, pronunciation =
, ethnicity =
Rakhine,
Kamein
The Kamein ( my, ကမန်လူမျိုး), also known as the Kaman (), are a Southeast Asian ethnic group indigenous to Rakhine State, Myanmar, where they primarily reside in, and who predominantly follow Islam. The name ''Kaman'' comes ...
, states =
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, region = *
Rakhine State
Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady R ...
(Myanmar)
*
Bandarban
Bandarban ( bn, বান্দরবান, Chakma: 𑄝𑄚𑄴𑄘𑄧𑄢𑄴𑄝𑄚𑄴) is a district in South-Eastern Bangladesh, and a part of the Chittagong Division. It is one of the three hill districts of Bangladesh and a part of ...
,
Khagrachari
Khagrachari ( bn, খাগড়াছড়ি) is a district in the Chittagong Division of Southeastern Bangladesh. It is a part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region.
History
The Chittagong Hill Tracts was under the reign of the Tripura Sta ...
,
Patuakhali
Patuakhali ( bn, পটুয়াখালী ''Potuakhali'') is a town and district headquarter of Patuakhali District located on the southern bank of Laukathi river in the division of Barisal in Bangladesh. It is the administrative headquar ...
,
Barguna (Bangladesh)
*
Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
(India)
, speakers = 1 million
, date = 2011–2013
, ref = e18
, speakers2 = 1 million
second language
A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
speakers in Myanmar (2013)
, familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
, fam2 = (
Tibeto-Burman
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spea ...
)
, fam3 =
Lolo-Burmese
, fam4 =
Burmish
, fam5 =
Burmese
, dia1 =
Ramree
, dia2 = Marma
, script =
Burmese script
Burmese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia
* Burmese people
* Burmese language
* Burmese alphabet
* Burmese cuisine
* Burmese culture
Animals
* Burmese cat
* Burmese chicken
* Burmese (horse), a ...
,
, map = Rakhine State in Myanmar.svg
, mapcaption =
Rakhine State
Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady R ...
shown within Myanmar,
, lc1 = rki
, ld1 = Rakhine ("Arakanese")
, lc2 = rmz
, ld2 = Marma ("Burmese")
, glotto = arak1255
, glottorefname = Arakanese–Marma
Arakanese (also known as Rakhine ; my, ရခိုင်ဘာသာ,
MLCTS
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 ...
: ) is a language closely related to
Burmese, of which it is often considered a dialect. "Arakan" is the former name for the
Rakhine region. Arakanese can be divided into three dialects:
Sittwe
Sittwe (; ; formerly Akyab) is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe, pronounced ''sait-tway'' in the Rakhine language, is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers emptyi ...
–
Marma (about two thirds of speakers),
Ramree, and
Thandwe
Thandwe ("Thandway" in Arakanese; ; formerly Sandoway) is a town and major seaport in Rakhine State, the westernmost part of Myanmar. Thandwe is very ancient, and is said to have been at one time the capital of Rakhine State, then called Arakan ...
. It is the native language of the
Rakhine,
Marma and
Kamein
The Kamein ( my, ကမန်လူမျိုး), also known as the Kaman (), are a Southeast Asian ethnic group indigenous to Rakhine State, Myanmar, where they primarily reside in, and who predominantly follow Islam. The name ''Kaman'' comes ...
peoples. According to speakers of standard Burmese, Arakanese has an intelligibility of seventy-five percent with Burmese.
Vocabulary
While Arakanese and Standard Burmese share the majority of lexicon, Arakanese has numerous vocabulary differences. Some are native words with no cognates in Standard Burmese, like "sarong" ( in Standard Burmese, in Arakanese). Others are loan words from
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, and
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, not found in Standard Burmese. An example is "hospital," which is called in Standard Burmese, but is called (pronounced ) in Arakanese, from English "sick lines." Other words simply have different meanings (e.g., "afternoon", in Arakanese and in Standard Burmese). Moreover, some archaic words in Standard Burmese are preferred in Arakanese. An example is the first person pronoun, which is in Arakanese (not , as in Standard Burmese).
