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151-517: Chinese Burmese , also Sino-Burmese or Tayoke ( Burmese : တရုတ် ), are Burmese citizens of Han Chinese ethnicity. They are a group of overseas Chinese born or raised in Myanmar (Burma). Burmese Chinese are a well established middle class ethnic group and are well represented in all upper levels of Burmese society. Burmese Chinese also play a leading role in Burma's business sector and dominate

302-565: 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

453-645: 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

604-530: A Chinese community at Amarapura , and when King Mindon moved his capital to Mandalay in 1859, the Chinese were the only community that decided to stay behind. Many of their descendants intermarried into the host society and remain important and respected citizens of Amarapura. Another wave of immigration occurred in the 19th century under the British colonial administration . Britain encouraged immigration of

755-601: A High Court ruling on the legal status of Sino-Burmese marriages under Burmese Buddhist law. From 1935 until the end of British rule, the Chinese were represented in the colonial legislature, the House of Representatives. After World War II , displaced Burmese Chinese (whose pre-war homes were in Burma), were the most numerous group of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia to request repatriation to return to Burma, according to

906-459: A common ethnic ancestry, cultural, linguistic, and familial ties, many Burmese entrepreneurs and investors of Chinese ancestry are strong adherents of the Confucian paradigm of interpersonal relationships when doing business with each other. They believed that the underlying source for entrepreneurial and investment success relied on the cultivation of personal relationships. In the early 2000s,

1057-474: A considerable amount of passenger and goods traffic moves by river. As the Irrawaddy Delta is one of the world's major rice-growing areas, one of the most important goods transported is rice. Teak logs – Myanmar is one of the world's top exporters – are floated down the river as large rafts. Before it is transported, teak has to be seasoned, because otherwise it won't float. This happens by girdling ,

1208-436: A container shipping line, port buildings, and toll road authorities. Mandalay remains Burma's major financial and networking hub for Burmese businessmen and investors of Chinese ancestry with thousands of prospering Chinese businesses in the city. Chinese-owned shops make up 50% of downtown economic activity, with 70% of restaurants and almost all Chinese-made commodity sale centres in the whole city being Chinese-owned. Over

1359-992: A lack of interest from Burmese Chinese youth. Most Burmese Chinese practice Theravada Buddhism , while incorporating some Mahayana Buddhist and Taoist beliefs including ancestral worship . There are also some prominent Theravadin Buddhist meditation teacher of Chinese descent like Sayadaw U Tejaniya . There are several notable Chinese temples situated in Yangon, including Fushan Temple (dedicated to Qingshui Zhushi ), Kheng Hock Keong Temple (dedicated to Mazu ) and Guanyin Gumiao Temple (dedicated to Guanyin ). The minority Panthay or Chinese Muslims (回教華人; ပန်းသေးလူမျိုး , lit. "little flowers") originated from Yunnan are mainly Muslim. The Burmese Chinese have Burmese names and many also have Chinese names . Given names in various Chinese dialects are often transliterated into

1510-432: A larger proportion of these businesses. The Chinese share of banking, previously at 33.3 percent, was eliminated. However, their share increased in industries like milling, agents, merchanting and most substantially in shop-keeping- which went from 6.7 to 18.3 percent. Of the 47 rice mills in Burma, 13 percent of them were Chinese controlled and were utilized for rice exportation and processing by Chinese rice merchants. During

1661-550: 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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1812-619: A major mud wedge with a distal depocenter, up to 60 m in thickness, has been deposited seaward in the Gulf of Martaban, extending to ~130 m water depth into the Martaban Depression. Further, 2) There is no evidence showing that modern sediment has accumulated or is transported into the Martaban Canyon; 3) There is a mud drape/blanket wrapping around the narrow western Myanmar Shelf in the eastern Bay of Bengal. The thickness of

1963-621: 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,

2114-732: A narrow valley between forest-covered mountain ranges—the ridge of the Arakan Mountains to the west and that of the Pegu Yoma Mountains to the east. The delta of the Irrawaddy begins about 93 kilometres (58 mi) above Hinthada (Henzada) and about 290 kilometres (180 mi) from its curved base, which faces the Andaman Sea. The westernmost distributary of the delta is the Pathein (Bassein) River, while

2265-636: A part of the larger business network of overseas Chinese firms operating in the markets of Greater China and Southeast Asia that also share common ties. Local Chinese-owned businesses, like noodle stalls and bakeries, that emerged after World War II became focal points of economic life in small towns throughout Burma. Today, Burma's Chinese community is at the forefront of opening up the country's economy to conduct foreign business and direct investment, especially catering it towards foreign ethnic Chinese investors, serving as an international overseas Chinese economic outpost. Despite their status as alien minorities,

2416-416: A practice where a deep circular cut through bark and sapwood is made into the heartwood. Other major goods that are transported from the nation's heartlands to Yangon for export are other foodstuffs, petroleum, cotton, and local commodities. Commercial transportation on the Irrawaddy is maintained for about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi): from Hinthada to Bhamo (1,080 kilometres (670 mi)) throughout

2567-598: A recent influx of mainland Chinese migrant workers, black market traders and gamblers. In Kachin State , which borders China in three directions, Standard Chinese is the lingua franca . Upper Myanmar has seen a demographic shift resulting from the recent immigration of many mainland Chinese to Mandalay Region , Shan , and Kachin States . Ethnic Chinese now constitute an estimated 30 to 40 per cent of Mandalay 's population. Huge swaths of land in city centre left vacant by

