The Buddha on Mecca’s Verandah: Encounters, Mobilities, and Histories Along the Malaysian-Thai border

Orthography and Terminology

xxi unless otherWise stateD, all thai WorDs in this book are in the Tumpat Tak Bai dialect of southern Thai as spoken by most Kelantanese Thais in the state. I have tried to replicate as closely as possible the phonology of Tumpat Tak Bai through spelling but with the elimination of tone marks. Since Kelantanese Thais also use a large number of Kelantanese Malay loanwords in their vocabulary, I have reproduced them in this context where necessary. These are often words that end with an aspirated “h” sound or contain the letters “z” and “g.” Unlike standard (central) Thai, the Tumpat Tak Bai dialect includes a number of words that stress the sounds “j,” “g,” “ny,” and “z,” for example “jao” (long), “gerang” (a land grant), “nyai” (large), and “rizab” (reserved spaces). Standard Thai words are spelled according to the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGST) established by the Royal Institute. Standard Malay words and place names are spelled according to Malaysia’s national spelling system. I have used pseudonyms in place of my interlocutors’ given names and the names of villages. Historical figures such as Buddhist monks, Malay rulers, Thai kings, colonial officers, politicians, and local cultural heroes retain their real names. As with traditional Kelantanese Thai modes of address, all personal names are prefixed by a polite kinship term that denotes the person’s relationship to the speaker as well as his/her social position within the community. Men who have not been ordained as monks are addressed by the prefix Ta. Men in one’s parent’s generation who have spent some time in the monkhood, as traditionally expected of them, are referred to by the honorific Chao or Na Chao. Older men, regardless of their ordination history, are often simply called Pho (Father) or the gender-neutral Na (Young Uncle/Auntie). Women can be Koe, Na, or Mae (Mother), the latter usually in reference to older women. Men in one’s grandparent’s generation are often respectfully addressed as Lung (Uncle) and women as Pa (Auntie). Those closer in age to the speaker are called Phi Orthography and Terminology xxii / orthograPhy anD terMinology (elder sibling). Monks who have yet to become abbots are addressed as Khun. Abbots are addressed by the honorific title of Than or Pho Than. A number of minor honorifics are also used to designate kin and social status in the community . Some elderly women are referred to as Mae Kae (Grandmother) and men of their generation as Pho Kae (Grandfather). Sometimes the Malay word for grandparent, Tok, is used, but often only among close kin, usually women on one’s mother’s side of the family. Buddhist lay renunciate women are Mae Chi or Kae Chi—the latter used only for elderly women renunciates. Magical practitioners are referred to by their occupational designation as Tok Mo (Grandfather Magical Practitioner). Village headmen are called Tok Nai (Grandfather Headman ) and school teachers as Khru or the standard Malay Cikgu. The issue of how to refer to their community has been a contentious one in Kelantan’s Thai villages. Although officially defined as Siamese (orang Siam) in Malaysian Malay and English language state records to distinguish them from their ethnic brethren in Thailand, the community never refers to itself as Siamese when speaking in Thai. During these face-to-face encounters, they refer to their ethnicity and community as simply thai (Thai). Thais from Thailand are khon thai mueang thai (Thais of Thailand) as opposed to khon thai lantan (Thais of Kelantan) or khon thai rao (our Thais). Throughout this book, I refer to the Thais of Kelantan as “Thai” according to local parlance. When I do use the term “Siamese,” it is in historical reference to the Thai Buddhist people who inhabited what was then Siam until June 23, 1939, when the Siamese government changed the name of the polity to Thailand. The Buddha on Mecca’s Verandah ...