Burmese is an agglutinative language. It has a subject-object-verb word order and is head-final. Particles are heavily utilized to convey syntactic functions, with wide divergence between literary and colloquial forms.
Verbs
Verbs in Burmese are heavily affixed to convey meaning, such as modality.[1]
Negation
Verbs are negated by the prefix မ ma. [mə] and suffixed with နဲ့ nai. [nɛ̰] (literary form: နှင့် hnang. [n̥ɪ̰̃]) or ဘူး bhu: [bú] to indicate a negative command or a negative statement, respectively.
မသွား
ma.swa:
[məθwá
နဲ့
nai.
nɛ̰]
'Don't go'
မသွား
ma.swa:
[məθwá
ဘူး
bhu:
bú]
'[I] don't go'
Nouns
Burmese nouns are marked for case.
Case markers
The case markers are:
| High register | Low register | |
|---|---|---|
| Subject | thi (သည်), ká (က), hma (မှာ) | ha (ဟာ), ká (က) |
| Object | ko (ကို) | ko (ကို) |
| Recipient | à (အား) | |
| Allative | thó (သို့) | |
| Ablative | hmá (မှ), ká (က) | ká (က) |
| Locative | hnai (၌), hma (မှာ), twin (တွင်) | hma (မှာ) |
| Comitative | hnín (နှင့်) | né (နဲ့) |
| Instrumental | hpyin (ဖြင့်), hnin (နှင့်) | |
| Possessive | í (၏) | yé (ရဲ့) |
Number
Plural nouns are formed by adding the suffixes တွေ twe [dwè~twè] or များ mya: [mjà] (literary).
Numerical classifiers
Nouns are quantified using various classifiers.
Classifiers are not used for measurements of time or age.
Pronouns
Burmese makes use of an extensive system of pronouns that vary based on audience.
Adjectives
In Burmese, verbs carry out the function of adjectives.
Reduplication is used to intensify the meaning of adjectives.
References
- ↑ Vittrant, Alice (Ed ) (2015). CRCL, CRCL, Pacific Linguistics And/Or The Author(S). "Burmese as a modality-prominent language Discourse and stylistic register" (PDF). Pacific Linguistics: 4.1M, 143–162 pages. doi:10.15144/PL-570.143.
Further Reading
- Jenny, Mathias; Hnin Tun, San San (2016). Burmese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. ISBN 9780415735698.
- Judson, Adoniram (1883). Grammar of the Burmese Language.