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127-456: The Tatmadaw ( Burmese : တပ်မတော် ; MLCTS : tatma.taw , IPA: [taʔmədɔ̀] , lit.   ' Grand Armed Forces ' ), also known as Sit-Tat ( Burmese : စစ်တပ် ; MLCTS : cactap. , IPA: [sɪʔtaʔ] , lit.   ' Armed Forces ' ), is the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of

254-660: A 1962 coup d'état , attempting to build an autarkic society called the Burmese Way to Socialism . Following the violent repression of nationwide protests in 1988 , the military agreed to free elections in 1990 , but ignored the resulting victory of the National League for Democracy and imprisoned its leader Aung San Suu Kyi . The 1990s also saw the escalation of the conflict involving Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State due to RSO attacks on

381-746: A 1973 referendum , the 1974 constitution was the second constitution to be written. It created a unicameral legislature called the People's Assembly (Pyithu Hluttaw), represented by members of the Burma Socialist Programme Party The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. Each term was 4 years. Ne Win became the president at this time. Upon taking power in September 1988,

508-565: 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 /a/ as an example. For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone: In syllables ending with /ɰ̃/ , the checked tone is excluded: 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

635-667: A state within a state . According to the Constitution of Myanmar , the Tatmadaw is led by the commander-in-chief of Defence Services . Some actions of the Tatmadaw require the approval of the National Defence and Security Council , an eleven-member national security council responsible for security and defence affairs in Myanmar. The president of Myanmar has no command role over the Tatmadaw, though he may work with

762-645: A subject–object–verb word order. It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family . The Burmese alphabet is ultimately descended from a Brahmic script , either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabets. Burmese belongs to the Southern Burmish branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages , of which Burmese is the most widely spoken of the non- Sinitic languages. Burmese

889-501: A Burmese battalion in the 70th Burma Rifles, a Burmese company in the 85th Burma Rifles , and seven Burmese Mechanical Transport companies. In addition, three companies ( combat units ) of Burma Sappers and Miners , made up of mostly Burmese, and a company of Labour Corps , made up of Chins and Burmese, were also raised. All these units began their overseas assignment in 1917. The 70th Burma Rifles served in Egypt for garrison duties while

1016-499: A constitutionally powerful position, the presidency is a largely symbolic post under the current military government, with the only presidential action having been to declare and extend the state of emergency. The president is elected by members of parliament , not by the general population; specifically the Presidential Electoral College , a three-committee body composed of members of parliament, elects

1143-405: A defence cooperation agreement. The agreement will envisage exchanging information on international security issues, including fight against terrorism, cooperation in the sphere of culture and vacation of servicemen and their families, along with exchanging experience in peacekeeping activities. Moreover, in response to Naypyidaw's post-2011 political and economic reforms, Australia re-established

1270-417: A humiliating defeat for the Tatmadaw. The Tatmadaw leadership then argued that the excessive media coverage was partly to blame for the failure of Operation "Naga Naing". For example, Brigadier General Maung Maung pointed out that newspapers, such as the "Nation", carried reports detailing the training and troops positioning, even went as far to the name and social background of the commanders who are leading

1397-550: A lesser extent, Burmese has also imported words from Sanskrit (religion), Hindi (food, administration, and shipping), and Chinese (games and food). Burmese has also imported a handful of words from other European languages such as Portuguese . Here is a sample of loan words found in Burmese: Since the end of British rule, the Burmese government has attempted to limit usage of Western loans (especially from English) by coining new words ( neologisms ). For instance, for

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1524-778: A member of the Thirty Comrades , became Commander of North Burma Subdistrict Command (NBSD). Due to deteroriating political situations in 1957, the then Prime Minister of Burma , U Nu invited General Ne Win to form a " Caretaker Government " and handed over power on 28 October 1958. Under the stewardship of the Military Caretaker Government, parliamentary elections were held in February 1960. Several high-ranking and senior officers were dismissed due to their involvement and supporting various political parties. The elections of 1960 had put U Nu back as

1651-674: A monk]", Lower Burmese speakers use [sʰʊ́ɰ̃] instead of [sʰwáɰ̃] , which is the pronunciation used in Upper Burma. The standard dialect is represented by the Yangon dialect because of the modern city's media influence and economic clout. In the past, the Mandalay dialect represented standard Burmese. The most noticeable feature of the Mandalay dialect is its use of the first person pronoun ကျွန်တော် , kya.nau [tɕənɔ̀] by both men and women, whereas in Yangon,

1778-481: A separate British colony, with a fully elected bicameral legislature, consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives. From 2 January 1923 to 4 January 1948, British Burma was led by a Governor, who led the cabinet and was responsible for the colony's defence, foreign relations, finance, and ethnic regions ( Frontier Areas and Shan States ). From 1 January 1944 to 31 August 1946, a British military governor governed

1905-466: 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." The syllable structure of Burmese

2032-502: A strength of approximately 15,000. Disillusioned by the Japanese occupation , the BNA switched sides, and joined the allied forces on 27 March 1945. At the time of Myanmar's independence in 1948, the Tatmadaw was weak, small and disunited. Cracks appeared along the lines of ethnic background , political affiliation , organisational origin and different services. The most serious problem

2159-529: A ‘normal’ bilateral relationship with Myanmar to support democratisation and reform. In June 2016, the Australian Federal Police signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with its Myanmar counterparts aimed at enhancing transnational crime cooperation and intelligence sharing. In December 2017, the US imposed sanctions on General Maung Maung Soe , a general of Western Myanmar Command who oversaw

