A Sino-Tibetan language and a member of the Tibeto-Burman group, spoken by c. 30 million people in Myanmar (former Burma), where it is the official language.
The first written records date from the 11th century. Today the language is spoken in three main dialects - Central (the basis of the literary language), Arakanese and Tavoi. Above the dialectal division there is also a fundamental distinction between written and colloquial Burmese.
Burmese script is a derived version of an Indian script, Brahmi. There are 43 graphs - 11 vowels and 32 consonants. Burmese is a tonal language. There are 3 basic tones. Tone marking is not consistent.
CLASSIFICATION = Sino-Tibetan family, SCRIPT = Burmese