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Burmese Tone Reference with Audio

Burmese 1-2-3 tone system is used throughout the lessons that correlates the Burmese Romanization with equivalent English words. The following table is the summary reference with audio recordings.

1-2-3 TONES 🎧
Audio Pronunciation
Ah1 "a" in "art" (silent "rt")
Ah2 "ar" in "Argentina" (silent "r")
Ah3 "ar" in "Artist" (slilent "r")
De1 "de" in "deep" (silent "p")
De2 "de" as in "demote"; "demand"
De3 "dee" as in "deer"; "decent"
Ko1 "colt" (silent "lt")
Ko2 as in "co-author"; "cocaine"
Ko3 "cold" (silent "ld")
Yu1 "u" in "Youth" (silent "th")
Yu2 "u" as in "university"; "utensil"
Yu3 "u" as in "user"; "Unix"
Shan1 as in "shunt" (silent "t")
Shan2 "shun" as in "chandelier"
Shan3 as in "shun"
Au1 as in "auction"
Au2 as in "Australia";"auditor"
Au3 as in "August"
May1 "maize" (silent "ze")
May2 "may" as in "May I?"
May3 "ay" in "amazing"
Sin1 "sink" (silent "k")
Sin2 "sin" as in "sincerely"
Sin3 "sin" as in "sinful"; "Singapore"
Un1 "aunt" (silent "t")
Un2 "un" in "understanding"
Un3 "un" as in "under"
Meare1 "melt" (silent "lt")
Meare2 "mel" in "Melbourne" (silent "l")
Meare3 "mare" of "nightmare"
Tain1 "taint" (silent "t")
Tain2 "tain" as in "Captain"
Tain3 "tain" as in "maintain"
Bine1 "Bryant" without "r"
Bine2 as in "carbine"
Bine3 as in "combine"
Dome1 as in "don't"
Dome2 as in "domain"
Dome3 as in "dome"
Toon1 "doont" in "couldn't"
Toon2 "mon" in "monastery"
Toon3 "oon" as in "cartoon"
Koun1 "count" (silent "t")
Koun2 "coun" in "counter-strike"
Koun3 "coun" as in "counsel"
ate cake, jade, eight, paid, bake
et wet, set, mad, yet
oot cook, put, look
out out, south, mouse, doubt
ike/ite sight, pipe, night, dice, like
ut up, nut, sucks
oat oat, coat, goat, soak
it it, pit, sit

For detailed explanations and rationale behind this development, please visit lesson 1 on tones.

Color Codes: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, particles, postpositional markers, interjections.