Signification
Female parent.
Contexte culturel
The mother is considered the primary teacher of the child. The phrase 'Amay' is often the first word a Burmese child learns to write. Mothers are one of the 'Five Infinite Venerables'. Disrespecting one's mother is believed to lead to bad karma in this life and the next. In villages, 'Amay' is used for any woman who has children, regardless of whether you are related to her. It is a communal title. There is a specific genre of poetry called 'Amay-bwe' (Poems about Mother) that celebrates the sacrifices of motherhood.
The Power of 'Amay'
When in doubt, use 'Amay' for any older woman in a service role. It's the ultimate politeness hack in Myanmar.
Tone Matters
Make sure the 'May' is a low, steady tone. If you go too high, it might sound like a question.
Signification
Female parent.
The Power of 'Amay'
When in doubt, use 'Amay' for any older woman in a service role. It's the ultimate politeness hack in Myanmar.
Tone Matters
Make sure the 'May' is a low, steady tone. If you go too high, it might sound like a question.
Possessive Tone Change
When you say 'Mother's' (အမေ့), the tone becomes short and sharp (creaky tone).
Teste-toi
Fill in the blank with the correct word for 'Mother'.
ကျွန်တော့် ______ က ဆရာမပါ။
'အမေ' (Amay) means mother. 'အဖေ' is father and 'အစ်ကို' is older brother.
Which word is the most affectionate version of 'Mother'?
Which one would a small child use?
'မေမေ' (May-may) is the affectionate, intimate version used by children.
Match the word to the correct situation.
1. Legal Document, 2. Market Vendor, 3. Affectionate Child
Mi-khin is formal, Amay is neutral/respectful, May-may is intimate.
🎉 Score : /3
Aides visuelles
Family Terms with 'A-' Prefix
Kinship
- • အမေ (Mother)
- • အဖေ (Father)
- • အစ်ကို (Big Brother)
- • အစ်မ (Big Sister)
Banque d exercices
3 exercicesကျွန်တော့် ______ က ဆရာမပါ။
'အမေ' (Amay) means mother. 'အဖေ' is father and 'အစ်ကို' is older brother.
Which one would a small child use?
'မေမေ' (May-may) is the affectionate, intimate version used by children.
1. Legal Document, 2. Market Vendor, 3. Affectionate Child
Mi-khin is formal, Amay is neutral/respectful, May-may is intimate.
🎉 Score : /3
Questions fréquentes
5 questionsYes, it is very common and expected to call your mother-in-law 'Amay' to show you accept her as your own mother.
Yes, the term 'Amay Mi-mway' is used for Mother Earth or Nature.
Amay is neutral/standard. May-may is cute/intimate, like 'Mommy'.
It is written as အမေ.
No, as long as she is significantly older than you, it is considered very polite.
Expressions liées
အဖေ
similarFather
မိခင်
specialized formFormal Mother
မေမေ
similarMommy
အမေကြီး
builds onGrandmother / Elder
