Mon Language Interpreters and Translators

Mon Interpreters And Translators

CIT offers Mon interpreters and translators with legal, medical and specialty experience, including criminal and civil matters, employee meetings, engineering, patent cases, labor disputes, immigration and more.

Although based in Los Angeles, CIT offers comprehensive Mon language services including interpretation, translation and transcription, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, worldwide. Our interpreters and translators are native speakers who have been screened, certified, have provided credentials, field tested, and kept up to date with developments in both English and the Mon language through means such as lectures, conferences, and travel. CIT’s Mon language interpreters and translators possess in-depth knowledge of the Mon language, as well as of the culture and history of the Mon people, allowing them to provide informed and complete interpretation and translation.

The Mon Language

The Mon language is an Austroasiatic language. Mon is also known as Talaing or Peguan. It is currently spoken by about 850,000 speakers in Myanmar, Burma and Thailand. More specifically, Mon is spoken in the Mon State, in the Tanintharyi Region and the Kayin State in South Myanmar. After Pagan fell, Mon was the lingua franca of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1287-1539), which today, is known as Lower Myanmar. Up until the mid 1800s, Mon was spoken extensively in Burma. However, at this time, the British took over the area, causing a lot of people from India and China to move to the area. Then, Mon became less used. In the 6^th century, Mon had first been written using two different scripts. These inscriptions can be found in central Thailand in older archaeological sires that have been associated with the Dvaravati Kingdom. The first script came from the Grantha script. Another script came from the Kadamba or Grantha script. The first time the Mon script appeared was in 1113 in Mayzedi inscriptions. In Mon, there are two types of consonants, clear and breathy (or chest). The Ancient Mon language was written in script that originally came from South India. It has evolved and is more similar to the Burmese writing system. Today, Mon is spoken mainly in Myanmar between Moulmein and Ye. Mon is known as “the bubble language” as it is written with several round letters.

Today, Mon is considered a developing language. It is classified as an Austro-Asiatic, Mon-Khmer and Monic language. There are several dialects of Mon, such as Martaban-Moulmein (Central Mon, Mon Te), Pegu (Mon Tang, Northern Mon) and Ye (Mon Nya, Southern Mon). There are varieties of Mon in Myanmar and Thailand but they are minimal. The Mon language follows the subject-verb-order typology. Mon and Burmese are basically the same but Mon has more consonants. Unlike Thai and Burmese, Mon is not a tonal language. There are barely any classifiers or prepositions in Mon.

Compared to those who consider themselves Mon people, the amount of people that speak the language is very small. Since 1948, when Burma declared independence, there has been a rapid decline of speakers. The older generation is somewhat literate in Mon, however, those under 40 are almost not literate in Mon. Today, Mon is taught in some monasteries in Myanmar and Thailand. Literarily speaking, Mon has some literature, a dictionary, grammar and a Mon translation of the Bible. Most of the Mon people are Buddhist. The first publication in Mon in Myanmar since 1962 was released in 2013 as part of a newspaper, the Thanlwin Times, which is based in Mawlamyine.