1545: 4000+
151-612: 1546–47: 19,000 1545: 6 regiments 1546–47: 20,000+ The Toungoo–Mrauk-U War ( Burmese : တောင်ငူ–မြောက်ဦး စစ် ) was a military conflict that took place in Arakan (present-day Rakhine State of Myanmar ) from 1545 to 1547 between the Toungoo Dynasty and the Kingdom of Mrauk U . The western kingdom successfully fended off the Toungoo invasions, and kept its independence. The war had
302-560: A pitch-register language like Shanghainese . There are four contrastive tones in Burmese. In the following table, the tones are shown marked on the vowel /a/ as an example. For example, the following words are distinguished from each other only on the basis of tone: In syllables ending with /ɰ̃/ , the checked tone is excluded: In spoken Burmese, some linguists classify two real tones (there are four nominal tones transcribed in written Burmese), "high" (applied to words that terminate with
453-498: A 1968 analysis by historian Nai Pan Hla . Pan Hla re-translated one of the versions back to Mon in 1958. He also wrote a new (tenth) version in 1968, synthesising the Burmese versions of Razadarit , Pak Lat' s version, and the accounts in Hmannan as well as modern research. ) Other extant chronicles are even more limited in scope: they are mainly supplementary chronicles dealing with specific topics. Nidana Arambhakatha ("Preface to
604-625: A Burma Mon scholar as of 2005.) Pak Lat weaves together all existing Mon narratives, including the history of Thaton Kingdom, Gavampati's linkage with the Buddha, the Hanthawaddy Chronicle from monarchs Wareru to Shin Sawbu (1287–1472), and Nidana's genealogy of kings. Although the earliest extant work of Arakanese literature in Arakanese (Burmese) script, Rakhine Minthami Eigyin ("Lullaby for
755-580: A Princess of Arakan"), was written only in 1455, Arakanese chronicle tradition most likely began at least a century earlier. (The Burmese script had already been in use at the Arakanese court at least since the 1330s when the future King Swa Saw Ke of Ava was educated there. According to Pamela Gutman, the use of Burmese script appeared for the first time in the Le-Mro period (11th to 15th centuries) on stone inscriptions. ) Much earlier Devanagari inscriptions exist (as early as c. 550 CE) but it does not appear that
906-813: A colonial period scholar, found the extant Shan chronicles "consistently reckless with regard to dates, varying a couple of centuries on every other leaf", and discarded them. The Shan local histories were written in a variety of Shan scripts . Jinakalamali was originally written in Pali, Zinme Yazawin in Lan Na script , and Kengtung Yazawin in Khun script, for example. (At least six Shan scripts—Tai Long, Tai Hkamti, Tai Neu, Khun, Tai Yun (Kengwi), Tai Yun (Lan Na) were in use in Burmese Shan states. ) Excluding Lan Na chronicles, only Kengtung Yazawin has been fully translated into English as
1057-580: A deterrence effect: Mrauk U would not see another Toungoo invasion until 1580. The war's origins can be traced back to 1542 when King Min Bin of Mrauk U provided military support on the side of the Kingdom of Ava in the Toungoo–Ava War (1538–45) . Although Min Bin left the alliance in the same year, King Tabinshwehti of Toungoo was determined to repay the favor. In 1545, Tabinshwehti agreed to aid Min Aung Hla ,
1208-478: A formal method". ) Its author, Twinthin Taikwun Maha Sithu , consulted over 600 stone inscriptions, which he had collected and copied from around the kingdom between 1783 and 1793 per King Bodawpaya's decree, to verify the accuracy of Maha Yazawin . It was the only Burmese chronicle (other than Zatadawbon Yazawin ) to organise itself by dynasties and periods whereas all others had been organised strictly along
1359-543: A lesser extent, Burmese has also imported words from Sanskrit (religion), Hindi (food, administration, and shipping), and Chinese (games and food). Burmese has also imported a handful of words from other European languages such as Portuguese . Here is a sample of loan words found in Burmese: Since the end of British rule, the Burmese government has attempted to limit usage of Western loans (especially from English) by coining new words ( neologisms ). For instance, for
1510-437: A long siege. Although the Toungoo forces had successfully sacked other fortified cities after long sieges (Martaban in 1540–41, Prome in 1541–42), the Toungoo high command realized overcoming Mrauk U's elaborate defenses in four months before the rainy season would be difficult. Further complicating matters, Tabinshwehti received news that Siamese forces had occupied Dawei , which Toungoo had claimed. The Upper Tenasserim peninsula
1661-552: A serious navy, mostly made up of ethnic Mon troops and commanded by former Hanthawaddy lords. The land army was commanded by Nanda Thingyan and Baya Nandathu. Meanwhile, a number of rearguard forces were deployed across the kingdom: the capital Hanthawaddy was defended by regiments commanded by Baya Gamani and Binnya Ein; the southern province of Martaban (present-day Mon State ) by Saw Binnya U of Mawlamyine ; Toungoo in east-central Burma by Mingyi Swe ; Pyay in west-central Burma by Thado Dhamma Yaza I of Prome ; and key towns along
SECTION 10
#17328546498401812-466: A stop or check, high-rising pitch) and "ordinary" (unchecked and non-glottal words, with falling or lower pitch), with those tones encompassing a variety of pitches. The "ordinary" tone consists of a range of pitches. Linguist L. F. Taylor concluded that "conversational rhythm and euphonic intonation possess importance" not found in related tonal languages and that "its tonal system is now in an advanced state of decay." The syllable structure of Burmese
1963-454: A string of victories. His high command had been joined by former Hanthawaddy generals like Saw Lagun Ein and Smim Payu , and Portuguese mercenaries like Diogo Soares . Nonetheless, Tabinshwehti was not yet ready to start another full-scale war, given the developing situation in Upper Burma where Ava was facing a serious rebellion backed by Mohnyin. A Mohnyin victory over Ava would have voided
2114-542: Is C(G)V((V)C), which is to say the onset consists of a consonant optionally followed by a glide , and the rime consists of a monophthong alone, a monophthong with a consonant, or a diphthong with a consonant. The only consonants that can stand in the coda are /ʔ/ and /ɰ̃/ . Some representative words are: Arakanese chronicles The royal chronicles of Myanmar ( Burmese : မြန်မာ ရာဇဝင် ကျမ်းများ [mjəmà jàzəwɪ̀ɰ̃ tɕáɰ̃ mjá] ; also known as Burmese chronicles ) are detailed and continuous chronicles of
2265-618: Is a tonal , pitch-register , and syllable-timed language , largely monosyllabic and agglutinative with a subject–object–verb word order. It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family . The Burmese alphabet is ultimately descended from a Brahmic script , either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabets. Burmese belongs to the Southern Burmish branch of
2416-730: Is actually the first half of the Hanthawaddy chronicle. At least two Alaungpaya biographies by different original authors exist. Hsinbyushin Ayedawbon is actually about the reign of King Bodawpaya , not the more famous Hsinbyushin and Bodawpaya's brother, King Hsinbyushin . Regional chronicles are the histories of various small kingdoms such as ( Hanthawaddy Kingdom and Mrauk-U Kingdom ) and tributary vassal states (Early Toungoo, Prome, major Shan states of Lan Na , Kengtung , Hsenwi and Hsipaw ) which maintained their own court and court historians. The regional chronicles were most relevant during
2567-750: Is also spoken by the indigenous tribes in Chittagong Hill Tracts ( Rangamati , Bandarban , Khagrachari , Cox's Bazar ) in Bangladesh, and in Mizoram state in India. The Constitution of Myanmar officially refers to it as the Myanmar language in English, though most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese , after Burma —a name with co-official status that had historically been predominantly used for
2718-442: Is pronounced [mõ̀ũndã́ĩ] . The vowels of Burmese are: The monophthongs /e/ , /o/ , /ə/ , /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ occur only in open syllables (those without a syllable coda ); the diphthongs /ei/ , /ou/ , /ai/ and /au/ occur only in closed syllables (those with a syllable coda). /ə/ only occurs in a minor syllable , and is the only vowel that is permitted in a minor syllable (see below). The close vowels /i/ and /u/ and
2869-742: Is remarkably uniform among Burmese speakers, particularly those living in the Irrawaddy valley, all of whom use variants of Standard Burmese. The standard dialect of Burmese (the Mandalay - Yangon dialect continuum ) comes from the Irrawaddy River valley. Regional differences between speakers from Upper Burma (e.g., Mandalay dialect), called anya tha ( အညာသား ) and speakers from Lower Burma (e.g., Yangon dialect), called auk tha ( အောက်သား ), largely occur in vocabulary choice, not in pronunciation. Minor lexical and pronunciation differences exist throughout
