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107-594: The Konbaung dynasty ( Burmese : ကုန်းဘောင်မင်းဆက် ), also known as the Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်), was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. It created the second-largest empire in Burmese history and continued the administrative reforms begun by the Toungoo dynasty , laying the foundations of the modern state of Burma. The reforms, however, proved insufficient to stem

214-565: 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

321-487: A white umbrella over the king's head. This anointment was repeated by eight pure-blooded Brahmins and eight merchants. Afterward, the king repeated words ascribed to Buddha at birth: "I am foremost in all the world! I am most excellent in all the world! I am peerless in all the world!" and made invocation by pouring water from a golden ewer. The ritual ended with the king taking refuge in the Three Jewels . As part of

428-435: A Viceroy called a Myowun ( မြို့ဝန် ), who was appointed by the king and possessed civil, judicial, fiscal and military powers. Provincial councils ( myoyon ) consisted of myo saye ( မြို့စာရေး ) (town scribes), nakhandaw ( နာခံတော် )(receivers of royal orders), sitke ( စစ်ကဲ ) (chiefs of war), htaunghmu ( ထောင်မှူး) (jailer), ayatgaung ( အရံခေါင်း ) (head of the quarter), and dagahmu ( တံခါးမှူး ) (warden of

535-405: A full-fledged system of cash taxes and salaries, assisted by the country's first standardised silver coinage. Mindon also tried to reduce the tax burden by lowering the heavy income tax and created a property tax , as well as duties on foreign exports. These policies had the reverse effect of increasing the tax burden, as the local elites used the opportunity to enact new taxes without lowering

642-473: A group of 8 Brahmins sprinkled water blessed by a group of 8 Buddhist monks, throughout the palace grounds, at the Hluttaw , various courts, the major city gates, and the 4 corners of the capital. The king attended many of the ceremonies involving royal family members, from cradling ceremonies ( ပုခက်မင်္ဂလာ ) to ear-boring ceremonies, from marriages to funerals. Specific buildings in the royal palace served as

749-550: 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

856-674: 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,

963-632: A pattern established during the Taungoo dynasty . The Hluttaw ( လွှတ်တော် , lit. "place of royal release," c.f. Council of State) held legislative, ministerial and judicial functions, administering the royal government as delegated by the king. Sessions at the Hluttaw were held for 6 hours daily, from 6 to 9 am, and from noon to 3 pm. Listed by rank, the Hluttaw was composed of: The Byedaik ( ဗြဲတိုက် , lit. "Bachelor Chambers," with Bye stemming from Mon blai ( Mon : ဗ္ကဲာ , "bachelor") served as

1070-563: A return mission however was to secure a military alliance. Faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Siam in the east, the Konbaung dynasty had ambitions to expand the Konbaung Empire westwards. Bodawpaya acquired the western kingdoms of Arakan (1784), Manipur (1814), and Assam (1817), leading to a long ill-defined border with British India . The Konbaung court had set its sights on potentially conquering British Bengal by

1177-534: A series of wars with Siam that would last well into the middle of the 19th century. By 1770, Alaungpaya 's heirs had destroyed Ayutthaya Siam (1765–1767) , subdued much of Laos (1765) and defeated four invasions by Qing China (1765–1769). With the Burmese preoccupied for another two decades by another impending invasion by the Chinese, Siam reunified by 1771, and went on to capture Lan Na by 1776 . Burma and Siam went to war until 1855 but after decades of war,

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1284-466: 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

1391-723: 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

1498-628: 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

1605-467: 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: Bodawpaya Bodawpaya ( Burmese : ဘိုးတော်ဘုရား , pronounced [bódɔ̀ pʰəjá] ; Thai : ปดุง ; 11 March 1745 – 5 June 1819)

1712-722: 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 was the fifth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to develop

