| Rakhine | |
| Also Known As: | Arakanese |
| Nativename: | ရက္ခိုင်ဘာသာ |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /my/ |
| Ethnicity: | Rakhine, Marma, Kamein |
| States: | Myanmar, Bangladesh[1], India[2] |
| Region: |
|
| Speakers: | 1 million |
| Date: | 2011–2013 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Speakers2: | 1 million second language speakers in Myanmar (2013) |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Tibeto-Burman |
| Fam3: | Lolo-Burmese |
| Fam4: | Burmish |
| Fam5: | Burmese |
| Dia1: | Ramree |
| Dia2: | Marma |
| Script: | Burmese script |
| Map: | Arakanese.Map.png |
| Mapcaption: | Map of where the Rakhine language is spoken |
| Lc1: | rki |
| Ld1: | Rakhine ("Arakanese") |
| Lc2: | rmz |
| Ld2: | Marma |
| Glotto: | arak1255 |
| Glottorefname: | Arakanese–Marma |
Rakhine (; rki|ရခိုင်ဘာသာ, MLCTS: Burmese: ra.hkuing batha pronounced as /my/), also known as Arakanese, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Myanmar, primarily in the Rakhine State, parts of south-eastern Bangladesh and parts of southern Tripura in India. Closely related to Burmese, the language is spoken by the Rakhine and Marma peoples; it is estimated to have around one million native speakers and it is spoken as a second language by a further million.
Though Arakanese has some similarity with standard Burmese, Burmese speakers find it difficult to communicate with Arakanese speakers. Thus, it is often considered to be a dialect or variety of Burmese. As there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Arakanese.[3] There are three dialects of Arakanese: Sittwe–Marma (about two thirds of speakers), Ramree, and Thandwe.
While Arakanese and Standard Burmese share the majority of lexicon, Arakanese has numerous vocabulary differences. Some are native words with no cognates in Standard Burmese, like 'sarong' (Burmese: လုံခြည် in Standard Burmese, Burmese: ဒယော in Arakanese). Others are loan words from Bengali, English, and Hindi, not found in Standard Burmese. An example is 'hospital', which is called Burmese: ဆေးရုံ in Standard Burmese, but is called Burmese: သိပ်လှိုင် (pronounced pronounced as /[θeɪʔ l̥àɪɴ]/[ʃeɪʔ l̥àɪɴ]/) in Arakanese, from English sick lines. Other words simply have different meanings (e.g., 'afternoon', Burmese: ညစ in Arakanese and Burmese: ညနေ in Standard Burmese). Moreover, some archaic words in Standard Burmese are preferred in Arakanese. An example is the first person pronoun, which is Burmese: အကျွန် in Arakanese (not Burmese: ကျွန်တော်, as in Standard Burmese). A more unique difference is the 'Hra' sound which is not found in Burmese: only in Arakanese. e.g. ဟြာ(Hra/Seek) and Hraa(ဟြား/exceptional/excellent/very good/smart).
A gloss of vocabulary differences between Standard Burmese and Arakanese is below:[4]
| English | Standard Burmese | Arakanese | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| thirsty | Burmese: ရေဆာ | Burmese: ရီမွတ် | ||
| go | Burmese: သွား | Burmese: လား | Arakanese for 'go' was historically used in Standard Burmese. | |
| kick a ball | Burmese: ဘောလုံးကန် | Burmese: ဘောလုံးကျောက် | ||
| stomach ache | Burmese: ဗိုက်နာ | Burmese: ဝမ်းနာ | Arakanese prefers Burmese: ဝမ်း to Standard Burmese Burmese: ဗိုက် for 'stomach'. | |
| guava | Burmese: မာလကာသီး | Burmese: ဂိုယံသီး | Standard Burmese for 'guava' is derived from the word Malacca, whereas Arakanese for 'guava' is from Spanish Spanish; Castilian: guayaba, from tnq|guayaba. | |
| papaya | Burmese: သင်္ဘောသီး | Burmese: ပဒကာသီး | Standard Burmese for 'papaya' literally means 'boat'. | |
| soap | Burmese: ဆပ်ပြာ | Burmese: သူပုန် | From Portuguese "sabão". In Standard Burmese, 'Burmese: သူပုန်' means 'rebel' or 'insurgent'. | |
| superficial | Burmese: အပေါ်ယံ | Burmese: အထက်ပေါ်ရီ[5] | ||
| blanket | Burmese: စောင် | Burmese: ပုဆိုး | Burmese: ပုဆိုး in Standard Burmese refers to the men's longyi (sarong). | |
| dark | Burmese: မှောင် | Burmese: မိုက် | The compound word Burmese: မှောင်မိုက် ('pitch dark') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese. | |
| pick a flower | Burmese: ပန်းခူး | Burmese: ပန်းဆွတ် | The compound word Burmese: ဆွတ်ခူး ('pick') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese. | |
| wash [clothes] | Burmese: လျှော် | Burmese: ဖွပ် | The compound word Burmese: လျှော်ဖွပ် ('wash') is used in both Standard Burmese and Arakanese. | |
| Burmese: | Burmese: | ---> |
The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds, represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
The consonants of Arakanese are:
| Bilabial | Dental/Alveolar | Post-al./ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | sibilant | ||||||
| Nasal | voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Plosive | voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | voiced | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Lateral | voiced | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Approximant | voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
The vowels of Arakanese are:
| Monophthongs | Diphthongs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front offglide | Back offglide | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ei/ | pronounced as /ou/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ai/ | pronounced as /au/ | |||
The Arakanese dialect also has a higher frequency of open vowels weakening to pronounced as //ə// than Standard Burmese. An example is the word for 'salary', (Burmese: လခ), which is pronounced as /[la̰ɡa̰]/ in standard Burmese, but pronounced as /[ləkha̰]/ in Arakanese.
