ဘာသာ မန်
Mon
Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer, Monic)
Mon is one of the oldest documented written languages of mainland Southeast Asia, with attestations from the 6th c. CE. The Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati (6th-11th c.) and Pegu/Hanthawaddy (13th-18th c.) were major Buddhist civilizational centres of the Indian Ocean rim, and the Mon script is the direct ancestor of modern Burmese, Shan, and Lao scripts. ~1.05M speakers in Myanmar's Mon State plus ~50K in Thai refugee/descendant communities. Heavy substrate influence on Burmese phonology. Used as a teaching language in Mon State primary schools.
Where it is spoken
31 core words in Mon
Water
ဍာ်
/ɗaʔ/
Fire
ပၟတ်
/pəmɔʔ/
Sun
တ္ၚဲ
/tŋoa/
Moon
ဂိတု
/kətoa/
Star
ဟတဴ
/hətɒ/
Mother
မိ
/mi/
Father
အပါ
/ʔəpa/
I
အဲ
/ʔoa/
You
ဗှ်
/pɛh/
Name
ယၟု
/ɲəmùʔ/
Eye
မတ်
/mɔʔ/
Hand
တဲ
/tɛ/
Heart
ဂြိုဟ်
/krɜ̀h/
Love
ဆာန်
/cʰan/
Tree
ဆု
/sɔ/
House
သ္ၚိ
/hɔeʔ/
Dog
ပ္ၟိၚ်
/klɛŋ/
Cat
ဗ္ဍိုၚ်
/ɓɔŋ/
Eat
ဂစုက်
/caʔ/
Drink
သုၚ်
/soŋ/
One
မွဲ
/mwoa/
Two
ၜါ
/ɓaˋ/
Hello
ပ္ဍဲဂေါဝ်
/pɗɛ kaːo/
Thank you
တၚ်ဂုဏ်
/təŋ kɔn/
Good
ခိုဟ်
/kʰɔh/
Cuckoo
ကဴဝဴ
/kəwào/
Sources
Words compared
Compared with related Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer, Monic) languages
| Meaning | Mon | Old Mon | Kuy | Mlabri | Shwe Palaung | Bahnar | Proto-Austroasiatic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ဍာ် /ɗaʔ/ | ဍာက် /ɗaːk/ | ɗaːʔ /ɗaʔ/ | om /om/ | ʔoːm /ʔoːm/ | dak /dak/ | *ɗaːk /ɗaːk/ |
| Fire | ပၟတ် /pəmɔʔ/ | ပ်ၟ /pmaʔ/ | fəj /fəj/ | ʔus /ʔus/ | ŋal /ŋal/ | unh /uɲ/ | *ʔuːs /ʔuːs/ |
| Sun | တ္ၚဲ /tŋoa/ | တ္ၚဲ /tŋai/ | tʰaj /tʰaj/ | ŋay /ŋai/ | saŋi /saŋi/ | mat trơ /mat trə/ | *tŋiːʔ /tŋiːʔ/ |
| Moon | ဂိတု /kətoa/ | ဂျိုၚ် /klɔŋ/ | luəŋ /luəŋ/ | thel /tʰel/ | kɨr /kɨr/ | khe /kʰe/ | — /—/ |
| Star | ဟတဴ /hətɒ/ | ကၟာဲ /həmoa/ | simʔaang /simʔaːŋ/ | smaːŋ /smaːŋ/ | hərngɔ /hərŋɔ/ | hmang /hmaːŋ/ | — /—/ |
| Mother | မိ /mi/ | မိ /mi/ | mə /mə/ | mɛʔ /mɛʔ/ | mɛʔ /mɛʔ/ | mei /mei/ | *maʔ /maʔ/ |