1819-442: 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

1926-584: 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

2033-638: 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/

2140-662: The Uparaja (Crown Prince), in Burmese Einshe Min ( အိမ်ရှေ့မင်း ), was one of the most important rituals in the king's reign. The Installation Ceremony took place in the Byedaik (Privy Council). The Crown Prince was invested, received appenages and insignias, and was bestowed a multitude of gifts. The king also formally appointed a retinue of household staff to oversee the Prince's public and private affairs. Afterward,

2247-491: 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

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2354-588: 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

2461-622: The Ahom governor of Guwahati in Assam, Badan Chandra Borphukan visited the court of Bodawpaya to seek help in order to defeat his political rival Purnananda Burhagohain , the Prime Minister of Ahom Kingdom in Assam. A strong force of 16,000 under the command of Gen. Maha Minhla Minkhaung was sent with Badan Chandra Borphukan . The Burmese force entered Assam in January, 1817 and defeated

2568-473: 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

2675-618: 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

2782-608: The Karenni States . Nonetheless, the extent and pace of reforms were uneven and ultimately proved insufficient to stem the advance of British colonialism. He died before he could name a successor, and Thibaw , a lesser prince, was manoeuvred onto the throne by Hsinbyumashin , one of Mindon's queens, together with her daughter, Supayalat . ( Rudyard Kipling mentions her as Thibaw's queen, and borrows her name, in his poem " Mandalay ") The new King Thibaw proceeded, under Supayalat's direction, to massacre all likely contenders to

2889-454: The Marasana or Peacock Throne) were constructed in a specifically designated plot of land (called the "peacock garden") for this occasion. Offerings were also made to deities and Buddhist paritta s were chanted. Specially designated individuals, usually the daughters of dignitaries including merchants and Brahmins, were tasked with procuring anointing water midstream from a river. The water

2996-723: 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

3103-534: 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

3210-659: The Privy Council by handling the court's internal affairs and also served as an interlocutor between the king and other royal agencies. The Byedaik consisted of: The Shwedaik ( ရွှေတိုက် ) was the Royal Treasury, and as such, served as the repository of the state's precious metals and treasures. Moreover, the Shwedaik retained the state's archives and maintained various records, including detailed genealogies of hereditary officials and census reports. The Shwedaik

3317-614: 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

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3424-613: The Qing dynasty of China – thus establishing the Third Burmese Empire. Subject to later wars and treaties with the British, the modern state of Myanmar can trace its current borders to these events. Throughout the Konbaung dynasty, the capital was relocated several times for religious, political, and strategic reasons. The dynasty was founded by a village chief, who later became known as Alaungpaya , in 1752 to challenge

3531-633: The Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom which had just toppled the Taungoo dynasty . By 1759, Alaungpaya's forces had reunited all of Burma (and Manipur ) and driven out the French and the British who had provided arms to Hanthawaddy. Alaungpaya's second son, Hsinbyushin , came to the throne after a short reign by his elder brother, Naungdawgyi (1760–1763). He continued his father's expansionist policy and finally took Ayutthaya in 1767, after seven years of fighting. In 1760, Burma began

3638-557: The Sakyan clan (of which Gotama Buddha was a member) and the House of Vijaya . Life in the royal court was closely regulated. Eunuchs ( မိန်းမဆိုး ) oversaw the ladies of the royal household and apartments. Inferior queens and concubines could not reside in the main palace buildings. Brahmins, generally known as ponna ( ပုဏ္ဏား ) in Burmese, served as specialists for ritual ceremonies, astrology, and devotional rites to Hindu deities at

3745-459: The Triple Gem , the 11 deva headed by Thagyamin , 9 Hindu deities, indigenous nat , and the 100 Phi . A protective prayer was then recited. After the prayer, a pyinnyashi prepared and 'fed' Nandi. At the auspicious moment calculated by astrologers, the name of the infant was read out thrice by the royal herald. Afterward, another royal herald recited an inventory of presents offered by

