Wiktionary:Mon entry guidelines

	This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. This is a draft proposal. It is unofficial, and it is unknown whether it is widely accepted by Wiktionary editors.
	Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

The Mon spelling may be inaccurate on some words. Please verify with many sources. The most modern or often spelling should be the main entry, as it is useful for present studying. The other forms will be determined as alternative forms. The SEAlang database refers to Shorto's research (1962) that might include some errors (e.g. *ယဳု for ယီု (yəṁ, “to breathe”), *ဂဳု for ဂီု (gəṁ, “to be warm”), *အိုဿဳု for အိုတ်သီု (ʼət səṁ, “all”); for other cases, please discuss each case on its talk page).

For the compound words, they do not use spaces; the components are just attached side by side like Burmese.

Although Mon has the explicit nga ၚ for initial and medial, the common nga င is mostly used for final -င်. That is, -င် should be the main entry instead of -ၚ်.

However, it is not known how some spoken words should be written; we should not create such entries until there is evidence for their orthography.

Due to inconsistency in reading, modern Mon pronunciation must be written manually; it cannot be automated by Lua modules.

There are also many words that are pronounced differently between the dialects spoken in Myanmar and Thailand. For example, look into ဗၞိက် or ကၞုဲ. The Myanmar dialect can be seen on SEAlang. The Thailand dialect, for example, can be seen in the Siamese Mon–Thai Dictionary (2005) →ISBN.

Mon language has numerous dialects but no official standard variety is seen while "reading pronunciation" used by Buddhist monks and singers etc. (and considered prestigious by some Mon) exists. There are numerous studies but their materials are differed in terms of dialects. Researchers have studied the following dialects:

• Myanmar (Burma)
  • Kanni, Kayin (Karen) State
  • Kaw Kyaik (Mon: ကအ်ကျာ်)
  • Ko’ Dot, Mon State
  • Ko’ Kapoun (Burmese: ကော့ခပုံ), Mon State
• Thailand
  • Baan Nong Duu (Thai: บ้านหนองดู่), Lamphun Province
  • Northern and Central Thailand (including Ban Pong and Photharam Districts, Rajburi Province; Ko Kret, Nonthaburi Province; Lopburi Province; Pasang District, Lamphun Province)
  • Pak Kret District, Nonthaburi Province
  • Sangkhlaburi (but regarded as a Burmese Mon dialect due to inhabitants having emigrated from Burma since 1955 ca.)

• Bauer, Christian Hartmut Richard (1982) Morphology and Syntax of Spoken Mon‎, SOAS, University of London
• Jenny, Mathias (2005) The verb system of Mon, University of Zurich, →DOI, →ISBN
• Jenny, Mathias (2015) “Modern Mon”, in Mathias Jenny and Paul Sidwell, editors, The Handbook of Austroasian Languages‎, volume 1, Leiden and Boston: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 557 of 553–600
• Sujaritlak Deepadung (1996) “Mon at Nong Duu, Lamphun Province”, in Mon-Khmer Studies‎, volume 26, pages 411–418
• Sakamoto, Yasuyuki (1994) Mon - Japanese Dictionary‎ (in Japanese), Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
• Shorto, H.L. (1962) A Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon, London: Oxford University Press