page_title: Mon people
section_title: Language and script
hierarchical_section_title: Mon people / Language and script
caption_attribution_description: English: Myakan Mon inscription
context_page_description: The Mon are an ethnic group who inhabit Myanmar's Mon State, Bago Region, the Irrawaddy Delta, the southern Myanmar border with Thailand, and Thailand's Thon Buri District, Pakret District, Phra Pradaeng District and Lat Krabang District.
  The Mon were one of the earliest to reside in Southeast Asia, and were responsible for the spread of Theravada Buddhism in Mainland Southeast Asia. The civilisations founded by the Mon were some of the earliest in Thailand as well as Myanmar.
  They speak the Mon language, an Austroasiatic language, and share a common origin with the Nyah Kur people of Thailand; they are from the Mon mandala of Dvaravati. A number of languages in Mainland Southeast Asia are influenced by the Mon language. The Mon were a source of influence on the culture of Myanmar and Thailand. The Mon are regarded as a large exporter of Southeast Asian culture. Historically, many cities in both countries today, including Yangon and Bangkok were founded either by the Mon people or Mon rulers.
  Nowadays, the Mon are a major ethnic group in Myanmar and a minor ethnic group in Thailand. The Mons from Myanmar are called Burmese Mon or Myanmar Mon.
context_section_description: The Mon language is part of the Monic group of the Austroasiatic languages (also known as Mon–Khmer language family), closely related to the Nyah Kur language and more distantly related to Khmer and Vietnamese. The writing system is based on Indic scripts. The Mon language is one of the earliest documented vernacular languages of Indochina (Mainland Southeast Asia).
  It cannot be denied that a number of languages in the region are heavily influenced by the Mon language. Tai Tham alphabet and Burmese alphabet are adaptations of the Mon script. Tai Tham alphabet is primarily used for Northern Thai language, Tai Lue language, Khün language and Lao Tham language. The Burmese alphabet is used for Burmese language, Shan language, S'gaw Karen language and other languages.
  Historically, the Tai and Bamar lords adopted Mon alphabet, which the Tai developed into their own writing systems as Tai Tham alphabet, for the Thai Yuan people in the northern Thailand, and the Bamar developed Burmese alphabet, for the Burmese in Burma (Myanmar). Most scholarships believe that the Bamars adapted the Mon script for Burmese following their conquest of Mon's Thaton Kingdom during Anawrahta's reign in the 11th century.
  Although Thais (Central and Southern Thailand) adopted more features from the Khmer alphabet than from the Mon, plenty of vocabulary in Thai language today were derived from the Mon language. Burmese language also has a lot of words derived from or borrowed from the Mon language, especially related with administration, architecture, cloth, cuisine and flowers.
  Nowadays, the Mon language is recognised as an indigenous language in both Myanmar and Thailand. Due to the fall in number of Mon language speakers in the recent decades, the Mon language is classified by UNESCO as "Endangered language" that could lead to an "extinct language".
caption: Mon scripts on Myakan inscription (1084– 1112 CE)
exif: {"Image Software": "Google"}