မူ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mow (“to work, move, do, make”), whence also အမှု (a.hmu., “case; deed”); see the latter for more (STEDT).

inh

particle used to distinguish a noun or pronoun from all others


က

သူက ဒီလို ပြောခဲ့တယ်

indicates the subject of the sentence, a topic marker, a nominative marker


င

(honorific, derogatory) particle prefixed to a man's name (now considered to be derogatory)


စ

euphonic or emphatic particle combined with verbs


စ

word suffixed to a noun to indicate the smallness of amount involved


စ

ကြားပါစ

တွေ့ပါစ

မြင်ပါစ

ရှိပါစ


ဆ

och-l

次 (OC *sn̥ʰis, “order; next in sequence”)

numerical classifier used in counting the number of times per equal amount


ထ

particle prefixed to the adjectival particle သော (sau:) to lend elegance to a statement


ပ

particle suffixed to a verb as an emphasis


ပ

ပေါ့ ပေါ့#Burmese

(colloquial, same as ပါ့ (pa.), ပေါ့ (pau.))


ဖ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pʷa (“father, husband, person”). Cognate with Mizo pa (“father”), Old Chinese 夫 (OC *pa, *ba, “man, husband”) (STEDT). Doublet of ဘ (bha.).

inh

particle affixed to certain nouns to denote masculine gender


ဖ

According to STEDT, a clipping of ဖဝါး (hpa.wa:, “palm”), which STEDT derives from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *p(l)a-n ~ *p(w)a-n (“palm, sole”); see ဖဝါး (hpa.wa:) for more.

particle affixed to some words associated with the extremities of the limbs, especially the feet


ဘ

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *pʷa (“man, father, husband, person”); cognate with Old Chinese 夫 (OC *pa, *ba, “husband, man”) (STEDT). Doublet of ဖ (hpa.).

(honorific) title prefixed to a male's given name


မ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma (“female, mother, principal part, feminine suffix”). STEDT compares the Tibeto-Burman with the pictographic form of Old Chinese 毋 (OC *ma, “not”), as well as implicitly 母 (OC *mɯʔ, “mother”), the latter from the possibly-related Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mow (“woman”). Luce gives 拇 (OC *mɯʔ, “thumb, big toe”) (in addition to Tibetan མོ (mo, “female”)) as a particularly close cognate, which appears to stem from *ma and is supported by Schuessler 2007. For a semantic parallel with partial cognacy from this root and syllable, note လက်မ (lakma., “thumb”).

မမိုးယုစံ

(honorific) form of address for younger women, prefixed to their proper name; miss

word used as a suffix to denote feminine gender


မ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma (“no, not”).

not (prefixed to the verb, which is itself followed by another negative particle such as ဘူး (bhu:) or နဲ့ (nai.))


မ

ဘာ စားမလဲ။

(colloquial) Alternative form of မယ် (mai, “future tense marker”)


ခင်ဗျား

Contraction of သခင်ဘုရား (sa.hkangbhu.ra:, “master lord”).

contraction

နင်

addressed to someone younger than the speaker

used by females when addressing another female of same age


ရှင်

Contraction of အသျှင် (a.hsyang, “lord”).

(women's speech)polite term of address made by a woman: sir, madam

interrogative rejoinder made by a woman: "sir?"


သူ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *su ~ s-lu (“who; indefinite pronoun; remote third-person pronoun”) (STEDT). Cognate with Tibetan སུ (su, “who”), as well as လူ (lu, “person”).

inh

word used to designate the nature of a female's status, locality


လာ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ləʔ (“to come”).

word suffixed to a verb to convey the notion of beginning something: begin, start, etc.


စား

och-l

足 (OC *ʔsoɡs, *ʔsoɡ, “to satisfy; abundant”)


ရေး

Inherited from Old Burmese ရိယ်း (riy), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *b-rəj (“to draw, mark; boundary”). Cognates include Tibetan འབྲི ('bri), Khumi Chin tärüte, Old Chinese 理 (OC *rɯʔ, “to cut jade, put in order, manage”) (STEDT).

och-l

particle suffixed to verb or noun to denote a state, action or skill


သွား

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ɢʷra (“to go”). Cognate with Old Chinese 于 (OC *ɢʷa, “to proceed, go”) (STEDT). The "fornicate" sense is a semantic loan from Pali gacchati.
MED groups the "go" and "tooth" senses together, when they should be separated. It is unclear which sense the "be sharp" sense is related to.

particle suffixed to a verb to denote an increasing tendency or to convey a sense of certainty


ပါ

လာပါ။

ကျွန်တော်က ဆရာပါ။

(used with indicatives) particle used to indicate politeness


နဲ့

nai. (romanization)
နှင့် (alternative formal literary)

မသွားပါနဲ့။

(colloquial) (used with မ (ma.) to form a negative imperative)


လား

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *la² (“question particle”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *la-y (“idem”). Compare perhaps Old Chinese 與 (OC *la, *laʔ, *las), 歟 (OC *la, *laʔ, *las, “idem”) (STEDT).

inh

ဒီအိမ်လား

Interrogative particle used with a noun to form a yes/no question.


ဘူး

Compare with Chinese 不 (bù, “not”) and Mon ပုဟ်.

not (used after the verb, which is preceded by the particle မ (ma.))


