Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Thai Language - Sanskrit Roots

Just returned from a quick trip to Bangkok and it is the first time I ever had some free time to roam around the city in the last five years (since I first went). The experience is entirely different and showed me a different city (I used to spend my time across Erawan and Central World/Siam). Among the most interesting observations, the best is the thai language. When I first started working with Thai people, my biggest problem was the "names" and how to pronounce. Slowly I got used to it but didn't really 'tried' to understand the meaning.
But this time, after going to the country side and up north, I really started to feel close to the country. No wonder this is a God's own country ;)

Ok, here I share some thai words and try to guess the meaning.


At first this may sound too difficult to pronounce (atleast as if in Thai) and pretty difficult to remember the names. But let me explain, 

  • Thonburi         --> Thon + Puri = Dhan+Puri --> Dhan Puri 
  • Rattanakosin   --> Rattana + Kosin = Ratna+Kosam --> Ratna Kosam
  • Mahasamut     --> Maha + Samut = Maha + Samudra (pali word)
  • Nonthaburi     --> Nontha + Buri = Nuthan + Puri --> Nuthan Pur
  • Samut Prakan --> Prakan = Prakar and you know what it means
  • Nakhon Pathom --> Nakhon = Nagara + Pathom = Prathama 
:) basically it's all Sanskrit + Pali words changed form. Just like how Malay/Bahasa similar to "normalized Sanskrit" :)

So next time when you go to Bankok, try to guess the meaning and you'll remember the names for a long time.

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