The country known in English as Burma, or Myanmar, has undergone changes in both its official and popular names worldwide.
[2] Both names derive ultimately from the endonym of the largest ethnic group in Burma, the Burmans, also known as Bama or Mranma in the spoken and literary registers, respectively.
[citation needed] In 1930s, Ba Thaung, founder of the Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association), referred to the country as Bama Pyi (ဗမာပြည်).
[5] The "Burmans" who entered the central Irrawaddy river valley in the 9th century founded the Pagan Kingdom in 849,[6] and called themselves Mranma.
[7] The earliest record discovered of the word was in a Mon inscription dated 1102, inside which the name was spelled Mirma.
[5] Ma Thanegi records that the first use of the name 'Mranma' for the country is to be found on a 3 feet (91 cm) high stone inscription dated 597 ME (Traditional Burmese calendar) or 1235 CE.
[citation needed] The Burmese puppet state set up by the Japanese occupation forces during the Second World War was officially called Bama.
Thus, for instance, Rangoon was changed to Yangon to reflect the fact that the "r" sound is no longer used in Standard Burmese and merged with a "y" glide.
The commission added a final "r" in English to represent the low tone of Burmese, in which the word Myanma is pronounced.
Former opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at first opposed the new name "Myanmar", pointing out the hypocritical justification of inclusivity put forward by the regime.
Since the Burmese government's 1989 decision to use "Myanmar" rather than "Burma" when using English, adoption of the new name in the English-speaking world has been mixed.
The United States government attributes its choice to support for the party deemed to have won the 1990 election but been denied power by the junta.
[16] A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canada said that his government's choice was "in support of the struggle for democracy".
[12] Others, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the governments of China, India, Japan,[17] Germany,[18] Australia,[19] Canada[20] and Russia recognize "Myanmar" as the official name.
During the 2005 ASEAN summit in Thailand, the Foreign Minister Nyan Win complained about the US insistence of calling his country "Burma" instead of "Myanmar" as it was renamed more than a decade ago.
The American delegate continued her comments on human rights violations in Myanmar, without using either name for the country.
[22] On 19 November 2012, US President Barack Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her second visit to the country, referred to the nation as both Myanmar and Burma.
In spite of the usage by the US government, American news outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune and CNN, and US-based international news agencies the Associated Press and Reuters have adopted the name "Myanmar".
[27] Another approach taken by some historians is to continue to use the name "Burma" for describing the history of the country prior to the 1988 military coup and "Myanmar" from there on.
However, the matter has resurfaced, as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) reverted to the former title under Abbott's leadership in late 2013.
A reason for the change has not appeared in the media, but, as of June 2014, the Abbott government's policy advises officials to switch between Burma and Myanmar, in accordance with the circumstances at hand.
"[29] In April 2016, soon after taking office, Aung San Suu Kyi clarified that foreigners are free to use either name, "because there is nothing in the constitution of our country that says that you must use any term in particular.
[citation needed] While the use of the name "Myanmar" is widespread and rivals the use of "Burma", adoption of adjectival forms has been far more limited; in general, terms in use before 1989 have persisted.
In Japan, although the Japanese government's basic position is to use Myanmā (ミャンマー), often media organisations indicate Biruma (ビルマ) in parentheses afterwards.
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).