Abstract:
The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the disyllabic words beginning with C(r)a in Thai. The data are collected from The Royal Institute Dictionary (B.E.2542). The 2,125 words except Pali and Sanskrit words are examined. Sources of information of this dissertation include dictionaries, inscriptions, and other ancient documents. A major finding reveals that disyllabic words beginning with C(r)a in Thai are from three sources. That is, 1) they are cognates in the Tai language family, 2) they are loanwords from other languages including Khmer, Mon, Malay, Java, English, Chinese, Burmese, Tamil, Hindi, Portuguese and Persian, and 3) they are the newly formed words. The disyllabic words with are cognates can be subcategorized into 4 groups. That is, 1) those that are found in every group of the Tai language including the Southwestern Tai group, the Central Tai group, and the Northern Tai group; 2) those that are found in the Southwestern Tai group and the Central Tai group; 3) those that are found in the Southwestern Tai group and the Northern Tai group; and 4) those that are only found in the Southwestern Tai group. Most of the disyllabic words beginning with C(r)a which are loanwords are taken from Khmer. Others are from Mon, Malay, Java, Chinese, Burmese, English, Tamil, Hindi, Portuguese and Persian. The disyllable words that are new words formed by 1) reducing the first syllable of disyllabic words or polysyllabic words, 2) deleting the final consonant and centralizing the vowel 3) adding C(r)a in front of a monosyllabic, 4) inserting the sound /k(r)a-/ between a polysyllable and deleting the first syllable, and 5) separating a diphthong and inserting the sound /(r)a-/. Furthermore, there are also some disyllabic words of which origin are not clearly known. Most of them are titles of animals, plants, and other miscellaneous words. When comparing the disyllabic words beginning with C(r)a in Thai with their sources, some changes can be stated as rules. However, there are changes that are not systematic, and thus unpredictable. This might be due to the fact that the process of loaning took place at different periods of time. It is worth pointing out that the present study has some limitations since the number of loanwords from some languages are delimited