2286-628: Is mutual intelligibility among Burmese dialects, as they share a common set of tones, consonant clusters, and written script. However, several Burmese dialects differ substantially from standard Burmese with respect to vocabulary, lexical particles, and rhymes. Spoken Burmese is remarkably uniform among Burmese speakers, particularly those living in the Irrawaddy valley, all of whom use variants of Standard Burmese. The standard dialect of Burmese (the Mandalay - Yangon dialect continuum ) comes from

2413-538: 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 /ʔ/ and /ɰ̃/ . Some representative words are: President of Myanmar The president of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar ( Burmese : နိုင်ငံတော်‌ သမ္မတ ; MLCTS : nuing ngam tau samma.ta. )

2540-603: Is composed of MPs who represent the proportions of MPs elected from each Region or State; another is composed of MPs who represent the proportions of MPs elected from each township population; the third is of military-appointed MPs personally nominated by the Defence Services ' commander-in-chief. Each of the three committees nominates a presidential candidate. Afterward, all the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw MPs vote for one of three candidates—the candidate with

2667-442: Is pronounced [mõ̀ũndã́ĩ] . The vowels of Burmese are: The monophthongs /e/ , /o/ , /ə/ , /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda ); the diphthongs /ei/ , /ou/ , /ai/ and /au/ occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda). /ə/ only occurs in a minor syllable , and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below). The close vowels /i/ and /u/ and

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2794-536: Is the head of state and constitutional head of government of Myanmar . The president chairs the National Defence and Security Council and normally leads the Cabinet of Myanmar , the executive branch of the Burmese government, though the military prime minister leads the cabinet under the current state of emergency. Acting President Min Aung Hlaing , the head of the military and prime minister since 2021,

2921-466: Is the current holder since Acting President Myint Swe transferred his powers in July 2024. Myint Swe had himself been installed by Min Aung Hlaing through a military coup d'état on 1 February 2021 . There is no constitutional mechanism for the transfer of presidential authority outside the order of succession, making the constitutionality of the transfer questionable according to legal experts. Though

3048-584: Is the value of the four native final nasals: ⟨မ်⟩ /m/ , ⟨န်⟩ /n/ , ⟨ဉ်⟩ /ɲ/ , ⟨င်⟩ /ŋ/ , as well as the retroflex ⟨ဏ⟩ /ɳ/ (used in Pali loans) and nasalisation mark anusvara demonstrated here above ka (က → ကံ) which most often stands in for a homorganic nasal word medially as in တံခါး tankhá 'door', and တံတား tantá 'bridge', or else replaces final -m ⟨မ်⟩ in both Pali and native vocabulary, especially after

3175-638: Is the word "moon", which can be လ la̰ (native Tibeto-Burman), စန္ဒာ/စန်း [sàndà]/[sã́] (derivatives of Pali canda 'moon'), or သော်တာ [t̪ɔ̀ dà] (Sanskrit). The consonants of Burmese are as follows: According to Jenny & San San Hnin Tun (2016 :15), contrary to their use of symbols θ and ð, consonants of သ are dental stops ( /t̪, d̪/ ), rather than fricatives ( /θ, ð/ ) or affricates. These phonemes, alongside /sʰ/ , are prone to merger with /t, d, s/ . An alveolar /ɹ/ can occur as an alternate of /j/ in some loanwords. The final nasal /ɰ̃/

3302-491: The [ ɹ ] sound, which has become [ j ] in standard Burmese. Moreover, Arakanese features a variety of vowel differences, including the merger of the ဧ [e] and ဣ [i] vowels. Hence, a word like "blood" သွေး is pronounced [θw é ] in standard Burmese and [θw í ] in Arakanese. The Burmese language's early forms include Old Burmese and Middle Burmese . Old Burmese dates from

3429-588: The /l/ medial, which is otherwise only found in Old Burmese inscriptions. They also often reduce the intensity of the glottal stop . Beik has 250,000 speakers while Tavoyan has 400,000. The grammatical constructs of Burmese dialects in Southern Myanmar show greater Mon influence than Standard Burmese. The most pronounced feature of the Arakanese language of Rakhine State is its retention of

3556-590: The 2015 election ; after the USDP lost another election in 2020 , the Tatmadaw annulled the election and deposed the civilian government . The Tatmadaw has been widely accused by international organizations of human rights violation and crimes against humanity ; including ethnic cleansing , political repression , torture , sexual assault , war crimes , extrajudicial punishments (including summary executions ) and massacre of civilians involved in peaceful political demonstrations . The Tatmadaw has long operated as

3683-527: The Burmese alphabet began employing cursive-style circular letters typically used in palm-leaf manuscripts , as opposed to the traditional square block-form letters used in earlier periods. The orthographic conventions used in written Burmese today can largely be traced back to Middle Burmese. Modern Burmese emerged in the mid-18th century. By this time, male literacy in Burma stood at nearly 50%, which enabled

3810-440: The Constitution of Myanmar , the president: Moreover, upon taking oath in office, the president is constitutionally forbidden from taking part in any political party activities (Chapter III, 64). The president is not directly elected by Burmese voters; instead, they are indirectly elected by the Presidential Electoral College ( သမ္မတရွေးချယ်တင်မြှောက်ရေးအဖွဲ့ ), an electoral body made of three separate committees. One committee

3937-565: The East India Company forces (and later the British Indian Army ), instead relying on pre-existing Indian sepoys and Nepalese Gurkhas to garrison the nascent colony. Due to mistrust of the Burmese population, the colonial government maintained this ban for decades, instead looking to the indigenous Karens , Kachins and Chins to form new military units in the colony. In 1937, the colonial government overturned

