BAMA Burmese Printables Scripts Cheatsheet and More

မြန်မာအက္ခရာ

Burmese Basic Scripts Cheatsheet

Click to Open and Download

SCRIPT

1. Burmese Okell Pronunciation & Romanization

2. Burmese Basic Scripts Cheatsheet

3. Burmese Basic Suffixes Cheatsheet

4. Burmese Basic Scripts 33 Consonants

OTHER

1. Burmese Kinship

2. Burmese Body Parts

3. Burmese Everyday Phrases

4. Burmese Days

5. Burmese Time

6. Burmese Colors

Kind Regards,

bamalearnburmese@gmail.com • instagram.com/bama_burmese/

Last update 6 Oct 2021

Burmese Keyboard on Cell Phone

I. Unicode for iPhone

Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard... > Burmese

II. Burmese keyboard Gboard Android

1. Download the Gboard
2. Open and follow the steps
3. Add a language, find "Burmese" (it's Unicode)
4. Check on both keyboards (keyboard & handwriting) if you prefer to

 KR,

bamalearnburmese@gmail.com • instagram.com/bama_burmese/

Typing Complex Burmese Script on Mac with UNICODE

Halo,

Please notice the terms: encoding, font and keyboard. UNICODE is an encoding, Myanmar Census is a font. I will use UNICODE fonts just to simplify the story.

Contents:

1. Preface
2. Getting UNICODE Burmese font and keyboard on Mac OS X.
3. Typing complex UNICODE Burmese script.
4. UNICODE Burmese keyboard map on Mac OS X.

1) Preface

1. There are 2 well-known Burmese fonts / encodings: Zawgyi and UNICODE. Locals used to use Zawgyi, but more and more people move to UNICODE. It is recommended to use UNICODE.
2. If a person is writing with UNICODE and your device is installed with Zawgyi, generally, you are unable to read the text (the scripts might be wrong, or some dotted circle appears).
3. UNICODE has several fonts, such as "Myanmar3" and "Myanmar Census" (recommended).
4. In most cases, if your friends have documents with "Zawgyi" while you use UNICODE, you still can read it by opening the file, select all text, and change the font to "Zawgyi" (you will need to install Zawgyi font first).
5. You can find more notes and keyboard layout on John Okell's "Burmese fonts guide 2016" Using Burmese fonts on a computer.

2) Steps to get UNICODE Burmese font and keyboard on Mac OS X

(Here is for Windows)

1. Adding from "System Preferences" > "Keyboard" > "Input Sources" > find "Myanmar - QWERTY"
2. Make sure to check the "Show Input menu in menu bar" box
3. When you want to use, choose the Myanmar keyboard from the menu bar

System Preferences

Choose the keyboard

3) Typing complex UNICODE Burmese script (option 1 = simple way) * (thanks to Stephen Spurlock's comment!)

1. Choose keyboard "Myanmar QWERTY"
2. To get က္လ [see Image 2.2]: press your keyboard on "k" and then "f" and then "l". 

3) Typing complex UNICODE Burmese script (option 2)

1. Make sure you have "Unicode Hex Input" keyboard added.
2. When you want to use it, hold "Option" on your keyboard, and type the number. For example you want to type က (1000) [see Image 2.1]: hold "Option", press "1", "0", "0", "0".
3. To get stacked consonant:
   (1) type the 'main' consonant, (2) hold " Option", press "1","0","3","9", (3) type the consonant at the bottom.
4. To get က္လ [see Image 2.2]:
   (1) hold " Option", press 1000, (2) hold " Option", press 1039, (3) hold " Option", press 101C.
5. You can download the list of unicode from these urls: Unicode U1000, and Myanmar uni v2

Image 2.1

Image 2.2

4) UNICODE Burmese keyboard map on Mac OS X (I map it myself but got the template from Apple Support)

Note:

To get င်္, for example for တနဂင်္နွေနေ့, instead of using SHIFT+z, 

type တနင် first + press f to get the င် up, then add ဂ = t + n + z + q + f + g

(12 Jun 2018)

Reference:

1. John Okell's "Burmese fonts guide 2016" Using Burmese fonts on a computer
2. Writing with unicode on mac
3. Burmese Keyboard Layout
4. mingalapar forum: how-to-install-myanmar-zawgyi-font-on-mac-os

List of Unicode:
1. http://www.utf8-chartable.de/unicode-utf8-table.pl?start=4096&number=128&utf8=string-literal
2. http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1000.pdf
3. http://unicode.org/notes/tn11/myanmar_uni-v2.pdf

Last modified: 05 Dec 2016

KR,

bamalearnburmese@gmail.com • instagram.com/bama_burmese/

Reading and Writing Burmese Script on Windows Computers

Halo,

Please note that they are not "font and keyboard", the correct term is "encoding"; though I still use font and keyboard because I think it is easier for me to understand.

Contents:

1. Preface
2. Reading Burmese script on Windows.
3. Writing UNICODE Burmese script on Windows.
4. Writing Zawgyi Burmese script on Windows.
5. Burmese keyboard map on Windows  (I map it myself but got the template from Google)

1) Preface

1. There are 2 well-known Burmese fonts (encodings): Zawgyi and UNICODE. Locals used to use Zawgyi, but more and more people move to UNICODE. It is recommended to use UNICODE.
2. If a person is writing with UNICODE and your device is installed with Zawgyi, generally, you are unable to read the text (the scripts might be wrong, or some dotted circle appears).
3. UNICODE has several fonts, such as "Padauk", "Myanmar3" and "Myanmar Census" (recommended).
4. In most cases, if your friends have documents with "Zawgyi" while you use UNICODE, you still can read it by opening the file, select all text, and change the font to "Zawgyi". See below "Reading Burmese script on Windows."