ဦး

→ Shan: ဢူး (ʼúu)

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tV-pu (“head”) (STEDT).

title prefixed to the name of a man or a monk

honorific term prefixed to the name of a monk

ဦး သန့်

(honorific) form of address for older men, roughly the average age of one's uncle; sir

particle suffixed to a verb or adjective to denote something offered first (as to a monk in deference); first (in season); first (sale of the day)

particle suffixed to verbs to denote a prerequisite, definite or imperative condition


လေး

particle indicating understatement, littleness, civility, or desirableness


လေး

word used as an ending in lyric poems, etc. for euphonic effect


ကိုး

emphatic particle suffixed to words (same as ကို (kui))


နေ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-na-s (“to stay, to live, to dwell, to be”).

ဘာ လုပ်နေသလဲ။

suffixed to a verb to denote a continuing process (progressive aspect)


ရုံ

just, only (particle suffixed to a verb to convey the sense of being limited in degree or extent)


ရ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-ra (“strength; to win; classifier for people”); cognate with အား (a:, “strength; force”), Old Chinese 力 (OC *rɯɡ, “id”) (STEDT).

der

particle suffixed to verbs and collocating with the postpositional markers မည် (many), သည် (sany) or the particle မ (ma.) to convey an imperative mood

particle suffixed to verbs to denote a certain capability or utility

particle suffixed to a verb denoting affirmation of some action or occurrence

particle suffixed to nouns as emphasis or to verbs for assonance


လ

လိမ့် လိမ့်#Burmese

particle used as an abbreviated form of particles လေ (le), လိမ့် (lim.), လတ် (lat)

particle prefixed to verbs for emphasis or euphony


သ

particle suffixed to some verbs for euphonic effect


သ

သည့် သည့်#Burmese

abbreviated form of the adjective forming particles သော (sau:), သည် (sany), သည့် (sany.)

ကြိုက်သလား။

ဘာ လုပ်နေသလဲ။

Alternative form of တယ် (tai) (realis marker), used before another phrase particle.


ဟ

sentence final marker conveying exhortation or emphasis


အ

Borrowed from Pali a- (“not, un-, a-”), from Sanskrit अ- (a-, “idem”).

particle prefixed to Pali and Sanscrit words and their derivatives beginning with consonants to denote negation (in words beginning with vowels the particle အန (a.na.) performs this function)

(archaic, rare) particle prefixed to some words to effect negation


သမီး

sa.mi: (romanization)
သ္မီး (alternative)

particle suffixed to a noun to denote a kindred relation not founded on blood


သန်း

particle suffixed to a verb to convey a sense of going or lying across (equivalent in usage to adverbs, 'across', 'athwart')


မင်း

particle suffixed to some adjectives to denote a sense of being extreme


ကြီး

Inherited from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *b-gryas (“old”). Compare Old Chinese 耆 (OC *ɡri, “old”) (STEDT).

inh+

particle suffixed to words as an emphasis

particle suffixed to some replicated verbs or adjectives to form adverbs


များ

Inherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m(r/y)a (“many, much”). Cognate with Tibetan བྲ་ (bra, “to have in plenty, aboud”) (STEDT).

cog

particle suffixed to nouns or verbs for emphasis


သေး

စောပါသေးတယ်

မပြန်ချင်သေးပါဘူ

particle suffixed to a verb for emphasis: yet, still, so far

ယိုးဒယားလိုလဲ ပြောတတ်သေးတယ်

ဘယ်သူ လာသေးသလဲ


နည်း

Traditionally considered (by Judson, MED, etc.) to be borrowed from Pali naya (“leading”); in this latter case, the word would be a doublet of နယ (na.ya.).
However, in light of a potential cognate in Lai [script needed] (niŋ, “way, method, custom”), which has similar phonetics and semantics, but which traditionally has had little to no contact with Indic civilization, the Pali derivation becomes less likely, as the words may stem from a Proto-Tibeto-Burman *niŋ (“way, method, custom”) (STEDT).

inh

(archaic) particle suffixed to a noun to denote similarity: like, in the same manner as


နည်း

particle ending an interrogative sentence or phrase


သား

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sja-n (“meat”).

numerical classifier used in counting the number of ticals or fractions of a tical or viss


သား

particle suffixed to a verb or adjective to convey the sense of being definite or explicit

word used to lend emphasis to a prayer, wish, oath, etc.


ခေါင်း

particle used in counting skeins of yarn and the like


ခြေ

Inherited from Old Burmese ခြိယ် (khriy), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *krəj (“foot, footstool”).

inh

particle suffixed to nouns to denote a collection of things or persons


တို့

Inherited from Old Burmese အတိဝ် (atiw). Luce gives Old Chinese 余 (OC *la, “I”), 曹 (OC *zluː, “group; people of the same kind”) as cognates. Alternatively analyzed as an apocopic form of ကျုပ်တို့ (kyuptui.), ငါတို့ (ngatui.).

och-l

suffixed to nouns to denote a group of persons or things

particle suffixed to some verbs for emphasis or euphony


ရယ်

particle suffixed to a noun to denote inclusion

particle suffixed to a noun for emphasis


တတ်

達 (OC *tʰaːd, *daːd, “to thoroughly understand, reach”)

particle suffixed to a verb indicating the acquiring of some knowledge, skill, capability, qualification, etc.

