LibGuides: Burmese Language: Reference sources

What are reference sources?

Reference sources are resources used to locate basic information and secondary literature.

There are many types of reference sources, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, atlases, handbooks, guides, and style manuals.

They are a fantastic places to begin your research, especially if you are exploring a new topic.

Reference sources can help you to:

define your topic in general terms
find background information, including themes and key points
identify keywords and alternative terms for conceptualising your subject, and for database searching.

Online reference resources

Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
An authoritative and comprehensive reference collection combining access to in-depth scholarly resources offered by titles in the Oxford Companions series, together with quick reference coverage using over 120 key Oxford dictionaries and reference works.

SEALANG Library
Established in 2005, the SEAlang Library provides language reference materials for Southeast Asia (SEA). Initially focused on the non-roman script languages used throughout the mainland, now concentrating on the languages of insular SEA. SEAlang Library resources include bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, monolingual text corpora, aligned bitext corpora, and a variety of tools for manipulating, searching, and displaying complex scripts.
The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) Online: Burmese
A large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. WALS was published as a book with CD-ROM in 2005. To download the "Interactive Reference Tool (WALS program)" please follow the link http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/research/tool.php.

Print reference resouces

Aspect in Burmese: meaning and function by Nicoletta Romeo
Call Number: [ANU staff and students only]
Publication Date: 2008
This book presents an overview of the aspectual system of Burmese, analysing the meaning and function of some aspectual markers which are among the most commonly used in the language.
An introduction to the Burmese writing system by D. Haigh Roop
Call Number: MENZIES large book PL3930.R6 1997
Publication Date: 1997
Originally published by Yale University Press in 1972 then republished by Honolulu, Hawaii : Center for Southeast Asian Studies, School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Myanmar by Adam Simpson (Editor); Nicholas Farrelly (Editor); Ian Holliday (Editor)
Call Number: View online [ANU staff and students only]
Publication Date: 2018
After decades of mismanagement and direct military rule, Myanmar's contested transition to a more democratic government has rapidly shifted the outlook in this significant Southeast Asian nation. Since 2011, the removal of Western sanctions and new foreign investments have resulted in high rates of economic growth and an expanding middle class, albeit from a very low base.
Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: literary life in Myanmar under censorship and in transition by Ellen Wiles
Call Number: [ANU staff and students only]
Publication Date: 2015
This book tells an ethnographic story of a secret literary culture that has recently emerged from its cocoon. The book explores the experiences and recent output of nine Myanmar writers spanning three generations, featuring interviews and English-language translations of their work, along with political, legal, and artistic analyses.