Mono is an indigenous language spoken by about 65,000 people in the northwestern corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is one of the Banda languages, a subbranch of the Ubangian branch of the NigerâÂÂCongo languages. It has five dialects: Bili, Bubanda, Mpaka, Galaba, and Kaga.
Mono has 33 consonant phonemes, including three labial-velar stops (, , and prenasalized ), an asymmetrical eight-vowel system, and a labiodental flap (allophonically a bilabial flap ) that contrasts with both and . It is a tonal language.
The North Wind and the Sun text was translated into Mono by Gaspard Yalemoto Suma, Marie Sungayase Yalemoto, Kilio Mapuya and Ama Geangozo. The translation is based on the French version of the text found in Fougeron & Smith (1993). The text was read by a male native speaker of Mono, about 35 years old. The individual words illustrating the various sounds were read by a male native speaker of Mono, about 40 years old.<blockquote>Ayigu endje dà  ÃÂlàpa lima gbarama. Uzu dà  uzu pa lima adeke, à Ânà  da sà  dà  gbÃÂgbàkà Âdo pa nà Â. LÃÂkàendje wu anga gene bale a tshe dje là Âba èzè gatà  Ã¨gè ye. Kà Ândo dà  endje, endje tàadeke uzu a tshé kàkara là Âba tà  Ã¨gè ye da sà  gbÃÂgbàkà Âro pa nà Â. Tà Ârale yigu na kpè, kpè, kpè, kpè. Kpè, kpè, kpè gba, gene nà  kpa soro là Âba nà  gatà  ye. à Ârrrà  yigu Totoro kà Âkakara tà  Ã¨gè ye. Manda nà Â, ÃÂlàkpa tàvwege, vwege, vwege, Osho wo tà  gene. Tshe vwara là Âba nà  tà  Ã¨gè ye. Yigu wu atamà Â, à  yi ndà  nà  adeke ÃÂlàdo pa nà  dà  gbÃÂgbÃÂ. </blockquote>