ABSTRACT
In Myanmar, over a hundred languages are spoken among the 135 officially defined ethnic groups. The dominant language is Myanmar language, spoken as a mother tongue by over two-thirds of the population and by most others as a second language. It has been the national and official language since independence in 1948, written in a long-established and now archaic script with the earliest surviving dated inscription from AD 1112. Because of its long written history, the literary language has been stable for centuries and is now quite different from the modern informal spoken language. This difference is institutionalised; the literary language is used in most written and some formal spoken contexts and taught in schools, while the spoken language is used in most informal speech as well as an increasing range of informal written contexts; examples are given below.
