Burmese phonology

The transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Consonants
The consonants of Burmese are as follows:

Phonetic notes:
 * is uncommon, except as a voiced allophone of.
 * is rare, having disappeared from modern Burmese, except in transcriptions of foreign names and a handful of native words.
 * is rare, used only in place names that have retained Sanskrit or Pali pronunciations (e.g. Amarapura, pronounced and in English-derived words. Historically,  became  in Burmese, and is usually replaced by  in Pāli loanwords, e.g. "monk"  ra.hanta, "king"  raja. . Occasionally it is replaced with  (e.g., "animal"  ti.rac hcan), pronounced  or.

Burmese exhibits two distinct types of voicing sandhi, which occurs in the consonant phones: • 2

In the first type, the initial consonant of the second syllable becomes voiced:
 * e.g. "hot water":  ←  +

In the second type, the initial consonants of both syllables become voiced:
 * e.g. "promise":  ←  +

In some compound works, the phoneme, when following the nasalized final , can shift to a sound:
 * e.g. "blouse" ( angkyi): →.

The phonemes, when following the nasalized final , can become in compound words:
 * e.g. "to consult" : →
 * e.g. "to apologize" : →
 * e.g. "airplane" : →

The placeless nasal is realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel or as a nasal homorganic to the following consonant; thus  "storm" is pronounced.

In many Burmese verbs, pre-aspiration and post-aspiration distinguishes the causative and non-causative forms of verbs, whereby the aspirated initial consonant indicates active voice or a transitive verb, while an unaspirated initial consonant indicates passive voice or an intransitive verb:
 * e.g. "to cook", vs. "to be cooked" ,
 * e.g. "to loosen", vs. "to be loosened" ,
 * e.g. "to elevate", vs. "to be elevated" ,

Vowels
The vowels of Burmese are:

The monophthongs, , , and occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda); the diphthongs , , , and  occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda). only occurs in a minor syllable, and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below).

The close vowels and  and the close portions of the diphthongs are slightly centered to  and  in closed syllables, i.e. before  and. Thus  "two" is phonetically  and   "cat" is phonetically.

Tones
Burmese is a tonal language, which means phonemic contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch, but also phonation, intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel quality. However, some linguists consider Burmese a pitch-register language like Shanghainese.

There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table, the tones are shown marked on the vowel as an example.

For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone:
 * Low "shake"
 * High "be bitter"
 * Creaky "fee"
 * Checked "draw off"

In syllables ending with, the checked tone is excluded:
 * Low "undergo"
 * High "dry up"
 * Creaky "appoint"

In spoken Burmese, some linguists classify two real tones (there are four nominal tones transcribed in written Burmese), "high" (applied to words that terminate with a stop or check, high-rising pitch) and "ordinary" (unchecked and non-glottal words, with falling or lower pitch), with those tones encompassing a variety of pitches. The "ordinary" tone consists of a range of pitches. Linguist L. F. Taylor concluded that "conversational rhythm and euphonic intonation possess importance" not found in related tonal languages and that "its tonal system is now in an advanced state of decay."

Syllable structure
The syllable structure of Burmese is C(G)V((V)C), which is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide, and the rime consists of a monophthong alone, a monophthong with a consonant, or a diphthong with a consonant. The only consonants that can stand in the coda are and. Some representative words are:
 * CV 'girl'
 * CVC 'crave'
 * CGV 'earth'
 * CGVC 'eye'
 * CVVC (term of address for young men)
 * CGVVC 'ditch'

A minor syllable has some restrictions:
 * It contains as its only vowel
 * It must be an open syllable (no coda consonant)
 * It cannot bear tone
 * It has only a simple (C) onset (no glide after the consonant)
 * It must not be the final syllable of the word

Some examples of words containing minor syllables:
 * 'knob'
 * 'flute'
 * 'mock'
 * 'be wanton'
 * 'rice-water'