

Myanmar

Speakers

roughly 33–43 million native speakers plus wide use as a lingua franca

Burmese belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of Sino-Tibetan, related only distantly to the dozens of other minority languages spoken within Myanmar's borders, such as the Karen languages. It is tonal and written in a distinctive rounded script, adapted originally from a South Indian Brahmi-based writing system via the Mon and Pyu civilizations that predated Burmese political dominance in the region. Centuries as the language of successive Burmese royal courts and, later, of national administration made it the country's dominant lingua franca despite its ethnic and linguistic diversity.