Burmese numerals


Burmese numerals are a set of numerals traditionally used in the Burmese language, although Arabic numerals are also used. Burmese numerals follow the Hindu-Arabic numeral system commonly used in the rest of the world.

Main numbers

Zero to nine

1 Burmese for zero comes from Sanskrit śūnya.

2 Can be abbreviated to in list contexts, such as telephone numbers.
Spoken Burmese has innate pronunciation rules that govern numbers when they are combined with another word, be it a numerical place or a measure word.
These pronunciation shifts are exclusively confined to spoken Burmese and are not spelt any differently.

Ten to a million

1 Shifts to voiced consonant following three, four, five, and nine.
2 Athinche sometimes could mean "too large to be counted".
Ten to nineteen are almost always expressed without including .
Another pronunciation rule shifts numerical place name from the low tone to the creaky tone.
Hence, a number like 301 is pronounced , while 300 is pronounced .
The digits of a number are expressed in order of decreasing digits place. For example, 1,234,567 is expressed as follows to an open vowel.

Round number rule

When a number is used as an adjective, the standard word order is: number + measure word. However, for round numbers, the word order is flipped to: measure word + number. The exception to this rule is the number 10, which follows the standard word order.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers, from first to tenth, are Burmese pronunciations of their Pali equivalents. They are prefixed to the noun. Beyond that, cardinal numbers can be raised to the ordinal by suffixing the particle to the number in the following order: number + measure word +.

Decimal and fractional numbers

Colloquially, decimal numbers are formed by saying where the decimal separator is located. For example, 10.1 is .
Half is expressed primarily by , although, and are also used. Quarter is expressed with or.
Other fractional numbers are verbally expressed as follows: denominator + + numerator +. literally translates as "portion." For example, 3/4 would be expressed as, literally "of four portions, three portions.

Alternate numbers

Other numbers, not of Tibeto-Burman origin, are also found in the Burmese language, usually from Pali or Sanskrit. They are exceedingly rare in modern usage.
NumberPali derivativesSanskrit derivativesHindi derivatives
1
2
3
4