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A Folk Taxonomy of Terms for Ghosts and Spirits in Thai F A FOLK TAXONOMY OF กกก15 TERMS FOR GHOSTS กกก AND SPIRITS IN THAI1 ก Manasikarn Hengsuwan2 3 กก Amara Prasithrathsint 49 ก ก 5 ก ก ก ก (1) กก กกก ก 2 (2) ก กก 7 ก ก กก กกก ก 33 ก ก ก ก 6 ก กก ก ก กกกก 1กกก An earlier version of this paper was presented กกก th at the 18 Annual Conference of the Southeast ก กก ก Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS XVIII) held at Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia (21-22 May 2008). We would like to thank Nick Enfield, Kitima Indrambarya and Imran Ho ก ก Abdullah for their valuable comments and กกก suggestions. 2 (ก ) Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University 3 ( ) Emeritus Professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 07:07:58AM via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities Regular 17.2, 2014 Abstract some even are human. Thai ghosts are distinguished by their kindness or Previous studies show that Thai people’s malevolence, sex, age, dwelling place and ways of life and traditions from birth to the food they take. death are related to ghosts. Most of the studies deal with the role of ghosts in Thai Furthermore, it has been found that Thai society but there has been no study on people have negative attitudes towards ghost terms in Thai, which would reflect ghosts as can be seen from the meanings the ghost system in Thai thoughts. Thus, of ghost terms. They find ghosts this study aims to analyze the system and frightening, disgusting, and susceptible to categorization of terms for ghosts and bribes or dogged with misfortune as a spirits in Thai. Folk taxonomy, which is a result of karma. However, ghosts are seen method in the ethnosemantic approach, as a means of controlling society. has been adopted for the analysis. Introduction Data elicitation of the meanings of Thai ghost terms was done at Wat Suan Kaew Previous studies have shown that the Thai Community, Tambon Bang Len, Amphoe daily way of life is related to their belief in Bang Yai, Nonthaburi Province, as ghosts from the time they are born to the representative of the mainstream Thai time they die. Phaithayawatthana (1995: community. Fifteen intentionally selected 91) states that Thai people believe that informants were interviewed. The result ghosts are in everything and that human of the analysis shows that there are forty beings belong to certain ghosts even nine categories of ghosts and spirits in before they are born. Some believe that Thai. They are classified into a taxonomy powerful ghosts invent a human body of five hierarchical classes: unique through magic and give life to it by beginner, life-form, generic, specific, and catching an aimless soul, putting it into the varietal. There is only one unique body and bringing that live body to a beginner term: phii(1) ‘ghost+spirit’. mother’s womb. There is, therefore, a Thai There are two life-form terms: phii(2) tradition called sѝѝ luuk (meaning ‘ghost’ and winyaan ‘spirit’. As for ‘buying a child’), which has led to a generic ghost terms under life form, there ceremony in which a mother pretends to are seven. Thirty three specific ghost buy her newborn baby from a ghost, terms were found e.g., naa֊-maay ‘female otherwise, the ghost will take the newborn spirit of a tree’’, phii-paa ‘forest demon’, back in three days, and it will die if the preet ‘evil tall spirit’, etc. There are six parents have not observed the tradition. If sub-specific or varietal ghost terms, such the newborn can survive this period, it will thrive. This belief underlies the saying: “A as caaw-mϯϯ-say ‘female banyan tree newborn belongs to a ghost for three days spirit’, caaw-mϯϯ-makhaam ‘female and to a human being for four days” tamarind tree spirit’, naa֊-taanii (Phaithayawatthana 1995: 95). Another ‘female banana tree spirit’, etc. tradition based on the belief in ghosts involves deceiving ghosts that the baby is It should be noted that Thai people not human or is too ugly to take. Thai conceive of ghosts as human. Indeed, most people do this by making a comment on a types of ghosts have a human shape and newborn baby such as “What an ugly 30 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 07:07:58AM via free access A Folk Taxonomy of Terms for Ghosts and Spirits in Thai baby!” and naming their baby after an Thai people’s everyday life; for example, unpleasant thing or with an animal name, Buddhist ceremonies of offering alms to e.g. dam ‘black’, mѝѝt ‘dark’, maa ‘dog’ monks, making merit and funeral rites, etc., and Бѝ֊ ‘bullfrog,’ etc. In addition, there and Brahman ceremonies of establishing a is a tradition of performing a ceremony spirit house, offering rice and summoning over a dead body to pacify the spirit and one’s spirit (khwan) to stay in and