particle suffixed to a verb denoting some trait or tendency


တတ်

verbal particle used as sentence final marker, in composition


ဆုံး

cog

Tibetan རྫོགས (rdzogs, “to be at an end”)

အစိမ်းဆုံး

particle usually suffixed to a verbal noun or sometimes a noun to indicate superlative degree: the most


ရပ်

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kV-r(j)əp. Cognate with Cantonese 立 (laap⁶), Dzongkha ཞབས (zhabs, “leg, foot”), Jingpho tsap (“stand”), Nuosu ꉆ (hxit, “stand, stand up”), Lisu ꓦꓰꓼ (h̃è̱, “stand, stand up, stand straight”).

numerical classifier used in itemisation and expressing things in terms of a man's height


လှည့်

particle suffixed to verbs to denote persuasion


ကျ

Derived from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(k/g)la-k/y/t (“to fall”). Cognate with Mizo tla ~ tlâk (“to fall”) and Old Chinese 下 (OC *ɡraːʔ, *ɡraːs, “lower; under; to go down”). Doublet of ချ (hkya.) (STEDT).

och-l

particle suffixed to numerical classifier to denote set amount for each concerned


ပေး

Inherited from Old Burmese ပိယ်ဟ် (piyh), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *Pi(k) (“to give”) or Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pîʔ (“to give”). Cognate with Tibetan སྦྱིན (sbyin, “to give, to bestow”) and Old Chinese 畀 (OC *pids, “to give”) (STEDT).

cog

particle suffixed to a verb to denote that whatever that is being done is for somebody else

particle used after a verb to show encouragement or exhortation


ပစ်

particle affixed to a verb conveying the sense of doing something with abandon


ချည်

particle suffixed to a pair of verbs to denote reciprocating action


ရက်

particle placed after verbs to denote a lack of consideration


ရေ

word used as a suffix to the name of the person hailed


လေ

သူတို့မှာ မရှိဘူးလေ

Used to soften an indicative sentence: you see, you know?, remember?, after all

ပိတ်ချင်ယင် ပိတ်လေ

Used to soften an imperative sentence: if that's okay, if you don't mind, if you want


ကောင်း

particle following a verb denoting probability or suitability


လုံး

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-lu(ŋ/m) (“heart; round”). Cognate with Drung tvleum (“round”), Jingpho lum (“round”) and Tibetan ཟླུམ (zlum, “round; spherical”).

inh

particle suffixed to some nouns to denote: all, entire, whole

particle suffixed to a noun to denote an entity

particle suffixed to a noun to convey the sense of it being very much in evidence

particle suffixed to some verbs to form verbal nouns and convey the sense of being contrived or hollow


နှင့်

(literary) (used with မ (ma.) to form a negative imperative)


လျှင်

particle occurring between numerical nouns to delineate their relationship


လို့

Uncertain, although it can be tentatively compared to Old Burmese ရုယ် (ruy), the ancient form of ရွေ့ (rwe., “to move; and, while, because”). Also note similarity with Old Chinese 由 (OC *lɯw, “from, by, due to, reason”).

particle used in conjunction with interrogatives or to denote immediacy

particle suffixed to a verb for emphasis

...လို့ခေါ်တယ်။

(colloquial) following nominal; a particle occurring in collocation with the verb “to be called”

(colloquial) following predicate or clause; used for denoting reported speech; that


မြို့

ထိုမြို့ ထိုမြို့#Burmese

(archaic) particle suffixed to a pronoun denoting "other than", mainly used in ထိုမြို့ (htui-mrui.)


ထူး

→ Shan: ထူး (thúu, “special”)

particle suffixed to a noun or pronoun to denote singularity


ပြီး

Inherited from Proto-Lolo-Burmese *N-bri¹/² (“full, complete”) (STEDT). Cognate with Lahu bi (“full”); outside of Lolo-Burmese, compare Old Chinese 罷 (OC *breːlʔ, *bral, *bralʔ, “to cease, finish, complete”).

och-l

word to indicate the completion of an act, etc.


စိမ့်

my-particle

စိမ့် • (cim.)

particle suffixed to verbs to denote fulfillment of some purpose


ပေါ့

ဒါရောင်းတာ မဟုတ်ဘူးပေါ့လေ။ (daraung:ta ma.hutbhu:pau.le||)
He was, like, I'm not selling them, you know?
အဲဒါနဲ့ လွင်မိုးကလည်း ဝမ်းသာအားရပေါ့နော်။ (ai:danai. lwangmui:ka.lany: wam:saa:ra.pau.nau||)

2005, San San Hnin Tun, "Discourse particles in Burmese", in Justin Watkins (ed.), Studies in Burmese Linguistics, p. 193

So then Lwin Moe was, like, really delighted, you know.