2718-460: A slight but significant leeway to expand and ultimately assert their economic clout. For example, Sein Gay Har , a major Burmese retailer that began in Yangon's Chinatown in 1985, is owned by a Burmese family of Hakka ancestry. Moreover, Burmese businessmen of Chinese ancestry control the nations four of the five largest commercial banks, Myanmar Universal Bank, Yoma Bank, Myanmar Mayflower Bank, and

2869-466: 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

3020-571: 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

3171-479: 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: Ayeyarwady River The Irrawaddy River ( Burmese : ဧရာဝတီမြစ် , pronounced [ʔèjàwədì mjɪʔ] , official romanisation: Ayeyarwady )

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3322-612: Is a separate river, tributary to the Yangon . After Rudyard Kipling 's poem, the river is sometimes referred to as ' The Road to Mandalay '. The Irrawaddy River bisects Myanmar from north to south and empties through the nine-armed Irrawaddy Delta into the Indian Ocean. The Irrawaddy River arises by the confluence of the N'mai (Nam Gio) and Mali Rivers in Kachin State . Both the N'mai and Mali Rivers find their sources in

3473-632: Is derived from Pali . Irāvatī or Airāvatī ( Erāvatī in Pali) is the name of the elephant mount of Sakka and Indra in Hinduism. Saka is an important deva in Buddhism and elephants were often a symbol for water and were used as the name for several other rivers, such as the Achiravati . It can also be based on Iravati , who birthed the mythological elephant. The Irrawaddy gives its name to

3624-600: Is involved, Kansai Electric Power Company . Due to its location and size, construction of the Myitsone Dam has raised significant ecological and sociological concerns. According to the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam Multipurpose Water Utilizing Project study, the maximum water level of the reservoir will be 290 metres. This makes for a flood zone of 766 km , compromising 47 villages. Other consequences of

3775-465: Is made up of fanlike marshes with oxbow lakes , islands, and meandering streams . Birds of the delta are both winter visitors and passage migrants including great cormorant ( Phalacrocorax carbo ), a wide variety of Anatidae , Eurasian coot ( Fulica atra ), about thirty species of migratory shorebirds , the whiskered tern ( Chlidonias hybrida ), the Caspian tern ( Hydroprogne caspia ), and

3926-460: Is no longer under construction at the convergence of these rivers. The town of Bhamo , about 240 kilometres (150 mi) south of the Mali and N'mai river confluence, is the northernmost city reachable by boat all year round although during the monsoons most of the river cannot be used by boats. The city of Myitkyina lies 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of the confluence and can be reached during

4077-442: 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

4228-534: Is the largest river in Myanmar . Originating from the confluence of the N'mai and Mali rivers, it flows from north to south before emptying through the Irrawaddy Delta in the Ayeyarwady Region into the Andaman Sea. Its drainage basin of about 404,000 square kilometres (156,000 sq mi) covers 61% of the land area of Burma , and contains five of its largest cities. As early as

4379-453: Is the most important for plant life, is atmospheric humidity . This is always high, except in the winter in certain localities. Humidity usually does not fall below 75% and is 90% or more for long periods during summer. Another feature is the prevalent southerly summer winds which erode the soil of the basin. The natural habitats of this central zone have been much altered for farming and there are few protected areas. The predominant trees of

4530-584: 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

4681-638: 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/

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4832-649: Is well preserved in Upper Myanmar. Although General Ne Win 's rule (1962–1988) enacted the ban on Chinese-language schools that caused a decline of Mandarin speakers, the number of Chinese schools is growing again. (Note: Standard Chinese refers to the national language of the PRC and Taiwan , distinct from the Southwestern Mandarin dialect of the Upper Myanmar , Kokang and Panthay ). At

4983-491: 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

5134-588: 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

5285-599: The Bagan Era , in the 13th century, during which it referred to the territory and a variety of peoples to the north and northeast of Myanmar. Various scholars have proposed that it comes from the Chinese term for "Turk" (突厥, Tūjué / tú jué ); from the name of Dali (大理國, Dàlǐguó ), the capital of the Kingdom of Nanzhao ; a Chinese corruption of the term Dàyuèzhī (大月支 or 大月氏), a Chinese term referring to Mongol-speaking Kushan Huns . The adoption of Tayoke as an exonym for

5436-603: The Bay of Bengal and South-East Asia. Along the north–south course of the Irrawaddy River, a number of notably different ecoregions can be distinguished. The streams of the Nmai and Mali that form the Irrawaddy originate in high and remote mountains near the border with Tibet . This part of Myanmar, which extends north from Myitkyina and the Irrawaddy confluence, lies entirely outside the tropics. Rain falls at all seasons of

5587-475: 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

5738-514: The Burmese language , using phonetic transcriptions or translated. For example, a Burmese Chinese person named 'Khin Aung' may have the Chinese name of 慶豐 ( Hokkien POJ : Khèng-hong), with '慶' ( Hokkien POJ : khèng) corresponding to 'Khin', and '豐' ( Hokkien POJ : hong) corresponding to 'Aung'. However, variations of transcription do exist (between dialects), and some Burmese Chinese do not choose to adopt similar-sounding Burmese and Chinese names. Because

5889-618: 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

6040-488: The Han Chinese was not an established practice until the 19th century. In the 1940s and 1950s, the term paukphaw ( ပေါက်ဖော် , lit.   ' sibling ' ) was co-opted as an affectionate term for the Chinese, and is now typically used in the context of diplomatic ties between China and Myanmar. The term itself purportedly originates from a Burmese myth about the Chinese and Burmese peoples as being descendants of

