The Burmese language is of the Sino-Tibetan language family, with the word Sino being in reference to China, though this language family is used to encompass more than 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and certain areas of South Asia. In regards to the amount of native speakers, Sino-Tibetan languages have the second largest amount of global speakers, coming only after Indo-European.
While it is common within English to refer to the Burmese language as Burmese, it is also officially recognized as the Myanmar language, and is regulated by the Myanmar Language Commission. The Burmese language uses its own script – Burmese script – which is derived from the Mon language, which is in turn derived from the Indian Brahmi script. The Mon as an ethnic minority are a Theravada Buddhist ethnic group that live mostly in Mon State, the Bago Division and the Irrawaddy Delta.