3020-405: Is said to have been compiled in 1527. The rest of the smaller Shan state chronicles (Hsenwi, Hsipaw, etc.) date only from the 19th century. Like their Burmese and Mon counterparts, various Shan chronicles also claim their sawbwas' descent from the clan of the Buddha, which British colonial period scholars took to be a sign of copying from Hmannan and as a sign of their recent nature. G.E. Harvey,
3171-517: Is the Rosetta Stone that helped unlock the Pyu language .) Likewise, King Bayinnaung 's Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription (1557) provides the exact dates of 17 key events of his first six years in power, enabling modern historians to check the chronicles. However, not all inscriptions are reliable records of secular events. The famous Kalyani Inscriptions (1479), for example, make claims of legitimacy of
SECTION 20
#17328546498403322-533: Is the value of the four native final nasals: ⟨မ်⟩ /m/ , ⟨န်⟩ /n/ , ⟨ဉ်⟩ /ɲ/ , ⟨င်⟩ /ŋ/ , as well as the retroflex ⟨ဏ⟩ /ɳ/ (used in Pali loans) and nasalisation mark anusvara demonstrated here above ka (က → ကံ) which most often stands in for a homorganic nasal word medially as in တံခါး tankhá 'door', and တံတား tantá 'bridge', or else replaces final -m ⟨မ်⟩ in both Pali and native vocabulary, especially after
3473-635: Is the word "moon", which can be လ la̰ (native Tibeto-Burman), စန္ဒာ/စန်း [sàndà]/[sã́] (derivatives of Pali canda 'moon'), or သော်တာ [t̪ɔ̀ dà] (Sanskrit). The consonants of Burmese are as follows: According to Jenny & San San Hnin Tun (2016 :15), contrary to their use of symbols θ and ð, consonants of သ are dental stops ( /t̪, d̪/ ), rather than fricatives ( /θ, ð/ ) or affricates. These phonemes, alongside /sʰ/ , are prone to merger with /t, d, s/ . An alveolar /ɹ/ can occur as an alternate of /j/ in some loanwords. The final nasal /ɰ̃/
3624-633: The Ayutthaya Chronicle ) together to form a consistent national narrative. Kala wrote three versions by length: Maha Yazawin Gyi (full version, 21 volumes), Yazawin Lat (medium version, 10 volumes), Yazawin Gyok (abridged version, 1 volume). Since it was written in the late Toungoo period, Maha Yazawin provides its most specific information on dates and descriptions of various events Toungoo kings partook. It traces
3775-773: The Padaeng Chronicle and the Jengtung State Chronicle . (Two Lan Na chronicles of the Chiang Mai Chronicle and the Nan Chronicle have also been translated into English.) There are also chronicles that fall outside of general categorisation. Pawtugi Yazawin covers the history of the Portuguese, especially their rule at Syriam (Thanlyin) from 1599 to 1613. Dawei Yazawin and Myeik Yazawin are chronicles of Tavoy (Dawei) and Myeik (Mergui), compiled after
3926-434: The [ ɹ ] sound, which has become [ j ] in standard Burmese. Moreover, Arakanese features a variety of vowel differences, including the merger of the ဧ [e] and ဣ [i] vowels. Hence, a word like "blood" သွေး is pronounced [θw é ] in standard Burmese and [θw í ] in Arakanese. The Burmese language's early forms include Old Burmese and Middle Burmese . Old Burmese dates from
4077-569: The /l/ medial, which is otherwise only found in Old Burmese inscriptions. They also often reduce the intensity of the glottal stop . Beik has 250,000 speakers while Tavoyan has 400,000. The grammatical constructs of Burmese dialects in Southern Myanmar show greater Mon influence than Standard Burmese. The most pronounced feature of the Arakanese language of Rakhine State is its retention of
4228-500: The Buddha and Buddhist mythology . Indeed, the most complete compilation of the history of Mon kingdoms would have to wait until 1910 and 1912 when Pak Lat Chronicles was published in a two-volume set. It was reportedly based on the stash of manuscripts found at Pak Lat , then an ethnic Mon enclave east of Bangkok . (The provenance and chronology of the manuscripts used in the publications are uncertain, and had not yet been studied by
4379-518: The Burmese alphabet began employing cursive-style circular letters typically used in palm-leaf manuscripts , as opposed to the traditional square block-form letters used in earlier periods. The orthographic conventions used in written Burmese today can largely be traced back to Middle Burmese. Modern Burmese emerged in the mid-18th century. By this time, male literacy in Burma stood at nearly 50%, which enabled
4530-602: The English language in the colonial educational system, especially in higher education. In the 1930s, the Burmese language saw a linguistic revival, precipitated by the establishment of an independent University of Rangoon in 1920 and the inception of a Burmese language major at the university by Pe Maung Tin , modeled on Anglo Saxon language studies at the University of Oxford. Student protests in December of that year, triggered by
4681-693: The Ganges Delta in 1533. In the south, In the south, Toungoo defeated Pegu in 1538–39, and Martaban in 1541, giving the men from the small frontier outpost total control of Lower Burma . Toungoo's meteoric rise raised alarm amongst other powers. In 1539, Ava (now part of the Confederation) and Mrauk U entered into an alliance to defend Ava's vassal state of Prome . But their poorly coordinated forces could not stop better organized Toungoo forces from taking over Prome (Pyay) in 1542. After his army's crushing defeat at Padaung Pass , King Min Bin of Mrauk U left
Toungoo–Mrauk-U War - Misplaced Pages Continue
4832-714: The Mon people , who until recently formed the majority in Lower Burma . Most Mon loanwords are so well assimilated that they are not distinguished as loanwords, as Burmese and Mon were used interchangeably for several centuries in pre-colonial Burma. Mon loans are often related to flora, fauna, administration, textiles, foods, boats, crafts, architecture, and music. As a natural consequence of British rule in Burma , English has been another major source of vocabulary, especially with regard to technology, measurements, and modern institutions. English loanwords tend to take one of three forms: To
4983-522: The Myanma Salonpaung Thatpon Kyan ( မြန်မာ စာလုံးပေါင်း သတ်ပုံ ကျမ်း ), was compiled in 1978 by the commission. Burmese is a diglossic language with two distinguishable registers (or diglossic varieties ): The literary form of Burmese retains archaic and conservative grammatical structures and modifiers (including affixes and pronouns) no longer used in the colloquial form. Literary Burmese, which has not changed significantly since
5134-560: The Pyu language . These indirect borrowings can be traced back to orthographic idiosyncrasies in these loanwords, such as the Burmese word "to worship", which is spelt ပူဇော် ( pūjo ) instead of ပူဇာ ( pūjā ), as would be expected by the original Pali orthography. The transition to Middle Burmese occurred in the 16th century. The transition to Middle Burmese included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of sound pairs that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in
5285-550: The Sino-Tibetan languages , of which Burmese is the most widely spoken of the non- Sinitic languages. Burmese was the fifth of the Sino-Tibetan languages to develop a writing system, after Classical Chinese , Pyu , Old Tibetan and Tangut . The majority of Burmese speakers, who live throughout the Irrawaddy River Valley, use a number of largely similar dialects, while a minority speak non-standard dialects found in
5436-466: The monarchy of Myanmar (Burma). The chronicles were written on different media such as parabaik paper, palm leaf , and stone; they were composed in different literary styles such as prose , verse , and chronograms . Palm-leaf manuscripts written in prose are those that are commonly referred to as the chronicles. Other royal records include administrative treatises and precedents, legal treatises and precedents, and censuses. The chronicle tradition
5587-494: The "Discarded Chronicle"). Nonetheless, when Hmannan Yazawin , the first officially accepted chronicle of Konbaung Dynasty, appeared in 1832, it had incorporated many of Yazawin Thit's corrections, in particular regnal dates of Pagan period kings. Modern scholarship notes the chronicle's innovative use of epigraphy but does not find the chronicle's criticisms harsh. Rather, scholarship maintains that for its criticisms and corrections,
5738-554: The "sophistication in use and manipulation of an expanded Burmese vocabulary and grammar" are legacies of the Ava period . The Burmese chronicles have been used in Thai historians' effort to reconstruct the Thai history before 1767 for the original Siamese chronicles were destroyed during the sack of Ayutthaya by the Burmese army. In particular, the pre-1767 chronology of Thai history follows that of Burmese chronicles. (The prior reconstructed dates of
