Khom (Thai: ขอม, pronounced[kʰɔ̌ːm]) is a Thai- and Lao-language term referring to the people and civilization of the ancient Khmer 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 the Khmer people in general—has been unclear throughout history.[1]
The term has been used extensively in 20th-century Thai historiography, partly as a way to disassociate the historical Angkorian civilization—of which many archaeological sites are spread throughout present-day Thailand—from the present-day Khmer people who form the majority population of Cambodia, whom many Thais still believe to be an inferior race unrelated to the people of the ancient empire. This discourse was popularized by 20th-century Thai nationalist thinker Luang Wichitwathakan who asserted that contemporary Khmers 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 ancient Thai term "Khmer Krom" meaning "lowland Khmer", Wichitwathakan attempted to create a new ethnicity to accentuate a distinct separation between Angkor and Cambodia, despite the ethnic continuity between Angkor's builders and present-day Khmer being well-established.[2][3]
In Thai, the term khom has its roots in the Dvaravati Old Mon and Nyah 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 the Austroasiatic languages then later diversified to other language families as follows:[5]
Northern Thai and Lao: khom ← *krom (Mon) ← *krɔɔm.[5][14] (Note: the term khom, 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—lower Chao 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 terms krwaṁ, krwam used to refer to the Cambojan[15] and the term gywans used to refer to the Siam.)[17]
^Fry, Gerald W (2012-09-23). "Complex relations between Thais,Khmers". The Nation. Retrieved 2023-11-13. 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 term ขอม /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 term Khom is from the Lao word khom, from the Mon krom '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. (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;".
