ဘာသာ မန်
Old Mon
Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer, Monic) · historical / hidden variety
Old Mon was the language of the Dvaravati civilization (modern Thailand) and the Mon kingdoms of Lower Burma from the 6th to 11th centuries. Inscriptions from Pagan show it was a high-prestige court language even after Burmese ascendancy. The Mon script (Brahmic) became the ancestor of the Burmese, Shan, and Karen scripts. Reconstructions follow Shorto (1971) and Diffloth.
Where it is spoken
31 core words in Old Mon
Water
ဍာက်
/ɗaːk/
Fire
ပ်ၟ
/pmaʔ/
Sun
တ္ၚဲ
/tŋai/
Moon
ဂျိုၚ်
/klɔŋ/
Star
ကၟာဲ
/həmoa/
Mother
မိ
/mi/
Father
ဖ
/pʰɛʔ/
I
အဲ
/ʔua/
You
ဗှ်ေ
/peh/
Name
ယု
/jəmu/
Eye
မတ်
/mat/
Hand
တၟုိ
/toi/
Heart
စိုတ်
/cət/
Love
ဆာန်
/cʰan/
Tree
ဆု
/tɕu/
House
သ္ၚိ
/sŋiʔ/
Dog
ခၠဵု
/kʰlou/
Cat
ဂျိ
/kluj/
Eat
စိ
/tɕiʔ/
Drink
သုက်
/sok/
One
မွဲ
/mwɛ/
Two
ၜါ
/ɓa/
Hello
—
/—/
Thank you
—
/—/
Good
ခိုဟ်
/kʰɔh/
Sources
- Shorto, H. L. (1971) A Dictionary of the Mon Inscriptions from the Sixth to the Sixteenth Centuries. Oxford University Press
Words compared
Compared with related Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer, Monic) languages
| Meaning | Old Mon | Mon | Proto-Austroasiatic | Old Burmese | Shwe Palaung | Kuy | Tocharian A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ဍာက် /ɗaːk/ | ဍာ် /ɗaʔ/ | *ɗaːk /ɗaːk/ | ရိ /riy/ | ʔoːm /ʔoːm/ | ɗaːʔ /ɗaʔ/ | 𑀯𑀭𑁆 /wær/ |
| Fire | ပ်ၟ /pmaʔ/ | ပၟတ် /pəmɔʔ/ | *ʔuːs /ʔuːs/ | မိး /miːʔ/ | ŋal /ŋal/ | fəj /fəj/ | 𑀧𑁄𑀭𑁆 /por/ |
| Sun | တ္ၚဲ /tŋai/ | တ္ၚဲ /tŋoa/ | *tŋiːʔ /tŋiːʔ/ | နိ /niy/ | saŋi /saŋi/ | tʰaj /tʰaj/ | 𑀓𑁄𑀁 /kom/ |
| Moon | ဂျိုၚ် /klɔŋ/ | ဂိတု /kətoa/ | — /—/ | လ /la/ | kɨr /kɨr/ | luəŋ /luəŋ/ | 𑀫𑀜𑁆 /mæɲ/ |
| Star | ကၟာဲ /həmoa/ | ဟတဴ /hətɒ/ | — /—/ | ကြယ် /kraj/ | hərngɔ /hərŋɔ/ | simʔaang /simʔaːŋ/ | 𑀰𑁆𑀭𑁂𑀁 /ɕreⁿ/ |
| Mother | မိ /mi/ | မိ /mi/ | *maʔ /maʔ/ | အမိ /ʔamiy/ | mɛʔ /mɛʔ/ | mə /mə/ | 𑀫𑀸𑀘𑀭𑁆 /maːtsar/ |