5889-519: The 11th century. Latest research shows that even the pre-11th century narratives, dominated by legends, do provide a substantially accurate record of "social memory", going back over three millennia. Myanmar possesses the most extensive historical source material in Southeast Asia , and the Burmese chronicles are the most detailed historical records in the region. Yet much of the extant Burmese records have not been properly maintained, and many of
6040-413: The 11th to the 16th century ( Pagan to Ava dynasties); Middle Burmese from the 16th to the 18th century ( Toungoo to early Konbaung dynasties); modern Burmese from the mid-18th century to the present. Word order , grammatical structure, and vocabulary have remained markedly stable well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g., function words ). The earliest attested form of
6191-476: The 12th century while the more well known Mon language Wareru Dhammathat dates from the 1290s. The earliest dhammathats were mainly written in Pali, and were accessible only to the court elite and clergy. Though modeled after the Hindu legal treatise Manusmriti in terms of organization, the content of Burmese dhammathats is mostly Burmese customary law with early dhammathats containing "between 4% and 5%" of
Toungoo–Mrauk-U War - Misplaced Pages Continue
6342-457: The 13th century, is the register of Burmese taught in schools. In most cases, the corresponding affixes in the literary and spoken forms are totally unrelated to each other. Examples of this phenomenon include the following lexical terms: Historically the literary register was preferred for written Burmese on the grounds that "the spoken style lacks gravity, authority, dignity". In the mid-1960s, some Burmese writers spearheaded efforts to abandon
6493-448: The 14th century, the Kingdom of Ava (Inwa) and Hanthawaddy Kingdom , were in serious decline. By the 1530s, the old powers had been or were being eclipsed by upstart powers. In Upper Burma , the Mohnyin -led Confederation of Shan States finally finished off Ava in 1527. On the western coast, the Kingdom of Mrauk U was ascendant at the expense of a weak Bengal , extending its reach into
6644-428: The 1720s. The subject matter of the chronicles is mainly about the monarchs, and the chronicles provide little information about the general situation of the kingdom. Nor were they written solely from a secular history perspective but rather at times to provide "legitimation according to religious criteria" of the monarchy. Nevertheless, the chronicles' "great record of substantially accurate dates" goes back at least to
6795-642: The 18th and 19th centuries have also survived. The often lengthy thanbauks list the pairings of year dates to historical events. With their poetical imagery and excessive glorification, eigyins , mawguns and thanbauks are of high literary value but of limited historical value. Some of the more well known chronicles in verse are: Court scholars also wrote administrative treatises and precedents. The two most well known, Zabu Kun-Cha Po Yaza Mu Haung ( ဇမ္ဗူကွန်ချ ဖိုးရာဇာ မူဟောင်း ) ( c. early 15th century) and Mani Yadanabon ( မဏိရတနာပုံ ) (1781) are compilations of precedents but also provide an outline of
6946-410: The 19th century, in addition to concomitant economic and political instability in Upper Burma (e.g., increased tax burdens from the Burmese crown, British rice production incentives, etc.) also accelerated the migration of Burmese speakers from Upper Burma into Lower Burma. British rule in Burma eroded the strategic and economic importance of the Burmese language; Burmese was effectively subordinated to
7097-402: The 19th century, similar to what other vassal states such as Prome and Toungoo did in the 14th and 16th centuries. ( Lan Na was tributary to Burma from 1558 to 1775.) At any rate, only Lan Na and Kengtung, the two largest Shan states, had sizeable chronicles. Moreover, the earliest extant copies of Lan Na date only from the 18th century even though the original copy of Jinakalamali of Chiang Mai
7248-607: The 5th to the 10th centuries but from the 11th, there is literally a deluge of them". The earliest original inscription in Burmese is dated 1035 CE; an 18th-century recast stone inscription points to 984 CE. Inscriptions have been invaluable in verifying the events described in the chronicles written centuries later. The Myazedi inscription (1112), for example, confirmed the reign dates of kings Anawrahta to Kyansittha given in Zatadawbon Yazawin while disproving Hmannan's dates for those. (Myazedi, inscribed in four scripts,
7399-460: The Arakanese accounts need to be checked since "the references to Arakan in the chronicles of Arakan’s neighbors, such as Pegu, Ayudhya, and Ava are on the whole biased or ill-informed." The rulers of Shan states , called saophas (sawbwas) , held court even as they paid tribute to their larger neighbours. Some of the larger Shan states such as Lan Na (Chiang Mai), Kengtung, Hsenwi, Hsipaw and Mong Yawng also maintained their own histories down to
7550-416: The Arakanese chronicles consulted the inscriptions in any case because later court historians could not read the earliest inscriptions. Indeed, to date, most of the inscriptions have not been fully examined, or translated. Though Arakanese chronicles may have been written circa the 14th century, the earliest extant manuscripts date only from the 18th century. Most of Mrauk-U's historical works did not survive
7701-503: The Ava period as literacy rates improved, and the Burmese literature "grew more voluminous and diverse". Even then, most did not survive warfare, the main factor in destruction of historical records in Burmese history. Burmese history is littered with instances of conquering forces destroying the conquered's records: Pagan records in 1287 during the Mongol invasions ; Ava records in 1525 and in 1527 by
SECTION 50
#17328546498407852-521: The British in the lead-up to the independence of Burma in 1948. The 1948 Constitution of Burma prescribed Burmese as the official language of the newly independent nation. The Burma Translation Society and Rangoon University's Department of Translation and Publication were established in 1947 and 1948, respectively, with the joint goal of modernizing the Burmese language in order to replace English across all disciplines. Anti-colonial sentiment throughout
8003-552: The Buddhist clergy (monks) from the laity ( householders ), especially when speaking to or about bhikkhus (monks). The following are examples of varying vocabulary used for Buddhist clergy and for laity: Burmese primarily has a monosyllabic received Sino-Tibetan vocabulary. Nonetheless, many words, especially loanwords from Indo-European languages like English, are polysyllabic, and others, from Mon, an Austroasiatic language, are sesquisyllabic . Burmese loanwords are overwhelmingly in
8154-419: The Burmese conquest of Tenasserim in 1765 . The chronicles were also written in verse , chiefly in eigyin or mawgun forms, and secondarily in the form of yazawin thanbauk . Eigyins are elaborate lullabies for young princes and princesses, written to inform the royal children of their genealogy and the achievements of their forebears. Since the antiquity of the royal family's genealogy mattered greatly,
8305-656: The Burmese language into Lower Burma also coincided with the emergence of Modern Burmese. As late as the mid-1700s, Mon , an Austroasiatic language, was the principal language of Lower Burma, employed by the Mon people who inhabited the region. Lower Burma's shift from Mon to Burmese was accelerated by the Burmese-speaking Konbaung Dynasty 's victory over the Mon-speaking Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1757. By 1830, an estimated 90% of
8456-462: The Burmese language is called Old Burmese , dating to the 11th and 12th century stone inscriptions of Pagan . The earliest evidence of the Burmese alphabet is dated to 1035, while a casting made in the 18th century of an old stone inscription points to 984. Owing to the linguistic prestige of Old Pyu in the Pagan Kingdom era, Old Burmese borrowed a substantial corpus of vocabulary from Pali via
8607-432: The Hanthawaddy monarchy on religious grounds. Myanmar possesses the largest number of historical stone inscriptions as well as most complete historical records in all of Southeast Asia . The first systematic effort to preserve the inscriptions was launched by King Bodawpaya per the royal order dated 23 July 1783 to check then existing chronicles with inscriptional evidence. By 1793, over 600 inscriptions from throughout
