Mon_language

This article is about Mon language, spoken in southeastern Burma and western Thailand. For the northeastern Thai, northwestern Lao, and northern Vietnamese language of the Hmong, see Hmong language.

The Mon language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon, who live in Burma and Thailand. In Burma, the majority of speakers lives in Mon State, followed by Tanintharyi Division and Kayin State.Dr. SM. The Mon Language (An endangered species). Monland Restoration Council. Retrieved on 2006-07-12. In recent years, usage of Mon has declined rapidly, especially among the younger generation. Many ethnic Mon, like the Shan, are monolingual in Burmese. Mon, unlike most languages in the Southeast Asian region, is not tonal.

Mon is considered an important language in Burmese history. It was the lingua franca in the beginning of the Pagan Kingdom, during the 800s. Old Burmese began to replace Mon and Pyu as lingua francaStrachan, Paul (1990). Imperial Pagan: Art and Architecture of Burma. University of Hawaii Press, 66. ISBN 0-8248-1325-1.  During the reign of Burman king Kyanzittha, who ruled from 1084 to 1112 and admired the Mon culture, the Mon language was patronised. He left many inscriptions in Mon. During this period, the Myazedi inscription, which contains identical inscriptions of a story in Pali, Pyu, Mon, and Burmese on the four sides was carved. However, after Kyanzittha\'s death, usage of the Mon language declined among the Burmans.

Dialects

Mon has three primary dialects in Burma, coming from the various regions the Mon inhabit. They are the Central (areas surrounding Mottama and Mawlamyaing), Bago, and Ye dialects.South, Ashley (2003). Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma: The Golden Sheldrake. Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-1609-2.  All are mutually intelligible. Thai Mon has some differences from the Burmese dialects of Mon, but is almost mutually intelligible.

Written script

The Mon script is ancestral to the Burmese script, but utilises several different letters and diacritics that represent phonemes that do not exist in Burmese, such as the diacritic of the medial \'l\', which is placed underneath the letter.Proposal for encoding characters for Myanmar minority languages in the UCS (PDF). International Organization for Standardization (2006-04-02). Retrieved on 2006-07-09.

Phonology

Consonants

¹/ç/ is only found in Burmese loans.

Vowels

Vocalic register

Unlike the surrounding Burmese and Thai languages, Mon is not a tonal language. As in many Mon-Khmer languages, Mon uses a vowel-phonation or vowel-register system in which the quality of voice in pronouncing the vowel is phonemic. There are two registers in Mon:

1. Clear (modal) voice, analyzed by various linguists as ranging from ordinary to creaky
2. Breathy voice, vowels have a distinct breathy quality

Notes

Further reading

• Diffloth, Gérard. The Dvaravati Old Mon Language and Nyah Kur. Monic language studies, vol. 1. Bangkok, Thailand: Chulalongkorn University Print. House, 1984. ISBN 9745637831
• Jenny, Mathias. The Verb System of Mon. Arbeiten des Seminars für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Zürich, Nr 19. Zürich: Universität Zürich, 2005. ISBN 3952295418
• Panʻʺ Lha. The Significant Role of the Mon Language and Culture in Southeast Asia. Tokyo, Japan: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1992.
• Shorto, H. L. A Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.

External links

• SEAlang Project: Mon-Khmer languages: The Monic Branch
• Mon Language Project
• Ethnologue report for Mon
• Mon Language in Thailand: The endangered heritage

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