language > phasa (ภาษา)
The
Sanskrit
word bhasha (भाष)
refers to ‘speech’, ‘talk’, ‘language’, i.e. a ‘vernacular
tongue’; the
Thai
word phasa (ภาษา)
as well as the
Lao
word phasa (ພາສາ)
and the
Khmer
word pee-a-saa (ភាសា)
all derive from the Sanskrit form bhasha (भाष); most other Southeast Asian
countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, have similar words,
derived from the Sanskrit root; the
Chinese
word wén (文)
refers to language as well as to culture and can mean many
things, including ‘writing’, ‘formal’, ‘literary’, etc.; there are other Chinese words
with similar meanings, i.e. yǔ (语) which stands for ‘dialect’,
‘language’ and ‘speech’, but none seem directly related to the Sanskrit form; the English word language is
derived from the Latin word lingua meaning ‘tongue’, as well as
‘speech’ and ‘language’.
doctor
> phaet (แพทย์)
The
Thai
word phaet derives from the
Sanskrit word bhatta (भट्ट), a designation for ‘great scholars’;
in
Khmer
bhatta developed into
bait (ពេទ្យ),
meaning ‘doctor’; bait (ពេទ្យ) is made up
of: ព +
េ
+ ទ
(‘t’) +
្យ
, a subscript form of
យ
which transcribes as ‘y’, but is not pronounced; remarkably
the ‘y’
also occurs in the Thai word for
general practitioner, but is
also not pronounced as it is silenced with a
kahran-mark
(อ์); over time the word
has slightly changed its meaning from a ‘great scholar’ to a
‘medical doctor’; the word for medicine in Thai is ya (ยา,
in
Lao
ຢາ)
and the letter ‘y’ is actually a reference to this; the
Chinese
word yi (医)
is almost certainly also related to this, as the it translates both
as ‘medicine’ and ‘doctor’; the English word doctor means
‘teacher’
in Latin and is derived from docere which means ‘to show’ or ‘to
teach’.
car
> rot (รถ)
The
Sanskrit word for car is ratha (रथ)
and besides ‘car’ also means ‘(two-wheeled) war chariot’ and ‘vehicle’,
but also ‘warrior’ and ‘hero’; there are actually only two
consonants written, i.e. ‘r’ (र)
and ‘th’ (थ)
but because Sanskrit consonants carry the inherent sound ‘a’, the
word is pronounced ratha; in
Thai
the same two consonants are used,
i.e. ‘r’ (ร) and ‘th’ (ถ)
but here the silent vowel ‘o’ follows the first consonant and the
word is hence pronounced rot; in
Lao
the Thai word rot can be
written with ‘r’ or with ‘l’ and the silent vowel ‘o’ as used in
Thai is here factually written; the letter ‘r’ as a sound
does not exist in Lao and the sign for ‘r’ (ຣ),
loaned from the Thai ‘r’ (ร), is used only in
foreign words, thus indicating the foreign origin of this word; unrelated the Lao word lot (ລົດ)
can also mean ‘flavour’ or ‘taste’, like the Thai word rot (รส)
which is written with the final ‘s’ (ส) but which is pronounced as a
‘t’, i.e. rot; the
Khmer
word laan (ឡាន)
also starts with a ‘l’ and is most likely related to the Lao form or
visa versa;
the
Chinese word
chē (车)
is unrelated to the above, but the character is
a simplified form of 車, in which the form of a cart can clearly be
seen, i.e. an aerial view of a platform and an axle with two large
wheels; the English word car derives
from the Latin word carrum which originally was a ‘(two-wheeled
Celtic) war chariot’ and its roots are related to a word meaning ‘to
run’.
