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Kam U Bao U Sao: Kham Mueang from Lanna Courtship
Kam u bao u sao (คำฯอู้บ่าฯวฯอู้สาวฯ, Kham Mueang reading kam u bao u sao) is the eloquent talk that young Lanna men and women used to exchange words of love. It is rhyming speech that a young man learned from older youths and then used when he climbed up to a young woman's house on evenings after the harvest season. This article reads 2 love exchanges from reliable sources, line by line, to learn vocabulary, rhyme and the sounds of Kham Mueang all at once.
Aeo sao: the setting of kam u bao u sao
The Moradok Lanna dictionary explains aeo sao (แอ่วฯสาวฯ, read aeo sao) as "going to visit young women". After the evening meal, the young women yu nok (อยฯู่นอฯก, read yu nok), sitting out beyond the bedroom on the toen (เตินฯ, read toen), the open hall, lighting a lamp and doing small tasks such as spinning or sewing, while they wait for young men to come and talk.
The "Lanna Kham Mueang" column of the Hak Tua Mueang Club of Chiang Mai University in Matichon Weekly (2021) describes the scene in detail. The young men travelled at night by the light of bamboo torches, which the dictionary calls khae (แฅ่, read khae). Some carried a sueng, a salo or a flute, and they often went courting in other villages. On the way home, if a young man walked alone, he would often choi (ช้อฯยฯ, read choi), chanting khao verse to a melody to keep himself company on the road.
The young woman's parents slept in the bedroom and heard every word, so they could judge the character of a man who might become their son-in-law. If both sides were happy, the couple became tua po tua mae (ต฿วฯพอฯต฿วฯแม่, read tua po tua mae), sweethearts, and the young man then sent elders to cha sao (จาสาวฯ, read cha sao), to ask for her hand. Read more about the toen and the other parts of the house in Huean kalae.
Passage 1: asking to come up to the house
The Hak Tua Mueang Club gives a first-meeting conversation in 4 parts. The first two match word for word the version quoted by Chiang Mai News (2025).
Young man: "อี่นายนาฏน้อง อ้ายมาแอ่วหา จักเติ้กก่อจา ขึ้นไปนั่งอู้" Young woman: "ขึ้นมาเต๊อะ บ่ถ้ากลั๋วใผ บ่มีคนใด มาแอ่วหาข้า" Young man (once in the house): "อ้ายขอนั่งหนี้สักศอก ขอออกหนี้สักวา ถ้าอ้ายเปิ้นมา ค่อยลุก" Young woman: "นั่งเต๊อะ นั่งเต๊อะ บ่แม่นที่ใผ เป๋นที่วงศ์ใย พี่น้องชาวบ้าน" — Hak Tua Mueang Club, Chiang Mai University, Matichon Weekly (2021)
Here it is one part at a time. The key words are translated from the Moradok Lanna dictionary; the meaning of each whole part is the column's own translation.
| Kham Mueang | Key words (from the dictionary) | Meaning of the whole part |
|---|---|---|
| i nai nat nong, ai ma aeo ha, chak toek ko cha, khuen pai nang u | i nai (อี่นาฯยฯ) = you (a respectful way to address a young woman) · toek (เทิกฯ) = to be in the way · ko (กํอฯ) = question word, "…?" · cha (ชา) = or | Dear girl, I have come to visit. Would I be in the way of your sweetheart if I came up to talk with you? |
| khuen ma toe, bo tha klua phai, bo mi khon dai, ma aeo ha kha | tha (ถ้า) = to wait · kua (ก฿ลฯวฯ) = to fear · phai (ไผ) = who | Do come up. There is no need to worry, for nobody usually comes to visit me. |
| ai kho nang ni sak sok, kho ok ni sak wa, tha ai poen ma, khoi luk | ni (หี้นฯ) = here · sok (สอฯก) = a cubit · wa (วาฯ) = 4 cubits · poen (เพิ่นฯ) = he, that person | Let me sit here, taking just a cubit or a wa of space. If your sweetheart comes, I will get up at once. |
| nang toe nang toe, bo maen thi phai, pen thi wong yai, phi nong chao ban | maen (แม่นฯ) = yes, true | Do sit down. This is no one's own seat; it is a place for relatives and everyone. |
The charm of this exchange lies in the modesty of both sides. He first asks whether he will be "toek", in someone's way; she answers that no one comes to see her. He asks for only "a cubit, a wa" of space and is ready to get up for "ai poen", that other man of hers. Every word courts and keeps good manners at the same time.