3852-413: 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

3959-457: 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

4066-410: 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

4173-612: The Assamese force in the battle of Ghiladhari. Meanwhile, Purnananda Burhagohain died, and Ruchinath Burhagohain , the son of Purnananda Burahgohain fled to Guwahati. The reigning Ahom king Chandrakanta Singha came in terms with Badan Chandra Borphukan and his Burmese allies. The King appointed Badan Chandra Borphukan as Mantri Phukan (Prime Minister) and an Ahom princess Hemo Aideo was given for marriage to Burmese King Bodawpaya along with many gifts. The Burmese force retired from Assam soon after. A year later, Badan Chandra Borphukan

4280-471: 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

4387-557: 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

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4494-688: 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

4601-469: 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

4708-608: The Crown Prince was paraded to his new Palace, commiserate with his new rank. Preparations for a royal wedding with a princess, specially groomed to become the new king's consort, then commenced. Kun U Khun Mingala ( ကွမ်းဦးခွံ့မင်္ဂလာ ) – the Feeding of the First Betel ceremony was held about 75 days after the birth of a prince or princess to bolster the newborn child's health, prosperity and beauty. The ceremony involved

4815-607: The Heir Apparent Thado Minsaw , across the Western Yoma range of mountains. The capital of Arakan Mrauk U was captured on the last of 1784. The Mahamuni Buddha image, among other treasures such as the Khmer bronze statues, were brought back to mainland Burma; these can still be seen in Mandalay . Also taken were 20,000 captives as slaves to pagodas and temples, and the nobility at Amarapura. Once Arakan

4922-793: The Hluttaw. They collected revenue for the royal government, payable to the Royal Treasury in fixed instalments and retained whatever was left over. Each provinces was subdivided into towns and municipalities. Towns also called myo ( မြို့ ), which were capitals of provinces. Towns were administered by Town Headman called Myo thugyi ( မြို့သူကြီး ) or Town administrator called Myo Ok ( မြို့အုပ် ). Municipalities called taik ( တိုက် ), which contained collections of villages called ywa ( ရွာ ). Municipalities were administered by Municipal Headman called Taik thugyi ( တိုက်သူကြီး ) and villages were administered by Village Headman called Ywa thugyi ( ရွာသူကြီး ). The kingdom's peripheral coastal provinces; Arakan, Pegu, Martaban and Tavoy were administered by

5029-491: The Hundred Phi ( ပီတစ်ရာနတ် ), a group of 100 Siamese spirits headed by Nandi ( နန္ဒီနတ်သမီး ), personified by a Brahmin figure made of kusa grass , which was ceremonially fed scoops of cooked rice with the left hand. Nāmakaraṇa ( နာမကရဏ ) – the naming ceremony took place 100 days after the birth of a prince or princess. Food was also offered for the dignitaries and entertainers in attendance. The infant's name

5136-497: 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

5243-555: The Konbaung court. They played an essential role in king-making rituals, consecration and ablution ceremonies called abhiseka ( ဗိဿိတ် ). Court Brahmins ( ပုရောဟိတ် , parohita ) were well embedded in daily life at the court, advising and consulting the king on various matters. A social hierarchy among the Brahmins determined their respective duties and functions. Astrologer Brahmins called huya ( ဟူးရား ) were responsible for determining astrological calculations, such as determining

5350-448: The Konbaung dynasty. Royal court life in the Konbaung dynasty consisted of both codified rituals and ceremonies and those that were innovated with the progression of the dynasty. Many ceremonies were composed of Hindu ideas localised and adapted to existing traditions, both Burmese and Buddhist in origin. These rituals were also used to legitimise the rule of Burmese kings, as the Konbaung monarchs claimed descent from Maha Sammata through

5457-426: The Konbaung kings (through rituals called gadaw pwedaw ) ( ကန်တော့ပွဲ ) and were accorded with royal privileges and designated sawbwa ( စော်ဘွား ) (from Shan saopha, 'lord of the sky') In particular, the families of Shan sawbwa s regularly intermarried into Burmese aristocracy and had close contact with the Konbaung court. The government was centrally administered by several advisory royal agencies, following

