Khom (, ) is a Thai language- and Lao language-language term referring to the people and civilization of the ancient Khmer Empire. Its use is recorded as early as the 12th century, though its exact meaning—whether it refers to a specific empire, a certain historical period, or the Khmer people in general—has been unclear throughout history.[ cited in ibid.]
Modern use
The term has been used extensively in 20th-century Thai historiography, partly as a way to disassociate the historical
Khmer Empire civilization—of which many archaeological sites are spread throughout present-day
Thailand—from the present-day Khmer people who form the majority population of
Cambodia, whom many Thais still believe to be an
inferior race unrelated to the people of the ancient empire. This discourse was popularized by 20th-century Thai nationalist thinker Luang Wichitwathakan who incorrectly claimed that contemporary
Khmer people are unrelated to the ethnic group responsible for the Angkorian civilization, coining the term "khom" for this purpose. By repurposing the term "khom" derived from the ancient Thai term "
Khmer Krom" meaning "lowland Khmer", Wichitwathakan attempted to create a new ethnicity to accentuate a distinct separation between
Angkor and
Cambodia, despite the ethnic continuity between Angkor's builders and present-day Khmer being well-established.
Etymology
In Thai, the term
khom has its roots in the
Dvaravati Old
Mon language and Nyah Kur term
*krɔɔm[Diffloth, Gérard. (1984). The Dvaravati Old Mon Language and Nyah Kur. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Printing House. pp. 219–220. Note: Entry no. V192., and V.192a.
]
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p. 343 :— "The Thai term ขอม /khɔ̌ɔm/, "Khom", sometimes used to refer to the Khmer period in Thailand, is apparently a Lao pronunciation of the Old Mon word *krɔɔm < krom >, meaning "Cambodian". The word is found in an Old Mon inscription, with that meaning (DOMI: p. 62), and in other Mon-Khmer languages, meaning "below, under, South". (Cf. V192)."
meaning "under, below, beneath prep.; the under part of (sth.) (especially house) noun."
[Huffman, Franklin E. " Burmese Mon, Thai Mon, And Nyah Kur: A Synchronic Comparison," The Mon Khmer Studies Journal 16-17(1990): 48. :— "7) /krɔɔm/ under".] The vowel sequence also derived as a variant form:
*krɔɔm *kǝrɔɔm,
*kǝnrɔɔm in the Austroasiatic languages then later diversified to other language families as follows:
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Austroasiatic languages
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Bahnar language: krăm *krɔɔm
[Vovin, By. (1993). "Origins of the Ainu Language," A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 169. ][Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA), Mahidol University. (1991). Pan-Asiatic Linguistics Volume 2. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Language and Linguistics, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, January 8-10. Nakhon Pathom: Mahidol University. p. 680.]
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Katuic languages: *dǝroom ~ *gǝroom
[Sidwell, Paul and Jacq, Pascale. (2003). A Handbook of Comparative Bahnaric. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. p. 144. ] "underneath"
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Khmu language: kn(d)ruum *krɔɔm
[Centre de Documentation et de Recherches sur l'Asie du Sud-Est et le Monde Insulindien, École Pratique des Hautes Études (France). Asie du Sud-Est and Monde Indonésien 6(4)(1975): 4. ]
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Mon language: *krom *krɔɔm
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Khmer language: krom
[BERNARD, J. B. (1902). Dictionnaire Cambodgien-Français Cambodian-French (in French). Hong Kong: La Société des Missions-Étrangères. p. 162. :— "KRŌM. Sous, dessous, au dessous. Il — âs, le plus bas, le plus profond. Il É—, au dessous. Il Pi —, par dessous, il Nou —, être dessous."] karoṃ, karom (Angkorian) karoṃ, karom, karomm (pre-Angkorian) *kǝrɔɔm, *kǝnrɔɔm, *krɔɔm (Mon).[Jenner, Philip N. (2009). A Dictionary of pre-Angkorian Khmer. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. pp. 31–32. ]
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Hmong–Mien languages
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Hmongic: *gom *komkom *krom (Mon) *krɔɔm.
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Kra–Dai languages
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Proto-Kra–Dai and Hlai languages: *kom, kom *krom (Mon) *krɔɔm.
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Proto-Tai: gom *krom (Mon) *krɔɔm.
[Benedict, Paul K. (1990). Japanese/Austro-Tai. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma Publishers. p. 210. ]
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Northern Thai and Lao language: khom *krom (Mon) *krɔɔm.
[Unseth, Peter. "The Sociolinguistics of Script Shoice: An Introduction," International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192(2008): 25. "Notes 2. The term Khom is from the Lao word khom, from the Mon krom 'south(erners)', ..."] (Note: the term khom, sometimes used to refer to the Khmer period in Siam,[Phaideekham, Santi. (2019). "เขมร คำที่ไทยใช้เรียกเขมรมาตั้งแต่เมื่อใด?," Laelang kham Khamen-Thai Behind แลหลังคำเขมร-ไทย (in Thai). Bangkok: Matichon. pp. 61–87. ] from about 1000 CE to the latter half of the 13th century CE, which was subject to the Angkor empire.)
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Tibeto-Burman languages
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Burmese language: gywans kywam, kurwaṁ krwaṁ, krwam (Old Burmese) *krom (Mon) *krɔɔm. (Note: the terms krwaṁ, krwam used to refer to the Cambojan
[Bennison, J.J. (1933). Census of India, 1931 Volume XI: BURMA PART I.—REPORT. Rangoon: Office of the Supdt., Government Printing and Stationery. p. 300.] and the term gywans used to refer to the Siam.)[The Text Publication Fund of the Burma Research Society. (1923). The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma. (Translated by Pe Maung Tin and G.H. Luce). LONDON: Oxford University Press. p 106. "south-eastward the country of the Gywans, also called Ayoja;".
]
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Cœdès, George. " Documents sur l'Histoire Politique et Religieuse du Laos Occidental," Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 25(1925): 24. . "Le Hmannan Yazawin (trad. Maung Tin et Luce, pp. 99 et 106) place les Gywam au Sud-Est des Birmans et dit que leur contrée est aussie appelée Arawsa ou Ayoja, c'est-à-dire Ayudhya = le Siam."
See also
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Khom Thai script, a variant of the Khmer script used in Thailand