8758-572: The Hindu legal treatise Manusmriti . The Wareru was translated into Burmese, Pali and Siamese, and was the basic law of the First Toungoo Empire . After the empire's fall in 1599, the Code lived on—albeit in adapted forms—in the main successor states. In Siam, it coexisted with other legal codes until King Rama I compiled a new legal code in 1805. The new Siamese law's core 18 chapters share "substantial similarities to King Wareru's code", and
8909-647: The Irrawaddy River valley toward peripheral areas of the country. These varieties include the Yaw , Palaw, Myeik (Merguese), Tavoyan and Intha dialects . Despite substantial vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutual intelligibility among most Burmese dialects. Below is a summary of lexical similarity between major Burmese dialects: Dialects in Tanintharyi Region , including Palaw, Merguese, and Tavoyan, are especially conservative in comparison to Standard Burmese. The Tavoyan and Intha dialects have preserved
9060-543: The Irrawaddy River valley. For instance, for the term ဆွမ်း , "food offering [to a monk]", Lower Burmese speakers use [sʰʊ́ɰ̃] instead of [sʰwáɰ̃] , which is the pronunciation used in Upper Burma. The standard dialect is represented by the Yangon dialect because of the modern city's media influence and economic clout. In the past, the Mandalay dialect represented standard Burmese. The most noticeable feature of
9211-458: The Irrawaddy valley. In the 15th century, when the literacy rate was still low, the scribal work was chiefly handled by monks, but by the late 18th century, it was routinely handled by commoners as adult male literacy exceeded 50 percent. As a result, the earliest surviving "chronicles" were not even the full official chronicles of their own era. The earliest extant chronicle, Zatadawbon Yazawin ("The Royal Horoscopes Chronicle") first written in
SECTION 60
#17328546498409362-527: The Legend") covers the genealogy of kings, and was supposedly part of a larger treatise called Ramann'-uppatti-dipaka ("An Explanation of the Origins of Ramannadesa"). The surviving copy of Nidana is dated to the 18th century although the copy says its original manuscript was compiled in year 900 ME (1538/39 CE). Another chronicle called Gavampati , likely compiled between the 18th and 19th centuries, mainly covers
9513-518: The Mandalay dialect is its use of the first person pronoun ကျွန်တော် , kya.nau [tɕənɔ̀] by both men and women, whereas in Yangon, the said pronoun is used only by male speakers while ကျွန်မ , kya.ma. [tɕəma̰] is used by female speakers. Moreover, with regard to kinship terminology , Upper Burmese speakers differentiate the maternal and paternal sides of a family, whereas Lower Burmese speakers do not. The Mon language has also influenced subtle grammatical differences between
9664-476: The OB vowel *u e.g. ငံ ngam 'salty', သုံး thóum ('three; use'), and ဆုံး sóum 'end'. It does not, however, apply to ⟨ည်⟩ which is never realised as a nasal, but rather as an open front vowel [iː] [eː] or [ɛː] . The final nasal is usually realised as nasalisation of the vowel. It may also allophonically appear as a homorganic nasal before stops. For example, in /mòʊɰ̃dáɪɰ̃/ ('storm'), which
9815-517: The Toungoo command decided to retreat. The Burmese chronicles do not say that they even attempted to take the city but the Arakanese chronicles say the city's musket, mortar, and artillery fire drove back the invaders. Still according to the Arakanese chronicles, the Mrauk U forces followed up on the retreating Toungoo forces to the border, engaging them in several skirmishes in which many Toungoo troops were killed or taken prisoner. The Toungoo regiments were on
9966-459: The Upper Burmese chronicles still have many gaps and lack specificity, especially with regard to pre-Toungoo (pre-16th century) eras. Still, Myanmar has the highest amount of historical source material in all of Southeast Asia . British colonial period scholars, who were the first ones to reconstruct Burma's history in a "scientific" way and made invaluable efforts to systematically preserve
10117-491: The adoption of neologisms. An example is the word "university", formerly ယူနီဗာစတီ [jùnìbàsətì] , from English university , now တက္ကသိုလ် [tɛʔkət̪ò] , a Pali-derived neologism recently created by the Burmese government and derived from the Pali spelling of Taxila ( တက္ကသီလ Takkasīla ), an ancient university town in modern-day Pakistan. Some words in Burmese may have many synonyms, each having certain usages, such as formal, literary, colloquial, and poetic. One example
10268-548: The alliance. Convinced that Toungoo's guns would eventually point toward his kingdom, Min Bin beefed up the already formidable defenses around his capital. In the following three years, Toungoo completed its takeover of central Burma up to Bagan , which Ava formally ceded in exchange for peace in 1545. King Tabinshwehti had now built the largest polity in Burma since the fall of the Pagan Empire in 1287. But as his upcoming campaigns in Arakan (1545–47) and Thailand (1547–49) show he
10419-454: The armies of Confederation of Shan States ; Hanthawaddy records in 1565 by a rebellion; Toungoo records in 1600 by Mrauk-U forces ; more Toungoo records in 1754 by Restored Hanthawaddy ; remaining Hanthawaddy records in 1757 by Konbaung forces ; Arakanese records in 1785 by Konbaung; Konbaung records in 1885 by the British. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most complete surviving chronicles are those of Upper Burma-based dynasties, which often were
10570-443: The arrival of a white elephant at the court to the conquest of Siam, from the completion of a canal to an essay on cosmology. The earliest mawgun dates from 1472. The poet's duty was to glorify the event in an ornate language in verse. There are more than 60 extant mawguns . Both eigyin and mawgun were composed in four-syllable lines, albeit in different styles. A few yazawin thanbauks , or historical epigrams or chronograms, from
10721-440: The average life of a palm leaf record is only 100 to 150 years. Though some stone inscriptions too were recast, and some copying errors (mostly in spelling) have been identified, they do not show the same degree of copying errors of palm-leaf records, many of which were recopied many times over. The oldest extant inscriptions in Burma are dated to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE in Pyu city-states . Inscriptions were still "rare in
10872-681: The burning of the royal library by the Konbaung forces in 1785. Only portions escaped the indiscriminate destruction. An Arakanese monk tried to salvage the wreckage as much as he could by promptly compiling the Dhanyawaddy Yazawin . He completed it in 1788 but the chronicle may not be as reliable as it is "a third-hand piece of work". Colonial period scholars had to piece together the extant portions of Maha Razawin (148 angas or 1776 palm-leaves), Do We's Rakhine Razawin (48 angas / 576 leaves), Saya Mi's Maha Razawin (24 angas / 288 leaves). In
11023-589: The chronicle largely retains traditional narratives, and "was —as elsewhere in the world —written with didactic intentions". Hmannan Yazawin , known in English as the "Glass Palace Chronicle", was compiled by the Royal Historical Commission in 1829–1832. The chronicle covers events right up to 1821, right before the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826). The commission consulted several existing chronicles and local histories ( thamaings ) and
11174-554: The chronicles is rather narrow. The coverage mostly revolves around the activities of the monarch and the royal family, and offers little perspective on the general situation of the kingdom outside the palace unless the monarch happened to be involved in the event. Remote regions would make an appearance only if they were part of the king's itinerary, or were involved in rebellions or military campaigns. Other records—legal and administrative treatises, censuses and regional chronicles—do provide valuable complementary views. On balance, however,
11325-510: The chronicles outside the inscriptions is "modest" due to their destruction in the country's repeated bouts of warfare. Most of the extant material is that of Upper Burmese dynasties, which by the virtue of winning the majority of the wars "possessed an abiding palace and a continuous tradition". The sparseness of the chronicles of Ramanya (Lower Burma), Arakan and Shan states belies the long histories of these former sovereign states, which for centuries were important polities in their own right. Even
11476-661: The chronicles. In general, Yazawins ("chronicle of kings" from Pali rāja-vaṃsa ) are a record of events in chronological order of kings organised by dynasties whereas ayedawbons ("memoirs of royal events/struggles") are more detailed records of more celebrated kings. These definitions are loose generalisations: some ayedawbons are full-fledged chronicles of several kings (e.g., Razadarit Ayedawbon ) or even dynasties (e.g., Dhanyawaddy Ayedawbon ) while some yazawins such as Zatadawbon Yazawin and Yazawin Kyaw have narrower scopes. Inscriptions, most of which were set up by