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4064-618: The English language in the colonial educational system, especially in higher education. In the 1930s, the Burmese language saw a linguistic revival, precipitated by the establishment of an independent 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. Student protests in December of that year, triggered by

4191-723: The Mon people , who until recently formed the majority in Lower Burma . Most Mon loanwords are so well assimilated that they are not distinguished as loanwords, as Burmese and Mon were used interchangeably for several centuries in pre-colonial Burma. Mon loans are often related to flora, fauna, administration, textiles, foods, boats, crafts, architecture, and music. As a natural consequence of British rule in Burma , English has been another major source of vocabulary, especially with regard to technology, measurements, and modern institutions. English loanwords tend to take one of three forms: To

4318-582: The Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). Revenues generated from these business interests have strengthened the Burmese military's autonomy from civilian oversight, and have contributed to the military's financial operations in "a wide array of international human rights and humanitarian law violations." Revenues from MEHL and MEC are kept "off-book," enabling

4445-534: The Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan ( မြန်မာ စာလုံးပေါင်း သတ်ပုံ ကျမ်း ), was compiled in 1978 by the commission. Burmese is a diglossic language with two distinguishable registers (or diglossic varieties ): The literary form of Burmese retains archaic and conservative grammatical structures and modifiers (including affixes and pronouns) no longer used in the colloquial form. Literary Burmese, which has not changed significantly since

4572-914: The Myanmar Army , the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force . Auxiliary services include the Myanmar Police Force , the Border Guard Forces , the Myanmar Coast Guard , and the People's Militia Units. Since independence in 1948, the Tatmadaw has faced significant ethnic insurgencies , especially in Chin , Kachin , Kayin , Kayah , and Shan states. General Ne Win took control of the country in

4699-614: The Pyu language . These indirect borrowings can be traced back to orthographic idiosyncrasies in these loanwords, such as the Burmese word "to worship", which is spelt ပူဇော် ( pūjo ) instead of ပူဇာ ( pūjā ), as would be expected by the original Pali orthography. The transition to Middle Burmese occurred in the 16th century. The transition to Middle Burmese included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of sound pairs that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in

4826-484: The Shan States throughout this period increased the demands of the position, and led to an upgrade in the colonial leadership and an expansion of government (Burma was accorded a separate government and legislative council in 1897). Consequently, from 1 May 1897 to 2 January 1923, the province was led by a lieutenant governor. In 1937, Burma was formally separated from British India and began to be administered as

4953-552: The Union Parliament , consisting of two chambers, the 125-seat Chamber of Nationalities ( လူမျိုးစုလွှတ်တော် Lumyozu Hluttaw ) and the Chamber of Deputies ( ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော် Pyithu Hluttaw ), whose seat numbers were determined by the population size of respective constituencies. The 1947 constitution was largely based on the 1946 Yugoslav Constitution , and several Burmese officials visited Yugoslavia. Approved in

5080-442: The head of government and led the Cabinet . Before independence, Myanmar had two quasi-constitutions, The government of Burma Act, 1935 and Constitution of Burma under Japanese occupation, 1943. After independence, Myanmar adopted three constitutions in 1947, 1974 and 2008. The 2008 constitution is the present constitution of Myanmar. Prior to 1863, different regions of modern-day Burma were governed separately. From 1862 to 1923,

5207-624: The military's crackdown in Rakhine State. The Tatmadaw had sentenced seven soldiers to 10-year prison terms for killing 10 Rohingya men in Rakhine in September 2017. A 2019 UN report revealed the degree to which the country's military uses its own businesses, foreign companies and arms deals to support, away from the public eye, a “brutal operations” against ethnic groups that constitute “serious crimes under international law”, bypassing civilian oversight and evading accountability. In June 2020,

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5334-410: The war effort being the important element of the doctrine. The objective was to contain the offensive of the invading forces at the border for at least three months, while waiting for the arrival of international forces, similar to the police action by international intervention forces under the directive of United Nations during the war on Korean peninsula . However, the conventional strategy under

5461-413: The 11th to the 16th century ( Pagan to Ava dynasties); Middle Burmese from the 16th to the 18th century ( Toungoo to early Konbaung dynasties); modern Burmese from the mid-18th century to the present. Word order , grammatical structure, and vocabulary have remained markedly stable well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g., function words ). The earliest attested form of

5588-457: The 13th century, is the register of Burmese taught in schools. In most cases, the corresponding affixes in the literary and spoken forms are totally unrelated to each other. Examples of this phenomenon include the following lexical terms: Historically the literary register was preferred for written Burmese on the grounds that "the spoken style lacks gravity, authority, dignity". In the mid-1960s, some Burmese writers spearheaded efforts to abandon

5715-691: The 17th and 18th centuries respectively, the army proved unable to match the military strength of the British Empire in the 19th century, losing the First , Second and Third Anglo-Burmese Wars . On 1 January 1886, the Royal Burmese Army was formally disbanded by the British government . Under British rule , the colonial government in Burma abstained from recruiting Burmese soldiers into

5842-410: 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. British rule in Burma eroded the strategic and economic importance of the Burmese language; Burmese was effectively subordinated to

5969-565: The 2008 constitution, the NLD participated in the 2012 by-election for 46 seats and won a landslide victory, with Aung San Suu Kyi becoming a member of parliament, alongside 42 others from her party. On 15 March 2016, the Assembly of the Union elected Htin Kyaw as the 9th president of Myanmar. He resigned on 21 March 2018 and Myint Swe became acting president. On 28 March 2018, the Assembly of