6191-642: The Kuomintang , many fled to Myanmar and Thailand over the borders of Yunnan Province . The Burmese government fought and removed the armed KMT and forced them to Taiwan ; those who managed to stay prospered. In the 1950s, discriminatory policies against overseas Chinese encompassed citizenship, government employment, approval for business regulations and licensing, loan extensions and permission to make remittances. Within every Burmese city and town, stood Chinese-owned general merchandise stores as 40 percent of Burmese Chinese acted as merchants and traders across

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6342-723: 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

6493-534: 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

6644-703: The Ne Win 's government happened in 1963, most Burmese Chinese were enrolled in schools where Mandarin Chinese was the medium of instruction with Burmese as a second language. Notable Chinese schools at that time include: Historically, Burmese Chinese have made their livelihoods as merchants, traders, and shopkeepers as well as manual labourers such as indentured labourers (pejoratively called "coolies"); dockers, municipal workers, rickshaw men, and pony cart drivers. They were also heavily represented in certain professions such as civil servants, university lecturers, pharmacists, opticians, lawyers, engineers, and doctors. In Yangon,

6795-614: 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

6946-560: The Sittaung River plain to the east of the delta was described in November 1877 as covering 300 square kilometres (100 sq mi) and containing millions of birds. Immense colonies still bred in the area in 1910, but the birds had disappeared completely by 1939. Small numbers were regularly reported in the delta in the 1940s, but no breeding sites were located. As of 2010 , no pelicans have been recorded, and it may well be that

7097-608: The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration . During the 1950s, Burma was one of the first countries to recognise the People's Republic of China as a nation. However, its own Chinese population was treated as aliens. The Burmese Chinese were issued foreign registration cards (FRC) in a tiered citizenship system adopted by the post-independence government. When the Chinese Communists expelled

7248-400: The [1] shows a 38% decrease in discharge compared to where the river enters the delta. it also silted up around 278 tons of sand every year. Variation between high and low water levels is also great. At Mandalay and Prome , a range of 9.66 to 11.37 metres (31.7–37.3 ft) has been measured between low-water level and flood level respectively. Because of the monsoonal character of

7399-477: The basin , the average population density is 79 people/km . For these people, the river supply amounts to 18,614 m per person per year. Collectively, the modern Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) and Thanlwin (Salween) rivers deliver >600 Mt/yr of sediment to the sea. Most recent study shows: 1) There is little modern sediment accumulating on the shelf immediately off the Ayeyarwady River mouths. In contrast,

7550-481: The brown-headed gull ( Larus brunnicephalus ), which is very common. One of the most numerous wintering shorebird is the lesser sand plover ( Charadrius mongolus ), which occurs in flocks of many thousands along the outer coast of the delta. The wood sandpiper ( Tringa glareola ) and red junglefowl ( Gallus gallus ) are also abundant. In the late 19th century, the spot-billed pelican ( Pelecanus philippensis ) nested in huge numbers in south Myanmar. One colony on

7701-455: The stone loach Malihkaia aligera in 2017), and it is likely that undescribed species remain. Among the most well-known species in the river is the Irrawaddy dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris ), a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin with a high and rounded forehead, lacking a beak. It is found in discontinuous sub-populations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of

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7852-501: The tayoke kabya ( တရုတ်ကပြား ) of mixed Chinese and indigenous Burmese parentage. The kabya ( ကပြား , meaning "hybrid") have a tendency to follow the customs of the Chinese more than of the Burmese. Indeed, tayoke kabya who follow Burmese customs are absorbed into and largely indistinguishable from mainstream Burmese society. A large portion of Burmese Chinese is thought to have some kabya blood, possibly because immigrants could acquire Burmese citizenship through intermarriage with

8003-413: 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

8154-457: 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

8305-532: The 1970s, anti-Chinese riots as well as Anti-Indian sentiment continued to flare up and many believed they were covertly supported by the government. Similarly, Chinese shops were looted and set on fire. Public attention was successfully diverted by Ne Win from the uncontrollable inflation , scarcity of consumer items and rising prices of rice . The 1982 Citizenship Law further restricted Burmese citizenship for Burmese Chinese and severely limited them from attending professional tertiary schools. During this period,

8456-451: The 1982 Citizenship Law further restricted Burmese citizenship for Burmese Chinese (as it stratified citizenship into three categories: full, associate, and naturalised) and severely limited Burmese Chinese, especially those without full citizenship and those holding FRCs, from attending professional tertiary schools, including medical, engineering, agricultural and economics institutions. Many wealthy Sino-Burmese families send their children to

8607-463: The 1990s alone, about 250,000 to 300,000 Yunnanese were estimated to have migrated to Mandalay. The Mandalay's population from about 500,000 in 1980 to one million in 2008 and the percentage of local Burmese reduced to less than 50. Chinese festivals are now firmly embedded in the city's cultural calendar. Mainland Chinese immigrants into Mandalay of this time, came with capital to purchase prime real estate allowing them to take over central Mandalay during

8758-406: The 1990s, Chinese real estate investors began building and speculating as property values doubled and tripled, which resulted indigenous Burmese being pushed further away from the city center of Mandalay. The increased economic clout held in the hands of the Chinese in Burma has triggered distrust, envy, resentment and anti-Chinese hostility among the indigenous Burmese majority. According to Amy Chua,

8909-410: 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

9060-466: The Andaman Sea through the Irrawaddy Delta. This ecoregion consists of mangroves and freshwater swamp forests. It is an extremely fertile area because of the river-borne silt deposited in the delta. The upper and central portions of the delta are almost entirely under cultivation , principally for rice. The southern portion of the ecoregion transitions into the Burmese Coast mangroves and