11627-525: The close portions of the diphthongs are somewhat mid-centralized ( [ɪ, ʊ] ) in closed syllables, i.e. before /ɰ̃/ and /ʔ/ . Thus နှစ် /n̥iʔ/ ('two') is phonetically [n̥ɪʔ] and ကြောင် /tɕàũ/ ('cat') is phonetically [tɕàʊ̃] . Burmese is a tonal language , which means phonemic contrasts can be made on the basis of the tone of a vowel. In Burmese, these contrasts involve not only pitch , but also phonation , intensity (loudness), duration, and vowel quality. However, some linguists consider Burmese
11778-473: The country were copied (recast), and kept at the capital Amarapura . European scholars in the British colonial period greatly expanded the collection effort, with a 1921 edition of Epigraphia Birmanica by Charles Duroiselle listing some 1500 inscriptions in original spelling and a large photograph of each text. The most complete set of inscriptions, called She-haung Myanma Kyauksa Mya ( ရှေးဟောင်း မြန်မာ ကျောက်စာများ ; lit. "Ancient Inscriptions of Myanmar")
11929-522: The country. Burmese is the most widely-spoken language in the country, where it serves as the lingua franca . In 2007, it was spoken as a first language by 33 million. Burmese is spoken as a second language by another 10 million people, including ethnic minorities in Myanmar like the Mon and also by those in neighboring countries. In 2022, the Burmese-speaking population was 38.8 million. Burmese
12080-475: The deposed viceroy remained loyal to Min Bin afterwards. Dhanyawaddy Ayedawbon says that the king replaced his brother with one of his sons as viceroy of Thandwe, and his brother subsequently sought help from Toungoo. Rakhine Razawin Haung and Maha Razawin (Saya Me) too say that the king appointed his son Prince Upayaza viceroy at an unidentified date but suggest that his brother Min Aung Hla remained loyal and
12231-444: The earliest extant chronicles are only parts of the original chronicles. The first half (1287–1421) of the original Hanthawaddy Yazawin had been translated into Burmese by Binnya Dala as Razadarit Ayedawbon before the 1565 rebellion, and the Burmese translation has survived. (To be precise, four oldest palm-leaf copies conjecturally dated to mid 18th century survived. In all, nine slightly different versions of existed according to
12382-410: The early (legendary) history, claiming its early monarchs' linkage to the Buddha. Another 18th-century chronicle, Slatpat Rajawan Datow Smim Ron ("History of Kings"), written by a monk, was also a religion/legend-centric chronicle although it does cover secular history from Sri Ksetra and Pagan to Hanthawaddy periods. Like Gavampati , and Hmannan of the same period, Slatpat too linked its kings to
12533-647: The early post-independence era led to a reactionary switch from English to Burmese as the national medium of education, a process that was accelerated by the Burmese Way to Socialism . In August 1963, the socialist Union Revolutionary Government established the Literary and Translation Commission (the immediate precursor of the Myanmar Language Commission ) to standardize Burmese spelling, diction, composition, and terminology. The latest spelling authority, named
12684-920: The event. Other royal records such as legal treatises and precedents ( dhammathats ( ဓမ္မသတ် )) and censuses ( sittans ( စစ်တန်း )) and the chronicles of regional courts as well as temple histories ( thamaings ( သမိုင်း )) need to be consulted to get a glimpse of the life outside the palace. The royal records were written on different media and in different literary styles. They can be inscriptions on stone ( ကျောက်စာ ) and bells ( ခေါင်းလောင်းစာ ), or more commonly, they were written on palm-leaf manuscripts ( ပေစာ ) and on special thick sheets of paper called parabaiks ( ပုရပိုက် ). They also came in different literary styles: in prose ( yazawins ( ရာဇဝင် and ayedawbons ( အရေးတော်ပုံ ); in verse ( eigyins ( ဧချင်း ) and mawguns ( မော်ကွန်း )); and as chronograms ( yazawin thanbauk ( ရာဇဝင် သံပေါက် )). The prose versions are those most commonly referred to as
12835-584: The events. The next major chronicle, Yazawin Thit ("New Chronicle"), written in 1798, was an attempt to check Maha Yazawin with epigraphic evidence. (It is the first historical document in Southeast Asia compiled in consultation with epigraphic evidence. It shows that historians in Southeast Asia were using epigraphy for sourcing and verification around the same time as the practice was first used in Europe, even if Twinthin 's methods may not have "evolved into
12986-500: The first chronicle. The Maha Yazawin ( Great Chronicle ), completed in 1724 with a minor update in 1729, was composed by U Kala , an official at the Toungoo court . It was the first major chronicle in Burma to synthesize all the ancient, regional, foreign and biographic histories to which he had access. Kala weaved all the regional Burmese chronicles as well as foreign ( Mahavamsa and
13137-598: The form of nouns . Historically, Pali , the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism , had a profound influence on Burmese vocabulary. Burmese has readily adopted words of Pali origin; this may be due to phonotactic similarities between the two languages, alongside the fact that the script used for Burmese can be used to reproduce Pali spellings with complete accuracy. Pali loanwords are often related to religion, government, arts, and science. Burmese loanwords from Pali primarily take four forms: Burmese has also adapted numerous words from Mon, traditionally spoken by
13288-416: The former Viceroy of Thandwe , who had been removed from office by Min Bin. In October 1545, Tabinshwehti sent a 4000-strong army but it was promptly driven back. A much larger naval and land forces (combined 19,000 troops) of Toungoo tried again in the following dry season. The invasion forces overran southern Arakan, and were about to breach the defenses of the capital of Mrauk U when Mrauk U forces opened
13439-538: The former viceroy in his rightful place. By mid-1546, the war in Upper Burma had reached a stalemate with the rump Ava Kingdom further splitting into two halves: the Mohnyin-controlled west of the Irrawaddy (present-day Sagaing Region and southern Kachin State ), and Onbaung–Hsipaw-controlled eastern half (approximately, northern Mandalay Region and western Shan State ). The Toungoo command cautiously decided that it
13590-413: The inscriptions collected by Bodawpaya, as well as eigyins , poetry describing epics of kings and mawguns , panegyric poems. Although the compilers disputed some of the earlier accounts, they by and large retained the accounts of Maha Yazawin and Yazawin Thit . The most important development was Hmannan's disposal of the hitherto prevalent pre-Buddhist origin story of Burmese monarchy, and linkage of
13741-515: The introduction of English into matriculation examinations , fueled growing demand for Burmese to become the medium of education in British Burma; a short-lived but symbolic parallel system of "national schools" that taught in Burmese, was subsequently launched. The role and prominence of the Burmese language in public life and institutions was championed by Burmese nationalists, intertwined with their demands for greater autonomy and independence from
13892-400: The invitation of the viceroy of Thandwe, who had lost the Arakanese throne to his nephew following the death of the Arakanese king in 1545. All major Arakanese chronicles agree that the Arakanese king had not died, and that the king appointed his son as viceroy of Thandwe, replacing his brother, at some point during his reign. But they disagree as to when the replacement took place, and whether
14043-637: The king to accept a compromise with Min Bin. Likewise, Min Bin may have wanted a quick truce since he had heard that Tripuri marauders were raiding his northern possessions in Bengal down to Ramu. Burmese and Arakanese chronicles disagree as to which side began the offer for negotiations. The Burmese chronicles say that a few days after the siege, the Mrauk U court sent four monks with a peace proposal. The Arakanese chronicles however say that Toungoo proposed first, stating that Min Bin at first refused to see Tabinshwehti's emissary Bayinnaung, and agreed to see him only on
14194-436: The kings respectively were grandfather and paternal uncle to King Mindon who had commissioned the chronicle. The third instalment came in 1905, nearly twenty years after the end of Burmese monarchy, and was written by Maung Maung Tin , who had a distinguished career in the British administration. Tin updated the chronicle to 1885, to the fall of the monarchy, relying mainly on the court records obtained from several members of
