Mueang

Place names in Southwestern Tai languages

Cambodia

In Khmer, "moeang" (មឿង) is a word borrowed from the Thai language meaning "small city" or "small town." Usually used as a place name for villages.

• Moeang Char
• Moeang Prachen

China

The placename "mueang" is written in Chinese characters as 勐, 孟; měng, which is equivalent to Tai Nüa: ᥛᥫᥒᥰ and Tai Lü: ᦵᦙᦲᧂ, both of which are spoken in China.

Laos

Laos is colloquially known as Muang Lao, but for Lao people, the word conveys more than mere administrative district. The usage is of special historic interest for the Lao; in particular for their traditional socio-political and administrative organisation, and the formation of their early (power) states, described by later scholars as Mandala (Southeast Asian political model). Provinces of Laos are now subdivided into what are commonly translated as districts of Laos, with some retaining Muang as part of the name:

• Muang Sing
• Muang Xay
• Former Muang
  • Muang Phuan (modern Phonsavan, capital city of Xiangkhouang Province)
  • Muang Sua

Myanmar

• Mong Mao
• Mong Hsat
• Mong Hpayak
• Mong Ton
• Mong Nai
• Mong Ping
• Mohnyin (former Mongyang State)
• Mogaung (former Mongkawng)
• Momauk
• Mogok
• Momeik

Northeast India

• Mong Dun Shun Kham or Ahom kingdom, The Mueang (currently the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in North-East India), established by a Tai Prince Sukaphaa in 1228 with 9000 Tai People migrated from Mong Mao called as Ahom by local people, transformed itself into a huge kingdom by the 17th century that withstood the might of the Mughal Empire.

Thailand

Thailand is colloquially known as Mueang Thai. After the Thesaphiban reforms of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, city-states under Siam were organized into monthon (มณฑล, Thai translation of mandala), which was changed to changwat (จังหวัด) in 1916. Mueang still can be found as the term for the capital districts of the provinces (amphoe mueang), as well as for a municipal status equivalent to town (thesaban mueang). In standard Thai, the term for the country of Thailand is ประเทศไทย, rtgs: Prathet Thai.

Mueang toponyms

Mueang still forms part of the placenames of a few places, notably Don Mueang District, home to Don Mueang International Airport; and in the Royal Thai General System of Transcription Mueang Phatthaya (เมืองพัทยา) for the self-governing municipality of Pattaya.

Nakhon mueang

Nakhon (นคร) as the word for "city" has been modified to thesaban nakhon (เทศบาลนคร), usually translated as "city municipality". It still forms part of the name of some places.

• Krung Thep Maha Nakhon
• Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya
• Nakhon Lampang
• Nakhon Nayok
• Nakhon Ratchasima
• Nakhon Si Thammarat
• Nakhon Thai
• Renu Nakhon

Buri mueang

Sung Noen District is noted for having been the site of two ancient cities: Mueang Sema and Khorakhapura. Pali púra became Sanskrit puri, hence Thai บุรี, บูรี, (buri) all connoting the same as Thai mueang: city with defensive wall. "Khorakhapura" was nicknamed "Nakhon Raj," which as a portmanteau with Sema, became Nakhon Ratchasima. Though dropped from the name of this mueang, Sanskrit buri persists in the names of others.

• Buriram
• Chonburi
• Sing Buri
• Suphan Buri
• Thonburi

Vietnam

• Muong Cha
• Muong La
• Mường Lay
• Muong Lat
• Muong Khuong
• Muong Nhe
• Muong Te
• Muong Thanh

NB: Luo et al. employ /ü/ which may erroneously scan as /ii/.

Müang Fai irrigation system

Müang Fai is a term reconstructed from Proto-Tai, the common ancestor of all Tai languages. In the Guangxi-Guizhou of Southern China region, the term described what was then a unique type of irrigation engineering for wet-rice cultivation. Müang meaning 'irrigation channel, ditch, canal' and Fai, 'dike, weir, dam.' together referred to gravitational irrigation systems for directing water from streams and rivers. The Proto-Tai language is not directly attested by any surviving texts, but has been reconstructed using the comparative method. This term has Proto-Tai-tone A1. All A1 words are rising tone in modern Thai and Lao, following rules determined for tone origin. Accordingly, the term is:

in modern Thai: เหมืองฝาย

in modern Lao: ເຫມື່ອງຝາຍ. (NB: SEAlang Library's Lao entry omits tonal marking, a typographical error.)

Different linguistic tones give different meanings; scholarship has not established a link between this term and any of the terms which differ in tone.

Origin of mueang

Mueang conveys many meanings, all having to do with administrative, social, political and religious orientation on wet-rice cultivation. The origin of the word mueang yet remains obscure. In October 2007, The National Library of Laos, in collaboration with the Berlin State Library and the University of Passau, started a project to produce the Digital Library of Lao Manuscripts. Papers presented at the Literary Heritage of Laos Conference, held in Vientiane in 2005, have also been made available. Many of the mss. illuminate the administrative, social, political, and religious demands put on communities in the same watershed area that insured a high degree of cooperation to create and maintain irrigation systems (müang-faai), which probably was the primary reason for founding mueang.

Kham Mueang

Kham Mueang (Thai: คำเมือง) is the modern spoken form of the old Northern Thai language that was the language of the kingdom of Lan Na (Million Fields). Central Thai may call northern Thai people and their language Thai Yuan. They call their language Kham Mueang in which Kham means language or word; mueang; town, hence the meaning of "town language," specifically in contrast to those of the many hill tribe peoples in the surrounding mountainous areas.