[Tlc] Indigenous Tai lexicography

[Fernquest Jon]

To: tlc at lists.ucr.edu
Re: [Tlc] Indigenous Tai lexicography
 
Dear List Members;
 
I'm doing research on indigenous Southeast Asian lexicography (and also any meta-discourse like text reflecting on the usage of words in texts). 
 
Looking for any scholarly work that has been done on indigenous Thai or Tai lexicography published in either a western language or Thai. 
 
I wonder whether there were pre-western indigenous Tai language word lists with dictionary-like features, whether there are any manuscripts that contain such texts in central or northern Thai, and whether they have made their way into published book form. 
 
In Burmese there is the "that-bon kyan" or spelling book genre, that simply lists all possible words in a particular sort order (see Okell, 1968). (The emergence of this genre led eventually to increased uniformity of spelling in indigenous texts, and also probably to a decrease in ambiguity.)  
 
And in Pali there are pre-western indigenous dictionaries, essentially word lists with dictionary-like features like: 1. grouping words by synonym, and 2. by meaning in a thesaurus-like way. For example, all words for "river" grouped together, and all words for natural phenomena like "river," "mountain," etc grouped together. Cone (1996) discusses these dictionaries and (Elizarenkova and Toporov, 1976) has a couple of pages organising words in this fashion. 

Pali Nissaya
 
Another indigenous textual genre performs a function similar to a dictionary, namely Pali nissaya translations, pali interleaved with translation to indigenous language. (See Okell, 1967, and Pruitt, 1994)
 
I believe that some of the people on this list have done research in this area for Tai languages. 
 
Also interested if any nissaya translations exist in published book form in Thai, perhaps in cremation volumes? Nissaya translations were published several times in book form in Burma during the colonial era. (See bibliography in Stewart and Dunn, 1940)
 
In Skilling's two bibliographies of Pali literature in Thailand, there are two sections devoted to "Nama-sapda" manuscripts which seem to be nissaya translations (see Skilling and Santi Pakdeekham, 2004).
Also interested in work on Tai etymology done by Thai scholars. I noticed that mention was made of works on Thai etymology recently by Thai language scholar Dr Anan Laoloetworakun at Chulalongkorn.
 
Sorry, for perhaps providing too much detail in this posting.
 
Part of the purpose of this post is to stimulate discussion if anyone is interested. The early history and origins of the written Burmese language and texts, is a research interest, and comparison with neighboring textual traditions seems like one way to gain insight. 
 
Sincerely, 

Jon Fernquest
Bangkok Post, Educational Services
http://readbangkokpost.com/
 
References
 
Cone, Margaret (1996) "The I.B. Horner Memorial Lecture 1995: Lexicography, Pali and Pali Lexicography," Journal of the Pali Text Society, Vol. XXII, Journal 1996.
 
Elizarenkova, T.Y. and V.N. Toporov  (1976) The Pali language, Nauka Pub. House, Moscow. 
 
Okell, John (1967) "Nissaya Burmese," Journal of the Burma Research Society, vol. 50.
 
Okell, John (1968) "Alphabetical order in Burmese," Journal of the Burma Research Society, vol. 51.
 
Pruitt, William  (1994) Etude linguistique de nissaya birmans : traduction commentee de textes bouddhiques, Paris : Presses de l'Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient.
 
Skilling, Peter and Santi Pakdeekham (2004) Pali and vernacular literature transmitted in Central and Northern Siam, Bangkok : Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation.
 
Stewart, J.A. and C. W. Dunn (1940-) A Burmese-English dictionary, published under the auspices of the University of Rangoon, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
 

 

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