အဘွား
a.bhwa:/ʔəpʰwá/
The English word "grandmother" is translated into Burmese as အဘွား (a.bhwa:). If unsure, use အဘွား. Wiktionary also lists ဘွားဘွား (bhwa:bhwa:).
Meaning: mother of someone's parent (noun)
Ways to say it
| Burmese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| အဘွား | a.bhwa: | /ʔəpʰwá/ |
| ဘွားဘွား | bhwa:bhwa: | /pʰwápʰwá/ |
The term refers to the mother of someone's parent. While it specifically means grandmother, it is also used in Burmese culture as a polite way to address any elderly woman, even if she is not a biological relative.
Which one should you use?
အဘွား is the standard form for grandmother, whereas the reduplicated form ဘွားဘွား is more affectionate or used when addressing her directly.
How does it change in a sentence?
Reduplicating the word to create ဘွားဘွား creates a more endearing, diminutive or casual form of address, similar to 'grandma' or 'granny' in English.
How do you pronounce it?
a.bhwa:
When do people say it?
In Burmese culture, အဘွား is often used as a polite way to address any elderly woman, even if she is not a biological relative.
Did you know?
- The root of the word ဘွား shares an ancient ancestor with the Chinese term for an 'older lady', suggesting a deep linguistic connection across much of Southeast Asia.
- Burmese kinship terms like အဘွား are often used in a 'pseudo-kinship' system to organize social hierarchies and show respect to elders in public spaces.
Examples in context
- ကျွန်တော့် အဘွားက အရမ်းချစ်ဖို့ကောင်းပါတယ်။kyan taw a bwar ka a yan chit pho kaung par tal.My grandmother is very lovely.
- အဘွားက အိမ်မှာ ရှိနေတယ်။a bwar ka ein mhar shi nay tal.Grandmother is at home.
- အဘွားဆီက လက်ဆောင် ရခဲ့တယ်။a bwar si ga let saung ya kha tal.I received a gift from my grandmother.
Example conversation
Kyaw Kyaw and Myat Noe are talking about family.
- ကျော်ကျော် Kyaw Kyawမြတ်နိုး၊ အဘွားကို တွေ့ချင်လား။Myat Noe, a bwar ko tway chin lar?Myat Noe, do you want to see your grandmother?
- မြတ်နိုး Myat Noeဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ အဘွားကို အရမ်းလွမ်းနေတာ။hoke kae, a bwar ko a yan lwan nay dar.Yes, I miss my grandmother very much.
- ကျော်ကျော် Kyaw Kyawအဘွားက အခု အပြင်ရောက်နေတယ်။a bwar ka a khu a pyin yaout nay tal.Grandmother is out right now.
- မြတ်နိုး Myat Noeဒါဆိုရင် နောက်မှ သွားတွေ့မယ်။dar so yin nout mhar thwar tway mae.Then I will go see her later.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “grandmother” translations and entries အဘွား, ဘွားဘွား, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries ဘွားဘွား, အဘွား, CC BY-SA 4.0.
