Burmese
The Burmese language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. It is spoken by about 30 million people in Myanmar (formerly Burma), where it is both the principal and the official language. Burmese is related to Tibetan, and has a grammar and syntax quite unlike those of western languages. It is a tone language, that is, the use of musical pitch or tones, of which Burmese has three, help to differentiate the meanings words. Burmese has its own alphabet, which is descended from an old script from South India. There is a great difference between the spoken and written forms of the language.
sources:
School of Oriental
and African Languages
Infoplease.com
Information on writing systems:
Geocities.com:
Brahmi descended scripts
omniglot.com
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
Other Local Resources:
UCSD International Center
Mingei museum of folk art
SD cultural events