MYANMAR VERSUS BURMA

In 1989 the official English name of the country was changed from the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar to conform to Burmese usage. There has been no change in the Burmese name for the country. 'Myanmar' has in fact been the official name since at least the time of Marco Polo's 13th-century writings; the fist Burmese-language newspaper, published in 1868, was called Myanmar Thandawzin, translated by the British as 'Burma Herald'. In the country's 1947 Constitution, the Burmese version reads 'Myanmar', the Emglsih version 'Burma'.   In Burmese literary contexts, 'Myanmar' is used to refer to the whole country, 'Bamar' (from whence the English got 'Burma') to refer to the Burman ethnicity or to the Burman language. In everyday parlance, 'Bamar-pyi' (or 'Land of the Burmans') may also be used to refer to the country. The new government position finds 'Myanmar' more equitable since it doesn't identify the nation with any one ethnic group.