ဘာသာ မန်

Mon

Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer, Monic)

FamilyAustroasiatic (Mon-Khmer, Monic) Speakers~1M (Myanmar) + ~50K (Thailand) ScriptMon script (Brahmic — direct ancestor of Burmese script) CountriesMyanmar (Mon State); Thailand (refugee + descendant communities) Official inMyanmar (Mon State; teaching language) Vitalitysafe ISO 639-3mnw

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

20 core words in Mon

Water

ဍာ်

/ɗaʔ/

Fire

ပၟတ်

/pəmɔʔ/

Sun

တ္ၚဲ

/tŋoa/

Moon

ဂိတု

/kətoa/

Mother

မိ

/mi/

Father

အပါ

/ʔəpa/

Eat

ဂစုက်

/caʔ/

Drink

သုၚ်

/soŋ/

Love

ဆာန်

/cʰan/

Heart

ဗ္ၜေံ

/məɓɛm/

Tree

ဆု

/sɔ/

House

သ္ၚိ

/hɔeʔ/

Dog

ပ္ၟိၚ်

/klɛŋ/

Cat

ဗ္ဍိုၚ်

/ɓɔŋ/

Hand

တဲ

/tɛ/

Eye

မတ်

/mɔʔ/

Hello

ပ္ဍဲဂေါဝ်

/pɗɛ kaːo/

Thank you

တၚ်ဂုဏ်

/təŋ kɔn/

One

မွဲ

/mwoa/

Good

ခိုဟ်

/kʰɔh/

Sources

Words compared

Compared with related Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer, Monic) languages

Meaning MonMiddle MongolianVietnamese (Chữ Nôm)MlabriMườngPolishEnglish (Singapore)
Water ဍာ် /ɗaʔ/ ဍာ် /ɗaːk/ /nɨək/ om /om/ đác /ɗaːk/ woda /ˈvɔda/ water /wɔːtə/
Fire ပၟတ် /pəmɔʔ/ ပ်ၟ /pmaʔ/ 𤏬 /lɨə/ ʔus /ʔus/ lửa /lɨə/ ogień /ˈɔɡɛɲ/ fire /fajə/
Sun တ္ၚဲ /tŋoa/ တ္ၚဲ /tŋai/ 𩈘𡗶 /mət tɤj/ ŋay /ŋai/ mặt côi /mət koːi/ słońce /ˈswɔɲt͡sɛ/ sun /san/
Moon ဂိတု /kətoa/ ဂျိုၚ် /klɔŋ/ 𩈘𢁑 /mət taŋ/ thel /tʰel/ rằng /raŋ/ księżyc /ˈkɕɛ̃ʐɨt͡s/ moon /muːn/
Mother မိ /mi/ ၚာ /ŋaː/ 𡞕 /mɛ/ mɛʔ /mɛʔ/ mệ /meː/ matka /ˈmatka/ mother /madə/
Father အပါ /ʔəpa/ /pʰɛʔ/ 𤙗 /ɓo/ paʔ /paʔ/ bố /bo/ ojciec /ˈɔjt͡ɕɛt͡s/ father /fadə/
Eat ဂစုက် /caʔ/ စိ /tɕiʔ/ 𫗒 /an/ ʔiʔ /ʔiʔ/ ăn /an/ jeść /jɛɕt͡ɕ/ eat /iːt/
Drink သုၚ် /soŋ/ သုက် /sok/ /uəŋ/ ʔaa /ʔaː/ uống /uəŋ/ pić /pit͡ɕ/ drink /dɹɪŋk/
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