6096-577: The 2021 coup d'état. The president has the sole authority to convene meetings of the National Defence and Security Council , a body responsible for Myanmar's security and defense affairs. The Constitution of Myanmar sets the principle qualifications that the candidate must meet to be eligible to the office of the President. in Chapter 1: The President, Part I: The Federation of Myanmar in the Constitution of Myanmar . President has to be: According to

6223-592: The Adjutant General Office. The Quarter Master General office also had three branch offices: QG-1 planning, procurement, and budget; QG-2 maintenance, construction, and cantonment; and QG-3 transportation. Under the QMG office were Garrison Engineering Corps, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps, Military Ordnance Corps, and the Supply and Transport Corps. Both AG and QMG office similar structure to

6350-600: The Army in Burma had been placed for command and general administration under [it]. As it was, up to November 1940 Burma was directly under the War Office at home; it was then placed under Far Eastern Command at Singapore. Neither arrangement even bordered upon common sense, but although three times in 1940 and 1941 successive commanders-in-chief urged the authorities in the United Kingdom to place Burma [under India], it

6477-615: The Army shoots, it has no tradition of shooting into the Air, it would shoot straight to hit". Subsequently, the 22 Light Infantry Division, 33 Light Infantry Division and the 44 Light Infantry Division were redeployed to Yangon from front line fighting against ethnic insurgents in the Karen states. Battalions from three Light Infantry Divisions, augmented by infantry battalions under Yangon Regional Military Command and supporting units from Directorate of Artillery and Armour Corps were deployed during

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6604-655: The British Burma Army and Army of Burma Reserve Organisation (ABRO). The colonial government also decided to form what were known as "Class Battalions" based on ethnicity. There were a total of 15 rifle battalions at the time of independence and four of them were made up of former members of PBF. None of the influential positions within the War Office and commands were manned with former PBF Officers. All services including military engineers , supply and transport, ordnance and medical services, Navy and Air Force were commanded by former Officers from ABRO. The War Office

6731-526: The British in the lead-up to the independence of Burma in 1948. The 1948 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. Anti-colonial sentiment throughout

6858-557: The Buddhist clergy (monks) from the laity ( householders ), especially when speaking to or about bhikkhus (monks). The following are examples of varying vocabulary used for Buddhist clergy and for laity: Burmese primarily has a monosyllabic received Sino-Tibetan vocabulary. Nonetheless, many words, especially loanwords from Indo-European languages like English, are polysyllabic, and others, from Mon, an Austroasiatic language, are sesquisyllabic . Burmese loanwords are overwhelmingly in

6985-776: The Burmese Labour Corps served in France. One company of Burma Sappers and Miners distinguished themselves in Mesopotamia at the crossing the Tigris . After the First World War , the colonial government stopped recruiting Burmese soldiers, and discharged all but one Burmese companies, which had been abolished by 1925. The last Burmese company of Burma Sappers and Miners too was disbanded in 1929. Instead, Indian soldiers and other ethnic minorities were used as

7112-450: The Burmese language into Lower Burma also coincided with the emergence of Modern Burmese. As late as the mid-1700s, Mon , an 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

7239-407: The Burmese language is called Old Burmese , dating to the 11th and 12th century stone inscriptions of 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. Owing to the linguistic prestige of Old Pyu in the Pagan Kingdom era, Old Burmese borrowed a substantial corpus of vocabulary from Pali via

7366-481: The Burmese military. However, the military budget remains opaque and subject to limited civilian scrutiny, and a 2011 Special Funds Law has enabled the Burmese military to circumvent parliamentary oversight to access supplemental funding. Defence budgets were publicly shared for the first time in 2015, and in recent years, parliamentary lawmakers have demanded greater transparency in military spending. The military also generates substantial revenue through 2 conglomerates,

7493-554: The Chief of Air Staff became the Vice Chief of Staff (Air). On 1 January 1956, the War Office was officially renamed as the Ministry of Defence . General Ne Win became the first Chief of Staff of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) to command all three services – Army, Navy and Air Force – under a single unified command for the first time. Brigadier General Aung Gyi was given the post of Vice Chief of Staff (Army). Brigadier General D. A Blake became commander of South Burma Subdistrict Command (SBSD) and Brigadier General Kyaw Zaw,

7620-425: The General Staff Office, but they only had three ASO-III and three QSO-III respectively. The Navy and Air Force were separate services under the War office but under the chief of staff. As per War Office order No. (9) 1955 on 28 September 1955, the Chief of Staff became the Commander in Chief, the Chief of Army Staff became the Vice Chief of Staff (Army), the Chief of Naval Staff become Vice Chief of Staff (Navy) and

7747-432: The Irrawaddy River valley. Regional differences between speakers from Upper Burma (e.g., Mandalay dialect), called anya tha ( အညာသား ) and speakers from Lower Burma (e.g., Yangon dialect), called auk tha ( အောက်သား ), largely occur in vocabulary choice, not in pronunciation. Minor lexical and pronunciation differences exist throughout the Irrawaddy River valley. For instance, for the term ဆွမ်း , "food offering [to

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7874-467: The Military Intelligence Service functioned as the secret police of the state. At the height of the Four Eights Uprising against the socialist government, Former General Ne Win , who at the time was chairman of the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party ( BSPP ), issued a warning against potential protestors during a televised speech. He stated that if the "disturbances" continued the "Army would have to be called and I would like to make it clear that if

