Burmese Language: Facts for Translators

Burmese (my, mya) is a world language. Wikidata records about 32.9M speakers. It is written in Burmese alphabet and Mon–Burmese script. It is an official language in 1 country, including Myanmar.

32.9M

Speakers

$0.06–0.14

Indicative rate / word

Translation guides

Where Burmese is official

Myanmar

Rates for Burmese translation

Burmese falls in our south & southeast asian band: roughly $0.06–$0.14 per word for general commercial work. These are indicative ranges, not quotes — specialised, certified and rush work costs more, and literary translation is usually priced per 1,000 words.

For context, the median salaried translator or interpreter in the US earned $60,170 in May 2025 (BLS). See salaries by state →

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From Wikipedia

Burmese is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Myanmar, where it is the official language, lingua franca, and the native language of the Bamar, the country's largest ethnic group. The Constitution of Myanmar officially refers to it as the Myanmar language in English, though most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese, after Burma—a name with co-official status until 1989. Burmese is the most widely spoken language in the country. In 2019, Burmese was spoken by 42.9 million people globally, including by 32.9 million speakers as a first language and 10 million as a second language. A 2023 World Bank survey found that 80% of the country's population speaks Burmese.