Pali and Sanskrit Loanwords: A Case Study of Modifications in Written Form within the Thai Language

Abstract

This research examines the modifications in the written forms of Pali and Sanskrit loanwords in Thai language.    The data were the loanwords in the 1^st edition of the book entitled Nang Sue Kam Thai Tee Yuem Ma Jak Pasa Bali Lae Sansakrit (Thai Words Loaned from Pali and Sanskrit), published by the Royal Academy. Three main categories of modifications were found: 1) consonant modifications including changes in initial and final consonants, omissions of final consonants or codas from the original words, and additions of consonants, 2) vowel modifications including vowel changes, vowel omissions, and vowel additions, and 3)diacritic mark modifications including mark alterations such as alterations alterations such as alterations of the nikhahit (°) mark and the ṛ diacritic mark, mark omissions, and mark additions such as additions of tonal markers and the thantakhata (◌์) mark.