9211-466: The Asia Wealth Bank. As the indigenous Bamars were known for their graceful hospitality towards non-Burmese ethnics, newly settled Han Chinese immigrants began to capitalize on business opportunities and carving out niches that the Chinese community were well known for specializing in following Burma's acceptance of free-market capitalism in 1988. Many artisan products historically produced by

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9362-526: 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

9513-501: 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

9664-594: The Burmese Chinese Chamber of Commerce was founded. It acts as a guild, business networking centre and commercial lookout helping local Business businessmen and ethnic Chinese investors to secure and protect shared economic interests. The 8888 Uprising saw Burmese political literature that expressed anti-Chinese sentiment, with many reflecting on "public outrage" at the takeover of Mandalay by Chinese migrants who care not for cultural preservation or local morality. Underlying resentment and bitterness from

9815-457: The Burmese economy. In addition, Burmese Chinese have a strong presence in Burma's political scene with several people such as San Yu , Khin Nyunt , and Ne Win having been major political figures. In the Burmese language , the Chinese are called Tayoke ( တရုတ် , tarut , pronounced [təjoʊʔ] ) and formerly spelt တရုပ် ( tarup ). The earliest evidence of this term dates to

9966-441: The Burmese lack surnames, many Burmese Chinese tend to pass on portions of their given names to future generations, for the purpose of denoting lineage. According to publications of Long Shan Tang , a clan association based in Yangon, the ten most common Chinese surnames in Yangon are: Burmese language Burmese is a tonal , pitch-register , and syllable-timed language , largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with

10117-688: 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

10268-469: 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

10419-466: The China – India route. By the twelfth century, a well-developed network of canals made for flourishing rice cultivation. Later, the river became a key economic tool of Imperial British interests, who set up trading ports along its shores. Today, the Irrawaddy is still the country's most important commercial waterway. Despite Mandalay's position as the chief rail and highway focus in northern Myanmar,

10570-449: The Chinese disapora in the 1980s and Chinese companies tended to hire ethnic Chinese. Today, the majority of Burmese Chinese live in the major cities of Yangon , Mandalay , Taunggyi , Bago , and their surrounding areas. Although there are Chinatowns ( တရုတ်တန်း ; tayoke tan ) in the major cities, the Chinese are widely dispersed throughout the country. Yangon is home to nearly 100,000 Chinese. The northern region of Myanmar has seen

10721-503: The Chinese in Burma were largely from the artisan and merchant classes. They integrated well into Burmese society not least because they, like the Bamar, were of Sino-Tibetan stock and were Buddhists , implicit in the nickname pauk hpaw ( ပေါက်ဖော် , lit. "sibling"). During British rule, marriage between the Chinese and Burmese, particularly Chinese men and Burmese women, was the most common form of intermarriage in Burma, as evidenced by

10872-614: The Chinese nationalist ( တရုတ်ဖြူ , lit. "White Chinese") or communist ( တရုတ်နီ , lit. "Red Chinese") movements. However, fewer than 10 per cent of Burmese Chinese of school age attended Chinese language schools. Similarly, about 80 clan associations operated in the 1950s. In 1962, Ne Win led the Socialist coup d'état , establishing the Revolutionary Council under the Burmese Way to Socialism . In February 1963,

11023-567: The Enterprise Nationalization Law was passed, effectively nationalising all major industries and prohibiting the formation of new factories. This law adversely affected many industrialists and entrepreneurs, especially those without the full citizenship. The government's economic nationalisation program further prohibited foreigners, including the non-citizen Chinese, from owning land, sending remittances, getting business licences and practising medicine. Such policies led to

11174-602: The Himalayan glaciers of Upper Burma near 28° N. The eastern branch of the two, N'mai, is the largest and rises in the Languela Glacier north of Putao . It is unnavigable because of the strong current whereas the smaller western branch, the Mali River, is navigable, despite a few rapids . Therefore, the Mali River is still called by the same name as the main river by locals. The controversial Myitsone Dam

11325-716: The Hokkien community was the dominant business force amongst the Chinese with the Cantonese occupying a smaller niche of artisan and cottage industries.. Between 1895 and 1930, Chinese-owned Burmese businesses were initially concentrated within the brokerage, manufacturing, and contracting sectors. Under British colonial rule, the Chinese share of the businesses was reduced in all sectors, but most significantly from 28.5 to 10 percent in manufacturing, 26.6 to 1.8 percent in brokerage, and 31 to 4.3 percent in contracting while Burmese Indians improved their economic positions and controlled

11476-567: The Indians and Chinese to British Burma , and such incentives for work opportunities and enterprise and for accumulating wealth attracted many Chinese immigrants. They primarily came to Burma via British Malaya . The Chinese quickly became dominant in the highly lucrative rice and gem industries. Many Chinese merchants and traders owning both wholesale and retail businesses. Unlike in British Malaya, where most Chinese were coolie labourers,

11627-676: The Indo-Burma and South Central China biodiversity hotspots . The Mali and N'mai River confluence region falls within the Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rainforests , added to the WWF list of outstanding examples of biodiverse regions. The location of the Myitsone Dam, located less than 100 km from a fault line where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet, raised concerns about its earthquake resistance. Earthquakes in

11778-432: 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

11929-740: The Irrawaddy dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris ), which is found in the lower reaches of the river and known to help fishers who practice cast-net fishing . Though called the Irrawaddy dolphin, it has been also found in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean . During the Age of Discovery , the Irrawaddy was also known to European explorers as the Pegu as the main river of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom , itself known as Pegu after its capital, now romanized as Bago . The modern Pegu or Bago River