Passage 2: "My betel leaf has no scent"
A longer love speech is called kam khao kam khuea (คำฯระฯค่าวฯคำฯระฯคิอฯอ, read kam khao kam khuea), which the dictionary explains as "speech with rhyme and assonance, as beautiful as verse". Hathaiwan Chaiyakun (หทัยวรรณ ไชยะกุล, 2024) explains that young men and women used these phrases as love talk "to test each other's wit" before talking normally once they knew each other better, and she quotes an example from the work of Udom Rungruangsri (2006):
เคี้ยวเต๊อะ เคี้ยวเต๊อะ พลูข้าบ่หอม บ่มีไผตอม เค้ามันบ่อ้วน
ขออดใจกิน พลูดินยอดด้วน บ่เหมือนพลูคำ บ้านพี่ไท้
ที่พากันมา หอเรือนน้องไท้ มีใจใคร่ได้หยังชา
(Udom Rungruangsri, 2006, cited in Hathaiwan Chaiyakun, 2024)
From the words, this is the young woman speaking as she offers betel leaf to the young man who has come to visit. She apologises that her betel is poor, then turns the question back on him: since you have come all this way to my house, what is it you want?
| Line | Key words (from the dictionary) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| khiao toe, khiao toe | toe is a word of invitation, used as in passage 1 ("khuen ma toe") | Chew, do chew |
| pu kha bo hom | the Kham Mueang reading of phlu (betel) is pu (พลฯ) = a vine with hot, pungent leaves, chewed with areca nut | my betel has no scent |
| bo mi phai tom | tom (ทอฯม) = to feed up, to cherish, to nourish | no one has tended it |
| kao man bo uan | kao (เคั้าฯ) = base, foot of a plant (written เค้า in Thai) | so its stem is not plump |
| kho ot chai kin | please bear with it and chew | |
| pu din yot duan | it is betel grown on the ground, its tips stunted | |
| bo muean pu kham, ban phi thai | kham (ฅำ) = gold | not like the golden betel at your house |
| thi pha kan ma, ho huean nong thai | ho huean (หํอฯเริอฯร) = home, dwelling | you who have come to my house |
| mi chai khrai dai yang cha | yang (หัยฯง) = what · cha (written ชา in Thai) = or | what is it your heart desires? |
This verse teaches on 2 levels. The first is vocabulary, such as tom, which central Thai does not have in this sense. The second is strategic modesty: she runs down her own betel as "scentless" and "stunted", praises his as "golden betel", then tosses a question back that he must answer with his wits.
Rhyme: why it sounds so neat
These love speeches are made in the verse form of khao (ระฯค่าฯวฯ, read khao), which the dictionary explains as verse "whose rhymes are threaded and interlinked … like a chain". The shortest khao is khao kom (ระฯค่าฯวฯก้อฯม, read khao kom), which the dictionary says is usually 4 lines of 4 words, with this example: "ปี้แอบฮักน้อง ลักจองในใจ๋ ป๋ะน้องเมื่อใด หัวใจ๋ตื่นเต้น" (pi aep hak nong, lak chong nai chai, pa nong muea dai, hua chai tuen ten), meaning: I secretly love you and keep you in my heart; whenever I meet you, my heart beats fast.
Hathaiwan (2024) explains that khao kom is the first step for anyone learning to write khao, while kam khao kam khuea is medium-length khao of about 11–12 lines (citing Siriphong Wongchai), which matches the "my betel has no scent" verse, with exactly 11 lines. The same work concludes that khao is beautiful because of 3 things: the number of words in a line, the position of the rhymes, and the tone at the end of a line.
