Rakhine (; , MLCTS:  ), also known as Arakanese, is a language of western Myanmar that is closely related to Burmese. Native to the Rakhine, Marma, it is spoken as a first language by one million people, and as a second language by a further million.

Though Arakanese has some similarity with standard Burmese, Burmese find difficult to communicate with Arakanese. Thus, it is often considered to be a dialect or variety of Burmese. As there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Arakanese. There are three dialects of Arakanese: Sittwe–Marma (about two thirds of speakers), Ramree, and Thandwe.

Vocabulary
While Arakanese and Standard Burmese share the majority of lexicon, Arakanese has numerous vocabulary differences. Some are native words with no cognates in Standard Burmese, like 'sarong' ( in Standard Burmese,  in Arakanese). Others are loan words from Bengali, English, and Hindi, not found in Standard Burmese. An example is 'hospital', which is called  in Standard Burmese, but is called  (pronounced ) in Arakanese, from English sick lines. Other words simply have different meanings (e.g., 'afternoon',  in Arakanese and  in Standard Burmese). Moreover, some archaic words in Standard Burmese are preferred in Arakanese. An example is the first person pronoun, which is  in Arakanese (not , as in Standard Burmese). Unique Difference is Hra sound which is not found in Burmese: only in Arakanese. eg. ဟြာ(Hra/Seek) and Hraa(ဟြား/very good/smart).

Comparison
A gloss of vocabulary differences between Standard Burmese and Arakanese is below:

Phonology
The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds, represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Consonants 
The consonants of Arakanese are:

Arakanese largely shares the same set of consonant phonemes as standard Burmese, though Arakanese more prominently uses , which has largely merged to  in standard Burmese (with some exceptions). Because Arakanese has preserved the  sound, the  medial (which is preserved in writing in Standard Burmese with the diacritic ) is still distinguished in the following Arakanese consonant clusters: . For example, the word "blue," spelt , is pronounced  in standard Burmese, but pronounced  in Arakanese. Moreover, there is less voicing in Arakanese than in Standard Burmese, occurring only when the consonant is unaspirated. Unlike in Burmese, voicing never shifts from  to .

Vowels 
The vowels of Arakanese are:

While Arakanese shares the same set of vowels as Burmese, Arakanese rhymes also diverge from Standard Burmese for a number of open syllables and closed syllables. For instance, Arakanese has also merged various vowel sounds, such as  () to ဣ (). Hence, a word like 'blood', which is spelt , pronounced () in standard Burmese, is pronounced  in Arakanese. Similarly, Arakanese has a number of closed syllable rhymes that do not exist in Standard Burmese, including .

The Arakanese dialect also has a higher frequency of open vowels weakening to  than Standard Burmese. An example is the word for 'salary', (), which is  in standard Burmese, but  in Arakanese.

Differences from standard Burmese 
The following is a summary of consonantal, vowel and rhyme differences from Standard Burmese found in the Arakanese dialect:

Writing system
Arakanese is written using the Burmese script, which descends from Southern Brahmi. Rakhine speakers are taught Rakhine pronunciations using written Burmese, while most Marma speakers are only literate in Bengali. 

The first extant Arakanese inscriptions, the Launggrak Taung Maw inscription and the Mahathi Crocodile Rock inscription (1356), date to the 1300s, and the epigraphic record of Arakanese inscriptions is unevenly distributed between the 1400s to 1800s. In the early 1400s, Arakanese inscriptions began to transition from the square letters associated with stone inscriptions (kyauksa), to rounder letters that is now standard for the Burmese script. This coincided with developments in Arakanese literature, which was stimulated by the rise of Mrauk U during the 1400s. 

What is now Rakhine State is home to Sanskrit inscriptions that date from the first millennium to the 1000s. These inscriptions were written in Northern Brahmic scripts (namely Siddham or Gaudi), which are ancestral to the Bengali script. However, these inscriptions are not ancestral to Arakanese epigraphy, which uses the Mon–Burmese script. While some Arakanese have coined the term "Rakkhawunna" () to describe a script that predates the usage of written Burmese, there is no contemporary lithic evidence to support the existence of such a script.

References

Bibliography

External links

Burmish languages
Languages of Myanmar
Languages of Bangladesh
Languages of India