teacher > kru
(ครู)
The
Thai,
Lao
and
Khmer
words for teacher all have been derived from the
Sanskrit word guru (गुर),
meaning ‘venerable or highly respected person’; Lao uses both the word ku (ຄູ)
and kru (ຄຣູ),
this is because the letter ‘r’ as a sound does not exist in Lao and
the sign for ‘r’ (ຣ),
loaned from the Thai ‘r’ (ร), is used only in
foreign words, thus indicating the foreign origin (i.e. Sanskrit) of this word; there are other Thai words
meaning teacher as well, i.e. ajaan (อาจารย์), phuson (ผู้สอน),
etc.; both the words ajaan and kru
are also used to address non-professional teachers, such as elders,
to show respect (the profession of teacher is highly respected in
Thailand);
the
Chinese word
shī (师)
may also be translated as ‘master’ and has roots related to the
military as well as to a word that means ‘to cause a revolution’;
the Chinese character shī
often carries the prefix lǎo (老)
which means ‘old’ and is a title given to venerable persons, like
Lao Tzu
(老子),
the founder of
Taoism;
the English roots of the word
teacher relate to the Latin word paedagogus
which is derived from the ancient Greek word paidagogos (παιδαγωγός),
meaning ‘leader of children’, basically a slave who supervised the
education of his master’s (male) offspring;
the
Latin word docere means
‘to show’ or
‘to teach’ and is related to the English word
doctor.
Bangkok >
Krungthep (กรุงเทพฯ)
For the
Thai
etymology, see
Krungthep;
for the English, Hindi,
Lao
and
Khmer etymology,
see
Bangkok;
for the
Chinese
etymology, see
Mangu.
telephone > thorasap (โทรศัพท์)
The
Thai
word thorasap (โทรศัพท์) is a compound word with the first part,
thora- (โทร-) being a prefix meaning ‘far’,
equivalent to ‘tele-’ and the final part, sap (ศัพท์) meaning
‘word’; the Thai,
Lao
and
Khmer
words for telephone are all similar and derive from the Sanskrit
words dura (दूर) meaning ‘distant’, ‘remote’ and ‘far’, and sabda (शब्द)
meaning ‘sound’, ‘tone’, ‘voice’ and ‘word’;
the
Chinese word
diànhuà (电话) is made
up of two characters, the first one, diàn (电) meaning ‘electric’ or
‘electrical’, the latter, huà (话) meaning ‘spoken words’ or
‘speech’; the English word is also a
compound word, made up from the Greek words tele- (τηλέ) meaning
‘far’ and phone (φωνή) meaning ‘sound’.
temple > wat (วัด)
The
Thai,
Lao
and
Khmer
words derived from the
Pali
word
avasa
which itself has derived from the
Sanskrit
word
avasatha (अवसथ),
literally a ‘dwelling place for students and ascetics’;
for more see the Thai word
wat;
the
Chinese word
miào (庙)
is a simplified form of 廟 and refers to temples and shrines, as well
as to the imperial court. The word emphasizes the bright, light,
complete and wide aspects of monasteries, as it is an amalgam of rì
or mì, the character for sun (日), the moon radical yuè (月) and twice
the character shí (十) which means ‘ten’, but also
‘complete’ and ‘perfect’; the English word is derived
from the Latin word templum meaning a ‘building for worship’ or a ‘piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices’ and is
commonly believed to come from the root tem, meaning ‘to cut’ which
perhaps refers to a ‘place cut out’ (reserved) or to a ‘place to
cut’, a place where sacrifices were held (i.e. by cutting the
throats of animals).
horse > ma (ม้า)
The
Thai
word for horse is ma with a high tone, in
Chinese
it is ma with a falling-rising tone and in
Lao
it is ma with a high falling tone, but obviously they
etymologically are related; in
Sanskrit
it is ashwa (अश्व)
and in
Khmer
seh (សេះ),
seemingly unrelated to ma, but the Khmer word seh may well come from
the first syllable ash, whereas the word ma might have been derived
from the latter syllable wa; the English word horse is
related to the Medieval Dutch ors (later in Dutch ros and in German
roß), a word
derived from the old Germanic word khursa which is according to some
related to kurs (koers in Dutch = course, currency), from the Latin
source currere, meaning
‘to run’ (e.g. current).