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5564-561: The Middle Kingdom which was very important for the dynasty at that time. The Qing dynasty then opened up its markets and restored trading with Burma in 1788 after reconciliation. Thenceforth peaceful and friendly relations prevailed between China and Burma for a long time. In 1823, Burmese emissaries led by George Gibson, who was the son of an English mercenary, arrived in the Vietnamese city of Saigon . The Burmese king Bagyidaw

5671-511: The New Year, the king and chief queen partook in Thingyan rice, cooked rice dipped in cold perfumed water, while seated on their throne. Musical and dramatic performances and other feasts were also held in that complex. The most significant court functions of a king's reign were the abhiseka or consecratory rituals, held at various times throughout a king's reign, to reinforce his place as

5778-479: 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

5885-468: The Restored Toungoo dynasty period (1599–1752), and achieved unprecedented levels of internal control and external expansion. They tightened control in the lowlands and reduced the hereditary privileges of Shan chiefs . They also instituted commercial reforms that increased government income and rendered it more predictable. Money economy continued to gain ground. In 1857, the crown inaugurated

5992-526: The River Irrawaddy from Mandalay on the west bank. It was however never finished after a prophecy went round saying Payagyi lè apyi that, moksoe thonnya kap – "Once the great pagoda has been wrought, the Moksoe dynasty will come to nought" ( ဘုရားကြီးလည်းအပြီးသတ် မုဆိုးသုညကပ်။ ). It was meant to have stood 150 metres (490 ft), tall enough to be seen from Shwebo in the west, the birthplace of

6099-519: The White Elephants ' ), not to be confused with his older brother Hsinbyushin . However, he became known to posterity as Bodawpaya (Grandsire) in relation to his successor, his grandson Bagyidaw (Royal Elder Uncle), who in turn was given this name in relation to his nephew Mindon Min . He fathered 70 sons and 67 daughters by about 54 consorts. Also known as Bodaw U Waing , he invaded Arakan in 1784 sending his royal armies led by his son,

6206-491: 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

6313-597: The advance of the British Empire , who defeated the Burmese in all three Anglo-Burmese Wars over a six-decade span (1824–1885) and ended the millennium-old Burmese monarchy in 1885. Pretenders to the dynasty claim descent from Myat Phaya Lat , one of Thibaw's daughters. An expansionist dynasty, the Konbaung kings waged campaigns against the Lushai Hills , Manipur, Assam , Arakan , the Mon kingdom of Pegu , Siam ( Ayutthaya , Thonburi , Rattanakosin ), and

6420-631: The alms round in the controversy concerning the correct way of wearing the robes, and the Order of Monks was unified under the Thudhamma order . Burma became the custodian of Buddhism in the region, and the upasampada ordination was re-introduced to Sri Lanka where it established the Amarapura Nikaya. In 1790 Bodawpaya began the construction of a gigantic stupa called Mantalagyi (Great Royal Stupa) at Mingun , 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) up

6527-627: The auspicious moment for the foundation of a new capital, a new palace, pagoda, or assumption of the royal residence, announcing an appointment, leaving a place, visiting a pagoda or starting a military campaign. They also established the religious calendar, prepared the almanac ( သင်္ကြန်စာ ), calculated upcoming solar and lunar eclipses, identified major festival days based on the lunar cycle, and communicated auspicious times and dates. A special group of Brahmins who performed abhiseka rituals were also selected as pyinnya shi ( ပညာရှိ ), appointed royal counselors. Lavish affairs were also organised around

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6634-507: The beginning of a reign. The Sasanalinkaya states that Bodawpaya , like his father, was crowned only after establishing control over the kingdom's administration and purifying the religious institutions. The most important features of this ritual were: the fetching of the anointing water; the ceremonial bath; the anointment; and the king's oath. Elaborate preparations were made precisely for this ceremony. Three ceremonial pavilions ( Sihasana or Lion Throne ; Gajasana or Elephant Throne; and