2) Reading Burmese script on Windows

1. It is ok to download all the fonts (encoding) (1) UNICODE "Myanmar Census" and other fonts https://github.com/khzaw/awesome-myanmar-unicode, (it used to be somewhere here, but it expired i guess); (2) Zawgyi https://code.google.com/archive/p/zawgyi-keyboard/downloads.
2. after finish download, double click on the .ttf file and click "Install",
3. open the file on Microsoft Word,
4. select all words (ctrl+a),
5. ask the file owner which font he is using, change font respectively: to UNICODE "Myanmar Census" OR "Zawgyi".

You should be able to read it now.

3) Writing UNICODE Burmese script on Windows

(Here is for MAC)

1. Click the "Language preferences" on right bottom corner,
2. "Add a language",
3. Find and click on "Burmese".
4. When you are going to type with Burmese, click on the "ENG" and choose Burmese; don't forget to choose the UNICODE font on the font options (see above picture on section "2) Reading Burmese script on Windows")
5. Now you can type မင်္ဂလာပါ => r + i + f + F + : + v + m + y + g 

4) Writing Zawgyi Burmese script on Windows

1. Go to Google Code zawgyi-keyboard
2. Download and install the zip file
3. On any box where you want to type your Burmese script (browser, Microsoft Office, etc); press "Shift" and "Ctrl" at the same time to change from normal keyboard to Zawgi (vise in versa)
4. Find the Keyboard map on the bottom of this post

5a) Windows UNICODE Burmese keyboard map (I map it myself but got the template from Apple Support)

5b) Keyboard option 2: Zawqyi Keyboard Layout. I have tried it, but not very accurate.




Last modified: 22 July 2016

KR,

bamalearnburmese@gmail.com • instagram.com/bama_burmese/

Learning Burmese

မင်္ဂလာပါ

Unlike learning English / Chinese where you can find abundant materials: books, websites, youtube, free online courses, mobile apps, flashcard apps, dictionary; self-learning Burmese resources are still few. There was a great challenge on the "font" (encoding) too: Unicode, Zawgyi, ...

Learning a Language

For me, language is a bridge for people to understand each other. Smile and body language are not enough, we need words.

• Self-study from books, recording and online website,
• Online learning,
• Tutor (costly): 1 on 1 or a group of students,
• Language class: good chance to be in a class where you can learn from others experiences, and opportunity to practice,
• Language exchange partner,
• Youtube,
• Facebook, Facebook Groups (can find short Burmese paragraphs and videos on Myanmar companies Facebook pages)

There are gifted people able to learn a language more easily. For others, commitment and hard work are crucial. You might not forget your mother language but when you don't use it much for a long time you might forget some words. When we learn a new language, it is important to memorize the words, in Burmese, we also need to memorize the tone; and if we don't keep using it much, no practice, we forget.
It is believed that adult cannot learn a language as good as a child; but who cares? William Shakespeare said: “If there is a good will, there is great way.”
When I study, I like to breakdown things and organize it nicely:

1. Understanding basic & Alphabets
2. Memorize the word (vocabulary): the character itself and 'pinyin' (romanization). Moreover, a spoken language might be a bit different from written.
3. Listening - Speaking
4. Mimic the sound (pronunciation)
5. Mimic the tone
6. Grammar
7. Reading
8. Writing

Next steps are to memorize idiom, clause, slang, etc.

Learning Burmese Resources

ONLINE MATERIALS/COURSES

●  Burmese by Ear, or Essential Myanmar, by John Okell. 1993. FREE pdf and audio!
●  Seasite Burmese (Free)
●  Asiapearltravels (Free)
●  Burmese Script Animations - How to write letters
●  Daily Burmese (Facebook)
●  Hurnel BBE & Burmese script writing animation
●  Whiteboylearningburmese
●  A Burmese Reader Oxford Oriental Series - Published 1894
●  burmeselesson.com (Paid)
●  *NEW* Letsreadasia.org Children Books

●  *NEW* NFLC Free sign up

BOOKS

●  Burmese: An Introduction to the Spoken Language, Books 1 and 2, by John Okell. 1994
●  Colloquial Burmese, the complete course for beginners, by San San Hnin Tun. 2014
●  Burmese for Beginners, by Gene Mesher. Paiboon Publishing, Berkeley and Bangkok. 2006
●  Easy Burmese, by Kenneth Wong. Tuttle Publishing. Pre-order Sep 2019
●  Advancing in Burmese, by Yadana Aung. Katha Bridge Publishing. 2020

DICTIONARIES

●  Judson Dictionary. 1921
●  Burmese/ Myanmar: a dictionary of grammatical forms, by John Okell and Anna J. Allott, Curzon Press. 2001. Abe Books. Second revised edition (2017) available in Pansodan Gallery, Yangon AND online Createspace
●  Burmese & English Compact Dictionary, compiled by Nance Cunningham & Aung Soe Min by Paiboon Publishing. 30,000 words. 2009. Abe Books
●  MyanmarBurmese-English - CzechStudentsDictionary - Published 2012

ONLINE DICTIONARIES

●  SEAlang Library Burmese

OTHERS

●  Burmese Myanmar Language Learning Facebook Group by John Okell team

 
KR,

bamalearnburmese@gmail.com • instagram.com/bama_burmese/

We are not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with any stores above.