The Myanma Language Commission Transcription System, also known as the MLC Transcription System (MLCTS), is a transliteration

Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 system for rendering Burmese

Burmese language

The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...

 in the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

. It is loosely based on the Pali

Páli

- External links :* *...

 romanisation system, has some similarities to the ALA-LC Romanization

ALA-LC Romanization

ALA-LC is a set of standards for romanization, or the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin alphabet. The initials stand for American Library Association - Library of Congress....

, and was devised by the Myanma Language Commission. This system is used in many linguistic publications regarding Burmese, and is used in all MLC publications as the primary form of transcription for Burmese.

The transcription system is based on the orthography

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...

 of formal Burmese, and is not suited for colloquial Burmese, which has substantial differences in phonology from formal Burmese. Differences are mentioned throughout the article.

Features

Features of the MLC Transcription System include:

• Usage of coalesced letters in transcribing stacked consonants
• Consonantal transcriptions (for initials) similar to those of Pali
• Transcription of finals as consonants (-k, -c, -t, -p), rather than as glottal stops
• Transcription of nasalized finals as consonants (-m, -ny, -n, -ng), rather than as a single -n final
  • However, MLCTS does not differentiate between the anunasika  and the -m final
• Usage of : and . to transcribe two tones, heavy and creaky respectively
• Special transcriptions for abbreviated syllables used in literary Burmese

Initials and finals

The following initials are listed in the traditional ordering of the Burmese script, with the transcriptions of the initials listed before their IPA equivalents:

k ([k])	hk ([kʰ])	g ([ɡ])	gh ([ɡ])	ng ([ŋ])
c ([s])	hc ([sʰ])	j ([z])	jh ([z])	ny ([ɲ])
t ([t])	ht ([tʰ])	d ([d])	dh ([d])	n ([n])
t ([t])	ht ([tʰ])	d ([d])	dh ([d])	n ([n])
p ([p])	hp ([pʰ])	b ([b])	bh ([b])	m ([m])
y ([j])	r ([j] or [r])	l1 ([l])	w ([w])	s ([θ] or [ð])
	h ([h])	l ([l])	a [ə] or [a])

¹Sometimes used as a final, but preceding diacritics determine its pronunciation.

The Burmese alphabet is arranged in groups of five, and within each group, consonants can stack one another. The consonant above the stacked consonant is the final of the previous vowel. Most words of Sino-Tibetan origin are spelt without stacking, but polysyllabic words of Indo-European origin (such as Pali, Sanskrit, and English) are often spelt with stacking. Possible combinations are as follows:

Group	Burmese	Transcriptions	Example
ka.	, , , ,	kk, khk, gg, ggh, and ng g respectively	ang ga. lip (‌)1, meaning "English"
ca.	, , , , , ,	cc, chc, jj, jjh, nyc, nyj	wijja , meaning "knowledge"
ta.	, , , ,	tt, tht, dd, ddh, nd	kanta. , meaning "section"
ta.	, , , , , , ,	tt, htht, dd, nt, nht, nd, ndh, nn	manta. le: , Mandalay Mandalay Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region .... , a city in Burma
pa.	, , , , , , ,	pp, bb, bbh, mp, mb, mbh, mm	kambha , meaning "world"
ya.	,	ss, ll	pissa , meaning viss, a traditional Burmese unit of weight measurement

¹The pa. in ang ga. lip is sometimes spelt with a ta., although this is uncommon.

All consonantal finals are pronounced as glottal stops ([ʔ]), except for nasal finals. All possible combinations are as follows, and correspond to the colors of the initials above:

Consonant	Transcription (with IPA)
k	-ak ( [eʔ]), -wak ( [weʔ]), -auk [auʔ]), -uik [aiʔ])
c	-ac ( [iʔ])
t	-at (‌ [aʔ]), -wat ( [waʔ] or [uɴ]), -ut ( [ouʔ]), it ( [eiʔ])
p	-p ( [aʔ] or [ɛʔ]), -wap (‌ [waʔ] or [uɴ]), -up , ip ( [eiʔ])

Nasalised finals are transcribed differently. Transcriptions of the following diacritical combinations in Burmese for nasalised finals are as follows:

Consonant	Transcription (with IPA)
ng	-ang( [iɴ]), -wang ( ‌[wiɴ]), -aung ( [auɴ]), -uing ( [aiɴ])
ny	-any ( [e] or [ei]), -any ( iɴ])
n	-an ( [aɴ]), -wan (‌ [waɴ] or [uɴ]), -un ( [ouɴ]), -in ( eiɴ])
m	-am (‌ [aɴ]), -wam ( [waɴ] or [uɴ]), -um ( [ouɴ]), -im ( [eiɴ])
	-am ( [aɴ]), -um ( [ouɴ]) (equivalent to -am, but spelt with an anunaasika)

