Spiritual words from Thailand

Read more about spiritual words from Thailand in this part of the travel guide. India has influenced the Thai language strongly. Without the swing of Buddhism, half the words would disappear from the Thai language.  

Sanskrit affects spiritual words in Thailand

And, just like the spoken word language, the Thai script language is also strongly influenced by the ancient old Sanskrit language. Sanskrit is an archaic Indo-European language in which the Buddha’s scriptures are written. The Sanskrit language has affected many countries in Asia where Buddhism is or has been common today.

Influence of Chinese on the Thai language

However, the Thai people who migrated from southern China to Thailand and Laos around the 11th century themselves spoke another language called Kadai-tai. Because the Thai originally came from China their language is also related to the Chinese language.

The Thai language has forty-four consonants, eleven vowels, and four intonation marks. The script is very different from the English written alphabet. You can imagine that speaking Thai is a daring challenge for you if you travel to Thailand. Because Thai is a tonal language, Thai speakers distinguish high, middle, and low tones. Words are bent up or down. These bends are also stretched short and long.

Another characteristic is that original Thai words often consist of one syllable. However, this does not apply to loanwords from, for example, Pali, English, or Khmer.

List with spiritual words

The spiritual words from Thailand obviously have meaning in Buddhism. Below is a list of Thai words that are mainly used in a religious context. The list is far from complete, but a good start for a concise impression.

Other words such as ordering food or greeting are deliberately not included in this list. Handy and certainly necessary, however, that is not the intention of this spiritual Buddhistic travel guide.

So if you want to enjoy and for that reason decide to take a trip for a yoga retreat or a stay in a monastery, use this list of spiritual words from Thailand. This increases the opportunity for a conversation somewhat and is nifty for example as completion of the English. Because, Thai people place a high value on being polite and, this is easier achieved through language.