8001-402: The NDSC in authorizing military action. The name "Tatmadaw" literally means "Royal Armed Forces" in the Burmese language . Since Burma has not been a monarchy since the era prior to British colonial rule, the word "royal" in this usage is understood to mean "glorious". This name has become controversial in Myanmar, especially since 2021, as many people in Myanmar have opposed the military during

8128-431: The OB vowel *u e.g. ငံ ngam 'salty', သုံး thóum ('three; use'), and ဆုံး sóum 'end'. It does not, however, apply to ⟨ည်⟩ which is never realised as a nasal, but rather as an open front vowel [iː] [eː] or [ɛː] . The final nasal is usually realised as nasalisation of the vowel. It may also allophonically appear as a homorganic nasal before stops. For example, in /mòʊɰ̃dáɪɰ̃/ ('storm'), which

8255-473: The Prime Minister and Pyidaungsu Party ( Union Party ) led civilian government resume control of the country. On 2 March 1962, the then Chief of Staff of Armed Forces, General Ne Win staged a coup d'état and formed the " Union Revolutionary Council ". Around midnight the troops began to move into Yangon to take up strategic position. Prime Minister U Nu and his cabinet ministers were taken into protective custody. At 8:50 am, General Ne Win announced

8382-415: The State Administration Council was re-formed as a caretaker government , which appointed Min Aung Hlaing as Prime Minister . The same day, Min Aung Hlaing announced that the country's state of emergency had been extended by an additional two years. As the Myanmar Civil War has progressed, the Tatmadaw has become more reliant on military aid from Russia and China . As of 2023, analysts suggested that

8509-431: The Tatmadaw accused China for arming rebel groups in the country's frontier areas. In February 2021, the Tatmadaw detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other high-ranking politicians after a contested election with disputed results. A state of emergency had been declared for one year. The State Administration Council was established by Min Aung Hlaing on 2 February 2021 as the current government in power. On 1 August 2021,

8636-444: The Tatmadaw does not approve of. In 2010, conscription legislation was passed that compelled able-bodied men and women between 18–45 and 18–35 respectively to serve up to three years in the military, or face significant jail sentences. Following Myanmar's political reforms, Myanmar has made substantial shifts in its relations with major powers China , Russia and the United States . In 2014, Lieutenant-General Anthony Crutchfield ,

8763-403: The Tatmadaw forces, which saw the Rohingya minority facing oppression and, starting in 2017, genocide . In 2008, the Tatmadaw again rewrote Myanmar's constitution , installing the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the 2010 elections , which were boycotted by most opposition groups. Political reforms over the next half-decade culminated in a sweeping NLD victory in

8890-429: The Tatmadaw has sustained significant losses due to both combat against the pro-democracy insurgents as well as desertions within the rank and file soldiers. The United States Institute for Peace estimates that the Tatamadaw has sustained at least 13,000 combat losses and 8,000 losses due to desertion . The Tatmadaw itself has acknowledged that it does not have control over 132 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, or 42 percent of

9017-491: The adoption of neologisms. An example is the word "university", formerly ယူနီဗာစတီ [jùnìbàsətì] , from English university , now တက္ကသိုလ် [tɛʔkət̪ò] , a Pali-derived neologism recently created by the Burmese government and derived from the Pali spelling of Taxila ( တက္ကသီလ Takkasīla ), an ancient university town in modern-day Pakistan. Some words in Burmese may have many synonyms, each having certain usages, such as formal, literary, colloquial, and poetic. One example

9144-401: The ban, and Burmese troops started to enlist in small numbers in the British Indian Army . At the beginning of the First World War , the only Burmese military regiment in the British Indian Army , the 70th Burma Rifles , consisted of three battalions , made up of Karens , Kachins and Chins . During the conflict, the demands of war led to the colonial government relaxing the ban, raising

9271-525: The close portions of the diphthongs are somewhat mid-centralized ( [ɪ, ʊ] ) in closed syllables, i.e. before /ɰ̃/ and /ʔ/ . Thus နှစ် /n̥iʔ/ ('two') is phonetically [n̥ɪʔ] and ကြောင် /tɕàũ/ ('cat') is phonetically [tɕàʊ̃] . 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

9398-465: The colonial administration, housed in Rangoon's Secretariat building, was headed by a chief commissioner (1862–1897) or a lieutenant-governor (1897–1923), who headed the administration, underneath the governor-general of India . From 31 January 1862 to 1 May 1897, British Burma was headed by a chief commissioner. The subsequent expansion of British Burma, with the acquisitions of Upper Burma and

9525-474: The colony. During the Japanese occupation of Burma from 1942 to 1945, a Japanese military commander headed the government, while the British-appointed governor headed the colony in exile. Burma became independent in 1948. There was a president from 1948 to 1962, and then 1974 and 1988. Between 1962 and 1974 and between 1988 and 2011, Burma was headed by military regimes. The office of the president

9652-412: The command of General Staff Office. According to the war establishment adopted on 14 April 1948, Chief of Staff was under the War Office with the rank of major general . It was subsequently upgraded to a lieutenant general . Vice Chief of Staff was a brigadier general . The Chief of Staff was staffed with GSO-I with the rank of lieutenant colonel , three GSO-II with the rank of major, four GSO-III with

9779-484: The concept of total war was undermined by the lack of appropriate command and control system, proper logistical support structure, sound economic bases and efficient civil defence organisations. At the beginning of the 1950s, while the Tatmadaw was able to reassert its control over most part of the country, Kuomintang (KMT) troops under General Li Mi , with support from the United States , invaded Burma and used

