Mok language
Austroasiatic language spoken in Myanmar and Thailand
title: "Mok language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["palaungic-languages", "endangered-austroasiatic-languages"] description: "Austroasiatic language spoken in Myanmar and Thailand" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mok_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Austroasiatic language spoken in Myanmar and Thailand ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Mok |
| region | Shan State, Myanmar and Thailand |
| speakers | 4,700 |
| date | 2018 |
| ref | e24 |
| familycolor | Austro-Asiatic |
| fam2 | Khasi–Palaungic |
| fam3 | Palaungic |
| fam4 | Angkuic |
| iso3 | mqt |
| glotto | mokk1243 |
| glottorefname | Mok |
| :: |
|name=Mok |nativename= |region=Shan State, Myanmar and Thailand |speakers= 4,700 |date=2018 |ref= e24 |familycolor=Austro-Asiatic |fam2=Khasi–Palaungic |fam3=Palaungic |fam4=Angkuic |iso3=mqt |glotto=mokk1243 |glottorefname=Mok
Mok (/mɔ̀k/ 'mountain people'), also known as Amok, Hsen-Hsum, and Muak, is an Angkuic language or dialect cluster spoken in Shan State, Myanmar
Seven speakers in Lampang province, Thailand, were reported by Wurm & Hattori (1981).
Varieties
Hall & Devereux (2018) report that five varieties of Mok are spoken in Shan State, Myanmar, providing the following comparative vocabulary table. These varieties have some lexical similarity (the lowest being 88%) with each other, but very low lexical similarity with the other Angkuic languages.
::data[format=table]
| Gloss | Mok A | Mok B | Mok C | Mok D | Mok E | Muak Sa-aak | Pa Xɛp U | Hu |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| die | [jɛ́m] | [n̩jém] | [jám] | [jɛ́m] | [jɛ̂m] | jâm | jàp | jám |
| weep | [jàːm] | [jàːm] | [jàːm] | [jàːm] | [jàːm] | jâːm | jâm | jàm |
| chicken | [ʔèa] | [ʔeàː] | [ʔìa] | [ʔeàː] | [ʔeàː] | ʔɛ̂l | jɛ́ | - |
| silver, money | [mûi] | Tai]] loanword | [ŋə̀n] | [muí] | [p.sí muî] | mûl | mùn | mm̥úl |
| fly (v.) | [tʰə̀ːŋ] | [tʰiaŋ] / [pʰiaŋ] | [ntʰíaŋ] | [mpʰîang] | [ntʰîaŋ] | pʰ.jûl | mpʰə̀ | phɨ́ʁ |
| louse | [síʔ] / [nsíʔ] | [síʔ] / [nsíʔ] | [nsíʔ] | [síʔ] / [nsíʔ] | [síʔ] / [nsíʔ] | cʰíʔ | nchí | nsíʔ |
| :: |
Owen (2018) names these varieties Hwe Law, Chieng Kham, Pha Lam, Punglong, and Hwe Koi.
A Mok dialect of Shan State has been documented by Shintani (2019).
Geographic distribution
Tannumsaeng (2020) describes three locations for Mok: between Mong Khet and Mong Yang and south of Kengtung in Myanmar, and on the Thai-Burmese border in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. The main Mok-speaking areas in Shan State include an area just to the south of Kengtung, and another area situated between Mong Khet and Mong Yang.
Phonology
Tannumsaeng (2020), citing Hall & Devereux (2018), provides the following phonology for Mok.
The consonants are /pʰ p m f w tʰ t n s l r c ɲ j kʰ k ŋ ʔ h/, with reduced /m̩ n̩ ɲ̩ ŋ̍ pə tə kə sə/. /f/ and /r/ only appear in certain varieties. The vowels are /i e ɛ u ɯ o ɤ ɔ a/, with the diphthongs /ia ɯa ua/. Mok has two tones, one low and one high.
Consonants
::data[format=table title=""]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | c |
| Aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ |
| Fricative | f | s | ||
| Trill | r | |||
| Approximant | w | l | j | (w) |
| :: |
Vowels
::data[format=table title=""]
| Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | |
| Close-mid | e | ə |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a | |
| :: |
Where there are two vowels separated by a dot •, the one on the left is unrounded and the one on the right is rounded.
References and notes
References
- OLAC Resources in and about the Mok Language, www.language-archives.org/language.php/mqt.
- Hall, Elizabeth and Shane Devereux (2018). ''Preliminary Mok Phonology and Implications for Angkuic Sound Change.'' Paper presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, held May 17–19, 2018 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- Phakawee Tannumsaeng (2020). ''A Preliminary Grammar of Mok, Hwe Koi Variety, Chiang Rai, With Special Focus on the Anaphoric Use of tɤ́ʔ''. Payap University.
- [[Tai languages. Tai]] loanword
- Owen, Robert Wyn. 2018. ''Initial findings from Mok KIQ and DMT''. Unpublished manuscript.
- Shintani, Tadahiko. 2019. ''The Sen Tsum (I-Mok) language''. Linguistic survey of Tay cultural area (LSTCA) no. 121. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
- Tannumsaeng, Phakawee. 2020. ''[https://ic.payap.ac.th/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Opel-Thesis.pdf A Preliminary Grammar of Mok, Hwe Koi Variety, Chiang Rai, with Special Focus on The Anaphoric Uses of tɤ́ʔ]''. M.A. dissertation. Chiang Mai: Payap University.
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