The Myanmar Language Commission Transcription System (1980), also known as the MLC Transcription System (MLCTS), is a

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

system for rendering Burmese in the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

. It is loosely based on the common system for romanization of

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

,J. Okell A Guide to the Romanization of Burmese 2002- Page 7 "3. SURVEY OF THE THREE METHODS OF ROMANIZATION 3.l Transliteration The Burmese use for writing their language a script which is also used for Pali, and as there is a widely accepted romanization system for Pali this can be applied ..." has some similarities to the

ALA-LC romanization ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

and was devised by the

Myanmar Language Commission The Myanmar Language Commission ( my, မြန်မာစာအဖွဲ့; formerly Burmese Language Commission; abbreviated MLC) is the pre-eminent government body on matters pertaining to the Burmese language.E. Ulrich Kratz Southeast Asia ...

. 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 An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

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. There are some instances in which the regular Burmese script is used on devices (e.g. computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.).

Features

*Coalesced letters transcribe stacked consonants. *Consonantal transcriptions (for initials) are similar to those of Pali. *Finals are transcribed as consonants (, , , ) rather than glottal stops *Nasalized finals are transcribed as consonants (, , , ) rather than as a single final. *The anunasika () and final () 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

Initials and finals

The following initials are listed in the traditional ordering of 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), ...

, 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: ¹ is uncommonly spelt (). All consonantal finals are pronounced as glottal stops (), 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:

Monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...

s are transcribed as follows:

Tones

¹ Oral vowels are shown with . ² Nasal vowels are shown with ().

Medial consonants

A medial is a

semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the c ...

that comes before the vowel. Combinations of medials (such as and ) are possible. They follow the following order in transcription: , or , and . 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 . ^‡When the medial is spelt with (), its sound becomes (), which was once represented by ().

Abbreviated syllables

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

References

{{reflist

External links

Appendix on MLCTS from Paulette Hopple's Doctoral Thesis

Romabama transcription system by U Kyaw Tun

Library of Congress ALA-LC romanization tables
Romanization Burmese language