The following is a summary of consonantal, vowel and rhyme differences from Standard Burmese found in the Arakanese dialect:
| Written Burmese | Standard Burmese | Arakanese | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burmese: -စ် | pronounced as //-ɪʔ// | pronounced as //-aɪʔ// | e.g. Burmese: စစ် 'genuine' and Burmese: စိုက် 'plant' are both pronounced pronounced as /[saɪʔ]/ in Arakanese | |
| Burmese: ိုက် | pronounced as //-aɪʔ// | |||
| Burmese: -က် | -ɛʔ | -ɔʔ | ||
| Burmese: -ဉ် | pronounced as //-ɪɴ// | pronounced as //-aɪɴ// | e.g. Burmese: ဥယျာဉ် 'garden', from Standard Burmese pronounced as /[ṵ jɪ̀ɴ]/ → pronounced as /[wəjàɪɴ]/. Irregular rhyme, with various pronunciations. In some words, it is pronounced as //-ɛɴ// (e.g. Burmese: ဝိညာဉ် 'soul', from Standard Burmese pronounced as /[wèɪɴ ɲɪ̀ɴ]/ → pronounced as /[wḭ ɲɛ̀ɴ]/). In a few words, it is pronounced as //-i -e// (e.g. Burmese: ညှဉ်း 'to oppress', from Standard Burmese pronounced as /[ɲ̥ɪ́ɴ]/ → pronounced as /[ɲ̥í, ɲ̥é]/). | |
| Burmese: ိုင် | pronounced as //-aɪɴ// | |||
| Burmese: -င် | pronounced as //-ɪɴ// | pronounced as //-ɔɴ// | ||
| Burmese: -န် ွန် | pronounced as //-aɴ -ʊɴ// | Burmese: ွန် is pronounced as //-wɔɴ// | ||
| Burmese: -ည် | pronounced as //-i, -e, -ɛ// | pronounced as //-e// | A few exceptions are pronounced pronounced as //-aɪɴ//, like Burmese: ကြည် 'clear', pronounced pronounced as /[kɹàɪɴ]/ | |
| Burmese: -ေ | pronounced as //-e// | pronounced as //-i// | e.g. Burmese: ချီ 'carry' and Burmese: ချေ 'cancel' are pronounced pronounced as /[tɕʰì]/ and pronounced as /[tɕʰè]/ respectively in Standard Burmese, but merged to pronounced as /[tɕʰì]/ in Arakanese | |
| Burmese: -တ် ွတ် | pronounced as //-aʔ -ʊʔ// | pronounced as //-aʔ// | ||
| Burmese: ိန် | pronounced as //-eɪɴ// | pronounced as //-ɪɴ// | ||
| Burmese: -ုန် | pronounced as //-oʊɴ// | pronounced as //-ʊɴ// | ||
| Nasal initial + Burmese: -ီ Nasal initial + Burmese: -ေ | pronounced as //-i// | pronounced as //-eɪɴ// | e.g. Burmese: နီ 'red' is pronounced as /[nì]/ in Standard Burmese, but pronounced as /[nèɪɴ]/ in Arakanese In some words, the rhyme is unchanged from the standard rhyme (e.g. Burmese: မြေ 'land', usually pronounced pronounced as /[mɹì]/, not pronounced as /[mɹèɪɴ]/, or Burmese: အမိ 'mother', usually pronounced pronounced as /[əmḭ]/, not pronounced as /[əmḛɪɴ]/) There are few exceptions where the nasal rhyme is pronounced as //-eɪɴ-// even without a nasal initial (e.g. Burmese: သီ 'thread', from Standard Burmese pronounced as /[θì]/ → pronounced as /[θèɪɴ]/). | |
| Nasal initial + Burmese: -ု -ူ -ူး | pronounced as //-u// | pronounced as //-oʊɴ// | e.g. Burmese: နု 'tender' is pronounced as /[nṵ]/ in Standard Burmese, but pronounced as /[no̰ʊɴ]/ in Arakanese | |
| Burmese: ွား | pronounced as //-wá// | pronounced as //-ɔ́// | e.g. Burmese: ဝါး 'bamboo' is pronounced as /[wá]/ in Standard Burmese, but pronounced as /[wɔ́]/ in Arakanese | |
| Burmese: ြွ | pronounced as //-w-// | pronounced as //-ɹw-// | Occurs in some words (e.g. Burmese: မြွေ 'snake' is pronounced as /[mwè]/ in Standard Burmese, but pronounced as /[mɹwèɪɴ]/ in Arakanese) | |
| Burmese: ရှ- | pronounced as //ʃ-// | pronounced as //hɹ-// | ||
| Burmese: ချ- | pronounced as //tɕʰ-// | pronounced as //ʃ-// | Occasionally occurs (e.g. Burmese: ချင် 'to want' is pronounced as /[tɕʰɪ̀ɴ]/ in Standard Burmese, but pronounced as /[ʃɔ̀ɴ]/~pronounced as /[tɕʰɔ̀ɴ]/ in Arakanese) | |