6741-482: The chief queen Me Nu and her brother. Tharrawaddy made no attempt to improve relations with Britain. His son Pagan , who became king in 1846, executed thousands – some sources say as many as 6,000 – of his wealthier and more influential subjects on trumped-up charges. During his reign, relations with the British became increasingly strained. In 1852, the Second Anglo-Burmese War broke out. Pagan

6848-525: 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

6955-488: The coronation throne, crafted to resemble a blooming lotus flower, made of figwood and applied gold leaf. Brahmins handed him the five articles of coronation regalia ( မင်းမြောက်တန်ဆာ , Min Myauk Taza ): At his throne, eight princesses anointed the king by pouring specially procured water atop his head, each using a conch bedazzled with gems white solemnly adjuring him in formulae to rule justly. Brahmins then raised

7062-513: The coronation, prisoners were released. The king and his pageant returned to the Palace, and the ceremonial pavilions were dismantled and cast into the river. Seven days after the ceremony, the king and members of the royal family made an inaugural procession, circling the city moat on a gilt state barge, amid festive music and spectators. Uparājabhiseka ( ဥပရာဇဘိသေက ) – the Installation of

7169-604: 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

7276-469: The dignitaries in attendance. At the closing of the ceremony, a feast ensued, with attendees fed in the order of precedence. Offerings to the Buddha were shuttled to the pagodas, and those to Nandi, to the sacrificial Brahmins. Burmese language Burmese is a tonal , pitch-register , and syllable-timed language , largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with a subject–object–verb word order. It

7383-523: The dynasty had conquered vast tracts of territory, its direct power was limited to its capital and the fertile plains of the Irrawaddy river valley. The Konbaung rulers enacted harsh levies and had a difficult time fighting internal rebellions. At various times, the Shan states paid tribute to the Konbaung dynasty, but unlike the Mon lands, were never directly controlled by the Burmese. The Konbaung dynasty

7490-661: The dynasty, towering above the Minwun Hills. An earthquake in 1838 left huge fissures in the structure, and also caused the heads of the two gigantic chinthes to fall into the river. There was also a gigantic 90 ton bell dedicated to the stupa called the Mingun Bell , cast between 1808 and 1810. It was the largest ringing bell in the world, when the larger bell in Moscow Kremlin , called the Tsar bell , broke, until

7597-474: 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

7704-489: The feeding of betel , mixed with camphor and other ingredients. An appointed official ( ဝန် ) arranged the rituals preceding the ceremony. These rituals included a specific set of offerings to the Buddha, indigenous spirits ( yokkaso , akathaso , bhummaso , etc.), Guardians of the Sasana, and to the parents and grandparents of the child, all of which were arranged in the infant's chamber. Additional offerings were made to

7811-598: 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

7918-574: The gates). The Viceroy of Pegu was assisted by several additional officials, including an akhunwun ( အခွန်ဝန် ) (revenue officer), akaukwun ( အကောက်ဝန် ) (customs collector), and a yewun ( ရေဝန် ) (conservator of port). The outlying tributary fiefdoms on the edges of the kingdom were autonomous in practice and nominally administered by the king. These included the Shan, Palaung, Kachin and Manipuri principalities. The tributary princes of these fiefdoms regularly pledged allegiance and offered tribute to

8025-522: 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

8132-522: The life ceremonies of royal family members. Brahmins presided over many of these auspicious ceremonies, including the construction of a new royal capital; consecration of the new palace, the royal ploughing ceremony; the naming, first rice feeding and cradling ceremonies; the abhiseka head anointing rituals, and the King's participation in Burmese New Year (Thingyan) celebrations. During Thingyan,

8239-515: 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

8346-514: The next messianic Buddha or Maitreya ( Arimittya ), but his claim was firmly rejected by the Sangha . During his reign, scholarship flourished due to the discipline and stability achieved by establishing a chapter of Sangharajas or senior monks charged with the responsibility of safeguarding the purity of the Sangha. He had successfully arbitrated in favour of orthodoxy to cover both shoulders on