Comparison
A gloss of vocabulary differences between Standard Burmese and Arakanese is below:
}.
, -
, papaya , , , , , , Standard Burmese for 'papaya' literally means 'boat'.
, -
, soap , , , , , , In Standard Burmese, '' means 'rebel' or 'insurgent'.
, -
, superficial , , , ,
, ,
, -
, blanket , , , ,
, , in Standard Burmese refers to the male
longyi
A longyi (; ) is a sheet of cloth widely worn in Burma (Myanmar). It is approximately long and wide. The cloth is often sewn into a cylindrical shape. It is worn around the waist, running to the feet, and held in place by folding fabric over wi ...
(sarong).
, -
, dark , , , , , , The compound word ('pitch dark') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese.
, -
, pick a flower , , , ,
, , The compound word ('pick') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese.
, -
, wash
lothes, , , ,
, , The compound word ('wash') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese.
, -
Phonology
The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds, represented using the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
(IPA).
Consonants
The consonants of Arakanese are:
Arakanese largely shares the same set of consonant phonemes as standard Burmese, though Arakanese more prominently uses , which has largely merged to in standard Burmese (with some exceptions). Because Arakanese has preserved the sound, the medial (which is preserved in writing in Standard Burmese with the diacritic ) is still distinguished in the following Arakanese consonant clusters: . For example, the word "blue," spelt , is pronounced in standard Burmese, but pronounced in Arakanese. Moreover, there is less voicing in Arakanese than in Standard Burmese, occurring only when the consonant is unaspirated. Unlike in Burmese, voicing never shifts from to .
Vowels
The vowels of Arakanese are:
While Arakanese shares the same set of vowels as Burmese, Arakanese rhymes also diverge from Standard Burmese for a number of open syllables and closed syllables. For instance, Arakanese has also merged various vowel sounds like () to ဣ (). Hence, a word like "blood", which is spelt is pronounced is () in standard Burmese, is pronounced in Arakanese. Similarly, Arakanese has a number of closed syllable rhymes that do not exist in Standard Burmese, including .
The Arakanese dialect also has a higher frequency of open vowels weakening to than Standard Burmese. An example is the word for "salary," () which is in standard Burmese, but in Arakanese.
Differences from standard Burmese
The following is a summary of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
al,
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
and
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
differences from Standard Burmese found in the Arakanese
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
:
Writing system
Arakanese is written using the
Burmese script
Burmese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia
* Burmese people
* Burmese language
* Burmese alphabet
* Burmese cuisine
* Burmese culture
Animals
* Burmese cat
* Burmese chicken
* Burmese (horse), a ...
, which descends from Southern Brahmi. Rakhine speakers are taught Rakhine pronunciations using written Burmese, while most Marma speakers is are only literate in Bengali.
The first extant Arakanese inscriptions - the Launggrak Taung Maw inscription and the Mahathi Crocodile Rock inscription (1356) - date to the 1300s, and the epigraphic record of Arakanese inscriptions is unevenly distributed between the 1400s to 1800s.
In the early 1400s, Arakanese inscriptions began to transition from the square letters associated with stone inscriptions (''kyauksa''), to rounder letters that is now standard for the Burmese script.
This coincided with developments in Arakanese literature, which was stimulated by the rise of
Mrauk Oo during the 1400s.
Modern-day Rakhine State is home to Sanskrit inscriptions that date from the first millenium to the 1000s, and were written in
Northern Brahmic scripts (namely
Siddham or
Gaudi), which are ancestral to the
Bengali script
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
.
These inscriptions are not ancestral to Arakanese epigraphy, which uses a Southern Brahmi script much like Burmese and Mon.
While some Arakanese have coined the term Rakkhawanna () to reference a script that predates the usage of written Burmese, there is no contemporary lithic evidence to support the existence of such a script.
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
{{authority control
Burmish languages
Languages of Myanmar
Languages of Bangladesh
Languages of India