The letters of the first or က class are gutturals, ကဏ္ဌဇာ; those of the second or စ class are palatals, တာလုဇာ; those of the third or ဋ class are cerebrals, မုဒ္ဓဇာ; those of the fourth or တ class are dentals, ဒန္တဇာ; and those of the fifth or ပ class are labials, ဩဌဇာ.
The first letter of each class is a simple articuation, smooth and soft; the third is the same, rough and hard; the second is the aspirate of the first; the fourth, according to the Sungskrit system, whence the alphabet is derived, is the aspirate of the third, but according to the Burmese pronunciation, is the same; and the fifth is the corresponding nasal.
The pronunciation of the cerebrals and the dentals, though different in the Sungskrit, is the same in the Burmese.
Of the seven remaining consonants, five are liquids, viz. ယ, ရ, လ, ဝ, and ဠ; သ is properly a sibilant, but pronounced th, and ဟ is an aspirate.
The cerebrals and the letter ဠ are found only in words derived from the Sungskrit or Pali.