(chiefly colloquial) like (mild intensifier; used to mean "to say" or "to think")

အက်စီဒင့် ဖြစ်သွားတာပေါ့နော်။ (akcidang. hpracswa:tapau.nau||)

2005, San San Hnin Tun, “Discourse particles in Burmese”, in Justin Watkins, editor, Studies in Burmese Linguistics, →ISBN, page 193:

akcidang. hpracswa:tapau.nau|| (akcidang. hpracswa:tapau.nau||)

(chiefly colloquial) say (let's say: used to mark an example, supposition, or hypothesis)

ကလဲ့စားချေတဲ့ သဘောမျိုးနဲ့ပေါ့။ (ka.lai.ca:hkyetai. sa.bhau:myui:nai.pau.||)

It was done as a way of getting even, you know.

ka.lai.ca:hkyetai. sa.bhau:myui:nai.pau.|| (ka.lai.ca:hkyetai. sa.bhau:myui:nai.pau.||)

(chiefly colloquial) you know (used to confirm agreement or understanding at the end of a statement)


ဝယ်

postpositional marker suffixed to a noun to indicate either temporal or locative case: by, at, in


လဲ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *la-y (“idem”). See လား (la:, “interrogative particle for yes-no questions”) for more (STEDT).

အဲဒါဘာလဲ

final interrogative particle used with interrogative words

လည်း လည်း#Burmese

(colloquial) Colloquial form of လည်း (lany:)


ကား

particle suffixed to verbs or nouns for emphasis


စာ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *dzaʔ (“to eat”). See also စား (ca:, “to eat”) (STEDT).

(derogatory) particle suffixed to nouns to connote that someone is deserving of being victimized or hit by someone or something

particle suffixed to nouns to denote supportive material for a certain function

particle suffixed to nouns to denote sufficiency for a certain number or utility over a certain length of time

particle suffixed to nouns to denote a waste product


တယ်

tai (romanization)
သ (alternative)
သည် (alternative)

ဒီနေ့ ကျွန်တော် လာပါတယ်။

(colloquial) marks a realis verb in the present or past tense


ခင်ဗျာ

From ခင် (hkang, “given name (originally honorific)”) + an element ဗျာ (bya) of unclear interpretation and origin.


ကဲ့

Alternative form of ရဲ့ (rai.), used after a syllable ending in /ʔ/


ရဲ့

postpositional marker used at the end of an affirmative sentence or in the middle of an interrogative sentence to express certainty; mostly found in certain fixed phrases


ကို

ကင်မရာကို ခပ်ဝေးဝေးမှာ ထားပါ။

ငါ့ကို များများ ပေးပါး။

အမေ့ကို ထမင်းချက်ဖို့ ပြောထားသေးလား။


ကို

(colloquial) emphatic particle suffixed to words


မယ်

မယ်သီတာ

(honorific) a title used by young women in lieu of မ (ma.), typically in literature


မယ်

ကျွန်မ ခေါက်ဆွဲ စားမယ်။

(colloquial) used to indicate the future tense


ရာ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s/k-ra (“place”); cognate with Old Chinese 所 (OC *sqʰraʔ, “place”) (STEDT).

word affixed to verb to denote possibility, obligation


ရှိ

Inherited from Old Burmese ဟြိ (hri), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sri (“to exist”). Cognate with Tibetan སྲིད་པ (srid pa) and Old Chinese 體 (OC *r̥ʰiːʔ, “body, limbs; state, form”) (STEDT).


ဖူး

ဗမာပြည် ရောက်ဖူးသလား။


ပဲ

pai: (romanization)
ကပဲ (alternative)
ဘဲ (alternative)

(colloquial) indicates emphasis on the word or phrase it follows: just, only

ဒီမှာပဲ နေခဲ့။

ခင်ဗျားသူငယ်ချင်းပဲ ရေးတာလား။

သိတာပေါ့။ ကျွန်တော့် ညီတစ်ဝမ်းကွဲပဲ။

Used after any sentence element or an entire sentence to add emphasis, indeed, really


ဖြစ်

Inherited from Old Burmese ဖ္လစ် (phlac), from Proto-Lolo-Burmese *C-prik (“to be, be able”). Cognate with Akha pyeu (“to be, exist”) (STEDT).

inh

word suffixed to a verb to denote ability: managed to


ပြန်

Inherited from Old Burmese ပ္လန်, Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bran (“to convalesce, recover, return”). Cognate with Old Chinese 般 (OC *praːn, *paːn, *baːn, “to rotate, go back and forth”) (STEDT).

och-l

particle suffixed to verbs indicating repetition

particle suffixed to nouns denoting one who has returned from a certain place or life, or one who has returned to his former status


တည်း

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *dan ~ daj (“single, one, whole, only”). Cognate with Old Chinese 但 (OC *daːn, *daːnʔ, *daːns, “only; but”).

och-l

單 (OC *taːn, *djan, *djanʔ, *djans, “single, alone”)

suffix to a numerical classifier, meaning only that many; no more no less


ထား

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-ta-t (“to put, to place”). Cognate with Tibetan སྟད (stad, “to put on, to lay on”), སྟ་གོན (sta gon, “preparation, arrangement”), Old Chinese 著 (OC *taʔ, *tas, *da, *taɡ, *daɡ, “to touch”) (STEDT).

och-l

particle indicating the present continuous condition of the preceding verb


ပြီ

ကောင်းပါပြီ။

indicates the fulfillment of an action or achievement of a state

ရောက်ပြီလား။


ရန်

particle suffixed to verbs to form verbal nouns


အား

The "strength" sense is from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-ra (“strength; to win; classifier for people”). Cognate with Old Chinese 力 (OC *rɯɡ, “strength”) (STEDT). Sagart relates the "free" sense to 暇 (OC *ɡraːs, “leisure”).

