Khom (Thai:ขอม,pronounced[kʰɔ̌ːm]) is aThai- andLao-language term referring to the people and civilization of the ancientKhmer 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 theKhmer people in general—has been unclear throughout history.[1] From 20th century onwards the term has been commonly leveraged foranti-Khmer sentiment andhistorical negationism inThai nationalist discourse.[2]
The term has been used extensively in 20th-century Thai historiography, partly as a way to disassociate the historicalAngkorian civilization—of which many archaeological sites are spread throughout present-dayThailand—from the present-day Khmer people who form the majority population ofCambodia, whom many Thais still believe to be aninferior race unrelated to the people of the ancient empire. This discourse was popularized by 20th-century Thai nationalist thinkerLuang Wichitwathakan who incorrectly claimed that contemporaryKhmers 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 native Khmer term "Khmer Krom" meaning "lowland Khmer", Wichitwathakan attempted to create a new ethnicity to accentuate a distinct separation betweenAngkor andCambodia, despite the ethnic continuity between Angkor's builders and present-day Khmer being well-established.[3][4]
In Thai, the termkhom has its roots in theDvaravati OldMon andNyah Kur term*krɔɔm[5] meaning "under, below, beneath [prep.]; the under part of (sth.) (especially house) [noun]."[5][6] The vowel sequence also derived as a variant form:*krɔɔm →*kǝrɔɔm,*kǝnrɔɔm[5] in theAustroasiatic languages then later diversified to other language families as follows:[5]
Northern Thai andLao:khom ←*krom (Mon) ←*krɔɔm.[5][14] (Note: the termkhom, sometimes used to refer to the Khmer period in Siam,[5] not so much for the Khmer of Camboja proper,[15] as for the Mon-Khmer people of Lower Siam—lowerChao Phraya River Basin proper[16] from about 1000 CE to the latter half of the 13th century CE, which was subject to the Angkor empire.)[15]
Burmese:gywans ←kywam,kurwaṁ ←krwaṁ,krwam (Old Burmese) ←*krom (Mon) ←*krɔɔm. (Note: the termskrwaṁ,krwam used to refer to the Cambojan[15] and the termgywans used to refer to the Siam.)[17]
^Fry, Gerald W (2012-09-23)."Complex relations between Thais,Khmers".The Nation. Retrieved2023-11-13.First, many Thais think that Khom and Khmer are different peoples – with the Khom being the people who built the great Angkor empire and magnificent architecture and who are now extinct. They see the Khmer as a different people who now control Cambodia and who committed the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. In fact, the Khom and Khmer are the same people.
^abcdefgDiffloth, Gérard. (1984).The Dvaravati Old Mon Language and Nyah Kur. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Printing House. pp. 219–220.ISBN978-974-5-63783-2 Note: Entry no. V192., and V.192a.
p. 343 :— "The Thai termขอม /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)."
^Vovin, By. (1993). "Origins of the Ainu Language,"A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 169.ISSN0925-6512ISBN90-04-09905-0
^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.
^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.ISBN978-085-8-83541-2
^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.ISSN0395-2681
^BERNARD, J. B. (1902).Dictionnaire Cambodgien-Français [Cambodian-French Dictionary] (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."
^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.ISBN978-085-8-83595-5
^Unseth, Peter. "The Sociolinguistics of Script Shoice: An Introduction," International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192(2008): 25.doi:10.1515/IJSL.2008.030 "Notes 2. The termKhom is from the Lao wordkhom, from the Monkrom 'south(erners)', ..."
^Phaideekham, Santi. (2019). "เขมร คำที่ไทยใช้เรียกเขมรมาตั้งแต่เมื่อใด?,"Laelang kham Khamen-Thai [Behind the words Khmer-Thai]แลหลังคำเขมร-ไทย (in Thai). Bangkok: Matichon. pp. 61–87.ISBN978-974-0-21687-2
^The Text Publication Fund of the Burma Research Society. (1923).The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma[permanent dead link]. (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;".
