"Nang" is it a loanword from Khmer or Thai-Chinese cognate

Abstract

Linguists have been interested in researching cognates. The outcomes of the researches lead to correct language family. Furthermore, it can indicate the relationships of various human races in certain areas. Loanwords occur when there is communication between different languages. For The cognate, linguistics believe that they have the same origin. As time passed, the words change and evolved to become a new language. Meanwhile, some characteristics still remained so that they are specified as cognates. In the region where cultures are similar and the history in shared, a lot of words containing some of the same characteristics are found, and sometimes, it is hard to judge whether they are cognates or loanwords. In the Thai language which is related to the Khmer language as well as Chinese, there is such a word which is “Nang” . This article considers whether the word “Nang” is a loanword from Khmer or a cognate with a Chinese word  relying on historical data and linguistics evidence. The research   draws two conclusions. The first on informs us that the word “Nang” is not a loanword from the Khmer language, but it is a cognate word of Thai and Chinese. The second one is that the word “Nang” in Khmer has connected to middle historic Chinese.