| Burmese: တ- → Burmese: ရ- | pronounced as //t- d-// | pronounced as //ɹ-// | e.g. The present tense particle Burmese: တယ် (pronounced as /[dɛ̀]/) corresponds with Burmese: ရယ် (pronounced as /[ɹɛ̀]/) in Arakanese e.g. The plural particle Burmese: တို့ (pronounced as /[do̰]/) corresponds with Burmese: ရို့ (pronounced as /[ɹo̰]/) in Arakanese | |
| Burmese: ရှ- ယှ- ယျှ- | pronounced as //ʃ-// | pronounced as //h-// | Found in some words only | |
| Burmese: -ယ် ဲ | -ɛ | -e |
| Written | Burmese: အမေက | Burmese: သင်္ကြန်ပွဲတွင် | Burmese: ဝတ်ရန် | Burmese: ထဘီ | Burmese: ရှစ်ထည် | Burmese: ပေးလိုက်ပါ | Burmese: ဆိုသည်။ | ||
| Standard Burmese | ʔəmè ɡa̰ | ðədʒàɴ pwɛ́ dwɪ̀ɴ | wʊʔ jàɴ | tʰəmèɪɴ | ʃɪʔ tʰɛ̀ | pé laɪʔ pà | sʰò dɛ̀ | ||
| Arakanese | ʔəmì ɡa̰ | θɔ́ɴkràɴ pwé hmà | waʔ pʰo̰ | dəjɔ̀ | ʃaɪʔ tʰè | pí laʔ pà | sʰò ɹì | ||
| Arakanese (written) | Burmese: အမိက | Burmese: သင်္ကြန်ပွဲမှာ | Burmese: ဝတ်ဖို့ | Burmese: ဒယော | Burmese: ရှစ်ထည် | Burmese: ပီးလတ်ပါ | Burmese: ဆိုရယ်။ | ||
| Gloss | |||||||||
| English | Mother says "Give me eight pasos for wearing during the Thingyan festival." | ||||||||
Arakanese is written using the Burmese script, which descends from Southern Brahmi. Rakhine speakers are taught Rakhine pronunciations using written Burmese, while most Marma speakers are only literate in Bengali.[6]
The first extant Arakanese inscriptions, the Launggrak Taung Maw inscription and the Mahathi Crocodile Rock inscription (1356), date to the 1300s, and the epigraphic record of Arakanese inscriptions is unevenly distributed between the 1400s to 1800s. In the early 1400s, Arakanese inscriptions began to transition from the square letters associated with stone inscriptions (kyauksa), to rounder letters that is now standard for the Burmese script. This coincided with developments in Arakanese literature, which was stimulated by the rise of Mrauk U during the 1400s.[7]
What is now Rakhine State is home to Sanskrit inscriptions that date from the first millennium to the 1000s. These inscriptions were written in Northern Brahmic scripts (namely Siddham or Gaudi), which are ancestral to the Bengali script. However, these inscriptions are not ancestral to Arakanese epigraphy, which uses the Mon–Burmese script. While some Arakanese have coined the term "Rakkhawunna" to describe a script that predates the usage of written Burmese, there is no contemporary lithic evidence to support the existence of such a script.
Contemporary Rakhine exhibits considerable regional variation. Dialects differ across areas such as Sittwe (southern), Kula-taung, Myit Wa, Chaungtha (upper river), and among historical Rakhine populations in present-day Bangladesh and India. Even within Rakhine State, towns such as Kyaukphyu, Ramree, Mrauk-U, Thandwe, Ann, and Pauktaw show geographical dialectal variation. Coastal areas closer to central Burma, including Thandwe and Taungup, tend to exhibit softer tones and pronunciations influenced by proximity to Burmese-speaking regions.
Rakhine is often described in literature as a "purer" or "more ancient" form of Burmese. This claim is based on certain phonological features retained in Rakhine but lost in Standard Burmese, such as distinctions between Written Burmese r and y, and between aŋ and añ. Rakhine also merges rhymes such as at and an with wat and wan, and exhibits less extensive voicing.
Conversely, Standard Burmese preserves distinctions—such as between ac, añ and uik, uir, or wa and o—that have been lost in Rakhine. It also tends to preserve vowel clarity and shows less phonetic weakening.
