The Myeik dialect, also known as Beik in Burmese, Mergui and Merguiese in English, and Marit (มะริด) in Thai, is a divergent

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

of Burmese, spoken in Myeik, the second largest town in

Tanintharyi Region Tanintharyi Region (, ; Mon: or ; formerly Tenasserim Division and Tanintharyi Division) is a region of Myanmar, covering the long narrow southern part of the country on the northern Malay Peninsula, reaching to the Kra Isthmus. It borders ...

, the southernmost region of

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. Beik shares many commonalities with the Tavoyan dialect, although there are substantial differences especially with regard to

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

Phonology

Consonants

Beik possesses 27 consonant phonemes: Unlike Standard Burmese, the Myeik dialect does not have any preaspirated consonants. Phonemes unique to the Myeik dialect include and . Mergui Archipelago

Vowels

The Myeik dialect has three types of

vowels A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

: plain, nasalized and glottalized, with each type having seven vowels.

Notes

References

* {{Burmese language Burmese language