9906-417: The country's renewed civil war and object to the usage of the complimentary term "royal" to describe it. As a result, many Burmese people have taken to using an alternative name "Sit-Tat", which simply means "military" with no positive or negative connotations. Some citizens and activists also use the openly derogatory variant "Sit-kwe", which means "dog-soldiers", in reference to the perceived blind loyalty of

10033-511: The country's frontier as a springboard for attack against China , which in turn became the external threat to state security and sovereignty of Burma. The first phase of the doctrine was tested for the first time in Operation "Naga Naing" in February 1953 against invading KMT forces. The doctrine did not take into account logistic and political support for KMT from the United States and as a result it failed to deliver its objectives and ended in

10160-485: The country's towns. On 10 February 2024, the State Administration Council activated conscription under the 2010 SPDC People's Military Service Law in response to anti-junta ethnic militias and pro-democracy rebels capturing massive swathes of territory. According to an analysis of budgetary data between FY 2011–12 and 2018–19, approximately 13% to 14% of the national budget is devoted to

10287-604: The country. These varieties include the Yaw , Palaw, Myeik (Merguese), Tavoyan and Intha dialects . Despite substantial vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutual intelligibility among most Burmese dialects. Below is a summary of lexical similarity between major Burmese dialects: Dialects in Tanintharyi Region , including Palaw, Merguese, and Tavoyan, are especially conservative in comparison to Standard Burmese. The Tavoyan and Intha dialects have preserved

10414-482: The coup over the radio. He said " I have to inform you, citizens of the Union that Armed Forces have taken over the responsibility and the task of keeping the country's safety, owing to the greatly deteriorating conditions of the Union. " The country would be ruled by the military for the next 12 years. The Burma Socialist Programme Party became the sole political party and the majority of its full members were military. Government servants underwent military training and

10541-406: The crackdown against the protests began. The armed forces under General Saw Maung formed a State Law and Order Restoration Council , repealed the constitution and declared martial law on 18 September 1988. By late September the military had complete control of the country. In 2008, the current constitution was released by the military government for a public referendum. The SPDC claimed that

10668-647: The deputy commander of the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), was invited to address his counterparts at the Myanmar National Defence College in Naypyidaw , which trains colonels and other high-ranking military officers. In May 2016, Myanmar's Union Parliament approved a military cooperation agreement with Russia following a proposal by Deputy Minister of Defence. In June 2016, Myanmar and Russia signed

10795-548: The early 1950s to cope with external threats from more powerful enemies with a strategy of Strategic Denial under conventional warfare . The perception of threats to state security was more external than internal threats. The internal threat to state security was managed through the use of a mixture of force and political persuasion. Lieutenant Colonel Maung Maung drew up defence doctrine based on conventional warfare concepts, with large infantry divisions , armoured brigades , tanks and motorised war with mass mobilisation for

10922-610: 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 . In August 1963, the socialist 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

11049-598: The form of nouns . Historically, Pali , the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism , had a profound influence on Burmese vocabulary. Burmese has readily adopted words of Pali origin; this may be due to phonotactic similarities between the two languages, alongside the fact that the script used for Burmese can be used to reproduce Pali spellings with complete accuracy. Pali loanwords are often related to religion, government, arts, and science. Burmese loanwords from Pali primarily take four forms: Burmese has also adapted numerous words from Mon, traditionally spoken by

11176-531: The highest number of votes is elected president, while the other two are elected as vice-presidents. The president serves for a term of 5 years. Should a president resign for any reason or die in office, the Presidential Electoral College will meet and each of the three committees will nominate a candidate to finish out the prior President's term so that the terms of the legislature and presidency are synchronised. The candidate who receives

11303-522: The introduction of English into 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. 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

11430-401: The late 14th century, became integrated into strategy only gradually over many centuries. The first special musket and artillery units, equipped with Portuguese matchlocks and cannon , were formed in the 16th century. Outside the special firearm units, there was no formal training program for the regular conscripts, who were expected to have a basic knowledge of self-defence, and how to operate

11557-515: The literary form, asserting that the spoken vernacular form ought to be used. Some Burmese linguists such as Minn Latt , a Czech academic, proposed moving away from the high form of Burmese altogether. Although the literary form is heavily used in written and official contexts (literary and scholarly works, radio news broadcasts, and novels), the recent trend has been to accommodate the spoken form in informal written contexts. Nowadays, television news broadcasts, comics, and commercial publications use

11684-469: The military based State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) suspended the 1974 constitution. The SLORC called a constitutional convention in 1993, but it was suspended in 1996 when the National League for Democracy (NLD) boycotted it, calling it undemocratic. The constitutional convention was again called in 2004, but without the NLD . Myanmar remained without a constitution until 2008. On 9 April 2008,

11811-399: The military government of Myanmar (Burma) released its proposed constitution for the country to be put to a vote in public referendum on 10 May 2008, as part of its roadmap to democracy . The constitution is hailed by the military as heralding a return to democracy, but the opposition sees it as a tool for continuing military control of the country. In spite of its earlier opposition to

11938-456: The military to autonomously finance military affairs with limited civilian oversight. Between 1990 and 2020, Myanmar's military officers received US$ 18 billion in dividends from MEHL, whose entire board is made up of senior military officials. In the FY 2019–20 national budget, the military was allocated 3,385 billion kyats (approximately US$ 2.4 billion). In May 2020, the Burmese parliament reduced

