Changes of Khmer loanwords appears in Thai dictionary 2493 B.E. and Thai dictionary 2544 B.E

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study the form of Khmer loanwords appears in Thai dictionary 2493 B.E. and Thai dictionary 2544 B.E. in term of word changes, semantic changes and word categorization. The findings reveal the fact that 390 words are found in Thai dictionary 2493 B.E. and 499 words are found in Thai dictionary 2554 B.E. The criteria for studying are as follows. The study of word changesare divided into two categories; original words and changed words. The study of semantic changesare divided into four categories; broadening, narrowing, shifting and original meaning. Word categorization can be found in four groups; human nature, human behavior, intelligence emotion mood value and personal relationship.
The study found that in term of word changes, the largest group, 366 words, is the original words and two of changed words are found. In the study of semantic changes, 258 original meaning words are mostly found and 12 of shifting meaning words are found the least. And Word categorization, the largest group is about human and human behavior, 160 words. The smallest group is about intelligence, emotion, mood, value which has 77 words. In addition  loanwords from both dictionaries containshared words, lost words and increased words.