This file contains Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the Myanmar script for the Root zone. For more details on this LGR and its development, see "Proposal for a Myanmar Script Root Zone Label Generation Rule-Set (LGR)"; [Proposal]. The format of this file follows [RFC 7940].

Repertoire

The Root Zone LGR for the Myanmar script lists 169 entries in total; consisting of 100 Myanmar script unique code points, 69 sequences.

The repertoire includes code points used by languages written in Myanmar script that fall within levels 1 to 4 on the [EGIDS] scale, as well as EGIDS 5 languages which have more than 500,000 users are included in the analysis. They are Burmese, Shan, Rakhine, S'gaw Karen, Mon, Pa'O Karen. A non-exhaustive list of languages using each code point can be found in the comments. For more details, see Section 5 "Repertoire" in [Proposal].

Note: In this proposal, to avoid confusion, the term 'Myanmar' is used for Myanmar script and the term 'Burmese' is used for the Myanmar language

The repertoire is based on [MSR-4], which is a subset of [Unicode 6.3].

Code points outside the Myanmar script that are listed in this file are targets for out-of-script variants and are identified by a reflexive (identity) variant of type "out-of-repertoire-var". They do not form part of the repertoire.

Variants

According to Section 6, "Variants", in [Proposal], this LGR defines following variants:

1. In-script variants. Disposition of some sets are blocked as one version of the label should be in the root-zone while disposition of some sets are allocatable as it is useable for both version. See Section 6.1 in the [Proposal]. The rules to restrict no-mixed language are required. See Section 7 in the [Proposal] Some of the code point combinations could create visual variant set, however the WLE rules disallow the combination. Such cases are not listed in the normative part. They are listed in Appendix A.
2. Cross-script variants. Some Myanmar characters look the same as characters in Malayalam, Oriya and Georgian scripts. See Section 6.1 in the [Proposal].

The specification of variants in the Root Zone LGR follows the guidelines in [RFC 8228].

Character Classes

The syllable principle is the heart of Myanmar script writing system. The general syllable formation is Consonant > (Medials) > Vowels > (Consonant) > Tone. The writing system of Myanmar script could be summed up as composed of

1. Consonants (c)
2. Independent Vowels (iv)
3. Dependent Vowels (dv). Some of the dv also categorized to following sub-categories:
• Long Vowel (lv): 102B, 102C, 102E, 1030, 1031, 1032, 1036
• Short Vowel (sv): 102D, 102F"
4. Medials (m)
5. Tone mark and Signs:
• Virama (v)
• Killer or Asat (k)
• Long Tone (t_short)
• Short Vowel (t_long)
• Shan Tone (sh_tone)
• Shan Vowel (sh_vowel)
• Pao Tone (pao_tone)
• Sgaw Tone (sh_tone)
• Other Various Sign (ov)

Consonants: Consonants usually stay at the head of each syllable. A consonant can be stand-alone or be followed by Medials, Dependent Vowels, other Signs or Tone Mark. A Consonant cannot be in between V to prevent the invalid case of c-v-c-v-c. See Section 3.3.1, "The Consonants" of the [Proposal].

Independent Vowels: Only Burmese, Mon and Pa’O languages use Independent Vowels. An Independent Vowel can be at any position in a label. See Section 3.3.2, "The Independent Vowels" of the [Proposal].

Dependent Vowels: Dependent vowel signs add vowel property to consonants. These signs appear in top/below/left/right positions of a center consonant or consonant+medial. The dotted-circle indicates where the centre character would be. Dependent vowel signs cannot be repeated and Dependent vowels cannot be adjacent to each other unless within sequences defined in Table 8-A. Dependent vowels also cannot be followed by Asat (U+1038) unless within sequences defined in Table 8-A. See Section 3.3.3, "The Diacritic - Dependent Vowels" of the [Proposal].

Medials: Medials are used to enhance the sound of Consonants. They are also noted as Dependent Consonants as they need a leading Consonant to attach to. All five languages in this proposal use Medials. See Section 3.3.4, "Diacritic - Medials" of the [Proposal].

Virama: MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA (U+1039) is used in Burmese and Mon. Virama has two properties, as killer (devoweliser) and joiner of syllable chaining. This virama brings the consonant after it to be rendered below the consonant before. Pattern of syllable chaining : Consonant + Virama + Consonant. However, the repeating of Consonant + Virama + Consonantt is not allowed to prevent rendering issue.

Medials: Medials are used to enhance the sound of Consonants. They are also noted as Dependent Consonants as they need a leading Consonant to attach to. All five languages in this proposal use Medials. See Section 3.3.4, "Diacritic - Medials" of the [Proposal].

