Ethnic name
The ethnonym of the Mon people in olden days were different from present name Mon, written MAN. In the pre-Angkor Khmer inscriptions, the Mons were called RAMAN, RMMAN and RAMANYA in 6th/7th centuries A.D. In 1021 A.D, the Javanese named them as RMEN and REMEN. The greatest Myanmar KIng Kyansitha referred them as RMEN in his Palace Mon inscription at Pagan inscribed on huge stones in the 11th century A.D, when Myanmars were known as MIRMA. A few centuries later, the Mons were known as RMAN as recorded by the great Mon KIng Dhammazeti at Bago in 15th century A.D. The Mons were even known by the Thais as RAMAN. However, due to frequent contacts with each ohter, the Thais began to call them Mon.
Language
The Mon language is not a tonal language. It is entirely different from both the Myanmar and Thai languages. It is closely related to Khmer. It is important to note that Mon-Khmer is a linguistic term. Mon in the west and Khmer in the east with cognate languages and dialects in between them are grouped as the Mon-Khmer family in the field of linguistics.
It is important to distinguish between race and language. For instance, Mon, Khmer, Myanmar and Thai and Mongoloid in race. But they speak different languages. On the other hand the Negroids who live in the south coast speak basically Mon-Khmer. Mon is in the Austric Family but in the Austroasiatic sub-division.
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