Manually constructed context-free grammar for Myanmar syllable structure

Myanmar language and script are unique and complex. Up to our knowledge, considerable amount of work has not yet been done in describing Myanmar script using formal language theory. This paper presents manually constructed context free grammar (CFG) with “111” productions to describe the Myanmar Syllable Structure. We make our CFG in conformity with the properties of LL(1) grammar so that we can apply conventional parsing technique called predictive top-down parsing to identify Myanmar syllables. We present Myanmar syllable structure according to orthographic rules. We also discuss the preprocessing step called contraction for vowels and consonant conjuncts. We make LL (1) grammar in which “1” does not mean exactly one character of lookahead for parsing because of the above mentioned contracted forms. We use five basic sub syllabic elements to construct CFG and found that all possible syllable combinations in Myanmar Orthography can be parsed correctly using the proposed grammar.