BURMESE LANGUAGE

also called Myanmar, the official language of Myanmar (Burma), spoken as a native language by the majority of Burmans and as a second language by most native speakers of other languages in the country. Burmese and the closely related Lolo dialects belong, together with the Kachinish and Kukish languages of Myanmar and neighbouring countries, to the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Modern standard Burmese has undergone more changes from Old Burmese than have most of the dialects; the Arakanese dialect is especially conservative. The earliest extant Burmese writing dates from the middle of the 11th century and is written in an alphabet derived from that of the Pali language of India and Ceylon. Old Burmese, the language of these writings, is not as conservative as Old Tibetan, to which it is related.