| Old Burmese | |
|---|---|
 Detail of the Myazedi inscription | |
| Region | Pagan Kingdom |
| Era | 12th–16th centuries |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Burmese script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | obr |
obr | |
| Glottolog | oldb1235 |
Old Burmese was an early form of the Burmese language, as attested in the stone inscriptions of Pagan, and is the oldest phase of Burmese linguistic history. The transition to Middle Burmese occurred in the 16th century.[1] The transition to Middle Burmese included phonological changes (e.g. mergers of sound pairs that were distinct in Old Burmese) as well as accompanying changes in the underlying orthography.[1] Word order, grammatical structure and vocabulary have remained markedly comparable, well into Modern Burmese, with the exception of lexical content (e.g. function words).[1][2]
- ^ a b c Herbert, Patricia; Anthony Crothers Milner (1989). South-East Asia: Languages and Literatures: a Select Guide. University of Hawaii Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780824812676.
- ^ Wheatley, Julian (2013). "12. Burmese". In Randy J. LaPolla; Graham Thurgood (eds.). Sino-Tibetan Languages. Routledge. ISBN 9781135797171.