Assam valley from Myanmar. The period of Burmese invasions to Assam are known as মানৰ দিন Manor Din ("Days of Maan"). In Bengali the name is ব্রহ্মদেশ or 'Brahmadesh'. It is the same in case of Sanskrit and Sanskrit-based languages in other parts of India. This name predates the Portuguese or British names but it is not clear whether this name has roots connected to the 'Mrnma' people or it predates them also. In Chinese, the name appeared for the first time in 1273 and was recorded as 緬 (pronounced miɛnX in the Middle Chinese of the period, and Miǎn in Modern Standard Mandarin). The present name in the Chinese is 緬甸 (pronounced Miǎndiàn). The Vietnamese Miến Điện is derived from the same term. In Japan, although the Japanese government's basic position is to use , often media organisations indicate in parentheses afterwards. Biruma may be used more often in the spoken language, while Myanmā is more common in written language. Popular Japanese fictional works such as The Burmese Harp (Biruma no tategoto) mean that the name Biruma may have more of an emotional resonance to readers. Historically Japan used the Chinese characters of "Menden" (緬甸) to refer to Burma. This form remains in contemporary usage in abbreviations; for example, the World War II-era Burma-Thailand Railway is still referred to almost exclusively as the Tai-Men Tetsudō (泰緬鉄道). Myanmar is known by a name deriving from Burma as opposed to Myanmar in Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Greek – Birmania being the local version of Burma in both Italian and Spanish, Birmânia in Portuguese, and Birmanie in French. As in the past, French-language media today consistently use Birmanie. In Tamil, although not used as much anymore, Myanmar was referred to as "Putpagam" (புட்பகம்). It is most likely derived from the name of the Pagan Kingdom. The most iconic reference using this name occurs in Subramania Bharati's "Senthamizh Nadenum" song which also lists other Tamilized place names. References Further reading External links Myanmar Myanmar Myanmar 1989 in Myanmar 1989 in international relations Names of places in Asia fr:Birmanie#Dénomination