ကျွန်တော်
See also: ကျွန်တော့်
Burmese
Etymology
Contraction of ကျွန်တော်မျိုး (kywantau-myui:). By surface analysis, ကျွန် (kywan, “slave”) + တော် (tau, “honorific denoting power”).
Pronunciation
- Phonetic respellings: ကျွန်ဒေါ်, ကျ'နော်
- IPA(key): /t͡ɕʊ̀ɴdɔ̀/, /t͡ɕənɔ̀/
- Romanization: MLCTS: kywantau • ALA-LC: kyvanʻtoʻ • BGN/PCGN: kyundaw/kyănaw • Okell: cuñto/căno
Pronoun
ကျွန်တော် • (kywantau)
- (men's speech) I, me (formal polite, used by males in Lower Myanmar)
- I, me (formal polite, used as a gender-neutral pronoun in Upper Myanmar)
Synonyms
- ကျနော် (kya.nau) (colloquial polite, used by males)
- ကျွန်မ (kywanma.) (formal polite, used by females in Lower Myanmar)
- ကျမ (kya.ma.) (colloquial polite, used by females in Lower Myanmar)
- ငါ (nga) (familiar)
Derived terms
- ကျွန်တော့် (kywantau.)
See also
Burmese personal pronouns
| Burmese | Person | Level of speech |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| ငါ (nga) | First | Informal | used when speaking to one's equals or inferiors |
| ကျွန်တော် (kywantau) | First | Formal | used by males |
| ကျွန်မ (kywanma.) | First | Formal | used by females |
| ကျွန်ုပ် | First | Informal | |
| ကျုပ် (kyup) | First | Informal | |
| နင် (nang) | Second | Informal | used when speaking to one's equals or inferiors |
| မင်း (mang:) | Second | Informal | used when speaking to one's equals or inferiors |
| ညည်း (nyany:) | Second | Informal | used by females when addressing another female of same age or one younger |
| တော် (tau) | Second | Informal | used by females |
| ခင်ဗျား (hkangbya:) | Second | Formal | used by males |
| ရှင် (hrang) | Second | Formal | used by females |
| သင် (sang), အသင် (a.sang) | Second | Formal | |
| သူ (su) | Third | ||
| သင်း (sang:) | Third | ||
| ချင်း (hkyang:) | Third |