12065-466: The military's supplementary budgetary request by $ 7.55 million. On 28 October 2014, the Minister for Defence Wai Lwin revealed at a Parliament session that 46.2% of the budget is spent on personnel cost, 32.89% on operation and procurement, 14.49% on construction related projects and 2.76% on health and education. The initial development of Burmese military doctrine post-independence was developed in

12192-512: The most votes from the nominees is elected. This process is similar to the one prescribed by the 1947 Constitution , in which MPs from the Parliament 's Chamber of Nationalities and Chamber of Deputies elected the president by secret ballot. The President was then responsible for appointing a prime minister (on the advice of the Chamber of Deputies), who was constitutionally recognised as

12319-484: The musket on their own. As the technological gap between European powers widened in the 18th century, the army was dependent on Europeans' willingness to sell more sophisticated weaponry. While the army had held its own against the armies of the kingdom's neighbours, its performance against more technologically advanced European armies deteriorated over time. While it defeated the Portuguese and French intrusions in

12446-532: The office. In 2004, a power struggle between the then– head of state , Senior General Than Shwe , chairman of the State Peace and Development Council ( SPDC ), and the prime minister at the time , General Khin Nyunt , resulted in the latter being dismissed and arrested. The prime minister position was abolished on 30 March 2011, according to the current Constitution (adopted in 2008 ). It provided that

12573-468: The operation thus losing the element of surprise. Colonel Saw Myint, who was second in command for the operation, also complained about the long lines of communications and the excessive pressure imposed upon the units for public relations activities to prove that the support of the people was behind the operation. Burmese language Burmese is a tonal , pitch-register , and syllable-timed language , largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with

12700-649: 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. 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

12827-489: The presidency. She served as the de facto head of government until she was deposed in the 2021 coup d'état by Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing , who created the extraconstitutional posts of chairman of the State Administration Council and prime minister for himself to lead the government. The president is the head of state and head of government. The position of President

12954-412: The president is both the head of state and de jure head of government. But after the 2015 general election , as Aung San Suu Kyi was constitutionally barred from becoming President, a position called State Counsellor , similar to the position of Prime Minister , was established for her in 2016. She served as the de facto head of government and the dominant state figure until she was removed with

13081-414: The president. Each of the three committees, made up of Amyotha Hluttaw , Pyithu Hluttaw members of parliament, or military-appointed lawmakers, nominates a candidate for presidency. After the 2015 election, the extraconstitutional post of State Counsellor of Myanmar was created for Aung San Suu Kyi , the leader of the majority party, the National League for Democracy , because she was ineligible for

13208-581: The primary colonial force in Burma , which was used to suppress ethnic Burmese rebellions such as the one led by Saya San from 1930 to 1931. On 1 April 1937, Burma was made a separate colony, and Burmese were now eligible to join the army. But few Burmese bothered to join. Before World War II began, the British Burma Army consisted of Karen (27.8%), Chin (22.6%), Kachin (22.9%), and Burmese 12.3%, without counting their British officer corps. Compton Mackenzie wrote in Eastern Epic that after

13335-544: The rank of captain for operation, training, planning and intelligence, and one Intelligence Officer (IO). The Chief of Staff office also had one GSO-II and one GSO-III for field engineering, and the Chief Signal Officer and a GSO-II for signal. Directorate of Signal and Directorate Field Engineering are also under General Staff Office. Under Adjutant General Office were Judge Advocate General, Military Secretary, and Vice Adjutant General. The Adjutant General (AG)

13462-688: The recruits were Burmese , with little ethnic minority representation. Many of the fresh recruits lacked discipline. At Myaungmya in the Irrawaddy delta , an ethnic war broke out between Burmese BIA men and Karens , with both sides responsible for massacres. The Burma Independence Army was soon replaced with the Burma Defence Army , founded on 26 August 1942 with three thousand BIA veterans. The army became Burma National Army with General Ne Win as its commander on 1 August 1943 when Burma achieved nominal independence. In late 1944, it had

13589-430: The referendum was a success, with an approval rate of 93.82%; however, there has been widespread criticism of the veracity of these claims, partially because Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar a few days before the referendum, and the government did not allow postponement of the referendum. Under the 2008 Constitution, the Tatmadaw is guaranteed 25% of the seats in the parliament, making it difficult to pass meaningful reforms that

13716-425: The region. 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. British rule saw continued efforts to standardize Burmese spelling through dictionaries and spellers. Britain's gradual annexation of Burma throughout

13843-510: The said pronoun is used only by male speakers while ကျွန်မ , kya.ma. [tɕəma̰] is used by female speakers. Moreover, with regard to kinship terminology , Upper Burmese speakers differentiate the maternal and paternal sides of a family, whereas Lower Burmese speakers do not. The Mon language has also influenced subtle grammatical differences between the varieties of Burmese spoken in Lower and Upper Burma. In Lower Burmese varieties,

13970-434: The separation of India and Burma: These military forces were expanded between 1939 and the end of 1941, but the additional strength was impaired by defects inherent in the organisation as it stood before separation. The small and independent military command now set up had been carved out of the experienced Indian organisation with its comparatively large resources; adequate though this may have been for peacetime conditions it

14097-646: The soldiers. The Royal Armed Forces was the armed forces of the Burmese monarchy from the 9th to 19th centuries. It refers to the military forces of the Pagan dynasty , the Ava Kingdom , the Toungoo dynasty and the Konbaung dynasty in chronological order. The army was one of the major armed forces of Southeast Asia until it was defeated by the British over a six-decade span in the 19th century. The army

