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Where did Thai writing come from?
The Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script (Thai: อักษรขอม, akson khom), which is a southern Brahmic style of writing derived from the south Indian Pallava alphabet (Thai: ปัลลวะ). According to tradition it was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great (Thai: พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช).
Are Thai names Sanskrit?
Yes, Thai names are derived from Sanskrit. Thailand is a Buddhist country. Buddha was an Indian prince from Pali (in India) and words from the original Pali language were adopted by the Thais and others in SE Asia. When Thai monks chant, they are actually using Pali/Indian words, not Thai.
Did all languages originate from Sanskrit?
“Sanskrit is the origin of only a few languages in North India, such as Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Oriya and so on. It is neither the origin of the 26 Dravidian languages spoken in the south of India nor of all the world’s languages.
Sanskrit, being one of the languages the sacred Buddhist scriptures were written in, also greatly influenced Thai, which has lots of loan words from Sanskrit. Still, neither borrowed words nor borrowed scripts make languages related. To see the relationships between languages is much harder than noticing similarities in scripts.
What is the writing system used in Sanskrit called?
The writing system used for Sanskrit is known as Devanagari. Indian languages are phonetic in nature and the written shapes represent unique sounds. In Sanskrit and other Indian languages, unlike in English, there is no specific name given to the letters. The sound the letter stands for is actually the name for the letter.
What is the origin of the Thai script?
The modern Thai script is descended from Pallava, itself descended from Brahmi. It is similar and draws from Khmer, and is closest in similarity to Lao. Note that it is largely unrelated to the Myanmar/Burmese script.
What is the language of Buddhism in Thailand?
All the southern Buddhists like Khmers or Thais use scripts that come from India; those scripts are all descendants of the ancient Indian script Brahmi. Sanskrit, being one of the languages the sacred Buddhist scriptures were written in, also greatly influenced Thai, which has lots of loan words from Sanskrit.