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Myanmar, [d] officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar [e] and also rendered as Burma (the official English form until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia.It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million.
The country known in English as Burma, or Myanmar, has undergone changes in both its official and popular names worldwide. The choice of names stems from the existence of two different names for the country in Burmese , which are used in different contexts.
Burmese English (also called Myanmar English) is the register of the English language used in Myanmar (Burma), spoken as second language by an estimated 2.4 million people, about 5% of the population (1997). [1] The English language was initially introduced to the country during the British colonial period, spanning from 1824 until independence ...
Burmese names (Burmese: မြန်မာ အမည်) lack the serial structure of most Western names.Like other Mainland Southeast Asian people (except Vietnamese), the people of Myanmar have no customary matronymic or patronymic naming system and no tradition of surnames.
An ethnolinguistic map of Myanmar from 1972. Similar to the concepts of pribumi in Indonesia and bumiputera in Malaysia, Burmese society categorises indigenous peoples who had historically lived in what is now modern-day Myanmar as taing-yin-tha (တိုင်းရင်းသား), [22] which is typically translated as 'national race' or 'indigenous race.'
Today, Burmese is the primary language of instruction, and English is the secondary language taught. [10] English was the primary language of instruction in higher education from late 19th century to 1964, when Gen. Ne Win mandated educational reforms to "Burmanise". [15] English continues to be used by educated urbanites and the national ...
In 1989, after the coup d'état by the military junta, the names of many divisions in Burma were altered in English to reflect Burmese pronunciations. [13] After 1995, in Kachin State Mohnyin District was created out of Myitkyina District as part of the peace agreement with the Kachin Independence Army.
In the Burmese language, Bamar (ဗမာ, also transcribed Bama) and Myanmar (မြန်မာ, also transliterated Mranma and transcribed Myanma) [note 1] have historically been interchangeable endonyms. [5] Burmese is a diglossic language; "Bamar" is the diglossic low form of "Myanmar," which is the diglossic high equivalent. [7]