Monophthong

Monophthong

A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....

s are transcribed as follows:

Burmese			Transcription			IPA			Remarks
Low	High	Creaky	Low	High	Creaky	Low	High	Creaky
			-a	-a:	-a.	[à]	[á]	[a̰]	Can be combined with medial -w-.
‌			-ai	-ai:	-ai.	[ɛ̀]	[ɛ́]	ɛ̰]
‌			-au	-au:	-au.	[ɔ̀]	[ɔ́]	[ɔ̰]	As a full vowel in the high tone, it is written and transcribed au:. As a full vowel in the creaky tone, it is written and is transcribed au.
			-u	-u:	-u.	[ù]	[ú]	[ṵ]	As a full vowel in the creaky tone, it is written and is transcribed u.. As a vowel in low tone, it is written and transcribed u.
			-ui	-ui:	-ui.	[ò]	[ó]	[o̰]
			-i	-i:	i.	[ì]	[í]	[ḭ]	As a full vowel in the creaky tone, it is written and is transcribed i.. As a full vowel in the high tone, it is written and transcribed i:.
			-e	-e:	-e.	[è]	[é]	[ḛ]	As a full vowel in the high tone, it is written and is transcribed ei:. It can be combined with medial -w-.

Tones

Tone name	Burmese				Transcribed tone mark	Remarks
	Oral vowels1	IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...	Nasal vowel Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... s2	IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
Low		à		àɴ	none
High		á		áɴ	Colon Colon (punctuation) The colon is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.-Usage:A colon informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded the mark....  (:)	In both cases, the colon-like symbol (shay ga pauk) is used to denote the high tone.
Creaky		a̰		a̰ɴ	Full stop Full stop A full stop is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences. In American English, the term used for this punctuation is period. In the 21st century, it is often also called a dot by young people...  (.)	Nasalised finals use the anusvara Anusvara Anusvara is the diacritic used to mark a type of nasalization used in a number of Indic languages. Depending on the location of the anusvara in the word and the language within which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary greatly....  to denote the creaky tone in Burmese.

¹ Oral vowels are shown with .

² Nasal vowels are shown with (-an).

Medial consonants

A medial is a semivowel

Semivowel

In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...

 that comes before the vowel. Combinations of medials (such as h- and -r-) are possible. They follow the following order in transcription: h-, -y- or -r-, and -w-. In standard Burmese, there are three pronounced medials. The following are medials in the MLC Transcription System:

Burmese	IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...	Transcription	Remarks
	[j]	-y-†	Its possible combinations are with consonants ka., , hka., , ga. , pa. , hpa. , ba. , and ma. . The medial is possible with other finals and vowels.
	[j]	-r-†	The aforementioned remarks apply to this medial as well.
	[w]	-w-	Its possible combinations are with consonants ka. , hka. , ga. , nga, , ca, , hca, , ja, , nya, , ta. , hta, , da , na, , pa, , hpa, , ba, , bha. , ma, , ya. , ra. , la. , and sa. . The medial is possible with other finals and vowels, using the already mentioned consonants.
1		h-	Its possible combinations are with consonants nga. , nya. , na. ), ma. , ya. ‡, ra. ‡, and la. .

^†The two medials are pronounced the same in standard Burmese. In dialects such as Rakhine

Rakhine people

The Rakhine , is a nationality in Myanmar forming the majority along the coastal region of present day Rakhine State or Arakan State. They possibly constitute 5.53% or more of Myanmar's total population but no accurate census figures exist. Rakhine people also live in the southeastern parts of...

 (Arakanese), the latter is pronounced [r].

^‡When this the medial is spelt with ra. , its sound becomes hra. [ʃa̰] , which was once represented by hsya. .

Abbreviated syllables

Formal Burmese has four abbreviated symbols, which are typically used in literary works. They are listed below:

Burmese		IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...	Transcription	Usage
Modern abbrev.	Histor. spelling
		[jwé]	rwe	It is a connecting particle that connects two elements in a sentence and sometimes means "because" or "and".
		[n̥aiʔ]	hnai.	It is a locative particle that acts as a postposition after nouns (at, in, on). It is equivalent to hma in colloquial Burmese.
‌		[la̰ ɡàuɴ]	la. kaung	It acts as a demonstrative noun (this or that) when it precedes a noun. It is also used as a connecting phrase (as well as) between two nouns within a clause.
	‌	[ḭ]	e	It is a genitive that is written at the end of a sentence ending with a verb. It also marks possession of a preceding noun.

External links

• Appendix on MLCTS from Paulette Hopple's Doctoral Thesis
• Romabama transcription system by U Kyaw Tun
• Library of Congress ALA-LC romanization tables