From: fstawit@convx1.lerc.nasa.gov (Tawit Chitsomboon)
Subject: Thai-Thai'Thai"Thai^Thai+
Summary: A half-serious look at the root of the word "Thai"
Keywords:  Thai, joke 
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 18:03:39 GMT


Someone started a thread about "Thai". And every time this thread
is started, I can't help assert my opinion. I simply love the topic.
So much so that I'm thinking of quitting engineering and become a
research assistant of Khun Samart.

Here is my conjecture as to what is the root of the word "Thai".

Thai- ,adj, n: Free (as in freedom), or Free (can be obtained at no cost)
              , a group of people living in a freedom-free environment.

Thai' ,vt :   Pay the ransom (otherwise somethings won't be signed)

Thai", n:     A bag in which Thai officials keep their ransom money.

Thai^, n:     A strong cleaning detergent which is too weak to clean
	      scums out of Thai's Land.

Thai+, vi:    A means to sustain life of Thai officials as well as 
	      Thai rice farmers.

Tired, adj:   (Meanings are obvious: People are tired of hard working
	      to earn ransom money.)

Thigh, n:     That part of the body where Thai women have to sell to
	      earn their livings because Thai+ Naa alone isn't enough to
	      pay the ever-increasing demand of Thai+ Ngern.
	   

With ethno-linguistic variation through centuries of migration and
adaptation, any of the above words could be the real root of the
word "Thai". I happen to believe that Thai+ is the real root because
it is really ingrained in the Thai people, no matter from which angle
you are looking at it.

Back to the non sarcastic world, scholars disagreed on the root of the
word. But it is believed that the word "Thai" or "Tai" was of a later
invention to call a group of people belonging to a much larger family
of people inhabiting the mainland southeast Asia from Southern China
to Malaysia and from Hainan Island to Eastern India.
According to some scholars, the word Tai appeared in CHinese
records about a thousand years ago. The ancestors of the Tai however
had far earlier root than that. A Chinese scholar even believes that
Tai people gave them the seed of culture which had been developed and
refined to be the present day Chinese culture.

I know, many of you are laughing at this bizarre theory. But it is equally
bizarre to me that Thai always copied things from the Chinese or Indians, 
as most scholars believe, as if Tais couldn't imagine anything by themselves.

There are so many Tai-speaking people groups. The largest of which is
Thai-Laos-Shan people. The Chuang people (which is BTW the largest
minority group in China, about 16 mill). Dong, Puyi, Chia (Kwangsi province
of China), Lue, Khuen, Nua (Yunnan, China), Li (Hainan Island),
Tho (North Vietnam), Ahom (Assam, India).

If the people who inhabit BanCHiang were really our forefathers then our
people were very advanced long time ago (5-8000 years) And to me, there
is little alternative (based on probability) to conclude anything other
than that they were Tais. (I sound more and more like LuangVijit huh :)
The artifacts at Tung'Hai+Hin+ (in Laos) remain to be studied. Initial
reseacrh dated the giant Hai+ (jar) at (5-7000) years (same as Banchiang).
Luckily, the Hais are so big that it's a natural protection for thieves.
American GIs try to "   " with a helicoptor but the copter couldn't lift it
either. There are ten of thousands of such Hais around. Who were these
great people? Tai? (of course :)

The Laos people (who in my mind is more Tai than Thai people) jokingly
believe that their ancestors had gigantic structure and they used these
giant Hai+ to drink whiskey. I simply think that they built them to
keep water because drought striked so often.

It's unfortunate that whenever ancient civilizations are studied, it's
very difficult to be objective. Nationalism always plays big roles.
Hey, that's life...It's not object...that's why it's hard to be objective.

-Tawit

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