14345-416: The kings to determine their tax collection and military manpower base. The censuses collected data on the size of population, number and description of villages, arable land, products and taxes. Kings since Pagan times had graded each town and village by the taxes and levy it could raise. The first known instance of a sittan was ordered per the royal decree dated 12 March 1359 while the first nationwide census
14496-530: The kings, the royal families and their court officials as well as wealthy families, are the earliest surviving royal records. Most surviving inscriptions are from religious dedications, and contain valuable historical material; indeed, they represent the primary extant historical record down to the 16th century. Inscriptions are considered most accurate of all Burmese historiographic material because they are less susceptible to copying errors due to their longevity. A typical stone inscription lasts many centuries while
14647-483: The late 13th and early 15th centuries survived. The rest of early chronicles date only from the 16th century. Many of the early chronicles did not survive for a number of reasons. First, the earliest manuscripts prior to the 15th century were rare and extremely costly. (A 1273 Pagan manuscript of Tripiṭaka cost 3000 kyats of silver, which could buy over 2000 hectares of paddy fields. ) The cost of producing manuscripts (creating as well as recopying) did come down in
14798-477: The late 13th century by court astrologers was primarily a record of regnal dates of Upper Burma's kings. Likewise, the next surviving chronicle, the Yazawin Kyaw ("The Celebrated Chronicle"), written in 1502, was mainly a religious document; only one-seventh of the treatise concerned the affairs of Burmese kings down to 1496. Indeed, it was not even meant to be an authoritative chronicle as its author stated there
14949-436: The late 20th century, historian San Tha Aung could confirm only eight of the supposed 48 historical works of Arakanese history. Even of the extant eight, he was unsure of the reliability of the information prior to 1000 CE. All Arakanese Arakanese chronicles remain untranslated into English. It means the Arakanese accounts have not been open to (non-Burmese reading) international scholars. According to historian Michael Charney,
15100-407: The less well-known chronicles are yet to be studied systematically. The Burmese royal chronicles are "detailed and continuous registers of events in chronological order", revolving "chiefly around the Burmese kings". The chronicles by themselves offer little or no commentary on the situation of the kingdom of the regular people inside or outside the capital unless the king happened to be involved in
15251-417: The life of each king chronologically, wherever possible, from his birth to the grave or his dethronement. However, its narrative of the earlier periods is far more sketchy, offering only the year, not the specific date, in most cases. It shows that Kala did not have the full versions of earlier chronicles, and that he did not check any inscriptions, which would have yielded more specific dates and double-checked
15402-430: The linear order of kings, and the first to link the origins of Burmese monarchy to Buddhism. The chronicle updates the events up to 1785, and contains several corrections and critiques of earlier chronicles. However, the chronicle was not well received, and ultimately rejected by the king and the court who found the critiques of earlier chronicles excessively harsh. It became known as A-pe-gan Yazawin ( အပယ်ခံ ရာဇဝင် ,
15553-515: The literary form, asserting that the spoken vernacular form ought to be used. Some Burmese linguists such as Minn Latt , a Czech academic, proposed moving away from the high form of Burmese altogether. Although the literary form is heavily used in written and official contexts (literary and scholarly works, radio news broadcasts, and novels), the recent trend has been to accommodate the spoken form in informal written contexts. Nowadays, television news broadcasts, comics, and commercial publications use
15704-421: The monarchy to the clan of the Buddha and the first king of Buddhist mythology, Maha Sammata . (The head of the Royal Historical Commission, Monywe Sayadaw , also wrote a similar chronicle to Hmannan called Maha Yazawin Kyaw ("Great Celebrated Chronicle") in 1831. The learned monk had been writing the chronicle prior to his appointment, and completed his own chronicle because he did not agree with some of
15855-402: The national historical records of the countries which comprised the Burmese empire is remarkable. They represent a marked contrast to the scantiness, or total absence of such writings, among the ancient Hindu kingdoms. The annals of Siam do not appear to have been kept with the same regularity and fullness as those of Burma, though they furnish an outline of prominent events. The overall number of
16006-444: The new code adds 21 more chapters. In Burma, the Code morphed into a more Buddhist-centric version by 1640. The new treatise often supports Burmese customary law "with explicitly Buddhist scriptural justifications". An 1899 analysis by historian U Gaung lists a total of 36 dhammathats that had survived in some form. Some of the more well known law treatises and precedents are: Sittans , or censuses/revenue inquests, were used by
16157-550: The next dry season (November 1547) before ordering his troops to drive out the Siamese from Tavoy. Emboldened by success, he invaded Siam in 1548 and again went on to lay siege to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya . As in Mrauk U, Toungoo forces could not break through and had to retreat in 1549. Despite the peace agreement, Mrauk U and Hanthawaddy remained wary of each other. Bayinnaung readily took in Prince Upayaza of Thandwe, who had lost
16308-420: The northern border, Bagan, Salay, and Taungdwingyi by their local governors. On the opposing side, the Arakanese kingdom's defenses were well prepared. The capital city of Mrauk U was protected by an extensive network of defensive structures. It was ringed by eleven forts, each of which was reinforced with walls, moats, trenches, and lakes. Canals were also set up to interconnect the ring forts. The capital itself
16459-490: The passages of the chronicles directly quoted in Maha Yazawin shows that the referenced chronicles were most probably 16th century copies of the original chronicles, judging by their use of language, and most likely incomplete and partial copies, judging by their lack of specific dates, prior to the Toungoo period. The first comprehensive national chronicle emerged only in 1724. Subsequent chronicles were heavily influenced by
16610-655: The peripheral areas of the country. These dialects include: Arakanese in Rakhine State and Marma in Bangladesh are also sometimes considered dialects of Burmese and sometimes as separate languages. Despite vocabulary and pronunciation differences, there is mutual intelligibility among Burmese dialects, as they share a common set of tones, consonant clusters, and written script. However, several Burmese dialects differ substantially from standard Burmese with respect to vocabulary, lexical particles, and rhymes. Spoken Burmese
16761-442: The poets did their best to trace the ancestors as far back as they could, with considerable use of their own imagination. The earliest eigyin ( Mauktaw Eigyin , or more commonly known as Rakhine Minthami Eigyin ) dates from 1455, and is also the earliest extant Burmese poetry on palm-leaf. Over 40 royal eigyins are on record. Mawguns are panegyric poems, composed as a rule to commemorate an important event. The subjects range from
16912-694: The points in Hmannan . ) The second part of Hmannan , also called the Second Chronicle, was written in 1867–1869 by another committee of scholars. It covers the events up to 1854, including the first two Anglo-Burmese wars . The Second Chronicle's account of the two wars, according to historian Htin Aung , was "written with the objectivity of a true historian, and the great national defeats were described faithfully in detail." The posthumous names of "Bodawpaya" ("Royal Lord Grandfather") and "Bagyidawpaya" ("Royal Lord Paternal Uncle") were introduced in this chronicle;
17063-636: The population in Lower Burma self-identified as Burmese-speaking Bamars; huge swaths of former Mon-speaking territory, from the Irrawaddy Delta to upriver in the north, spanning Bassein (now Pathein) and Rangoon (now Yangon) to Tharrawaddy, Toungoo, Prome (now Pyay), and Henzada (now Hinthada), were now Burmese-speaking. The language shift has been ascribed to a combination of population displacement, intermarriage, and voluntary changes in self-identification among increasingly Mon–Burmese bilingual populations in