Virama: MYANMAR SIGN VIRAMA (U+1039) is used in Burmese and Mon. Virama has two properties, as killer (devoweliser) and joiner of syllable chaining. This virama brings the consonant after it to be rendered below the consonant before. Pattern of syllable chaining : Consonant + Virama + Consonant. However, the repeating of Consonant + Virama + Consonantt is not allowed to prevent rendering issue. See Section 3.3.5, "Diacritic - Tone Marks and Other Signs" of the [Proposal].

Killer or Asat: MYANMAR SIGN ASAT (U+103A) is used in Burmese and Mon. This sign is used to remove the consonant sound of a letter and take only the vowel property to create more vowel sounds out of consonants. Except the defined sequences, Asat cannot follow other Diacritics. See Section 3.3.5, "Diacritic - Tone Marks and Other Signs" of the [Proposal].

Long Tone (t_long): MYANMAR SIGN VISARGA (U+1038) appears at the end of the syllable. It creates a vowel sound with the higher tone. It follows Consonant, Medial, Long vowel or U+102D U+102F sequence. See Section 3.3.5.1, "Burmese Tone Marks and Other Signs" of the [Proposal].

Short Tone (t_short): MYANMAR SIGN DOT BELOW (U+1037) is a Dependent Vowel for the S’gaw Karen language which must follow a consonant. However, it is a Short Tone Sign for Burmese and Pa’O Karen which must follow a long vowel. Therefore the LGR allow it to follow a consonant or a long vowel. See Section 3.3.3, 3.3.5.1, 3.3.5.5 of the [Proposal].

Other classes defined for being used in WLE

• Sequence S16, S17, Asat sequences
• c2, a set of consonants to be combined with S16
• c3, a set of consonants to be combined with S17
• S11
• S12, a long-vowel sequence
• Shan Tone (sh_tone), Shan Vowel (sh_vowel)
• Pa'O Karen Tone (pao_tone), Pa'O Karen Consonant (c_pao),Pa'O Karen Medial (m_pao)
• Sequence ST4 - a Pa'O Karen Tone Sequence
• Sequence ST1, ST2, ST3 - Skaw Karen Tone Sequences
• S_Mon4, Mon Kinzi

The rules are:

• 1. dv: must follow c or m; dv includes lv, sv, sequence S12, S13, S14, S15, S18, S19, S20, S_Mon3, S_Sh1, S_Sh2, S_Sh3, S_Sh4, S_Sh5, S_Pao, and ov
• 2. Anusvara: must follow c or m
• 3. m: must follow c; with following exceptions:
  • 102B must follow c but not 1005
  • 102B must follow c but not 101E
  • 102B must follow c but not 1003, 107D
• 4. The Myanmar Great Saa (U+103F): must follow c or m or dv or 1023 or 1025
• 5. (c+k) or (c2 + S16) or (c3+S17) must follow C or M or DV or OV
• 6. S11 must follow c or m or dv and another c must follow S11
• 7. v: must be in between two c (c-v-c). But c cannot be in between v to prevent v-c-v-c
• 8. t_long: must follow c or m or lv or S12
• 9. t_short: must follow C or lv
• 10.sh_tone must follow sh_vowel or (c+k) or s_sh2 or s_sh5
• 11. Pa'O rules:
  • pao_tone must follow dv or k
  • p_pao must follow c_pao or m_paol
• 12. ST4 must follow U+1031, U+1032, S12, S14, S15
• 13. ST1, ST2, ST3 or Sgaw_Tone must follow C or M or DV
• 14. S_Mon4 must follow C or M or DV and another C must follow S_Mon4
• 15. U+102C Cannot follow three consonants U+1002, U+1015, U+101D

References

[EGIDS]

Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale, https://www.ethnologue.com/about/language-status (Accessed on 8 October 2017)

[MSR-4]

Integration Panel, "Maximal Starting Repertoire — MSR-4 Overview and Rationale", 7 February 2019, https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/msr-4-overview-25jan19-en.pdf

[Proposal]

Myanmar Generation Panel, “Proposal for a Myanmar Script Root Zone Label Generation Rule-Set (LGR)”, Date[TBD], File location [TBD]

[RFC 7940]

Davies, K. and A. Freytag, "Representing Label Generation Rulesets Using XML", RFC 7940, August 2016, http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7940.

[RFC 8228]

A. Freytag, "Guidance on Designing Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) Supporting Variant Labels", RFC 8228, August 2017, https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8228

[Unicode 6.3]

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.3.0, (Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, 2013. ISBN 978-1-936213-08-5) http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.3.0/

For more details for references [100] and up refer to the Table of References below.