tea > cha (ชา)
Both in
Thai
and in Mandarin
Chinese
tea is called
cha, a word that possibly
comes from ancient Central Chinese, where it was earlier called sha,
a word reminiscent of the
Lao
word sa (ຊາ),
and meaning ‘to look for’ or ‘to check’ - it refers to the early
beginning when people still had to look for the leaves in the forest
- over time the word changed into cha; the Chinese character for the
word cha (茶)
consists of several pen strokes of which two of them (on top) look
like crosses (++, also written 艹 and
艸)
and are said to represent the tea leaves. This part of the word is
the radical component, known as the grass radical and pronounced cǎo
(also comparable to cha/sha); in the Chinese Amoy dialect
of the Hokkien language spoken in the Chinese precinct of Fujian,
tea is called t'e and early Dutch
traders, from 1610 the chief exporters of the dried leaves to Europe
through the
Dutch East India Company,
either adapted this word or called the dried leaves thee, as they
thought that part of the Chinese character was somehow reminiscent of
the letter T, which in Dutch is pronounced tee and later evolved into
thee; having the same pronunciation
as the Dutch letter T, the word ‘thee’ then translated into English
as tea (T); the English word tea thus
derives from the Dutch word thee (T) which itself derived either
from the Amoy word t'e or from a description of the grass radical,
although in English slang it is also referred to as
char (a non-rhotic pronunciation, i.e. spelled with an r to
indicated that the a is pronounced long rather than short);
the
Khmer
word dtai (តែ)
is comparable in sound to the Dutch word thee, possibly because
Dutch merchant vessels would occasionally have stopped in port
cities around the
Mekhong
delta region of Cambodia to do business or to wait for
favourable winds, or it may be a corruption of the French word thé;
the
Sanskrit
word
caya (pronounced chaya/tsaya or in Hindi chai) derives from the
English slang expression ‘char’, when it
was introduced in
India by the British, in the nineteenth century.
eight (8) > paet (แปด -
๘)
The
Thai
sign for the number
eight (8) is ๘, pronounced paet and often
transcribed bpaet;
Khmer
uses the same signs as Thai for all its numbers, although they are
pronounced differently, and the sign for eight (๘)
in Khmer is pronounced pram bei which literally means
5 (pram - ๕)
and 3 (bei - ๓), the latter (bei) closely
resembling the Thai word bpaet;
Lao
uses the same words and pronunciations as Thai, but different signs
for most its numbers, though not all (i.e. the signs for the numbers
0, 1, 4 and 5 are the same as in Thai) and the number
eight is
pronounced equally
paet, often transcribed bpaet or
bpèet,
but is written somewhat like an upside-down (໘)
Thai or Khmer eight (๘); The
Sanskrit
word for eight,
ashtha (अष्ट),
uses a sign (८)
that resembles the top and front part of the Thai and Khmer sign (๘),
whereas the word ‘acht’ which is used in both German and Dutch for
the number eight, derives from it;
Whereas the Mandarin
Chinese word for eight,
bā
(ㄅㄚ,
in Zhuyin phonetc script) and the Cantonese pronunciation baat,
certainly remind of the Thai word bpaet, the Chinese sign (八)
strongly resembles the sign for the number eight from Eastern Arabic
numerals (۸), also known as the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and
perhaps influenced by a long history of mutual trade; the Chinese character for
bā (八)
also means ‘all around’ and ‘all sides’ which, oddly enough, is
reminiscent of the form of the European sign for eight (8), now
generally used worldwide; whereas the English
pronunciation eight is influenced by the German and Dutch word acht,
the European sign (8) is taken from the Western Arabic numerals and
is likely derived from the Sanskrit sign for four (४), somehow
doubling it and making it into a dual form, as to say ‘twice four’. Here it can be remarked that the Assamese & Bengali sign for four
(৪) itself is an adoption of the Sanskrit sign, very similar to a
Western Arabic eight (8).
bank >
thanakaan (ธนาคาร)
The Sanskrit word
dhanagara is the root for the Khmer, Thai and Lao words for bank,
only pronounced slightly different, according to each language's
characteristics; the Sanskrit word dhanagara is
derived from the word dhana (धन) which means ‘wealth’ or
‘money’ and
the suffix gara is pronounced gaara (kaara), and is written
गार, i.e.