14224-764: The spoken form or a combination of the spoken and simpler, less ornate formal forms. The following sample sentence reveals that differences between literary and spoken Burmese mostly occur in affixes: Burmese has politeness levels and honorifics that take the speaker's status and age in relation to the audience into account. The suffix ပါ pa is frequently used after a verb to express politeness. Moreover, Burmese pronouns relay varying degrees of deference or respect. In many instances, polite speech (e.g., addressing teachers, officials, or elders) employs feudal-era third person pronouns or kinship terms in lieu of first- and second-person pronouns. Furthermore, with regard to vocabulary choice, spoken Burmese clearly distinguishes

14351-446: The suppression of protests in and around the then capital city of Yangon. Initially, these troops were deployed in support of the then People's Police Force (now known as Myanmar Police Force ) security battalions and to patrol the streets of the capital and to guard government offices and building. However, at midnight of 8 August 1988 troops from 22 Light Infantry Division guarding Yangon City Hall opened fire on unarmed protesters as

14478-448: 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%). The expansion of

14605-425: The underlying orthography . 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. During this period,

14732-527: The verb ပေး ('to give') is colloquially used as a permissive causative marker, like in other Southeast Asian languages, but unlike in other Tibeto-Burman languages. This usage is hardly used in Upper Burmese varieties, and is considered a sub-standard construct. More distinctive non-standard varieties emerge as one moves farther away from the Irrawaddy River valley toward peripheral areas of

14859-466: The wide circulation of legal texts, royal chronicles , and religious texts. 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,

14986-410: The word "television", Burmese publications are mandated to use the term ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား (lit. 'see picture, hear sound') in lieu of တယ်လီဗီးရှင်း , a direct English transliteration. Another example is the word "vehicle", which is officially ယာဉ် [jɪ̃̀] (derived from Pali) but ကား [ká] (from English car ) in spoken Burmese. Some previously common English loanwords have fallen out of use with

15113-563: Was a brigadier general whereas the Judge Advocate General (JAG), Military Secretary (MS) and Vice Adjutant General (VAG) were colonels. VAG handles adjutant staff matters and there were also three branch offices; AG-1 planning, recruitment and transfer; AG-2 discipline, moral, welfare, and education; AG-3 salary, pension, and other financial matters. The Medical Corps and the Provost Marshal Office were under

15240-597: Was created in 1948, with the adoption of the Burmese Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom . Since then, eleven people have held the office (with two of them doing so on multiple occasions). Due to the country's long period of military rule, it has not been uncommon for the prime minister to be a serving (or recently retired) military officer . The actual power of the prime minister has considerably varied over time, depending on who holds

15367-675: Was not done until December 15th by which time it was too late." In December 1941, a group of Burmese independence activists founded the Burma Independence Army ( BIA ) with Japanese help. The Burma Independence Army led by Aung San (the father of Aung San Suu Kyi ) fought in the Burma Campaign on the side of the Imperial Japanese Army . Thousands of young men joined its ranks—reliable estimates range from 15,000 to 23,000. The great majority of

15494-591: Was officially opened on 8 May 1948 under the Ministry of Defence and managed by a War Office Council chaired by the Minister of Defence. At the head of War Office was Chief of Staff, Vice Chief of Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Adjutant General and Quartermaster General. Vice Chief of Staff, who was also Chief of Army Staff and the head of General Staff Office. VCS oversee General Staff matters and there were three branch offices: GS-1 Operation and Training, GS-2 Staff Duty and Planning; GS-3 Intelligence. Signal Corps and Field Engineering Corps are also under

15621-479: Was organised into a small standing army of a few thousands, which defended the capital and the palace, and a much larger conscription -based wartime army. Conscription was based on the ahmudan system, which required local chiefs to supply their predetermined quota of men from their jurisdiction on the basis of population in times of war. The wartime army also consisted of elephantry , cavalry , artillery and naval units. Firearms , first introduced from China in

15748-635: Was quite inadequate to deal with the expansion im- posed by a great war. The officers were drawn from the British service and the Indian Army with little hope of reinforcement in time of war except for the untrained resources of Burma. Before the outbreak of war with Japan and for some time afterwards Burma Army Headquarters was simultaneously a War Office, a G.H.Q,., a Corps H.Q. and an [Lines of Communication] Area H.Q. Matters of detail could have been worked out more quickly and efficiently by G.H.Q,. in India if

15875-409: Was restored in 2011. The 1947 constitution was drafted by Chan Htoon and was used from the country's independence in 1948 to 1962, when the constitution was suspended by the socialist Union Revolutionary Council , led by military general Ne Win . The national government consisted of three branches: judicial , legislative and executive . The legislative branch was a bicameral legislature called

16002-777: Was the fifth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to develop a writing system, after Classical Chinese , Pyu , Old Tibetan and Tangut . The majority of Burmese speakers, who live throughout the Irrawaddy River Valley, use a number of largely similar dialects, while a minority speak non-standard dialects found in the peripheral areas of the country. These dialects include: Arakanese in Rakhine State and Marma in Bangladesh are also sometimes considered dialects of Burmese and sometimes as separate languages. Despite vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there

16129-752: Was the tension between Karen Officers, coming from the British Burma Army and Burmese officers, coming from the Patriotic Burmese Force ( PBF ). In accordance with the agreement reached at the Kandy Conference in September 1945, the Tatmadaw was reorganised by incorporating the British Burma Army and the Patriotic Burmese Force. The officer corps shared by ex-PBF officers and officers from

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