A Book About Thai Etymology?

[Zohyil]

Does anyone have any good suggestions for a book about the development of the Thai language? I think it would help to connect a lot of the compound words in Thai if I better understood words' roots in Sanskrit/Pali/anything else.

Thanks.

[DavidHouston]

Let me provide you with two books as partial responses to your questions, one a book in English, another in Thai:

1. "From Ancient Thai to Modern Dialects", J. Marvin Brown, White Lotus Press, 1987, second printing 2007; ISBN 978-974-8495-07-01, This book discusses the evolution, geographic spread, and linguistic links of the original Thai language.

2. "หลักภาษาไทย" ["Fundamentals of the Thai Language] ]by กำชับทองหล่อ [Kumchai Thonglaw], 1952, last printed 2011, ISBN 978-974-246-635-0, 345 baht. Kumchai's monumental survey of the Thai language includes a chapter entitled "คำบาลีและสันสกฤต" [Pali and Sanskrit Words] found on pages 266 - 323. Among other topics, he teaches us about อุปสรรค [prefix], นิบาต [frontal links], and ปัจจัย [suffix] which are of Pali and Sanskrit origin and which are brought into the Thai language. His arrangement is by category and alphabetical elements within the category. Having finished with Pali and Sanskrit, Kumchai goes on to discuss Khmer, Chinese, and English words brought into Thai. Although "Fundamentals" is written solely in Thai, the expression is not very complicated and certainly not beyond the ability of an intermediate reader. Assistance from a native Thai speaker would be very helpful, however, especially one with an academic education.

[Zohyil]

David, thank you very much. I live in Chiang Mai, so I will explore the library at CMU to see if they have copies of either of these. Perhaps the Suriwong Book Centre would be an option as well.