g+aa+r (ग++र)
with the last ‘a’ being inherent to the final consonant ‘r’, which
is in Thai pronounced as an ‘n’; the Khmer word thonakaan (ធនាគារ)
can also be transliterated dhonakaan, making the initial letters
the same as in the Sanskrit word; the Chinese word for bank,
yínháng, consists of two characters, i.e. 银行, the first one meaning
‘silver’, the latter ‘profession’ and refers to expertise, but can
also be translated as ‘to circulate’; the English word bank derives
from the French word banque, meaning ‘table’, i.e. the moneylender's
exchange table.
lady > satrih
(สตรี)
The Chinese word for lady,
nŭshì, consists of two characters, i.e. 女 (nŭ) and 士
(shì), the first one meaning ‘woman’ or
‘female’, the latter ‘scholar’ or ‘warrior’; the
Thai,
Lao
and
Khmer
words all derive from the
Sanskrit
word strih (स्त्री),
which besides ‘lady’, also means ‘female’ and ‘woman’; the Cambodian or Khmer word sarih
(ស្រី)
is also transliterated s'ray, srey or srei, as in
Banteay Srei (fig.)
and is perhaps related to the Hindi word sarih or saree (साड़ी), the
name for the
traditional
Indian dress for women;
in Thai, the word satrih (สตรี)
is typically used as a more sophisticated word for ‘lady’, next to
phuying (ผู้หญิง), which is the general term for
‘woman’ more used
in daily life, and less refined; the Lao word satrih (ສັຕຣີ),
though spelled with
a letter
‘r’ (ຣ), is pronounced satih, without the ‘r’. This is because the ‘r’ sound doesn't exist in Lao,
and the sign ຣ is used only
in foreign words, thus referring to the
foreign origin of this
word, i.e. Sanskrit.
king >
kasat/raja (กษัตริย์/ราชา)
The
Thai
word kasat (กษัตริย์), as well as the
Lao
word kasat (ກະສັດ),
both derive directly from the
Sanskrit
word
kshatriya (क्षत्रिय),
which refers to the second caste in India's four traditional classes and
relates to ‘those who protect the earth
or country’.
The term derives from the word
kshatra,
which means ‘supremacy’ and ‘dominion’; besides the word kasat (กษัตริย์)
also the term
raja
(ราชา) is used, akin the
Sanskrit
word
racha
(राज),
meaning ‘great’, ‘royal’, ‘regal’,
‘imperial’ and ‘kingly’, and which is used as a title for the rulers
of India since ancient times;
although the
Chinese
term for king, i.e.
wang
(王) seems
unrelated, there are other words in Thai, that suggest a possible
etymological connection, e.g. the word for ‘palace’ in Thai is
wang (วัง) and a ‘dynasty’ is
called rachawong (ราชวงศ์) in Thai and cháo (朝) in Chinese, with the
Thai word chao (เจ้า) meaning ‘god’, ‘ruler’,
‘prince’ or ‘lord’, as well as ‘royal’ and ‘royalty’. Another, more
popular designation for a Thai monarch is
nai luang (ในหลวง), a word ending
in a sound similar to wang; in addition, the
Chinese character wang (王)
is a pictograph in which the top horizontal stroke represents
‘heaven’, the bottom horizontal stroke ‘earth’ and the middle
horizontal stroke the ‘emperor’ or ‘king’, who was regarded as a Son
of Heaven and as such the liaison between heaven and earth, a task
symbolized by the vertical stroke in the character and a clear
indication of his godly status, which also exists in Thailand,
where the monarch is considered to be an
avatar of a god, and formerly also
Chao Chiwit
(เจ้าชีวิต), literally ‘Lord of Life’, but also ‘god of life’
and perhaps even ‘living god’; the origin and etymology of
the
Khmer
word
s'daich
(ស្តេច)
is unsure, but may nevertheless be related to Sanskrit and
its pronunciation is certainly reminiscent of the Thai-rajasap
word sadej (เสด็จ), used only for royalty and meaning ‘to go’, ‘to
come’ and ‘to proceed’;
the origin of the English
word king is much debated and may derive from the Old English word cynn, which means ‘family’ or ‘race’ and is related to the word kin,
making a king originally ‘an elder or leader of a related group of
people’. It has nevertheless been suggested that it may also derive from
a related root that indicates ‘noble birth’, making a king
‘one who descended from noble birth’.
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