inh

particle suffixed to a verb to convey the sense of having the heart to be insensitive or apathetic


မှ

ငါမှငါ၊ပြောမှပြောရက်ပလေတယ်။

နိုင်မှနိုင်ပါ့မလား။

ဖြစ်မှဖြစ်ရလေခြင်း၊ကောင်းမှကောင်း

particle infixed between replicated nouns and verbs to denote emphasis


ဖို့

cog

Tibetan ཕྱོགས (phyogs, “direction; for the sake of”)

ဘာလုပ်ဖို့ အစီအစဉ် ရှိသလဲ။

အတွေးအခေါ် ရင့်သန်ဖို့ စာ များများ ဖတ်သင့်။

a.twe:a.hkau rang.sanhpui. ca mya:mya: hpatsang.||

You have to read a lot in order for your mind to grow.

(colloquial) in order to, to (indicating purpose)


ပျော်

my-particle

ပျော် • (pyau)

The "happy" sense is from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *p(r/y)aw (“delight, happy, enjoy”). Cognate with Tibetan སྤྲོ (spro, “to delight in, wish”) (STEDT: pyaw "happy").
The "dissolve" sense is grouped with the "happy" sense by MED, though it is unclear if they are truly related, and STEDT gives no etymology for the former (pjɔ²² "dissolve").

cog

particle suffixed to a verb expressing the notion of something being worth doing

particle suffixed to certain nouns to describe a person who has an attachment for a particular place or environment


လိုက်

my-particle

လိုက် • (luik)

emphatic particle suffixed to verbs and adjectives after collocating with ပါ၊ရ်္ သည်၊ရ်္ တာ (pa|r, sany|r, ta), often indicating a casual command

particle suffixed to nouns to form adverbs indicating adherence to a certain form

word replicated and suffixed to a pair of verbs to denote a recurring theme


လှ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-hla (“soul, demon, god; beautiful”) (STEDT).

inh

particle suffixed to verbs to convey the meaning of “very, too, extremely”


လတ်

verbal affix used for euphonic or emphatic purpose


ငယ်

(archaic) emphatic particle often used as a euphonic device in classical songs


ခဲ့

particle suffixed to verbs to emphasize definitiveness of an action or condition

လာခဲ့။

(with verbs of motion) here (toward the speaker), hither


လည်း

also (in addition; besides; as well; further; too)

(when doubled) denotes simultaneous action: both... and

(when doubled, in negative clauses) neither... nor; not only... but also


ကော

ခင်ဗျားကော ဘာလူမျိုးလဲ

and what about? (used to apply an already asked question to a new topic)

particle suffixed to nouns denoting inclusion

particle prefixed to interrogative phrases to denote inclusion: also

particle placed at or near the end of a phrase or sentence as emphasis


နော်

my-particle

နော် • (nau)

သွားမယ်နော်။

ဆောရီးနော်။

(colloquial) Used to make a question more polite; seeks agreement; softens a request; all right?, OK?


အပ်

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tV-qəp (“needle”). Cognate with Drung wvp and Lolopo hhexr, as well as Old Chinese 針 (OC *kjum, *kjums, “needle”) (with the literature usually comparing the less-common variants 鍼 (OC *ɡam, *ɡram, *kjɯm) and 箴 (OC *kjɯm)) (STEDT).
MED groups the "put things together, proper" senses with the "needle" sense, though it is unclear whether they are etymologically related. Luce's comparison of the "proper" sense with Old Chinese 合 (OC *kuːb, *ɡuːb, “to join, fit”) is phonetically unsound.

word suffixed to a verb to convey a sense of propriety: be proper, be appropriate


အောင်

head

အောင် • (aung)

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ʔoŋ¹ (“win, complete”); forms outside Lolo-Burmese, like Jingpho [script needed] (ʔōŋ, “to conquer, overcome”), are probably borrowed from Burmese (STEDT). Note also similarities to Old Chinese 贏 (OC *leŋ, “to win”) (which is constructed with a uvular *ɢ by Baxter and Sagart; uvulars in Proto-Sino-Tibetan seem to be dropped in Burmese).

cog

အတွေးအခေါ် ရင့်သန်အောင် စာ များများ ဖတ်သင့်တယ်။

a.twe:a.hkau rang.sanaung ca mya:mya: hpatsang.tai||


ပြီးပြီ

ပြီး (pri:, “to finish”) + ပြီ (pri, “yet”)

affix

ဆိုင်ကို သွားပြီးပြီ။

have already (done something), (in questions and negatives) have done something yet


တော်

my-particle

တော် • (tau)

According to STEDT:
* The "related" sense is from a Proto-Tibeto-Burman *daw (“to be related”), with Jingpho dō (“related”) as the only adduced cognate.
* The "suitable" (as well as perhaps "clever") senses are from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *taːp ~ *m-daw (“capable, fit, beautiful”), and cognate with Jingpho htap (“beautiful, capable”).
The "rumbling noise", "stop", and "honorific" senses are not listed by STEDT, though the "honorific" sense could be an extension of the "suitable, clever" sense. Note similarities to Old Chinese 調 (OC *dɯːw, *dɯːws, *tɯw, “to adjust, train; matching; style”), though the vowels do not seem to match.


