Names of Myanmar
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.
The official English name Burma was changed by the country's government from the "Union of Burma" to the "Union of Myanmar" in 1989, while official Burmese language name remained unchanged. Since then, those name changes have been the subject of controversies and mixed incidences of adoption. In spoken Burmese, "Bamar" and "Myanmar" remain interchangeable, especially with respect to referencing the language and country.
Burmese names
In the Burmese language, Burma is officially known as Myanmar Pyi, but also interchangeably used with Bamar Pyi. Myanmar is the written, literary name of the country, while Bama is the spoken name of the country. Burmese, like Javanese and other languages of Southeast Asia, has different linguistic registers, with sharp differences between literary and colloquial registers. Both names derive ultimately from the endonym of the country's largest ethnic group, the Burmans, also known as Bama or Mranma in the spoken and literary registers, respectively. As such, some groups—particularly non-Burmans minorities—consider these names to be exclusionary."Mranma"
The etymology of Mranma remains debated. The British colonial scholar, Arthur Purves Phayre, traced the etymology of this term to Pali word, the name of a celestial being in Buddhist cosmology, in his 1866 "On the History of the Burmah Race." Subsequent scholars, including Taw Sein Ko, Kyaw Dun, and Khin Aye, re-affirmed Phayre's view. However, some scholars dispute this etymology, believing the term to be of indigenous provenance.The "Burmans" who entered the central Irrawaddy River valley in the 9th century founded the Pagan Kingdom in 849, and called themselves Mranma. The earliest discovered record of the word was in a Mon inscription dated 1083, inside which the name was spelled Mirma. The first record of the name in a Burmese inscription is dated 1194, in which inscription the name was spelled Mranma. From there on, the term became a fixed label in reference to Burmese kingdoms and peoples.
Ma Thanegi records that the first use of the name 'Mranma' for the country is to be found on a high stone inscription, known as the 'Yadana Kon Htan Inscription,' dated 597 ME or 1235 CE. The stone is from the reign of Kyaswa, son of King Htilominlo, Bagan. It is written in early Burmese script. Although the middle of the front side of this stone is damaged, the first line of the better-protected reverse side clearly shows မြန်မာပြည်. At present it is in Bagan recorded as stone number 43 in the Archaeological Department's collection.
Today in Burmese the name is still spelled Mranma, but over time the "r" sound disappeared in most dialects of the Burmese language and was replaced by a "y" glide, so although the name is spelled "Mranma", it is actually pronounced Myanma today.
In the decades preceding independence, independence parties were in search of a name for the new country to be born, which would be made up not only of Burmese-speaking people, but also of many minorities. In the 1920s, some favoured the name Mranma, which had been the name applied to the old Burmese kingdom conquered by the British Empire in the 19th century. In the 1930s, the left-wing independence parties favoured the name Bama, as they thought this name was more inclusive of minorities than Mranma.
While both the names Bama and Mranma historically referred only to the Burmans and not other ethnic minorities, Burmese governments in the post-independence period have instituted a differentiation of meaning between Mranma and Bama in the official Burmese language usage. The name Myanma/Myanmar was expanded to include all citizens of the country while the name Bama was kept to its original meaning. In Burmese, Bama and Myanma are used interchangeably, to refer to the country, depending on the context. Ironically, because of the official renaming of the country, the dominant ethnic group is now known by its colloquial name, Bama, rather than by its literary name, Mranma in official Burmese usage.
"Bama"
The earliest extant Burmese reference to "Bamar" is in the Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription dated to. The exact origins of this term are debated — it likely originated from a phonological transformation that commonly occurs in Burmese compound words, or may be derived from a colloquial Mon pronunciation of the term. In modern Mon, the Bamar are called hemea.The colloquial name Bama likely originated from the name Myanma by shortening of the first syllable, from loss of nasal final "an", reduced to non-nasal "a", and loss of "y" glide), and then by transformation of "m" into "b". This consonant mutation from "m" to "b" is frequent in colloquial Burmese and occurs in many other words. Although Bama may be a later transformation of the name Myanma, both names have been in use alongside each other for centuries.
The term "Bama" gained traction in the 19th century, but "Myanma" continued to be officially used by colonial authorities in Burmese language contexts. In 1930s,, founder of the Dobama Asiayone, referred to the country as Bama Pyi, which helped popularize the term. He felt that the pronunciation of Mranma is "weak" and that of Bama is "strong". He also added that Bama refers to, not only the Mranma ethnic group, but all ethnic groups present in the country.
