Animal Names in Kham Mueang: Farm, Wild and the Zodiac

Many animal names in Kham Mueang sound close to Central Thai, such as ma (dog), maeo (cat) and mu (pig). Many others are completely different: a cow is ngua, a goat is pae, a squirrel is hok, a barking deer is fan, a monitor lizard is laen, a house gecko is chak kim, and an elephant is chang (ช้างฯ, Kham Mueang reading chang), the animal Lanna uses for the Year of the Pig in the twelve-year zodiac.

This article gathers animal names from the Moradok Lanna dictionary: farm and household animals, words for male, female and young animals, elephants, large wild animals, small wild animals, reptiles and amphibians, the counting word for animals, and the Kham Mueang names of the zodiac years. Birds, fish and insects already have their own articles.

Farm and household animals

The animals closest to Lanna people are the ones kept at home and used for work in the rice fields. Most names are close to Central Thai, but with Lanna tones and spellings of their own.

Don't mix up pae and phae. In Kham Mueang, phae (แระฯพะ) means scrubby open forest, as in pa phae, not the animal. For the rabbit (Kham Mueang ka-tai), see The Rabbit in Kham Mueang.

Male, female and young animals

Lanna people have very precise words for animals by sex and age, especially for the cows, buffaloes and pigs that every household kept. The words to remember are pu (male), mae (female), thao (young adult) and ngan (in its prime).

Sex and age

Working animals

Coat colours and patterns

Chang: the elephant in Kham Mueang

Elephants have been bound up with Lanna for centuries, in forestry work, in travel and in belief, so the dictionary has many words for elephants by sex, tusks and habits.

Large wild animals

The forests and mountains of Lanna were once home to tigers, bears, deer and barking deer. Many of their names differ from Central Thai: the barking deer is fan, the mouse-deer is kai, and the serow is kwang yueang.

The dictionary even has a word for the call of the barking deer: fan khok (ฟานฯโข฿กฯ), "the barking deer barks".

Small wild animals: forest, garden and underground

Many small animals live close to villages, in gardens, bamboo groves and burrows. Their Kham Mueang names are often nothing like Central Thai.

Even porcupine quills have their own name, lem men (เหลฯมเห้มฯร). The dictionary says they were used to shred bamboo shoots into strips for cooking, or to decorate a hair bun.

Reptiles and amphibians

Snakes, geckos, lizards, frogs and toads are everyday sights in Lanna homes and rice fields. The names are easy to remember once you know the openings: chak in chak kim (house gecko), and chak with a rising tone in chak ka (garden lizard) and chak khe (crocodile).

Counting animals with tua

When counting animals, Kham Mueang uses the classifier tua (ต฿วฯ, Kham Mueang reading tua), just like tua in Central Thai. The dictionary gives the example "ten ants" (mot sip tua), and it is used for some objects too, such as five tables or two pairs of trousers. So "two buffaloes" is khwai song tua.

Pack animals also have a group name, tang (ต่างฯ), as in ma tang (pack horse) and ngua tang (pack ox).

The twelve zodiac years in Kham Mueang

Lanna people call their birth-year animal pi tua poeng (ปีต฿วฯเพิ่งฯ). The dictionary explains that people used to remember their birth year by its zodiac animal, and that a new zodiac year starts at the New Year, on Wan Phaya Wan. The twelve Lanna year names (the pi hon thai system) are all different from the Central Thai names.

Sayings and beliefs from animal names

Animal names in Kham Mueang are not only for animals. Many have become sayings, spoonerisms or beliefs.

• Khwai ngan (ฅวฯายฯหงฯานฯ) is a buffalo in its prime, but it also means a young man.
• Maeo li (แมวฯลี้) is a spoonerism of mi laeo, "already has one", meaning someone already has a sweetheart.
• Maeo phong (แมวฯโพ฿งฯ) is a big, fierce old tomcat; adults used it to scare children into behaving: "stop crying or the maeo phong will come and eat your liver".
• Dao mu kong (หูคอฯง) is the Kham Mueang name for the morning star.
• Suea yen (เสิอฯอเยันฯ) is a were-tiger, a tiger said to have been a person with strong magic who could turn into a tiger.
• Ma khi (ม้าขี่), "ridden horse", is a spirit medium, a person whom a spirit possesses.
• Ma wo (หมฯาวอฯ) is a mad dog, a dog with rabies.

Summary

• Farm animals in Kham Mueang include ngua (cow), khwai (buffalo), ma (dog), maeo (cat), mu (pig), pet (duck) and pae (goat); phae means scrubby forest.
• Sex and age are marked with pu (male), mae (female), thao (young) and ngan (in its prime): ngua pu, ngua thao, khwai ngan.
• The elephant is chang, a tusker is chang pu, a female is chang mae.
• Many wild animals have names unlike Central Thai: fan (barking deer), kai (mouse-deer), hok (squirrel), buan (otter), laen (monitor lizard), chak kim (house gecko), tok to (tokay).
• Animals are counted with tua, and the zodiac birth year is pi tua poeng, from chai, pao, yi, mao to kai, which Lanna marks with the elephant.

Look up more animal names in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), read more animal vocabulary in Bird Names in Kham Mueang, Fish Names in Kham Mueang and Maeng in Kham Mueang, or read about the rabbit in The Rabbit in Kham Mueang.

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): chang · ngua · fan · laen · pi tua poeng
• All photos are from Wikimedia Commons as credited under each picture; they illustrate the words and are not species identifications.