Script guide › Brahmic / Indic

How to recognize Burmese

Burmese is one of 14 languages in Grafle's Brahmic / Indic group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.

Spot it fast

Almost everything is a circle or part of one — 'bubble script' is the classic nickname.

What Burmese looks like

လူတိုင်းသည် လွတ်လပ်စွာနှင့် တန်းတူညီမျှစွာ မွေးဖွားလာကြသည်။

မင်္ဂလာပါ၊ နေကောင်းလား။

မြန်မာစာ လှပါသည်။

Brahmic / Indic scripts: The scripts of South and Southeast Asia — letters hang from top bars, curl into loops, or stack vowel marks above and below.

Where you'll see it on signs

Myanmar

Easy to confuse with

Sinhala — Both round: Burmese is nearly all closed circles ('bubble script'); Sinhala's curls open into hooks and tails.
Thai — Burmese is closed circles nearly everywhere; Thai has open loops, tall stems and pointed crowns.