Let us put the examples in this article side by side. (The counting and pairing in this table are Moradok Lanna's own observations from these examples only, not a complete set of prosody rules.)
| Verse | Lines (syllable count) | Linked sounds |
|---|---|---|
| Khao kom | pi aep hak nong (4) · lak chong nai chai (4) · pa nong muea dai (4) · hua chai tuen ten (4) | nong → chong · chai → dai |
| He asks to come up | i nai nat nong (4) · ai ma aeo ha (4) · chak toek ko cha (4) · khuen pai nang u (4) | ha → cha |
| She answers | khuen ma toe (3) · bo tha klua phai (4) · bo mi khon dai (4) · ma aeo ha kha (4) | phai → dai, closing with kha, which picks up the "-a" sound of his words |
| He asks for a seat | ai kho nang ni sak sok (6) · kho ok ni sak wa (5) · tha ai poen ma (4) · khoi luk (2) | sok → ok · wa → ma |
| She invites him to sit | nang toe nang toe (4) · bo maen thi phai (4) · pen thi wong yai (4) · phi nong chao ban (4) | phai → yai |
| My betel has no scent | pu kha bo hom · bo mi phai tom · kao man bo uan · … · pu din yot duan | hom → tom · uan → duan |
You can see that almost every verse uses 4 words to a line, and the last word of line 2 passes its rhyme to the last word of line 3, both in the dictionary's khao kom and in the speeches people really used up in the house. Some verses also rhyme from the end of the first line to the middle of the next, such as nong → chong and sok → ok. This is why kam u bao u sao is easy to remember and "sounds right" even when spoken on the spot.
Kham Mueang sounds to notice
These short verses have a few places where central Thai speakers often misread:
- Tha: the dictionary gives the meaning to wait, to wait for, as in tha yu ni (ถ้าอยู่หนี้), "wait here". So her "bo tha…" can be read as "no need to wait". But in part 3, "tha ai poen ma" uses tha in its Thai sense of "if".
- Ni in Kham Mueang is a word of place meaning "here". Nang ni (นั่งหนี้) is "sit here"; it has nothing to do with ni meaning debt.
- Tom does not mean flies buzzing around, but to nourish and fatten.
Kham Mueang likes to close a question with an ending word. Passage 1 has 2 of them together, ko ("…?") and cha ("or"), so "chak toek ko cha" sounds more polite and indirect than a straight question. Passage 2 closes with "yang cha", "what, then?".
The dictionary records under koek (เคิกฯ) that "most other areas use koek, but Chiang Mai uses toek". Both mean to be in the way, as in nang koek tang tiao (นั่งเกิ้กตางเตียว), sitting in the path. So the "asking to come up" verse, which uses toek, is in the Chiang Mai dialect.
The column writes กลั๋ว and ใผ, while the dictionary uses the forms kua (กั๋ว) and phai (ไผ) as headwords. When looking words up in the dictionary, try both forms, because there is still no single standard for writing Kham Mueang in Thai letters.
When courting words become song: choi and so kiao sao
When these rhyming courting words are sung to a melody, they become choi and so. Kanithep Pituphuminak and colleagues (คณิเทพ ปิตุภูมินาค และคณะ, 2014) show that choi melodies are tied to the tones of Kham Mueang, which the study counts as 6, following Renu Wichasin (เรณู วิชาศิลป์, 2000), including a tone central Thai does not have, called the "northern tho tone", as in the words khon and khao. Some words have a melody that moves in the same direction as their tone, and some go against it: chai and tua, for example, have a rising tone, but their melody stays level or falls. For words in the mid tone, the singer is free to shape the melody. Read more about the styles of choi in Khap So and Choi.
So kiao sao (courting so) is a sung exchange between male and female so singers on stage. Phiphatphong Masiri and Phongwikran Mahitthiphong (พิพัฒน์พงศ์ มาศิริ และพงษ์วิกรานต์ มหิทธิพงศ์, 2025) analysed 9 clips of the courting so "Sai Phi" from Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Nan, and found that the story always runs the same way: it begins with courting, moves to an agreement to marry, and then bargains over sai phi (ไส่ผี, read sai phi), which the dictionary explains as "giving money for the offering to the woman's family spirits". The study interprets this bargaining as a reflection of women's power within the space of the home.
