Rakhine language
Rakhine (/rəˈkaɪn/; Burmese: ရခိုင်ဘာသာ, MLCTS: ra.hkuing bhasa [ɹəkʰàɪɴ bàθà]), also known as Arakanese, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Myanmar, primarily in the Rakhine State. Closely related to Burmese, the language is spoken by the Rakhine and Marma peoples; it is estimated to have around one million native speakers and it is spoken as a second language by a further million.
| Rakhine | |
|---|---|
| Arakanese | |
| ရက္ခိုင်ဘာသာ | |
| Pronunciation | IPA: [ɹəkʰàɪɴbàθà] |
| Native to | Myanmar, Bangladesh, India |
| Region |
|
| Ethnicity | Rakhine, Kamein |
Native speakers | 1 million (2011–2013) 1 million second language speakers in Myanmar (2013) |
| Dialects |
|
| Burmese script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:rki – Rakhine ("Arakanese")rmz – Marma ("Burmese") |
| Glottolog | arak1255 |
Rakhine State shown within Myanmar | |
Though Arakanese has some similarity with standard Burmese, Burmese find it 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.