Use of "Bamar" became prominent during the Japanese occupation of Burma. The Japanese adopted the Burmese term "State of Bama" during this period, in reference to the Burmese puppet state set up by the Japanese occupation forces during the Second World War. When the Japanese used their own syllabary, they transliterated the three consonants of the Dutch name "Birma" and ended up with the name Biruma.
During the socialist era, the 1974 Constitution of Burma used "Bama" in reference to the nationality, and use of "Myanma" in reference to the country. In 1989, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the country's ruling military junta, issued an edict to designate "Bama" to reference the ethnicity, and "Myanma" to reference the nationality.
English names
History
In English, the official name chosen for the country at the time of independence was "Burma". This was already the name that the British called their colony before 1948. This name most likely comes from Portuguese Birmânia and was adopted by English in the 18th century. The Portuguese name itself, a Latinate back-formation, came from the Indian name Barma which was borrowed by the Portuguese from any of the Indian languages in the 16th or 17th century. This Indian name Barma may derive from colloquial Burmese Bama, but it may also derive from the Indian name Brahma-desh.Early usage of the English term Burma varies:
- Bermah
- Birmah
- Brama
- Burmah
- Burma
- Burmah
- Burma
In 1989, the military regime of Burma set up a commission in charge of reviewing the place names of Burma in the English language. The aim of the commission was to correct the spelling of the place names of Burma in English, to discard spellings chosen by British colonial authorities in the 19th century, and adopt spellings closer to the actual Burmese pronunciation. These renamings took the form of the "Adaptation of Expressions Law", passed on 18 June 1989. Thus, for instance, Rangoon was changed to Yangon to reflect the fact that the "r" sound is no longer used in Standard Burmese and merged with a "y" glide.
As for the country's name, the commission replaced the English name "Burma" with "Myanmar" for three reasons. First, Myanma is the official name of the country in the Burmese language used since declaration of independence from Britain in 1948, and the aim of the commission was to have English place names aligned with Burmese place names and pronunciation. Second, the commission thought that the name Myanma was more inclusive of minorities than the name Bama, and wanted the English name of the country to reflect this. Finally, the military regime has long been suspicious of the colloquial Burmese language, which it perceives as subversive; the English name "Burma" mirrors the colloquial Burmese name Bama.
The final "r" in the English "Myanmar" is absent in Burmese Myanma. The commission added a final "r" in English to represent the low tone of Burmese, in which the word Myanma is pronounced. In the low tone, the final vowel "a" is lengthened. The commission based its choice of spelling on Received Pronunciation and other non-rhotic English English dialects, in which "ar" is also pronounced as long "a". However, in variants of English in which final "r" is pronounced, such as standard American English, adding this final "r" leads to a pronunciation very different from the Burmese pronunciation.
Controversies
In the Burmese language, there have been controversies about the name of the country since the 1930s, and the decision of the regime in 1989 carried the controversy into the English language. The regime believes that Myanmar is more inclusive of minorities than Bama, while opponents point out that historically, Myanmar is only a more literary version of Bama.Quite the opposite of being more inclusive, opposition parties and human rights groups contend that the new English name "Myanmar" is actually disrespectful of the minorities of Burma. Minorities, many of whom do not speak Burmese, had become accustomed to the English name "Burma" over the years, and they perceive the new name "Myanmar" as a purely Burmese name reflecting the policy of domination of the ethnic Burman majority over the minorities.
The regime changed the name of the country when using English; it did not change the official name of the country in Burmese. Former opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at first opposed the new name "Myanmar", pointing out the hypocritical justification of inclusivity put forward by the regime. Opposition parties, although they oppose the English name "Myanmar", do not oppose the official Burmese name Mranma, and no opposition party is proposing to use the colloquial name Bama as the official name of the country. Culturally, when speaking, locals refer to the country as Burma, but in literature, it is named "Myanmar".
Finally, a lot of criticism also focused on the alleged lack of linguistic soundness of the reform. Only four language scholars sat in the 1989 commission, while the majority of the commission was made up of military officials and civil servants with no particular knowledge of linguistics. It was claimed that the new names lacked serious linguistic credibility or were questionable, and in particular there were objections to the fact that the commission had based its spelling on a non-rhotic dialect of English in using the final "r" at the end of the name Myanmar.