8453-504: The old ones; they were able to do so as control from the centre was weak. In addition, the duties on foreign exports stifled the burgeoning trade and commerce. Mindon attempted to bring Burma into greater contact with the outside world, and hosted the Fifth Great Buddhist Synod in 1872 at Mandalay , gaining the respect of the British and the admiration of his own people. Mindon avoided annexation in 1875 by ceding

8560-528: The outbreak of the First Anglo-Burmese War . Europeans began to set up trading posts in the Irrawaddy delta region during this period. Konbaung tried to maintain its independence by balancing between the French and the British . In the end it failed, the British severed diplomatic relations in 1811, and the dynasty fought and lost three wars against the British Empire , culminating in

8667-412: The patron of religion ( Sasana ) and righteousness. Abhiseka rituals all involved the pouring of water from a conch on the candidate's (usually the king's) head, instructing him what to do or not to do for the love of his people and warning him that if he failed to oblige, he might suffer certain miseries. Ablution rituals were the responsibility of a group of 8 elite Brahmins uniquely qualified to perform

8774-649: 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

8881-425: 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

8988-511: The ritual. They were to remain chaste before the ceremony. Another group of Brahmins was responsible for the consecration of the Crown Prince. There were 14 types of abhiseka ceremonies in total: Rajabhiseka ( ရာဇဘိသိက် ) – the Coronation of the king, which was presided over by Brahmins, was the most important ritual of the royal court. The ceremony was typically held in the Burmese month of Kason , but did not necessarily occur during

9095-602: The royal court. It also posed problems of succession at the same time often resulting in royal massacres. The Lawka Byuha Kyan ( လောကဗျူဟာကျမ်း ), also known as the Inyon Sadan ( အင်းယုံစာတန်း ), is the earliest extant work on Burmese court protocols and customs. The work was written by the Inyon Wungyi Thiri Uzana, also known as the Inyon Ywaza, during the reign of Alaungpaya , the founder of

9202-510: 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,

9309-764: 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

9416-513: The throne. This massacre was conducted by the queen. The dynasty came to an end in 1885 with the forced abdication and exile of the king and the royal family to India. The British, alarmed by the consolidation of French Indochina , annexed the remainder of the country in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885. The annexation was announced in the British parliament as a New Year gift to Queen Victoria on 1 January 1886. Although

9523-433: The total annexation of Burma by the British. The British defeated the Burmese in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) after huge losses on both sides, both in terms of manpower and financial assets. Burma had to cede Arakan, Manipur, Assam and Tenasserim , and pay a large indemnity of one million pounds . In 1837, King Bagyidaw 's brother, Tharrawaddy , seized the throne, put Bagyidaw under house arrest and executed

9630-448: 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

9737-501: The two countries exchanged Tenasserim (to Burma) and Lan Na (to Siam). In the defence of its realm, the dynasty fought four wars successfully against the Qing dynasty of China which saw the threat of the expansion of Burmese power in the East. In 1770, despite his victory over the Chinese armies, King Hsinbyushin sued for peace with China and concluded a treaty to maintain bilateral trade with

9844-425: 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,

9951-535: The venue for various life ceremonies. For instance, the Great Audience Hall was where young princes underwent the shinbyu coming-of-age ceremony and were ordained as monk novices . This was also the venue where young princes ceremonially had their hair tied in a topknot ( သျှောင်ထုံး ). Elaborate Burmese New Year feasts took place at the Hmannandawgyi (Palace of Mirrors): on the third day of

10058-462: 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

10165-466: 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,

10272-410: 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

10379-639: Was an absolute monarchy . As in the rest of Southeast Asia, the traditional concept of kingship aspired to the Chakravartin (Universal Monarchs) creating their own mandala or field of power within the Jambudipa universe, along with the possession of the white elephant which allowed them to assume the title Hsinbyushin or Hsinbyumyashin (Lord of the White Elephants), played a significant role in their endeavours. Of more earthly importance

