Mueang (Ahom language: ; mɯ̄ang, ), Muang ( mɯ́ang, ), Möng (Tai Nuea: ᥛᥫᥒᥰ möeng; móeng, ), Meng (c=猛 or 勐) or Mường (Vietnamese) were pre-modern semi-independent or Principality in mainland Southeast Asia, adjacent regions of Northeast India and Southern China, including what is now Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, parts of northern Vietnam, southern Yunnan, western Guangxi and Assam.
Mueang was originally a term in the Tai languages for a town having a defensive wall and a ruler with at least the Thai noble rank of khun (ขุน), together with its dependent villages.
Following Kublai Khan's defeat of the Dali Kingdom of the Bai people in 1253 and its establishment as a tutelary state, new mueang were founded widely throughout the Shan States and adjoining regions – though the common description of this as a "mass migration" is disputed.
In the 19th century, Thailand's Chakri dynasty and Burma's colonial and subsequent military rulers did much the same with their lesser mueang, but, while the are gone, the place names remain.
Place names
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."
[Headley, Robert K. "SEAlang Library Khmer", SEAlang Library, 05/14/2018] Usually used as a place name for villages.
-
Moeang Char
-
Moeang Prachen
China
The placename "mueang" is written in Chinese characters as labels=no, which is equivalent to and , 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:
Myanmar
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Thailand
Thailand is colloquially known as
Mueang Thai. After the
Thesaban 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.
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
Toponymy 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 municipality of
Pattaya.
Nakhon mueang
Nakhon (นคร) as meaning "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
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Lampang
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Nakhon Nayok
-
Nakhon Ratchasima
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Nakhon Si Thammarat
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Nakhon Thai
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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 language 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.
Vietnam
Etymology
- Nota bene: 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
paddy field.
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
[ เหมืองฝาย;]
- in modern .
[http://sealang.net/lao/dictionary.htm ເຫມືອງຝາຽ] (Nota bene: 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 () is the modern spoken form of the old Northern Thai language that was the language of the kingdom of
Lanna (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.
See also
-
Acequia, Spanish term for irrigation system organized like the Müang Fai irrigation system
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Chiang (place name)
-
Internal colonialism
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Tusi
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Wiang
External links