12080-411: The Myitsone Dam construction will alter the hydrological characteristics of the river, e.g. preventing sediment from enriching riverbanks downstream, where it usually enriches the riverside food-producing plains. This can affect fertility as far downstream as the Irrawaddy Delta , the major rice-producing area of Myanmar. Ecological concerns focus on the inundation of an area that is the border of

12231-479: 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

12382-804: The South-East Asian region, with most going to China. Other countries targeted for power export are Thailand , India and Bangladesh . The largest of the seven, the Myitsone Dam , is located at the confluence of the Mali and N'Mai Rivers at the creation of the Irrawaddy. Although the China Power Investment Corporation is project manager of the Confluence Region Hydropower Projects. ParConfluence Region Hydropower Projects, several companies have been or are currently involved in

12533-491: 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

12684-427: The area along Sinohdan, Latha, and Maung Khaing Streets (with Cantonese typically living above Maha Bandula Road and Hokkiens living below), constituted 9.5 per cent of Rangoon 's population. During this period, there was a sharp rise in the number of private Chinese language schools , primarily teaching Mandarin , in Burma, from 65 in 1935 to 259 in 1953 and 259 at its peak in 1962, with many such schools affiliated to

12835-539: The beginnings of a major exodus of Burmese Chinese to other countries—some 100,000 Chinese left Burma. Although a kabya himself, Ne Win banned Chinese-language education and created other measures to compel the Chinese to leave. Ne Win's government stoked up racial animosity and ethnic conflicts against the Indians and Chinese Burmese, who were terrorised by Burmese citizens, the most violent riots taking place in 1967. All schools were nationalised, including Chinese language schools. Beginning in 1967 and continuing throughout

12986-595: The central city's Burmese Chinese areas are too expensive for them. Tensions have grown between local Burmese and new Chinese businesspeople due to cultural differences. Much of the influx of foreign investment capital into the Burmese economy from mainland and overseas Chinese investors have been channelled through the bamboo network to help launch new companies and executing potential business acquisitions. Burmese Chinese network not just with each other, but also with senior Burmese government officials through activities like golf . Moreover, Chinese-owned Burmese businesses form

13137-530: The city's English language schools for primary and secondary education and Chinese and Singaporean Universities for education. Presently, many wealthy Burmese Chinese send their children overseas—in particular to Thailand , Malaysia and Singapore , for advanced studies. Taiwan is also a major destination, as the Taiwanese government offers aid and scholarship incentives to 'returning' overseas Chinese to study and settle there. Until vast nationalisation by

13288-427: The city's development has also been amplified by additional investment from mainland and overseas Chinese investment through bamboo networks . The influence of mainland China is felt throughout the city, leading locals to call Mandalay a "Chinese city". Recent immigrants from China move to Mandalay for business, without intent to settle there. These "new Chinese" move into new Chinese neighbourhoods outside Mandalay, as

13439-525: 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

13590-595: The close relationship between Myanmar's military rulers and the People's Republic of China helped push reform for the Chinese disapora in the 1980s. In additional, Chinese companies tended to hire ethnic Chinese. The rise of China in the 2010s and the influx of "new Chinese" have created unease among the Burmese Chinese who both welcome increased cultural understanding and fear animosity to China's policies being directed at all people of Chinese descent. Beyond sharing

13741-567: The coasts of the Rakhine State and Tanintharyi Region . On the Chindwin River , transportation is carried on by steam or diesel vessels throughout the year up to Homalin —about 640 km from its confluence with the Irrawaddy. Seasonal navigation is carried on into Tamanthi , which is 57 miles (92 km) by river above Homalin. The Chindwin valley has no railroad and relies heavily on river transport. Chauk , downstream from

13892-482: The confluence in the oil-field district, is a petroleum port. It is linked to Yangon by road and rail. Hinthada , near the apex of the delta, is the rail junction for lines leading to Kyangin and Bassein (Pathein). A ferry operates between Hinthada on the west bank and the railway station at Tharrawaw on the east bank. Myanmar's military junta signed an agreement with China Power Investment Corporation in May 2007 for

14043-601: The construction of seven hydroelectric dams along the Irrawaddy, Mali , and N'Mai River in Kachin State. The total planned output of all seven plants will be 15,160 MWs of electricity, making it the largest hydropower project in Myanmar, surpassing the 7100 MW Tasang Dam in Shan State. The following data is available for the dam locations: The power generated by the dams will be transmitted to other countries in

14194-460: The construction of seven hydroelectric dams , yielding a total of 13,360 MW, in the N'mai and Mali Rivers, including the 3600 MW Myitsone Dam at the confluence of both rivers. Environmental organisations have raised concerns about the project's ecological impact on the river's biodiverse ecosystems . Animals potentially impacted include the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin and the critically endangered Ganges shark . The name "Irrawaddy"

14345-614: The country following the Second World War. Chinese-style bakeries and patisseries, noodle stalls, watch repair shops, cosmetic retailers, and grocery stores became focal points of economic life throughout small towns in Burma. With growing ambitions, Chinese immigrants sought more aggressive entrepreneurial and investment dealings by venturing into most profitable business opportunities, such as liquour stores and pawn brokerage houses. In 1952, Kheng Hock Keong Temple publications estimated that ethnic Chinese, who lived in enclaves in

14496-415: The country with numbers as high as 10,000 animals, but in the last decade numbers have dwindled, partly due to transferring the animals to logging camps. Other species reported to be present include the leopard , Bengal tiger , crab-eating macaque , wild dog , and otters ( Panthera pardus, P. tigris, Cuon alpinus , and Lutra species). The saltwater crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus ) can be found in