17214-603: The prior dynasties down to the era in which they were written. Mani Yadanabon , for example, is "a repository of historical examples illustrating pragmatic political principles worthy of Machiavelli". Furthermore, many of these treatises—expositions on institutions, royal insignia, ranks and technical terms—help interpret the chronicles since many of the terms are obsolete. Dhammathats are treatises on law used by Burmese royal courts. Hpyat-htons (also spelled pyattons ) are legal precedents by earlier kings. The earliest extant legal treatise Dhammavisala Dhammathat dates from
17365-442: The records, and cast a highly sceptical eye toward the chronicle narratives, nonetheless praised the relative completeness of the extant Burmese material compared to those of Southeast Asian and even Indian states. D.G.E. Hall summarises that "Burma is not the only Southeast Asian country to have large collections of this indispensable source material and precious heritage of the past; no other country surpasses her." The scope of
17516-425: The region. Standardized tone marking in written Burmese was not achieved until the 18th century. From the 19th century onward, orthographers created spellers to reform Burmese spelling, because of ambiguities that arose over transcribing sounds that had been merged. British rule saw continued efforts to standardize Burmese spelling through dictionaries and spellers. Britain's gradual annexation of Burma throughout
17667-428: The religious dedications by the royalty and the wealthy donors. Each thamaing purports to give the history of the founder of the building and of its subsequent benefactors. Such documents include notices of secular events. In addition, some learned monks also wrote chronicles on the history of Buddhism from the time of the Buddha to their present day. The two well known religious chronicles are: The general fullness of
17818-562: The royal library and also on the papers seized by the British and kept in libraries. (Almost all the records of the Konbaung Dynasty had gone up in flames as drunken British soldiers burned down the royal library soon after King Thibaw 's surrender in 1885.) Tin updated the chronicle in 1921, and included the death of King Thibaw in 1916 as a postscript. The following is a list of standard chronicles with two notable exceptions. Though officially commissioned by King Bodawpaya, Yazawin Thit
17969-512: The royal records overall remain heavily monarch-centered: they "tell little of general conditions, and their story is not of the people of Burma but simply that of the dynasties of Upper Burma." The earliest chronicles, such as Yazawin Kyaw and Maha Yazawin were modelled after Mahavamsa . The early Buddhist history (and mythology) came right from the Sri Lankan chronicle. But much of the extant chronicle tradition (both in prose and verse) and
18120-408: The second day. The negotiations went on for a few days. The Burmese chronicles say that Min Bin agreed to restore Min Aung Hla as the viceroy of Thandwe and seven southern townships in exchange for peace, and that the two kings exchanged gifts, including two war ships by Tabinshwehti. But the Arakanese chronicles say only that Tabinshwehti presented lavish gifts to Min Bin before retreating. At any rate,
18271-502: The second half of January, Toungoo forces converged onto the capital region. Invasion armies approached from the southeast while another army and war boats entered the Kaladan River from the southwest. Arakanese defenses successfully drove back the seaborne invasion force near Po-Chi Island. But they could not stop the Toungoo army at Launggyet, which fell on 23 January 1547. Tabinshwehti did not pause. Toungoo troops began their final push
18422-517: The size of the invasion fleet. The fleet sailed up the Arakan coast unopposed, and dropped off troops south of Thandwe. They joined up with the army that had just crossed over the Arakan Mountains. Bayinnaung now assumed command of the combined armies. Then Toungoo land and naval forces converged on Thandwe. The Mrauk U navy defended the port but was defeated by sheer numbers. Mrauk U land forces evacuated Thandwe. Tabinshwehti appointed Min Aung Hla as
18573-453: The sluices of the city's reservoirs, flooding the invaders out. On 30 January 1547, the two sides agreed to a peace treaty that allowed an orderly withdrawal of Toungoo forces from Arakan. The uneasy peace would last for the next 33 years. In the early 16th century, the present-day Myanmar comprised several small kingdoms. The two traditional powers that had dominated the Irrawaddy valley since
18724-437: The small kingdoms (warring states) period of Burmese history (14th to 16th centuries). The tradition of local court histories vanished in the Irrawaddy valley starting in the 17th century when Restored Toungoo kings integrated the entire valley into the core administrative system. The chronicle tradition continued only in farther major tributaries such as Kengtung and Lan Na, and indeed in the independent kingdom of Mrauk-U until it
18875-764: The spoken form or a combination of the spoken and simpler, less ornate formal forms. The following sample sentence reveals that differences between literary and spoken Burmese mostly occur in affixes: Burmese has politeness levels and honorifics that take the speaker's status and age in relation to the audience into account. The suffix ပါ pa is frequently used after a verb to express politeness. Moreover, Burmese pronouns relay varying degrees of deference or respect. In many instances, polite speech (e.g., addressing teachers, officials, or elders) employs feudal-era third person pronouns or kinship terms in lieu of first- and second-person pronouns. Furthermore, with regard to vocabulary choice, spoken Burmese clearly distinguishes
19026-589: The start of the campaign, the capital region was defended by no less than 20,000 troops. A 35-ship Arakanese fleet, largely manned by Portuguese mercenaries and commanded by Min Dikkha , sailed down to Cape Negrais to block a possible seaborne invasion. On 28 October 1546, Toungoo naval and land forces began the campaign. The Toungoo high command, including Tabinshwehti, traveled by sea. The Mrauk U navy, waiting around Cape Negrais, initially thought about engaging Toungoo vanguard squadrons but decided against it when they saw
19177-452: The throne to Min Dikkha, awarded him the style Thiri Dhammathawka in 1554, and married him to one of his nieces. The war not only preserved Arakan's independence but also had a long deterrence effect. Although Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung had experienced failed campaigns before (against Hanthawaddy during 1534–37), this campaign was different. Mrauk U's defenses so impressed the Toungoo military leadership that they would not attempt to conquer
19328-448: The traditional homeland of Burmese speakers. The 1891 Census of India , conducted five years after the annexation of the entire Konbaung Kingdom , found that the former kingdom had an "unusually high male literacy" rate of 62.5% for Upper Burmans aged 25 and above. For all of British Burma , the literacy rate was 49% for men and 5.5% for women (by contrast, British India more broadly had a male literacy rate of 8.44%). The expansion of
19479-564: The treaty, and Toungoo's new northern border could again be contested. Still, the infighting in Arakan was too good an opportunity to pass up. The king sent four regiments (4000 troops, 1000 horses, 100 elephants), led by Sit Tuyingathu, Smim Enaye, Smim Byatsa, and Smim Mawkhwin, to assist the viceroy of Thandwe. At Mrauk U, Min Bin had expected the move. On 12 October 1545, he sent six army and naval regiments to Thandwe. The Arakanese naval and land forces now included Portuguese mercenaries and their state-of-the-art firearms. The Royal Arakanese Navy
19630-416: The two sides reached agreement on 30 January 1547, allowing an orderly withdrawal of Toungoo forces. Toungoo forces withdrew from Mrauk U beginning on 2 February 1547, but two regiments remained stationed at Thandwe for three more months per agreement. Both kingdoms went on to deal with respective intrusions. Min Bin immediately sent troops to drive Tripuri raiders out of East Bengal. Tabinshwehti waited until
19781-425: The underlying orthography . From the 1500s onward, Burmese kingdoms saw substantial gains in the populace's literacy rate , which manifested itself in greater participation of laymen in scribing and composing legal and historical documents, domains that were traditionally the domain of Buddhist monks, and drove the ensuing proliferation of Burmese literature , both in terms of genres and works. During this period,
