Cooking Terms in Patani Malay: An Ethnosemantic Study

The purpose of this study is to analyze the meanings of Patani Malay cooking terms in three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat in the southern part of Thailand. The researchers applied the theoretical framework of the componential analysis proposed by Katz and Fodor (1963); Leech (1974); and Nida (1979) to analyze dimensions of contrast and semantic components of the cooking terms used in those three provinces in order to reveal the food culture of Patani Malay people. The data were collected from the Patani Malay dictionaries, cook books of southern Thai food and informant interviews. Nineteen cooking terms were found in Patani Malay. There are five dimensions of contrast which are PURPOSE, HEAT, TIME, EQUIPMENT and MAIN INGREDIENTS. Each of these dimensions entails the significant semantic features which distinguish one cooking term from others. The study reveals ways of cooking and food culture of Patani Malay people; namely, most Patani Malay food are cooked by heat, Patani Malay people prefer dried food and soup to greasy and oily food. In addition, the cooking terms showed that they strictly obey and follow the Islamic laws. Most ingredients, especially spices, reflected that their food culture is influenced by other countries such as India, China, and Indonesia. Keyword:, Componential analysis, Cooking terms, Food culture, Patani Malay Introduction " Most people in the five provinces of the Southern region of Thailand, which are Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, are muslim. Premsrirat et al. (2004) claimed that 82% of the population in Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat which are three southern border provinces are islamic. This ethnic group has their own language to communicate in daily life which is called “Patani Malay”. Moreover, the food culture of Patani Malay people reveals that they strictly obey and follow the Islamic laws, which people in general have known as “Halal food”. The objectives of this study are to analyze the dimensions of contrast and the components of meanings in Patani Malay cooking terms in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces. The researchers believe that the study reveals the relationship between language and culture, especially the cooking and eating culture of Patani Malay people. The importance of the study is to understand the cooking and eating cultures of Patani Malay people which are ways of cooking, Islamic dietary laws (Halal) and food culture from other countries. The study is based within the theoretical framework of componential analysis proposed by Katz and Fodor (1963); Leech (1974); and Nida (1979). COOKING TERMS IN PATANI MALAY: AN ETHNOSEMANTIC STUDY" 2 International Conference on Language, Innovation, Culture and Education (ICLICE) 27 & 28 NOVEMBER, 2015 30" A review of previous research about cooking terms shows that there is plenty of research on cooking terms such as Lévi-Strauss (2013) who proposed the culinary triangle to represent three primary cooking terms which are roasted, smoked and boiled, Lehrer (1969) who studied semantic cuisine of British and American cooking terms. She classified 45 cooking terms based on the heat source methods which found that there were four basic cooking terms which are boil, fry, broil and bake. In 1972, she also analyzed cooking terms in French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Jacaltec, Yoruba, Navajo and Amharic, in comparison with English cooking terms. Moreover, Newman (1974) also presents a comparative analysis of English and Hebrew cooking terms. Usuramo (2000) studied cooking terms of Fijian in comparison with cooking terms in English. In a Thai context, Pannara (1993) studied the vocabularies of muslim’s eating habits in Narathiwat province. Kumtanode (2006) analyzed Thai regional cooking terms: Central, Northern, Northeastern and Southern regions. Wattanasawat (2010) studied Vietnamese cooking terms. Panyaathisin (2009) studied cooking terms used by Northern Thai people. Hongwiangchan (2013) studied cooking terms of Tai Lue in Phayao province. Anchaleenukoon (2008) analyzed dimensions of food names, ingredients and cooking processes in Thai, English and French and how these represent the eating culture of the people in these three countries. The previous research showed that cooking term analysis represents ways of cooking and eating, as well as the food culture of each ethnic group. However, there has not previously been a study on the cooking terms of Patani Malay, which is an interesting ethnic group in Thailand. Method The data were collected from two sources: books and informant interview. For the data collection from books, the researchers collected data from four dictionaries: Thai-Patani Malay-Malayu Picture Dictionary by Hayiyakoh (2013), Pattani Malay-Thai Dictionary by Prince of Songkla University (1984), Pattani Malay-Thai Thai-Pattani Malay Dictionary by the Ministry of Education (2006) and Pattani Malay-Thai Thai-Pattani Malay Dictionary by Prince of Songkla University (2008). Additional data was collected from ten cookbooks from the Central library of Srinakharinwirot University. For the informant interview, the researchers divided the informants into two groups. The first group contained three males and three females from each province. They were asked to identify their own traditional menus especially meat dishes. The total of menus found as the Southern Thai food from the judgment of the informants is 368 menus. The second group also contains three males and three females from each province to be interviewed about cooking terms in Patani Malay for the menus found from the informants of the first group. The total of cooking terms in Patani Malay is 19 cooking terms. The limitations of the data collection and the criteria for the selection of the informants as follows: • over 40 years old • live in Muang district of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces • never live outside the area for more than ten year • use Patani Malay as their mother tongue in daily life • normally cook food. COOKING TERMS IN PATANI MALAY: AN ETHNOSEMANTIC STUDY" 2 International Conference on Language, Innovation, Culture and Education (ICLICE) 27 & 28 NOVEMBER, 2015 31"