| Father | ဖ /pʰɛʔ/ | အပါ /ʔəpa/ | — /—/ | အဖ /ʔap/ | paʔ /paʔ/ | pə /pə/ | 𑀧𑀸𑀘𑀭𑁆 /paːtsar/ |
| I | အဲ /ʔua/ | အဲ /ʔoa/ | *ʔaɲ /ʔaɲ/ | ငာ /ŋaː/ | ʔɔ /ʔɔ/ | aɲ /ʔaɲ/ | 𑀦𑀱𑁆 /nəʂ/ |
| You | ဗှ်ေ /peh/ | ဗှ် /pɛh/ | — /—/ | နင် /naŋ/ | miʔ /miʔ/ | may /mɛː/ | 𑀢𑀼 /tu/ |
| Name | ယု /jəmu/ | ယၟု /ɲəmùʔ/ | — /—/ | အမည် /ʔamɲaɲ/ | yum /jum/ | ngaan /ŋaːn/ | 𑀜𑁄𑀁 /ɲom/ |
| Eye | မတ် /mat/ | မတ် /mɔʔ/ | *mat /mat/ | မ္ယက် /mlak/ | ŋai /ŋai/ | mɜ̤t /mɜt/ | 𑀅𑀓𑁆 /ak/ |
| Hand | တၟုိ /toi/ | တဲ /tɛ/ | *tiːʔ /tiːʔ/ | လက် /lak/ | tiː /tiː/ | təy /təj/ | 𑀢𑁆𑀲𑀭𑁆 /tsar/ |
| Heart | စိုတ် /cət/ | ဂြိုဟ် /krɜ̀h/ | — /—/ | နှလုံး /hnaluːŋ/ | rɔŋ /rɔŋ/ | chlaj /tʂlaj/ | 𑀅𑀭𑀸𑀜𑁆𑀘𑁆 /araːɲts/ |
| Love | ဆာန် /cʰan/ | ဆာန် /cʰan/ | — /—/ | ချစ် /klyit/ | ʔiŋ /ʔiŋ/ | phɯ /pʰɯ/ | 𑀢𑀼𑀁𑀓𑁆 /tuŋk/ |
| Tree | ဆု /tɕu/ | ဆု /sɔ/ | — /—/ | သစ် /sit/ | siʔ /siʔ/ | ʔəŋ /ʔəŋ/ | 𑀲𑁆𑀢𑀸𑀫𑁆 /staːm/ |
| House | သ္ၚိ /sŋiʔ/ | သ္ၚိ /hɔeʔ/ | — /—/ | အိမ် /ʔim/ | ɲɛh /ɲɛh/ | pno /pno/ | 𑀯𑀱𑁆𑀢𑁆 /waʂt/ |
| Dog | ခၠဵု /kʰlou/ | ပ္ၟိၚ် /klɛŋ/ | *cɔː /cɔː/ | ခုယ်း /kʰuj/ | so /so/ | sŋaːʔ /ŋaʔ/ | 𑀓𑀼 /ku/ |
| Cat | ဂျိ /kluj/ | ဗ္ဍိုၚ် /ɓɔŋ/ | — /—/ | ကြောင် /klaŋ/ | mioʔ /mioʔ/ | chhlɔːk /tʂɔk/ | 𑀓𑀼𑀫𑀽𑀱𑁆 /kumuːʂ/ |
| Eat | စိ /tɕiʔ/ | ဂစုက် /caʔ/ | *ɟaː /ɟaː/ | စား /tsaːʔ/ | cha /tʃa/ | sap /sap/ | 𑀰𑀯𑁆 /ɕæw/ |
| Drink | သုက် /sok/ | သုၚ် /soŋ/ | — /—/ | ၐုက် /suk/ | ʔoːk /ʔoːk/ | suəm /suəm/ | 𑀬𑁄𑀓𑁆 /jok/ |
| One | မွဲ /mwɛ/ | မွဲ /mwoa/ | *muːj /muːj/ | တ /tac/ | mu /mu/ | mṳːy /muj/ | 𑀲𑀲𑁆 /sas/ |
| Two | ၜါ /ɓa/ | ၜါ /ɓaˋ/ | *ɓaːr /ɓaːr/ | နှစ် /n̥ik/ | ar /ʔar/ | bar /ɓaːr/ | 𑀯𑀼 /wu/ |
| Hello | — /—/ | ပ္ဍဲဂေါဝ် /pɗɛ kaːo/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | vaː piə /vaː piə/ | sabaaj /sabaːj/ | — /—/ |
| Thank you | — /—/ | တၚ်ဂုဏ် /təŋ kɔn/ | — /—/ | — /—/ | kun cɔm /kun tʃɔm/ | khɔp /kʰɔp/ | — /—/ |
| Good | ခိုဟ် /kʰɔh/ | ခိုဟ် /kʰɔh/ | — /—/ | ကောင်း /kawŋ/ | ʔɔm /ʔɔm/ | ɟɔ /dʑɔ/ | 𑀓𑀸𑀲𑀼 /kaːsu/ |
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