မောင်း

particle suffixed to some color terms to indicate deep shade in color


မောင်း

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *muː(k/ŋ) (“arm, cubit”). Cognate with Yakkha [script needed] (muk, “arm, hand, length, cubit”) (STEDT).

cog

particle suffixed to some nouns to convey the notion of being long and slender


နိုး

particle suffixed to a verb to denote hope or expectation


ဆိတ်

particle suffixed to verb to denote a propensity to do or countenance something deplorable


ရိုး

Inherited from Old Burmese ရိုဝ်း (ruiw). The "bone" sense is from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *rus (“bone”). MED groups all other senses etymologically together with the "bone" sense, which seems to be tentatively supported by Luce 1981 but not by STEDT, which gives no etymology for the "simple" sense (rûi "plain, simple; artless; honest; old-fashioned"). The various senses may perhaps be linked with the following semantic shifts: "bone" > "handle" > "long stretch or row" > "lineage" > "tradition, custom" > "usual and customary" > "simple, honest".

inh+

particle suffixed to a verb, denoting veracity of a proposition


ချင်း

och-l

彊 (OC *kaŋs, *ɡaŋ, *ɡaŋʔ, “two keeping faithfully together”)

particle suffixed to nouns to indicate one-by-one sequence

particle suffixed to verbs to denote simultaneous action

particle suffixed to nouns to indicate reciprocity or co-equality


ဖက်

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pʷak (“half, one of a pair”); cognate with Jingpho [script needed] (bàʔ, “folded”) (STEDT). Luce compares Old Chinese 併 (OC *breːŋʔ, *breːŋs, *peŋʔ, *peŋs, *beːŋʔ, “side by side”) for the "one of a pair" sense.

och-l

particle suffixed to a singular noun to indicate that it is one out of a pair

လက်ဖက်

unit of measure for amount contained in a cupped hand; unit of measure for what can be encircled in both arms


မို့

မို့လို့ မို့လို့#Burmese

(same as မို့လို့ (mui.lui.)) particle suffixed to nouns and pronouns: "because (it was you)", "only"


မြ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(m/b)rak (“to cut; to tear; to maul; to lacerate”). Related to မြက် (mrak, “to be sharp-edged; keen-edged”).

inh

particle indicating a noticeable sensation


အဖေ၏ အိမ်

(literary) of, ’s (indicating possession)


ကျွန်

particle suffixed to verbs to denote affectation


သည်

Proto-Tibeto-Burman *sin (“body, owner, agentive nominalizer”)

-er, -ist (particle suffixed to some nouns to denote a practitioner of some trade or a person in a particular plight or situation)


မြောက်

my-particle

မြောက် • (mrauk)

particle suffixed to nouns to form ordinals

part particle suffixed to a verb to denote consummation


ဆန်း

particle suffixed to a verb to convey the meaning of “no more than”


ရဲ

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s-(r/y/w)ay (“bold, heroic”). Cognate with Mizo [Term?] (huāi, “bold, daring”) (STEDT). Luce additionally adduces Old Chinese 烈 (OC *red, “ardent, fiery”) as a cognate. This is semantically appealing, though the final in the Old Chinese reconstruction does not seem to match.
The senses of "brave", "bright red", "rampant", and "police" are all grouped together by MED.

inh

particle suffixed to verbs to denote the sense of having the courage to do something


သလား

အင်္ဂလိပ်စကားပြောတတ်သလး။

(colloquial) word used in forming a question


သော

(literary) particle suffixed to a word to form an adjective

sentence final marker, emphasizing a wish expressed


စလုံး

particle conveying the sense " all; without exception" with reference to the number of people, things, etc. preceding it


ချက်

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *ʔ-kyakᴴ (“rope, cord, navel”), from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *kyak (“navel, umbilical cord, rope”), mainly attested in Lolo-Burmese and Qiangic; cognate with Akha [script needed] (tjaq, “rope”). The Tibeto-Burman root is possibly cognate with Old Chinese 弋 (OC *lɯɡ, “to shoot arrow (with string attached)”) and/or 繳 (OC *kleːwʔ, *kljewɢ, *ɡreːɡ, “string attached to arrow”), with the latter more phonologically likely; however, the reconstruction of the former makes a connection unlikely, and the latter's reconstruction is uncertain due to internal inconsistencies in the Middle Chinese readings (STEDT).

och-l

particle suffixed to a verb to form a verbal noun


ချက်

particle used in counting strokes of clocks, drums, gongs, etc.


တောင်း

particle which serves to emphasize the verb or adjective preceding it


ကြိမ်

my-particle

ကြိမ် • (krim)

နှစ်ကြိမ်


ချေ

used at or near the end of a clause or sentence for emphatic or euphonic effect; also used to soften the force of a request or a denial

(colloquial) particle conveying the sense of impending event


တွက်

numerical classifier used in counting the snapping of fingers


အဲ

(colloquial) word interposed when groping for words: er, um, uh, etc.


