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Introduce Myanmar Alphabets
Introduction Myanmar writing system
§1. Myanmar writing system has 33 main letters or characters comparable to 26 alphabets from A-Z in English. Unlike English words which can be formed by combination of alphabets with vowels A,E,I,O,U, which are found within the 26 alphabetical system, Myanmar writing system makes use of additional vowel shift symbols, tone change symbols, and consonant modification symbols.
Vowel shift symbols
§2. Vowel shift symbol changes the main letter which ends with English equivalent of vowel “a” to some other vowels. For example, symbols that can change the letter “Pa1” ( y ) to “Pi1” ( yd ) “Pu1” ( yk ), “Po2” ( ydk ), “Pin2″( yif ), “Peare2” ( y,f ) are categorized in the Tone System as vowel shift symbols. Vowel shift symbol may also change the tone of the word to an another level in the new vowel group.
Tone change symbols
§3. Tone change symbol, on the other hand, simply changes the tone of the existing word without affecting the vowel of the word. For example, “Pa1” ( y ) can be changed into “Pa2” ( yg ) in the second tone, and “Pa3” ( yg; ) in the third tone with tone change symbols.
Consonant modification symbols
§4. Consonant modification symbol neither changes the tone nor the vowel, but modifies the word into a slightly different consonant when expressed in English romanization. For example, “Pa1” ( y ) can be changed to “Pya1” ( jy ) with the consonant modification symbol.
Combinations
§5. Many words in Myanmar written language make use of all three types of symbols. For example, “Pa1” ( y ) becomes “Pin2” ( yif) with
the vowel shift symbol. Then, the word can be modified into “Pyin2” ( jyif ) with the consonant modification symbol. The tone can be further changed, such as “Pyin3” ( jyif; ) with the tone change symbol.
“Pa1” ( y ) : original character
“Pin2” ( yif) : Suffix used after the name of the tree
“Pyin2” ( jyif) : to repair
“Pyin3” ( jyif; ) : intense
§6. In addition, there are less common characters, double-stacked characters, and other stand alone characters that cannot be combined with other characters and/or symbols.
