ABSTRACT
Burmese is the national language of Myanmar, or Burma. 1 Burma is situated between the Tibetan plateau and the Malay peninsula, sharing borders with Bangladesh and India to the west, with China to the north-east, with Laos to the east and with Thailand to the southeast. It is a multi-national state. About two-thirds of its population are Burmans (called Bamar after 1990). The other third is made up of a large number of ethnic groups, 2 including other Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples such as the Chin, the Lahu and the Karen, Mon–Khmer peoples such as the Mon and Padaung, the Shan (whose language is closely related to Thai), and Chinese and Indians, who live mostly in the towns. The majority of the population of the country, put at about 51.5 million in the 2014 census, speaks Burmese as either a first or second language.