14647-501: The country's entire economy." According to a 2015 presentation by Professor Choi Ho Rim, the contemporary Burmese Chinese are estimated to effectively control approximately 76 percent of the nation's entire economy. Chinese enclaves have sprung up across major cities throughout the country. After the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) came to power in 1988 and liberalised the economy , Chinese-owned Burmese businesses gain

14798-408: The country's failing economy and widespread discrimination accelerated an emigration of Burmese Chinese out of Burma. In 1988, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) came to power, and gradually loosened the government's role in the economy, encouraging private sector growth and foreign investment. This liberalisation of state's role in the economy, if slight and uneven, nonetheless gave

14949-604: 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

15100-451: The drier patches are the thorny Terminalia oliveri and the hardwood dahat teak ( Tectona hamiltoniana ) with stands of Indaing ( Dipterocarpus tuberculatus ) which is cut for timber. The wildlife includes many birds, small mammals and reptiles such as the huge Burmese python . However, most of the large animals including the tiger have been hunted out or seen their habitats disappear. The Irrawaddy River and its tributaries flow into

15251-518: The dry season. Between Myitkyina and Mandalay , the Irrawaddy flows through three well-marked defiles : This sheet of lava is the Singu Plateau , a volcanic field from the Holocene . This field consists of magma from the fissure vents and covers an area of about 62 square kilometres (24 sq mi). The plateau is also known as Letha Taung. Leaving this plateau at Kyaukmyaung ,

15402-610: 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

15553-573: The easternmost stream is the Yangon River, on the left bank of which stands Myanmar's former capital city, Yangon (Rangoon). Because the Yangon River is only a minor channel, the flow of water is insufficient to prevent Yangon Harbour from silting up, and dredging is necessary. The relief of the delta's landscape is low but not flat. The soils consist of fine silt, which is replenished continuously by fertile alluvium carried downstream by

15704-482: The economic crises of the early 1990s. The predominance of Chinese became a source of racial tensions between the two communities. The Burmese Chinese place a high importance on education and represent a disproportionately high share of those with advanced (medical, engineering or doctorate) degrees in Myanmar. The figure would be higher still had it not been for the longstanding ban on those without Burmese citizenship from pursuing advanced degrees when Ne Win instigated

15855-517: The end of 2012, Mizzima News reported that an increasing number of young Burmese Chinese are expressing interest in Chinese language, taking language courses even when their parents don't understand Chinese. However, this trend is not necessarily indicative of an interest in joining Chinese community or cultural organisations, as many of their parents did. Groups like the Myanmar Overseas Young Chinese League report

16006-533: The ethnic Chinese population. The Hakkas are further subdivided into those with ancestry from Fujian Province and Guangdong Province, called eingyi shay haka ( အင်္ကျီရှည်ဟကာ ) and eingyi to haka ( အင်္ကျီတိုဟကာ ) respectively. In Upper Myanmar and Shan Hills, the Kokang people predominate there. The Panthay have long been considered distinct from the Han Chinese diaspora community. They are Chinese Muslims who are called Hui in China. Finally, there are

16157-449: The ethnic Chinese-led businesses extra space to expand and reassert their economic power. Today, the majority of retail, wholesale and import trade businesses are run by the Burmese Chinese today. Despite their status as alien minorities, the close relationship between the military rulers of Burma and the People's Republic of China led to the issues of Burmese Chinese being treated with more sensitivity. Furthermore, Beijing pushed reform for

16308-427: The fires were later illegally purchased, mostly by the ethnic Chinese , many of whom were recent illegal immigrants from Yunnan . The Chinese influx accelerated after the current military government came to power in 1988. The government forcibly relocated local Burmese to satellite towns as part of a City Beautification and Development Program, allowing incoming Chinese immigrants access to land in central Mandalay. In

16459-418: The fish in the Irrawaddy river basin currently exists, but in 1996 it was estimated that there are about 200 species. In 2008, it was estimated that the Irrawaddy ecoregion is home to 119–195 species of fish found nowhere else in the world ( endemic ). Several new species of fish have been described from the Irrawaddy river basin in recent years (for example, the cyprinid Danio htamanthinus in 2016 and

16610-598: 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

16761-978: The free market liberalization under SLORC rule brought virtually no economic benefit to the Bamar majority but rather the domination and looting of their country by a small handful of outsiders. Many Bamar are additionally unhappy from the dominance of Chinese language, food and a perceived lack of adherence to traditional tenets of Burmese Buddhism by the Chinese community in Mandalay. Most Burmese Chinese speak Burmese in their daily life. Those with higher education also speak Standard Chinese and/or English . The use of Chinese dialects still prevails. Hokkien (a dialect of Min Nan from Quanzhou , Zhangzhou and Jinjiang ) and Taishanese (a Yue dialect akin to Cantonese) from Taishan and Xinhui are mostly used in Yangon as well as in Lower Myanmar, while Yunnanese Mandarin

16912-888: The helm of the Burmese economy as a prosperous business community. Following Burma's new market transformation, Chinese immigrants from Yunnan were able to illegally obtain identity cards on the black market to become naturalized Burmese citizens overnight. A substantial increase in foreign direct investment has poured in from mainland China, mostly ending up in Mandalay's real estate sector, through Burmese citizen intermediaries of Chinese ancestry. As Mandalay became more economically prosperous, existing Burmese Chinese have facilitated continued immigration from China. Prime real estate in central Mandalay have been bought by wealthy Chinese businessmen and investors. Large commercial real estate projects, such as hotels or shopping centres, are typically developed by Chinese businessmen and real estate investors. The Burmese Chinese business community's impact on