ပြင်း

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *brwaŋ (“loud; bright”) (STEDT). Cognate with Burmese ပြောင် (praung, “to shine”) and Old Chinese 明 (OC *mraŋ, “bright”), 炳 (OC *praŋʔ, “bright, luminous”).

inh

particle infixed to verbs emphasizing the intolerable nature of a particular situation


ရှာ

word affixed to a verb to denote affection or sympathy


ခဲ

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(g/k)aː(r/l) (“solid, congealed, frozen, viscous, strong”). Cognates include Tibetan [script needed] (gar-ba, “strong”), Old Chinese 健 (OC *ɡans, “strong, healthy”) (STEDT).

cog

particle suffixed to a verb to denote rarity, uncertainty, or tardiness in its occurrence


မည်

Cognate with Garo বিমুং (bimuŋ, “name”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-miŋ (“name; to name”).

inh

numerical classifier for counting ingredients of a drug or kinds of dishes served


မည်

(literary) Alternative form of မယ် (mai) (future tense marker)


သမား

→ Mon: သမာ

Borrowed from Mon သမာ. Despite similar phonetics and semantics, likely unrelated to Japanese 様 (sama, “polite suffix”).

particle suffixed to the name of some trade or activity to denote a person's proficiency in it

particle suffixed to the name of a certain substance or gambling game to denote a person's addiction to it


ကုန်

my-particle

ကုန် • (kun)

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(m-)kul (“all”). The "come to an end, be used up" sense is considered separate from the "all" sense by STEDT, but equivalent by MED, perhaps via semantic extension from "all" > "all used".

စာမေးပွဲ ကျကုန်တာပဲ

particle following a verb to denote plurality or totality:

ရှတ်အင်္ကျီ ပေကုန်ပီ


ပြ

Inherited from Old Burmese ပ္လ. According to Luce, related to Tibetan པྲ (pra, “sign, token, prognostic”). Note also the resemblance to Old Chinese 表 (OC *prawʔ, “to show; surface, exterior”). Mon ပၠ.

och-l

particle suffixed to a verb to convey the sense of demonstrating or relating something


စမ်း

探 (OC *l̥ʰuːm, *l̥ʰuːms, “to grope for, search”)

參 (OC *sʰluːm, *sʰluːms, *sloːm, *sʰrum, *srum, “to inspect, participate”)

ပြောစမ်းပါအုံး

မလုပ်စမ်းပါနဲ့

(colloquial) Indicates urgency in an imperative, suffixed to a verb.


တကာ

နေရာတကာ

နိုင်ငံတကာ


မိ

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *s/ʔ-mi¹ (“to catch, overtake”), though STEDT adduces no additional cognates (and Luce 1981 makes no mention of this word).

inh

particle suffixed to verbs to convey the meaning of "happen to"


မော

och-l

耗 (OC *hmaːws, “to reduce, cripple, use up”)

word suffixed to some verbs or adjectives as an intensifier: very, exceedingly


စေ့

Alternative form of စေ (ce, “effectuation particle”)


ခြင်း

တိုးတက်ခြင်း


ပြု

造 (OC *skʰuːɡs, *sɡuːʔ, “to do, make, build”)

collocation word used with some verbs for rhyme and rhythm


အတိုင်း

particle infixed between nouns to effect a simile


သည့်

particle suffixed to a word to form an adjective


တဲ့

(colloquial) suffixed to a word to form an adjective

(colloquial) suffixed to a phrase or sentence to denote reported speech


ပက်

particle suffixed to a verb or noun as emphasis


ကဲ

(colloquial) particle employed to gain someone's attention, comparable to expressions such as "well", "right!", "now!", "OK!"


တာ

cog

Proto-Kuki-Chin *taʔ (“to gauge, measure”)

och-l

圖 (OC *daː, “diagram; to plot, plan; to draw”)

(colloquial) particle suffixed to verbs and adjectives to form nouns, similar to a gerund (-ing)


သမ

Perhaps related to သမား (sa.ma:) or a contraction of သူမ (suma.).

word indicating a female practitioner of some art or trade


ကြောင်း

particle suffixed to verbs to form nouns

sentence ending marker conveying the sense of making a report


ပင်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *baŋ (“tired, exhausted”), and cognate with the first syllable of Kaang Chin [Term?] (bɔŋ³⁵ kʉ³¹, “tired”). This root is very likely allofamic with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *bal (“tired, thirsty”), whence ပန်း (pan:, “tired”) (STEDT).

cog

particle suffixed to a word for emphasis


ပေ

particle suffixed to a verb for emphasis

particle suffixed to a noun to denote certainty


ကွာ

(colloquial) word interjected when speaking to one's peers or to a younger person


ချ

Inherited from Old Burmese ခ္လ (kla), derived from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(k/g)la-k/y/t (“to fall”). Cognate with Mizo tla ~ tlâk (“to fall”) and Old Chinese 下 (OC *ɡraːʔ, *ɡraːs, “lower; under; to go down”). By synchronic analysis, the causative of ကျ (kya.) (STEDT).

och-l

particle often suffixed to certain verbs for emphasis

particle suffixed to certain verbs to convey the sense equivalent to "down"


တိုင်း

particle suffixed to nouns to convey the sense "every"


တမ်း

cog

Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-tam ~ g-dam (“to talk, speak”)

ငွေတစ်ထောင်တမ်း

မခွဲတမ်း

လုပ်မြဲတမ်း

ပျော်မြဲတမ်း


စရာ

မေးစရာရှိပါတယ်.