19932-480: The varieties of Burmese spoken in Lower and Upper Burma. In Lower Burmese varieties, the verb ပေး ('to give') is colloquially used as a permissive causative marker, like in other Southeast Asian languages, but unlike in other Tibeto-Burman languages. This usage is hardly used in Upper Burmese varieties, and is considered a sub-standard construct. More distinctive non-standard varieties emerge as one moves farther away from
20083-433: The verge of being wiped out when Toungoo reinforcements arrived in time to break the encirclement, and retreat in good order. Min Aung Hla and his followers also made it to mainland Burma. For the Toungoo high command, the campaign had been a disaster. But given the still fluid situation in Upper Burma, they decided to hold off further incursions in the remaining dry season. Tabinshwehti promised Min Aung Hla that he would put
20234-401: The very next day. They overcame Arakanese defenses, and breached the eastern outworks of Mrauk U. But Min Bin opened the sluices of the city's reservoirs, flooding out many Toungoo troops and creating an impassable moat. Toungoo forces were now reduced to shelling from afar. But their Portuguese supplied cannon had little effect against Mrauk U's stone walls. The Toungoo forces were again in for
20385-404: The viceroy of Thandwe, and left Nanda Kyawhtin, Governor of Thanlyin , in charge of the city's defenses. By January 1547, Toungoo land and naval forces had left Thandwe for Mrauk U. The Arakanese defenses now awaited from their capital defense zone. A 5000-strong elite army, equipped with foreign firearms, defended the capital while another 15,000 troops were posted at forts around the capital. By
20536-416: The victors of the wars. Even for those that survived the wars, "there were no record-room methods; mildew, ants, the accident of fire prevented many manuscripts reaching a great age". Those that survived did so only because private individuals outside the capital had painstakingly copied the original palm leaf manuscripts. The survival of the manuscripts was also facilitated by the increasing literacy rates in
20687-464: The western kingdom again until 1580, only after they had conquered much farther away lands. Burmese language Burmese ( Burmese : မြန်မာဘာသာ ; MLCTS : Mranma bhasa ; pronounced [mjəmà bàθà] ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar , where it is the official language , lingua franca, and the native language of the Bamar , the country's principal ethnic group. Burmese
20838-459: The wide circulation of legal texts, royal chronicles , and religious texts. A major reason for the uniformity of the Burmese language was the near-universal presence of Buddhist monasteries (called kyaung ) in Burmese villages. These kyaung served as the foundation of the pre-colonial monastic education system, which fostered uniformity of the language throughout the Upper Irrawaddy valley,
20989-410: The word "television", Burmese publications are mandated to use the term ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား (lit. 'see picture, hear sound') in lieu of တယ်လီဗီးရှင်း , a direct English transliteration. Another example is the word "vehicle", which is officially ယာဉ် [jɪ̃̀] (derived from Pali) but ကား [ká] (from English car ) in spoken Burmese. Some previously common English loanwords have fallen out of use with
21140-439: Was already an existing chronicle of the Ava court. In general, the early chronicles can be categorised as (1) histories of the rival kingdoms of 14th to 16th centuries, (2) ancient histories of kingdoms of previous eras (pre-14th century), and (3) biographies of famous kings. Many of the early chronicles in some form had survived at least to the early 18th century since they were referenced by Maha Yazawin . An analysis of
21291-407: Was commissioned in 1638. The next two national censuses were commissioned in 1784 and 1803. The 1784 census shows the kingdom had a population of 1,831,487, excluding "wild tribes" and the recently conquered Arakan. The country's many pagodas and temples also maintain a historical record, usually a stone and/or bell inscription, called thamaing . They furnish important historical information about
21442-621: Was conquered by Konbaung Dynasty in 1785. The original Mon language chronicles of the two main Mon-speaking kingdoms of the second millennium did not survive in their full form. The chronicles of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1287–1539, 1550–1552) were destroyed in 1565 during a rebellion led by ex-Hanthawaddy officials that burned down the whole city of Pegu (Bago). Likewise, most of the records of Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1740–1757) were destroyed in 1757 by Konbaung forces. Therefore,
21593-400: Was considered the best in the region, and was well regarded even by the Portuguese pirates. Min Bin's forces went on to drive out Min Aung Hla and his men from Thandwe before the four Toungoo regiments arrived. When the Toungoo forces did arrive, they were surprised to learn that the city had been taken over by the Mrauk U forces. Unprepared to take the heavily fortified city with their 4000 men,
21744-504: Was defended by the garrison at Moulmein but the Toungoo command was nonetheless concerned. They advised against a long siege, warning that it would be extremely difficult to get back to Lower Burma during the monsoon season since the troops could not use the sea, and would have to pass the Arakan Yoma range, a difficult proposition even in the dry season. Given that the home country was still vulnerable to possible external attacks, they advised
21895-454: Was maintained in the country's four historical polities: Upper Burma , Lower Burma , Arakan and the Shan states . The majority of the chronicles did not survive the country's numerous wars as well as the test of time. The most complete extant chronicles are those of Upper Burma-based dynasties, with the earliest extant chronicle dating from the 1280s and the first standard national chronicle from
22046-532: Was not accepted by the Konbaung court as its official chronicle. It is included in this list because Hmannan retains many of Yazawin Thit's corrections. Likewise, Konbaung Set Yazawin or Hmannan Yazawin Part III was written after the monarchy was abolished, and thus not official. Usually named ayedawbons , biographic chronicles cover the life of more celebrated kings such as Razadarit , Bayinnaung , Nyaungyan and Alaungpaya in detail. Note: Razadarit Ayedawbon
22197-556: Was only recently published by Yangon University 's Department of Archaeology in five volumes from 1972 to 1987. Aside from over 500 Pagan period inscriptions, most of the other stone inscriptions have not been studied systematically. Early chronicles on palm-leaf manuscripts are those written prior to the 18th century when national chronicles first emerged. Of the earliest chronicles, those of Pagan and early Ava (to early 15th century), whose names have been mentioned in inscriptions and later chronicles, only two supplementary chronicles from
22348-573: Was safe to launch a major campaign in Arakan in the following dry season. By October 1546, they had raised a sizable invasion force (19,000 men, 400 horses, 60 elephants) as well as a number of rearguard forces. Because of the challenging terrain of the Arakan Mountains , only 4000 men would invade by land from the Irrawaddy delta. Instead, over three quarters of the invasion forces (15,000 men) would be transported by sea using 800 war boats, 500 armored war boats, and 100 cargo boats. Toungoo now possessed
22499-498: Was still intent on expanding elsewhere. Burmese and Arakanese chronicles give differing accounts of the events leading to the war. The Burmese chronicles Maha Yazawin and Hmannan Yazawin give Mrauk U's prior involvement in the Ava–Toungoo war as the main reason for the war while Arakanese chronicles are completely silent on Mrauk U's role in the Ava–Toungoo war. Furthermore, the Burmese chronicles say that Tabinshwehti invaded at
22650-414: Was still the viceroy during the Toungoo invasions. But they never mention when and why Min Aung Hla lost his office afterwards. In all, it appears that in 1545 Min Aung Hla lost (or sensed that he was about to lose) his office to his nephew, and sought help from Tabinshwehti. Tabinshwehti was certainly interested in repaying the favor. He led a highly experienced and well equipped military, riding high after
22801-527: Was surrounded by a trench, three tiers of moats, and a stone wall with an extensive network of bastions atop the wall. Diversionary canals and lakes ensured the city's water supply in case of a long siege. These were the result of the multi-year defensive construction works project Min Bin launched right after his conquest of Bengal in 1533. The defense works were initially begun to protect the capital region from rampant seaborne raids by Portuguese pirates , and later expanded to defend against Toungoo invasions. At
#839160