Mok language explained

Mok language should not be confused with Mok language (Papua New Guinea).

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

Mok (/mɔ̀k/ ‘mountain people’), also known as Amok,^[1] Hsen-Hsum, and Muak, is an Angkuic language or dialect cluster spoken in Shan State, Myanmar

7 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.^[2] These varieties have some lexical similarity (the lowest being 88%) with each other, but very low lexical similarity with the other Angkuic languages.^[3]

Gloss	Mok A	Mok B	Mok C	Mok D	Mok E			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]	[nèŋ]^[4]	[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.^[5]

A Mok dialect of Shan State has been documented by Shintani (2019).^[6]

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.^[7]

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 ŋ̩ 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

!Labial!Alveolar!Palatal!Velar!Glottal

Plosive	Voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Fricative		f	s			h
Trill			r
Approximant		w	l	j	(w)

Vowels

!!Front!Central!Back

Close	i		ɯ • u
Close-mid	e	ə	ɤ • o
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.

Further reading

• Hall, Elizabeth. 2010. A Phonology of Muak Sa-aak. M.A. thesis. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Payap University.

External links

• RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
• http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-9671-C@view Mok in RWAAI Digital Archive

Notes and References

1. OLAC Resources in and about the Mok Language, www.language-archives.org/language.php/mqt.
2. 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.
3. Phakawee Tannumsaeng (2020). A Preliminary Grammar of Mok, Hwe Koi Variety, Chiang Rai, With Special Focus on the Anaphoric Use of tɤ́ʔ. Payap University.
4. [Tai languages|Tai]
5. Owen, Robert Wyn. 2018. Initial findings from Mok KIQ and DMT. Unpublished manuscript.
6. 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).
7. Tannumsaeng, Phakawee. 2020. 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.