Principles of Thai place-name formation: a reflection of natural and cultural heritage
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Amara Prasithrathsint
Abstract
Based on 1,366 names of districts, subdistricts, villages, and temples in Nan Province, Northern Thailand, this study aims to analyze the meaning of each of the names and formulate general principles of place-name formation in Thai. It is found that folk names are structurally different from official names. A Thai folk place name, such as 
(farm-salt) ‘salt farm’ and thûŋ-kwaaŋ (field-deer) ‘field full of deer’, is generally composed of a head noun denoting a geographical feature, such as mountain, farm, forest, plain, and field, followed by a modifying word that refers to natural resources, such as salt, rock, teak, sand, animals, and plants, a word that refers to colors, such as ‘yellow’ and ‘white’, or a word referring to directions, such as ‘south’ and ‘north’. Unlike folk names, which reflect natural environments, official place names reflect Thai social values. They normally contain elaborate words borrowed from Pali and Sanskrit that refer to auspicious concepts, such as peace, happiness, development, modernity, and Buddhism; for example, săntiphâap-phátthanaa ‘peace and development’.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- History of foreign language education in Thailand until World War II
- Lexical innovation and “the genius of the Thai language”
- Language of the news media in Thailand
- Discussing assimilation and language shift among the Chinese in Thailand
- Principles of Thai place-name formation: a reflection of natural and cultural heritage
- Endangered languages of Thailand
- Thai political slang: formation and attitudes towards usage
- Animate classifiers in Tai languages
- Does the number of speakers of a language determine its fate?
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- History of foreign language education in Thailand until World War II
- Lexical innovation and “the genius of the Thai language”
- Language of the news media in Thailand
- Discussing assimilation and language shift among the Chinese in Thailand
- Principles of Thai place-name formation: a reflection of natural and cultural heritage
- Endangered languages of Thailand
- Thai political slang: formation and attitudes towards usage
- Animate classifiers in Tai languages
- Does the number of speakers of a language determine its fate?
