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Thai Lexicography Resources
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| About the dictionary Data presented here are based largely on [Pranee83] with additions from [Gong00] (who independently found many of the same terms). These have been extended by splitting compounds into heads, and by adding additional items from modern dictionaries and corpora. | |
| - Reference numbers usually preserve the original entry, while extended compounds are suffixed a, b, .... On occasion, duplicate Pranee entries that refer to different senses of the same word have been merged. When heads have been extracted (see restricted heads, below) they are given the Unicode number of the underlying Chinese character. Other items are numbered arbitrarily, with some reference to their source. | |
| - Thai spelling has been altered (I hesitate to say 'corrected') to reflect modern dictionary and corpus usage. There is often free variation between tone marks 2 and 3, and occasionally between 3 and 4. This is likely to be the result of conflict between actual pronunciation, and the desire to mark words believed to be of Chinese origin with tone marks 3 and 4. | |
| - Chinese heads were provided by Gong Qunhu. On occasion, these are not accurate, usually becuase of errors in character conversion, but occasionally because the Thai loanword does not have a conventional Chinese character representation. Please let me know of any obvious errors. | |
| - Dialect attributions are copied (to the best of my ability) from [Pranee83]. Note that Fukien/Hokien is almost always a likely second-guess for Tae Chew; while Tae Chew is the likely candidate for unattributed terms. In general, subsidiary compounds are not given attributions. | |
| - Historical depth of a few items is questionable. While they may be Chinese loans, they are much older, and some are found in Li's proto-Tai. | |
| - Etymological notes usually indicate that the item is a loanword that preserves the conventional or figurative meaning of the Chinese original. The literal Chinese meaning (supplied only when it is both unexpected and useful) is taken from ccdict [Chen], which is especially rich in Southern Chinese data. Additional etymological comments are usually taken from [Pranee83] or [MacFarland]. | |
| - Chinese glosses and phonetics, if shown, come from ccdict. These are located automatically by the Unicode value of the Chinese character, which sometimes returns multiple phonetics and/or definitions for the same graphic representation. Any simplified character that points to (and is defined by) a traditional character is marked S. | |
| - Restricted heads are well-defined, but non-productive, terms that appear to be found only in certain loan compounds. These have been raised to headword status for ease of cross-reference, and to clarify terms with related Chinese etymologies, but distinct Thai forms. | |
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- Definitions in modern Thai draw on a variety of sources,
including a half-dozen dictionaries, commentary in [Pranee83], and
an electronic corpus of about 50 million words.
As a rule, dictionary definitions were viewed with some skepticism
until confirmed by actual usage (as reflected in the corpus or
by Thai-Chinese informants).
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Chinese Influence in Siam Chinese immigration has had a significant impact on Siam since the founding of Ayutthya. Indeed, U Thong, the founder of 'modern' (ie. 14th century) Ayutthya, is believed to be either Chinese or of Chinese descent, as was King Thaksin, the founder of Thonburi. | |
| In 14th - 17th century Siam, the Chinese merchant community probably played a large part in the close relations between Ayutthaya and China. Ming dynasty chronicals record that Ayutthaya paid more tribute to the Chinese imperial court between 1368 and 1644 than any other Southeast Asian state ([Charnvit]). | |
| Charnvit cites Skinner as estimating a Chinese population of 10,000 in 17th century Siam, with 3-4,000 in Ayutthya. A considerable portion of the remainder is likely to have been located in Bangkok, known even then as a Chinese (and Vietnamese) community. | |
| Bangkok Chinese influence grew with the founding of modern Bangkok in 1782. Starting early in the 19th century, paid Chinese labor (rather than the corvee) was the favored resource for public works. [Tanabe] cites contemporary estimates by a half-dozen independent observers (Crawfurd, Malloch, Malcom, Neal, Pallegoix, and Bowring) and estimates a Chinese population in excess of 50% throughout the 19th century (pp 48-49). Indeed, [Pallegoix] estimates that the Chinese represented 25% of the population under Siamese control in mid-century (1.5 million, nearly equal to his estimate of 1.9 million Siamese). | |
| Chinese immigration continued unabated throughout the reign of Chulalongkorn and beyond. [Skinner] notes that Chinese immigration in the 1920's exceeded 100,000 per year. After this, nationalistic measures against the Chinese were enacted with increasing frequency, culminating with the repressive laws instituted by Phibulsongkram in the middle of the century. | |
| Chinese cultural influence has long been attenuated in Thai society. Despite the great economic power of certain Chinese families (dating back to 19th century tax-farming), the perception of Chinese has been dominated by the image of the poor laborer. This had begun a sharp turnaround at the end of the century, however, particularly with growth of the Thai-Chinese middle and 'tycoon' classes. | |
| Nevertheless, Chinese linguistic influence in the past three hundred years or so has been minimal. I propose three reasons: | |
| - Transient immigration In the West, populations have tended to flow in one direction. Chinese movement to Thailand does not follow this pattern - rather, they generally intended to return to China. | |
| - Low economic status Despite the great success of a small number of Chinese immigrants, the vast majority were at the bottom of Siamese society. | |
| - Persistant social exclusion | |
| - Lack of ministerial influence | |
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Linguistic Influence Almost all Chinese immigration to Siam originated in China's southern coastal states of Canton and Fukien/Hokien. Note that these regions include many distinct ethnic and linguistic subcultures that do not always coincide with the names of modern political entities. | |
| Thus, while the highest portion of immigrants by far originated in the Swatow district of Tae Chew province in Canton, they speak a variety of the Southern Min or Fukien/Hokien dialect. Lesser numbers speak other Fukien/Hokien dialects, or dialects of Canton, Hainan, and Hakka. | |
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The excellent thesis by
[Pranee83] provides an extensive and detailed study of
modern Chinese loans. Pranee surveys existing
research (notably [Egerod]) and lexicography (including the
Royal Institute's 'official' dictionaries).
By looking at regular patterns of phoneme and tone change
from a half-dozen Chinese dialects,
Pranee proposes a likely origin for each loan.
References: | |
| [Prapin76] Prapin Manomaivibool. (1976) A Study of Sino-Thai Lexical Correspondences.. (PhD. dissertation) University of Washington. | |
| [Pranee83] Pranee Gyarunsut. (1983) Chinese Loanwords in Modern Thai.. (MA. dissertation) Chulalongkorn University (2526, in Thai). ISBN 974-562-838-7 | |
| [Gong00] GONG Qunhu (2000) A List of Swatow Loanwords in Thai. From unpublished PhD dissertation, posted at at http://gong.tongtu.net. | |
| [Tanabe] Tanabe, Shigeharu (1977) Historical Geography of the Canal System in the Chao Phraya River Delta from the Ayutthaya Period to the Fourth Reign. In Journal of the Siam Society, July 1977, 65/2:23-72 A List of Swatow Loanwords in Thai. | |