17063-423: The impoverished Burmese majority has been accumulating as indigenous Burmese lack substantial business equity in Burma and have not profited from economic liberalisation like the Burmese Chinese. Chinese economic clout in cities like Mandalay grew at the same time that State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) junta forcibly relocated Burmese as a means of social control. During the Burmese property boom in

17214-506: The indigenous Burmans have been entirely displaced by cheaper and higher-quality Chinese consumer imports. Chinese equipment imported, however, tend to be low-quality with such exports being produced in exchange for high-quality exports to China. Burmese entrepreneurs of Chinese ancestry have become dominant figures in key industries following the economic liberalisation of the State Peace and Development Council rule in 1989. These include

17365-456: The indigenous Burmese peoples. The earliest records of Chinese migration into present-day Myanmar were in the Song and Ming dynasties. In the 18th century, Ming dynasty princes settled in Kokang (the northern part of present-day Myanmar). Chinese traders, however, travelled as far as the capital city as well as northern towns on the Irrawaddy such as Bhamo . Some of them stayed and started

17516-522: 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

17667-492: The inundation include loss of farmland, loss of spawning habitat as fish can not swim upstream anymore. The Kachin Development Networking Group, a network of civil society groups and development organisations in Kachin State warn this will lead to a loss of income for fishermen. They report locals are also worried about the flooding of cultural sites in the flood zone. As with other large dam projects,

17818-517: The last 30 years, the entrepreneurial Chinese minority transformed Mandalay into a booming modern metropolis filled with foreign businesses and gem trading centers. The country's post-1988 economic liberalization and Burma's open-door immigration policy attracted many poor Chinese migrants from Yunnan in search of economic opportunity who brought talent, skills, goods and services, and capital, reshaping Mandalay's economic landscape. Arriving impoverished, Burmese businessmen of Chinese ancestry now sit at

17969-454: The last few decades of the 19th century, the Chinese diversified into rural money-lending and agenting for petroleum and natural gas. Some businessmen also ran illicit opium and gambling dens, teahouses and liquor stores. Like much of Southeast Asia, ethnic Chinese form a dominant minority in Burmese commerce at every level of society. According to Amy Chua 's 2003 book World on Fire , entrepreneurial savvy Chinese have "literally taken over

18120-582: The late 1980s onwards as all businesses had to be built up from nothing. Burmese-Chinese also have small businesses like hawkers who sell bicycle tires or new Chinese immigrant farmers growing rice in northern Burma. Businessman Lo Hsing Han and industrialist Kyaw Win, are prominent examples of Burma's native-born tycoons of Chinese ancestry. Working with and bribing the SLORC government, these men have come to manage major banks, airlines such as Yangon Airways , teak logging companies, gemstone mining concessions. Lo

18271-515: 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

18422-400: The mud deposit is up to 20 m nearshore and gradually thins to the slope at −300 m water depth, and likely escapes into the deep Andaman Trench; 4) The estimated total amount of Holocene sediments deposited offshore is ~1290 × 10 tons. If we assume this has mainly accumulated since the middle Holocene highstand (~6000 yr BP) like other major deltas, the historical annual mean depositional flux on

18573-454: The northern tip of Myanmar – the Kachin State – they cut long north–south alluvial plains and relatively narrow upland valleys between the 2,000 to 3,000 metres (7,000–10,000 ft) mountain ridges. The rivers joining the Irrawaddy are, from north to south: As early as the sixth century, the Bamars were using the Irrawaddy to gain power in the region through trade and transport on

18724-585: 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

18875-555: The preparation, construction and financing of the 3,600 MW Myitsone Dam. Asia World Company has a key position, amidst Burmese Suntac Technologies and state-run Myanmar Electrical Power Enterprise, a state-owned utility enterprise responsible for power generation, transmission and distribution Chinese involvement comes from China Power Investment Corporation , China Southern Power Grid , Yunnan Machinery Equipment Import & Export Company Changjiang Institute of Surveying, Planning, Design and Research. At least one Japanese company

19026-563: The rain, the highest point is recorded in August, the lowest in February. This variation in water level makes it necessary for ports along the river to have separate landing ports for low- and high-water. Still, low water levels have caused problems for ports along the river, as in the Bamaw – Mandalay – Pyay sectors, the shallowest point is as shallow as 60 centimetres (2.0 ft). Within

19177-596: The region, such as the 5.3 magnitude earthquake that struck near the Myanmar-China border on 20 August 2008, prompted Naw Lar, the coordinator of the KDNG dam research project, to ask the junta to reconsider its dam projects. The river flows through or past the following cities: Until the construction of the Ava (Innwa) Bridge, a 16 span rail and road cantilever bridge built by the British colonial government in 1934,

19328-425: 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

19479-405: The river follows a broad, open course through the central Dry Zone – the Bamar people's ancient cultural heartland – where large areas consist of alluvial flats. From Mandalay (the former capital of the kingdom of Myanmar), the river makes an abrupt westward turn before curving southwest to unite with the Chindwin River , after which it continues in a southwestern direction. It is probable that

19630-422: The river. As a result of heavy rainfall varying from 2,000 to 3,000 millimetres (79–118 in) a year in the delta, and the motion and sediment load of the river, the delta surface extends into the Andaman Sea at a rate of about 50 metres (160 ft) per year. Due to monsoonal rains, which occur between mid-May and mid-October, the volume of the Irrawaddy and its tributaries varies greatly throughout

