Guest Posted July 12, 2001 Report Share Posted July 12, 2001 Is there a link between the Thai word for language, phaasaa, and the Malay/Indonesian word bahasa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2001 Report Share Posted July 12, 2001 Hi Abbot Thong, that's an easy one! The root of both is Sanskrit "bhaasha", "language". We all know that the Thai vocabulary is largely made up of Sanskrit/Pali words, but Malay/Indonesian also does have a few. Another one which springs immediateley to mind is Sanskrit "vanita" (woman), which is ecxactly the same in M./I. In literary or high Thai it's "vanida". M./I. is pretty much a very mixed language; it also has a lot of Arabian and Urdu/Hindi words. One example would be "waktu", time, from Arabian "vaqt". A good Urdu/Hindi example would be "ghabraana", to be dismayed, embarrassed. It is even used today, in slightly changed form, in Singapore's "Singlish" - English, mixed with Malay and Chinese words. You hear people say, "Don't ghabra, la! "Don't worry!" [ July 12, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2001 Report Share Posted July 12, 2001 Cheers Scum. These are a couple of questions that have been bothering me for a while. Doubtless a few more will spring to mind in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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