a particle suffixed to a verb to form a verbal noun or adjective


ဖို

Tibetan ཕྱོགས (phyogs, “direction; for the sake of”)

a word suffixed to a noun to denote maleness

a term to differentiate one from the other in a pair of opposites


ရွက်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *rwak (“leaf, leaflike part”). Cognate with the second syllable of Japhug [Term?] (tɐ jwɐk, “leaf”) (STEDT); an older theory by Luce also connects the word to Old Chinese 喬 (OC *krew, *ɡrew, “section on the shaft of a spear near the spearhead for hanging a feather; panache-hanger”), though this seems outdated.
The "carry on the head" sense is considered identical to the "leaf" sense by MED, but separate by STEDT (which doesn't assign etymology: rwak "carry on head") and Luce, the latter who compares Old Chinese 頍 (OC *kʰʷeʔ, “to raise one's head”).

och-l

particle suffixed to a verb to denote responsibility for some task


ရစ်

word suffixed to a verb to indicate being left behind


လေ့

particle suffixed to a verb to denote a habit

particle used as a sentence final marker for euphonic effect


စီ

齊 (OC *zliːl, *zliːls, “even, uniform, along a line”)

particle suffixed to numerical classifiers indicating equal distribution


လော

與 (OC *la, *laʔ, *las, “exclamation indicating doubt”)

particle suffixed to a noun to denote interrogation


တုန်း

my-particle

တုန်း • (tun:)

particle suffixed to verbs to denote continuing action or state: still, currently


တော့

particle suffixed to verbs to indicate finality


တော့

particle suffixed to verb as an emphasis, equivalent in usage to the adverb "when"


ပေါ

numerical classifier for bundles of seedlings


ရော

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *rjaw (“to mix”). Cognate with Old Chinese 交 (OC *kreːw, “to intersect, mingle”); see there for more (STEDT).

particle suffixed to a noun to denote inclusion: also, as well as, etc.


တည့်

particle serving to emphasize the word or phrase preceding it


ချီ

For the "lift, carry" sense, from Proto-Lolo-Burmese *kyi¹˜² (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kyi (“to lift, raise, awake”). Cognate with Akha [script needed] (tjhì, “to lift”), Old Chinese 起 (OC *kʰɯʔ, “to rise, raise”) (STEDT).
It is unclear if the particle and classifier senses are etymologically connected, though MED groups them together.

inh

particle often suffixed to certain nouns to form adverbial phrases of time, number or manner


မို့လို့

မို့ (mui., “because”) + လို့ (lui., “because”).

af

particle suffixed to nouns and pronouns: "because (it was you)", "only"


မြဲ

particle suffixed to verbs: as always, as usual


လွန်း

particle suffixed to verbs or adjectives to convey the meaning of "excessive"


လင့်

From Proto-Tibeto-Burman *ljaŋ (“to wait”); cognate with Lahu [Term?] (lɔ¹, “to wait”) (STEDT).

particle suffixed to a verb and collocating with the negative particleမ to convey an imperative sense

particle suffixed to a verb as an emphatic


စေ

och-l

使 (OC *srɯʔ, *srɯs, “to order, send someone, use”)

particle suffixed to a verb denoting effectuation


ကိုင်း

particle prefixed to a phrase or sentence to gain the attention of the addressee, comparable to the expression "well"


ခန့်

cog

Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ka(n/ŋ) (“to know, see”)

och-l

看 (OC *kʰaːn, *kʰaːns, “to look, consider, observe”)

particle suffixed to nouns to indicate that quantity mentioned is an approximate number: about, around, approximately


ရော့

သွားရော့လဟယ်။

ပြောရော့မယ်။

particle suffixed to a verb for emphasis

(informal) expression used when giving something to someone else


မျှ

particle suffixed to numerical classifiers to denote the notion of "about" or "approximately"

emphatic particle used in negative imperatives or statements


လိမ့်

my-particle

လိမ့် • (lim.)

Abbreviated form of လိမ့်မည် (lim.many, “probably”), with further analysis of the syllable unclear.

suffixed after verbs to indicate possible uncertainty: probably


ဟာ

particle suffixed to the particle ပဲ (pai:) to emphasize the preceding noun

particle used to emphasize disapprobation


ဝံ့

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s/m-wam (“to dare”); compare Mizo huam (“to dare”), as well as perhaps Old Chinese 敢 (OC *klaːmʔ, “to dare”) (STEDT).

particle suffixed to a verb to convey the meaning "dare"


ငဲ့

(poetic, same as ရဲ့ (rai.)) of, 's (indicating possession)


နီးပါး

နီး (ni:, “near”) + ပါး (pa:, “thin, sharp, sparse”).

af

နီးနီး နီးနီး#Burmese

(same as နီးနီး (ni:ni:)) nearly, almost


သင့်

och-l

相 (OC *slaŋ, *slaŋs, “reciprocal, evaluate for oneself”)

particle suffixed to a verb to denote propriety, necessity, or pertinence: should, ought to


တရ

af

တ (ta., “adverbial prefix”) + ရ (ra., “to attain”)

particle prefixed to some verbs and adjectives to form adverbs and also for intensive effect