protect stop it from coming out and shocking one’s body. This ceremony is called baay- humans. This is based on the belief that sii-suu-khwan and rites about ghosts, e.g. when a human being dies, it will be house-blessing and ghost-feeding transformed into a living ghost. ceremonies. The oldest written record that serves as Obviously, the more roles ghosts have evidence showing the Thai belief in ghosts played in everyday life, the more terms for is 716 years old. It is the first stone them are to be found in the Thai language. inscription of the Sukhothai period (1238- However, although it is observed that there 1438) that says the following: are many ghost terms in Thai, nobody knows how many there are, exactly, how “In the North of Sukhothai city, they are categorized in Thai cognition and there is a entity where a scholarly what each category specifically denotes monk lives in, a barrage, a forest of and connotes. coconut and areca palms, mango and tamarind trees, and water All of the questions above make it resources. There is also pra-kha- necessary to study terms for ghosts and phu֊-phii4 in that mountain. It is spirits in Thai thoroughly and more powerful than the other ghosts systematically. This study, therefore, is an in the city. If a ruler offers worship attempt to analyze such terms using an to it, the city will prosper. If not, the ethnosemantic approach, which according city will not be protected and finally, to Prasithrathsint (2006: 79), means will face a catastrophe.” arriving at a people’s way of thinking and (The Fine Arts Department 1984) worldview through the study of the meanings of certain words in their The above quotation signifies that language. In this study, the meanings of Sukhothai people made offerings to pra- the terms for ghosts and spirits were khaphu֊-phii, the leader of ghosts and analyzed from the native Thai viewpoint spirits in the Sukhothai City in order that it and were finally categorized into a would protect them and allow them to live taxonomic system. Also, from the peacefully. It is generally accepted that denotations and connotations of the terms, after Brahmanism and Buddhism came to the concepts of “ghost” and “spirit” in the city, their doctrines and practices Thai cognition are clearly depicted and harmonized with the tradition of Thai attitudes toward ghosts are inferred. worshipping ghosts and spirits as can be seen in several religious ceremonies in Folk taxonomy has been used in ethnosemantic studies for classifying the indigenous system of categorization. Frake 4 pra-khaphu֊-phii means ‘the most (1961: 115) analyzed disease terms in powerful spirit.’ Subanun in the Philippines. He found that 31 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 07:07:58AM via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities Regular 17.2, 2014 the diagnostic category was labelled by informants, eleven of them were the disease name. On the other hand, orchardists, and the rest had been hired to several diseases names might indicate just do odd jobs in the community. They were a single illness. So, Subanun speakers had all native speakers of Thai who lived in a to use these medical terms carefully, Thai cultural environment with very otherwise the others would not understand little or no influence from other cultures. what they wanted to describe. Frake (1961) Thus, the information elicited from them said that the Subanun’s disease concepts would be expected to lead us to a were different from Western ones. Berlin knowledge and understanding of the (1992) and Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven Thai way of thinking related to ghosts (1973) studied folk biology and proposed and spirits. that there were five universal ethnobiological hierarchical categories: In the process of data collection, at first we unique beginner, life form, generic, collected all the terms signifying any kind specific and varietal (See definitions of of supernatural being. Later on, however, these terms below). Indeed, a number of only traditional ghost terms in Standard studies applied the folk taxonomy Thai were adopted for analysis. Therefore, approach to the classification of Thai terms in other dialects and recently created cultural terms. For example, Pumyoo terms that signified ghosts of utensils, such (2005) compared the systems of rice as shampoo ghosts, soap ghosts, classification in Southeast Asian refrigerator ghosts, air-conditioner ghosts, languages, including Thai, using folk etc., were removed from the list. taxonomy, and Panyaatisin (2009) showed Ultimately, there were altogether fifty six the result of his analysis of the system of terms used in the analysis. Ideally, one cooking terms in Northern Thai dialect term should represent one conceptual through a folk taxonomy.
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