19781-510: 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,

19932-572: The same parents, a dragon princess and a sun god. In the Mon language , the Chinese are known as Krawk ( ကြုက် , /krɜk/ ); in Shan , they are called Khe ( ၶႄႇ , /kʰɛ˨/ ). In the Wa language , spoken in the borderlands between Yunnan Province and Shan State , the word for Chinese is Hox/Hawx , pronounced /hɔʔ/ . The Hakkas , Hokkiens and Cantonese comprised 45 per cent of the ethnic Chinese population. The Yunnanese comprised 30 to 40 per cent of

20083-524: The shelf would be 215 Mt/yr, which is equivalent to ~35% of the modern Ayeyarwady-Thanlwin rivers derived sediments; 5) Unlike other large river systems in Asia, such as the Yangtze and Mekong, this study indicates a bi-directional transport and depositional pattern controlled by the local currents that are influenced by tides, and seasonally varying monsoons winds and waves. No complete and precise list of all

20234-447: The sixth century, the river was used for trade and transport, and an extensive network of irrigation canals was developed to support agriculture. The river is still of great importance as the largest commercial waterway of Myanmar. It also provides important ecosystem services to different communities and economic sectors, including agriculture, fisheries, and tourism. In 2007, Myanmar's military dictatorship signed an agreement for

20385-413: The southern part of the delta. The species was formerly abundant in coastal regions, but population numbers have decreased because of a combination of commercial skin hunting, habitat loss, drowning in fishing nets and over-collection of living animals to supply crocodile farms . It was at this river that a battle between a saltwater crocodile and a tiger was observed that ended with the reptile devouring

20536-472: The species is now extinct in Myanmar. Several species of large mammal occur in the delta, but their populations are small and scattered, with the possible exceptions of the Malayan sambar deer ( Cervus unicolor equinus ), Indian hog deer ( C. porcinus ), and wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), which have been reported from all Reserved Forests. Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus ) were once widespread throughout

20687-764: 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

20838-522: The tiger. Despite recent declines in the sea turtle populations, five species are known to nest in Myanmar at well known island and mainland beaches known as turtle-banks. These are the olive ridley sea turtle ( Lepidochelys olivacea ), the loggerhead sea turtle ( Caretta caretta ), the green sea turtle ( Chelonia mydas ), the hawksbill sea turtle ( Eretmochelys imbricata ), and the leatherback sea turtle ( Dermochelys coriacea ). The Irrawaddy River has five major tributaries. As they flow through

20989-593: The timber industry- primarily teak- and gemstones- primarily rubies. The Chinese have been the chief driving force behind Burma's gem mining industry and jade exports. Burma's booming gem industry is operated by Chinese hands at every level, from the financiers and concession operators to retail merchants of newly opened gem markets. One Chinese-owned jewelry company reportedly controls 100 gem mines and produces over 2,000 kilograms of raw rubies annually. The autarky of Ne Win 's rule gave Chinese-owned small businesses like restaurants, karoake bars and hotels an advantage in

21140-448: 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

21291-425: 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,

21442-549: The upper Irrawaddy originally flowed south from Mandalay, discharging its water through the present Sittaung River to the Gulf of Martaban , and that its present westward course is geologically recent. Below its confluence with the Chindwin, the Irrawaddy continues to meander through the petroleum producing city of Yenangyaung , below which it flows generally southward. In its lower course, between Minbu and Pyay , it flows through

21593-504: The valley of the middle Irrawaddy and lower Chindwin. It lies within the 'dry zone' and consists almost entirely of plains covered with the teak -dominated Irrawaddy moist deciduous forests ecoregion , which surrounds dry forest patches in drier areas. The central basin receives little rain (ave 650mm per year) although it does flood quickly during the July–October storms. The one meteorological factor which does not vary greatly, and which

21744-462: 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

21895-466: 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,

22046-410: 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

22197-477: The year, but from Bhamo to Myitkyina (200 km) for only seven months. More than 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) of navigable waterways exist in the Irrawaddy delta, and there is a system of connecting canals. The Sittang is usable by smaller boats, but the Salween River , because of its rapids, is navigable for less than 160 kilometres (99 mi) from the sea. Small steamers and country boats also serve

22348-709: The year, but mostly in the summer. The valleys and lower hill ranges are covered with tropical and subtropical evergreen rainforest instead of monsoon (deciduous) forest. This region is characterised by subtropical and temperate forests of oak and pine are found at elevations above 900 metres (3,000 ft). This evergreen forest passes into sub-tropical pine forest at about 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) feet. Above 1,800 metres (5,900 ft), are forests of rhododendrons , and that in turn into evergreen conifer forest above 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) feet. The Irrawaddy river basin covers an approximate area of 255 81 km (31 sq mi). The Central Basin consists of

22499-546: The year. In summer, the melting of the snow and glaciers in Northern Burma add to the volume. The average discharge near the head of the delta is between a high of 32,600 cubic metres (1,150,000 cu ft) and a low of 2,300 cubic metres (81,000 cu ft) per second. The discharge can be as high as 40,393 cubic meter per second in the rainy season. Over a year, the discharge averages 15,112 cubic metres (533,700 cu ft). Further North, at Sagaing ,

22650-404: Was also an opium warlord, gaining economic clout by cutting deals with the government to resolve conflict in his native Kokang . Like him, many Chinese Burmese dominate the black market of Myanmar like any other economic industry. Lo's son, Steven Law is also a prominent businessman well known for being at the helm of Burma's largest conglomerate company Asia World , whose investments include

22801-777: 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

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