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)

1. (men's speech) I, me (formal polite, used by males in Lower Myanmar)
2. 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