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MLC Transcription System

Official transcription system of Burmese language

This article contains Burmese script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Burmese script.

The Myanmar Language Commission Transcription System (1980), also known as the MLC Transcription System (MLCTS), is a transliteration system for rendering Burmese in the Latin alphabet. It is loosely based on the common system for romanization of Pali,^[1] has some similarities to the ALA-LC romanization and was devised by the Myanmar Language Commission. The system is used in many linguistic publications regarding Burmese and is used in MLC publications as the primary form of romanization of Burmese.

The transcription system is based on the orthography of formal Burmese and is not suited for colloquial Burmese, which has substantial differences in phonology from formal Burmese. Differences are mentioned throughout the article.

Features[edit]

• Coalesced letters transcribe stacked consonants.
• Consonantal transcriptions (for initials) are similar to those of Pali.
• Finals are transcribed as consonants (-k, -c, -t, -p) rather than glottal stops
• Nasalized finals are transcribed as consonants (-m, -ny, -n, -ng) rather than as a single -n final.
• The anunasika (ံ) and -m final (မ်) are not differentiated.
• The colon (:) and the period (.) transcribe two tones: heavy and creaky respectively.
• Special transcriptions are used for abbreviated syllables used in literary Burmese.

Transcription system[edit]

Initials and finals[edit]

The following initials are listed in the traditional ordering of the Burmese script, with the transcriptions of the initials listed before their IPA equivalents:

¹Sometimes used as a final, but preceding diacritics determine its pronunciation.

The Burmese alphabet is arranged in groups of five, and within each group, consonants can stack one another. The consonant above the stacked consonant is the final of the previous vowel. Most words of Sino-Tibetan origin are spelt without stacking, but polysyllabic words of Indo-European origin (such as Pali, Sanskrit, and English) are often spelt with stacking. Possible combinations are as follows:

¹ang ga. lip is uncommonly spelt ang ga. lit (အင်္ဂလိတ်).

All consonantal finals are pronounced as glottal stops ([ʔ]), except for nasal finals. All possible combinations are as follows, and correspond to the colors of the initials above:

Nasalised finals are transcribed differently. Transcriptions of the following diacritical combinations in Burmese for nasalised finals are as follows:

Monophthongs are transcribed as follows:

Tones[edit]

¹ Oral vowels are shown with -.

² Nasal vowels are shown with -န် (-an).

Medial consonants[edit]

A medial is a semivowel that comes before the vowel. Combinations of medials (such as h- and -r-) are possible. They follow the following order in transcription: h-, -y-or-r-, and -w-. In Standard Burmese, there are three pronounced medials. The following are medials in the MLC Transcription System:

^†The two medials are pronounced the same in Standard Burmese. In dialects such as Rakhine (Arakanese), the latter is pronounced [r].

^‡When the medial ှ is spelt with ra. (ရ), its sound becomes hra. [ʃa̰] (ရှ), which was once represented by hsya. (သျှ).

Abbreviated syllables[edit]

Formal Burmese has four abbreviated symbols, which are typically used in literary works:

See also[edit]

• Burmese script
• Burmese language

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Appendix on MLCTS from Paulette Hopple's Doctoral Thesis
• Romabama transcription system by U Kyaw Tun (archived 18 November 2008)
• Library of Congress ALA-LC romanization tables