မြန်မာ
mranma/mjàɴmà/
The English word Burma can be translated into Burmese as မြန်မာ (mranma) or ဗမာ.
Meaning: Southeast Asian country (former name) (name)
Ways to say it
| Burmese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| မြန်မာ | mranma | /mjàɴmà/ /mjəmà/ |
| ဗမာ | ba.ma | /bəmà/ |
Burmese uses different terms depending on whether you are referring to the country as a whole or a specific ethnic group. The term ဗမာ can refer to the Bamar ethnic group, but when referring to the country itself, the suffix ပြည် is often added to create ဗမာပြည်.
What does it mean word for word?
In the phrase ဗမာပြည်, the suffix ပြည် means 'land' or 'country'.
Which one should you use?
The form မြန်မာ (Myanmar) is the official and more formal name for the country. In contrast, ဗမာ (Bama) is often perceived as less formal and is frequently used to refer specifically to the Bamar ethnic group rather than the country as a whole.
How do you pronounce it?
The romanization is mranma and the IPA is /mjàɴmà/.
Did you know?
- There is a possibility that the term မြန်မာ shares a common linguistic ancestor with the Chinese character 蠻, which was historically used to refer to 'barbarians'.
Examples in context
- ဗမာပြည်Burma (country)This sentence is useful for seeing how to refer to the country using the form ဗမာ.
- မြန်မာ အကြောင်းကို ကျွန်တော် သိပါတယ်။myanma a-kyaung-go kyun-daw thi-par-tal.I know about Burma.
Example conversation
Two friends are talking about their travel plans.
- စုစု Su Suမင်းမင်း၊ မြန်မာကို သွားချင်လား။min min, myanmar ko thwar chin lar?Min Min, do you want to go to Myanmar?
- မင်းမင်း Min Minဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ သွားချင်ပါတယ်။houk kae, thwar chin par tal.Yes, I want to go.
- စုစု Su Suမြန်မာမှာ လည်ပတ်စရာတွေ အများကြီးရှိတယ်။myanmar hmar lal pat sayar tway amyarr gyee shi tal.There are many places to visit in Myanmar.
- မင်းမင်း Min Minစုစုနဲ့ အတူတူ သွားမယ်နော်။su su nae atu tu thwar mal naw.I will go together with Su Su.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “burma” translations and entries မြန်မာ, ဗမာ, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries ဗမာ, မြန်မာ, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Wiktionary CC BY-SA 4.0.
