Linguistic characteristics of characters’ names in Khmer Novels

Abstract

The research entitled “Linguistic Characteristics of Characters’
Names in Khmer Novels” aims to analyse linguistic characteristics of 557
characters’ names in 30 Khmer novels. The research found that the
number of syllables in characters’ names ranges from one to four
syllables. In addition, some of them can be found in many novels. This
may indicate how general names are used in Khmer society. Most
characters’ names are either Khmer words or words loaned from Pali
and/or Sanskrit. A small number of Thai, Chinese, Western or other
languages’ loanwords are also found. The study of the meaning of the
characters’ names identifies that most Khmer words are associated with
the environment surrounding Khmer people. These names can be verbs
or nouns concerning tools, animals, or plants, modifier words, and
exclamation words while names loaned from Pali and/or Sanskrit are
mostly words identifying types of human, natural environment, good
virtue and wealth.The results of this research contribute to the understanding of
characters’ names used in Khmer novels and this represents general
names of Khmer people. The research results also indicate the
similarities of linguistic characteristics in naming Khmer, Thai and other
Southeast Asian people.