Lanna house words in courting so
In a performance by Chiang Mai so singers transcribed in the research, the woman bargains by letting the man move into the house one step at a time according to the sai phi money: from outside the gate, to the foot of the stairs, the top of the stairs, and then up into the house. As house vocabulary, that gives:
| Kham Mueang | Lanna script | Meaning (from the dictionary) |
|---|---|---|
| khan dai | ฅันฯได | stairs |
| khom | ข่฿มฯ | a lower deck, the part of the upper floor set lower than the main floor |
| tao fai | เตัาไฟ | kitchen, where food is cooked |
| toen | เตินฯ | the hall outside the bedroom, used for receiving guests |
The same research also found that female so singers in Chiang Mai compare themselves with lovers from literature, such as Noi Chai Ya and Nang Waen Kaeo. Read their story in Noi Chaiya.
There is much more to learn in the ways courting literature addresses women. Phakaphot Thiamthan (ภคภต เทียมทัน, 2024) counted as many as 171 terms for women in 5 khao so stories. More than half of them (87) praise beauty, such as nong pha-nga, nong ram and kap bua phai, which compares a woman to an opening lotus petal.
Summary
- Kam u bao u sao is the love talk Lanna young people used when aeo sao, courting. Young men learned "kam u sao" from older youths, and young women learned "kam u bao" from older young women.
- The "asking to come up" exchange teaches words such as i nai, toek, tha (to wait), ni (here) and poen, along with the good manners of modesty on both sides.
- The "my betel has no scent" verse is an 11-line kam khao kam khuea, giving words such as tom (to nourish), kao (base of a plant) and pu kham (golden betel).
- Almost every example uses 4 words to a line and passes the rhyme from the end of line 2 to the end of line 3, just like khao kom.
- Sung to a melody, these words become choi and so kiao sao, whose melodies are tied to the 6 tones of Kham Mueang.
Look up more words from this article in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), read about the styles of choi and so in Khap So and Choi, and read the courting choi that runs through the names of beetles in Lanna rhinoceros beetles.
More in the same series: The song Noi Chai Ya · So songs, or see the whole series at Kham Mueang through songs and literature (in Thai).
Sources
- Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): กำอู้บ่าวอู้สาว · แอ่วสาว · เติ้ก · ถ้า · ตั๋วป้อตั๋วแม่
- ชมรมฮักตั๋วเมือง สำนักส่งเสริมศิลปวัฒนธรรม มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่ [Hak Tua Mueang Club, Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, Chiang Mai University]. (2021, 10 July). ล้านนาคำเมือง: "แอ่วสาว" [Lanna Kham Mueang: "aeo sao"]. Matichon Weekly. In Thai.
- เชียงใหม่นิวส์ [Chiang Mai News]. (2025, 23 January). "แอ่วสาว" ศิลปะการเกี้ยวพาราสีที่เลือนหายไปกับกาลเวลา ["Aeo sao", an art of courtship fading with time]. Roi Rueang Mueang Lanna. In Thai.
- หทัยวรรณ ไชยะกุล [Hathaiwan Chaiyakun]. (2024). สุนทรียภาพในคำประพันธ์ล้านนาประเภทค่าว [Aesthetics in Lanna khao verse]. Panidhana Journal 20(2) (quoting an example of kam khao kam khuea from Udom Rungruangsri, 2006, p. 57). In Thai.
- คณิเทพ ปิตุภูมินาค, ณัฐพงษ์ ปัญจบุรี และสงกรานต์ สมจันทร์ [Kanithep Pituphuminak, Nattapong Panchaburi and Songkran Somchan]. (2014). การขับขานวรรณกรรมล้านนา: จ๊อย [Chanting Lanna literature: choi]. Journal of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University 5(2). In Thai.
- พิพัฒน์พงศ์ มาศิริ และพงษ์วิกรานต์ มหิทธิพงศ์ [Phiphatphong Masiri and Phongwikran Mahitthiphong]. (2025). การถ่ายทอดเพศวิถีในสังคมจารีตล้านนาผ่านการขับซอเกี้ยวสาวเรื่อง "ใส่ผี" [Conveying sexuality in traditional Lanna society through the courting so "Sai Phi"]. Journal of the Institute of Culture and Arts, Srinakharinwirot University 27(1). In Thai.
- ภคภต เทียมทัน [Phakaphot Thiamthan]. (2024). คำเรียกผู้หญิงในวรรณกรรมค่าวซอ: ความหมายและมโนทัศน์ [Terms for women in khao so literature: meanings and concepts]. Journal of Humanities, Chiang Mai University 25(3). In Thai.
Look up "คำอู้บ่าวอู้สาว" in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai)
