Structures of Pali and Sanskrit Compound Words in Mahajati Khamluang

Abstract

This research aims to analyze structures of Pali and Sanskrit compound Words (samasa words) in Mahajati Khamluang in terms of numbers of combined words, word formations, and parts of speech of combined words. Data were collected from a glossary of Thai literature dictionary in the Ayutthaya period ‘Mahajati Khamluang’ published by the Royal Institute. The glossary is alphabetized from a Thai consonant letter ‘ko kai’ to ‘ho nok huk’ (ก-ฮ). There were 107 compound words and their structures were analyzed. The results of this research were presented in descriptive method with statistics.

The study indicated that the structures of compound words can be classified into 3 groups: 1) two-word compound words which were divided into 5 main types 2) three-word compound words which were divided into 7 main types 3) four-word compound words which were divided into 2 main types. The structure mostly found of each group was namely 1) noun + noun 2) noun + noun + noun 3) noun + noun + noun + adjective and adjective + noun + adjective + noun. Considering the proportion of three groups of compound words structures, it was found that the structure of two-word compound words was the largest proportion. Three-word compound words and four-word compound words were ranked second and third respectively.