Etymology

Burma

Bur·ma
B3U1R1M3A1

Today it means: A country in Southeast Asia. Official name: Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Capital: Naypyidaw. Officially known as Myanmar. Full definition →

Burmese ဗမာ
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The story

  1. Burmese · borrowed fromဗမာ
  2. English todayBurma

Borrowed, initially into British English, from Burmese ဗမာ (ba.ma), colloquial form of မြန်မာ (mranma); see Myanmar for more. The r in Burma was not originally pronounced (and is not present in the Burmese term), the -ur- (alternatively also -ir-, though the spelling Birma is obsolete in English) is a device used by non-rhotic dialects to represent the schwa found in the pronunciation of the Burmese colloquial form.

Words from the same roots

Burmeseဗမာ all →

Bamar

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.