| Father | အပါ /ʔəpa/ | ဖ /pʰɛʔ/ | pə /pə/ | paʔ /paʔ/ | paʔ /paʔ/ | bă /bə/ | — /—/ |
| I | အဲ /ʔoa/ | အဲ /ʔua/ | aɲ /ʔaɲ/ | oh /ʔoh/ | ʔɔ /ʔɔ/ | inh /iɲ/ | *ʔaɲ /ʔaɲ/ |
| You | ဗှ် /pɛh/ | ဗှ်ေ /peh/ | may /mɛː/ | meh /meh/ | miʔ /miʔ/ | ih /ʔih/ | — /—/ |
| Name | ယၟု /ɲəmùʔ/ | ယု /jəmu/ | ngaan /ŋaːn/ | cmɔh /cmɔːh/ | yum /jum/ | anĕ /anɛ/ | — /—/ |
| Eye | မတ် /mɔʔ/ | မတ် /mat/ | mɜ̤t /mɜt/ | mɔt /mɔt/ | ŋai /ŋai/ | mat /mat/ | *mat /mat/ |
| Hand | တဲ /tɛ/ | တၟုိ /toi/ | təy /təj/ | tiʔ /tiʔ/ | tiː /tiː/ | ti /ti/ | *tiːʔ /tiːʔ/ |
| Heart | ဂြိုဟ် /krɜ̀h/ | စိုတ် /cət/ | chlaj /tʂlaj/ | kɛm /kɛm/ | rɔŋ /rɔŋ/ | blei /blei/ | — /—/ |
| Love | ဆာန် /cʰan/ | ဆာန် /cʰan/ | phɯ /pʰɯ/ | kraʔ /kraʔ/ | ʔiŋ /ʔiŋ/ | rơngư /rəŋɨ/ | — /—/ |
| Tree | ဆု /sɔ/ | ဆု /tɕu/ | ʔəŋ /ʔəŋ/ | tɔn /tɔn/ | siʔ /siʔ/ | lông /loŋ/ | — /—/ |
| House | သ္ၚိ /hɔeʔ/ | သ္ၚိ /sŋiʔ/ | pno /pno/ | tu /tu/ | ɲɛh /ɲɛh/ | hnam /hnam/ | — /—/ |
| Dog | ပ္ၟိၚ် /klɛŋ/ | ခၠဵု /kʰlou/ | sŋaːʔ /ŋaʔ/ | cɛn /tɕɛn/ | so /so/ | cho /tʃo/ | *cɔː /cɔː/ |
| Cat | ဗ္ဍိုၚ် /ɓɔŋ/ | ဂျိ /kluj/ | chhlɔːk /tʂɔk/ | meo /meo/ | mioʔ /mioʔ/ | miao /miao/ | — /—/ |
| Eat | ဂစုက် /caʔ/ | စိ /tɕiʔ/ | sap /sap/ | ʔiʔ /ʔiʔ/ | cha /tʃa/ | sa /sa/ | *ɟaː /ɟaː/ |
| Drink | သုၚ် /soŋ/ | သုက် /sok/ | suəm /suəm/ | ʔaa /ʔaː/ | ʔoːk /ʔoːk/ | ngoah /ŋoah/ | — /—/ |
| One | မွဲ /mwoa/ | မွဲ /mwɛ/ | mṳːy /muj/ | mɔy /mɔi/ | mu /mu/ | minh /miɲ/ | *muːj /muːj/ |
| Two | ၜါ /ɓaˋ/ | ၜါ /ɓa/ | bar /ɓaːr/ | bɛr /bɛːr/ | ar /ʔar/ | bar /ɓaːr/ | *ɓaːr /ɓaːr/ |
| Hello | ပ္ဍဲဂေါဝ် /pɗɛ kaːo/ | — /—/ | sabaaj /sabaːj/ | hahɔ /haho/ | vaː piə /vaː piə/ | ô /o/ | — /—/ |
| Thank you | တၚ်ဂုဏ် /təŋ kɔn/ | — /—/ | khɔp /kʰɔp/ | knɔŋ /knoŋ/ | kun cɔm /kun tʃɔm/ | kơbi /kəbi/ | — /—/ |
| Good | ခိုဟ် /kʰɔh/ | ခိုဟ် /kʰɔh/ | ɟɔ /dʑɔ/ | laʔ /laʔ/ | ʔɔm /ʔɔm/ | ling /liŋ/ | — /—/ |
| Cuckoo | ကဴဝဴ /kəwào/ | — | — | — | pak-tu /pək tuʔ/ | jɛːt /jɛːt/ | — |
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