10486-610: Was annexed as a province of Burma, her borders became contiguous with British India . The Arakanese revolted in 1794, and the British Governor of India Sir John Shore (later Lord Teignmouth) sent Captain Michael Symes on an embassy, fully equipped to gather as much information as possible about the country, to the Court of Ava as the kingdom was still known to the outside world. Bodawpaya invaded Siam in 1785 , and

10593-420: Was assassinated and the Ahom king Chandrakanta Singha was deposed by rival political faction led by Ruchinath Burhagohain, the son of Purnananda Burhagohain . Chandrakanta Singha and the friends of Badan Chandra Borphukan appeal for help to Bodawpaya. In February 1819, the Burmese forces invaded Assam for second time and reinstalled Chandrakanta Singha on the throne of Assam. Bodawpaya proclaimed himself

10700-399: Was composed of: Each royal agency included a large retinue of middle and low level officials responsible for day-to-day affairs. These included the: and 3 classes of ceremonial officers: Konbaung society was centred on the king, who took many wives and fathered numerous children, creating a huge extended royal family which formed the power base of the dynasty and competed over influence at

10807-541: Was defeated. The Governor of Tavoy revolted in 1791 with the aid of the Siamese , but a punitive expedition sent by Bodawpaya by sea laid siege ending in peace negotiations in 1793 and the ceding of the Tenasserim coast to the Burmese. He invaded Siam again in 1809 , but was fended off by Maha Senanurak . The Burmese loss of Lan Na during the failed invasion proved to be the end of their 200-year rule. In 1816,

10914-566: Was inscribed on a gold plate or on palm leaf . The night before the ceremony, a pwe was held for the attendees. The dawn of the ceremony, Buddhist monks delivered a sermon to the court. Afterward, at the Chief Queen's apartment, the infant was seated on a divan with the Chief Queen, with respective attendees from the royal court seated according to rank. A Minister of the Interior then presided over ceremonial offerings ( ကုဗ္ဘီး ) made to

11021-599: Was placed in the respective pavilions. At an auspicious moment, the king was dressed in the costume of a Brahma and the queen in that of a queen from devaloka . The couple was escorted to the pavilions in procession, accompanied by a white horse or a white elephant. The king first bathed his body in the Morasana pavilion, then his head in the Gajasana pavilion. He then entered the Sihasana pavilion to assume his seat at

11128-472: Was succeeded by his younger brother, the progressive Mindon . Realising the need to modernise, the Konbaung rulers tried to enact various reforms with limited success. King Mindon with his able brother Crown Prince Kanaung established state-owned factories to produce modern weaponry and goods ; in the end, these factories proved more costly than effective in staving off foreign invasion and conquest. Konbaung kings extended administrative reforms begun in

11235-412: Was the historical threat of periodic raids and aiding of internal rebellions as well as invasion and imposition of overlordship from the neighbouring kingdoms of the Mon, Tai Shans and Manipuris. The kingdom was divided into provinces called myo ( မြို့ ). These provinces were administered by Governors called Myosa ( မြို့စား ), who were members of the royal family or the highest-ranking officials of

11342-498: Was the sixth king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma . Born Maung Shwe Waing and later Badon Min , he was the fourth son of Alaungpaya , founder of the dynasty and the Third Burmese Empire. He was proclaimed king after deposing his nephew Phaungkaza Maung Maung , son of his eldest brother Naungdawgyi , at Ava . Bodawpaya moved the royal capital back to Amarapura in 1782. He was titled Hsinbyumyashin ( lit.   ' Lord of

11449-465: Was very keen to conquer Siam and hoped Vietnam might be a useful ally. Vietnam had then just annexed Cambodia. The Vietnamese emperor was Minh Mạng , who had just taken the throne after the death of his father, Gia Long (the founder of the Nguyen dynasty ). A commercial delegation from Vietnam has recently been in Burma, eager to expand the trade in birds nests (tổ yến) . Bagyidaw's interest in sending

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