Burmese

Sino-Tibetan family · Burmese-Lolo branch · Eurasia

Burmese is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses, WALS codes Burmese as “Genitives and relative clauses collapsed”, a value held by 2 of the 138 languages coded.

On Ordinal Numerals, WALS codes Burmese as “Variou-th: Other solutions”, a value held by 7 of the 321 languages coded, Vietnamese and Kewa among them.

The closest grammar profile to Burmese in the atlas belongs to Uradhi, a Pama-Nyungan language: the two agree on 32 of the 41 features both have coded.

The order Burmese uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Burmese with Uradhi or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Burmese, rarest first.

Politeness Distinctions in PronounsPronouns avoided for politeness7 of 207
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsNumber-indifferent pronouns9 of 261
Action Nominal ConstructionsOther: Minor patterns6 of 168
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns'We' and 'I' identical10 of 200
Situational PossibilityOther kinds of markers13 of 234
Presence of Uncommon Consonants'Th' sounds40 of 567
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsOptional pronouns in subject position61 of 711

Inside the Sino-Tibetan family

Burmese matches the most frequent Sino-Tibetan value on 84 of the 122 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (69%). Among the 15 Sino-Tibetan languages profiled here, that rate ranks sixth from the top.

Where Burmese breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Burmese	Most relatives
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy (9 of 9)
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	Little or no inflectional morphology (4 of 4, Burmese-Lolo branch)
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Suffixal adverbial subordinators	Final subordinator word (4 of 4, Burmese-Lolo branch)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Burmese; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Korean family of its own79 of 118
Lahu Sino-Tibetan45 of 67
Japanese family of its own76 of 119
Khalkha Altaic74 of 118

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Burmese for 123 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 109 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Burmese shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Tone	Complex tone system	88 of 527
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reduplication	Full reduplication only	35 of 368
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	2-3 categories per word	24 of 145
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Cases	8-9 case categories	23 of 261
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only	61 of 378
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are obligatory	78 of 400
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally similar, involving interrogative expression	43 of 116
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Number of Genders	None	145 of 257
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	No gender system	145 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	No gender system	145 of 257

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Perfect	Perfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'	21 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)	141 of 824
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 23

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reciprocal Constructions	There are no non-iconic reciprocal constructions.	16 of 175
Negative Morphemes	Double negation	119 of 1,157
Polar Questions	Interrogative verb morphology	164 of 955
Predicative Possession	Locational Possessive	48 of 240
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Double-object construction	84 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Purposive type but no sequential type	68 of 118
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Others	36 of 230
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230