Kham Mueang Fruit Names: Ba Muang, Ba Tao and Ba Khanat

Many Kham Mueang fruit names begin with the sound ba, which matches ma in central Thai. Ba muang (บ่าฯม่วฯง, Kham Mueang reading ba muang), for example, is the mango. But quite a few names are so different from central Thai that you could never guess them: the watermelon, which the Khon Mueang call ba tao, or the pineapple, called ba khanat.

This article gathers Kham Mueang fruit names from the Moradok Lanna dictionary, with the Lanna script and a photo of each fruit. It starts with the fruit you see at the market every day, moves on to names that are nothing like central Thai, and ends with the mango varieties that have names of their own.

Fruit at the market: names you can almost guess

Most of the fruit sold at the market every day uses ba where central Thai has ma, and many names follow the usual Kham Mueang sound changes (no consonant clusters, ph becoming p), so you can roughly guess which fruit is meant.

Names nothing like central Thai

This group is the most fun part of Kham Mueang fruit names, because hardly anything of the central Thai name is left. If you have never heard them, there is no way to guess.

How many kinds of ba muang?

The mango is a fruit with many separately named varieties in Kham Mueang. The dictionary records several; some names describe the shape, and one is not really a mango at all. Tap each tab to see.

Native Lanna fruit

Beyond market fruit, Lanna also has many native and wild fruits, such as ba kiang (บ่าฯกยฯง, Kham Mueang reading ba kiang), a native Northern tree whose fruit looks like a Java plum but bigger, often made into juice and wine; ba tao (บ่าฯตาวฯ, read ba tao, a different tone from the watermelon), the fruit of the sugar palm known as luk chit; and ba mao (บ่าฯเหั้มฯา, read ba mao), the bignay, with sour fruit in bunches.

Read the full set of wild fruit at Lanna wild fruits. Vegetables that start with ba, such as ba khuea, ba taeng and ba fak, are in Kham Mueang vegetable names.

Summary

• Many Kham Mueang fruit names use ba where central Thai has ma: ba muang, ba kham, ba nao, ba phang.
• Some names are nothing like central Thai: ba tao (watermelon), ba khanat (pineapple), ba ko kaeng (pomegranate), ba thua lian (durian).
• Ba kuai is the guava; the banana is kuai, and kluai nam wa is ba li ong.
• Mangoes have variety names such as ba muang nga, ba muang kaeo, ba muang ok hong, and ba muang taet hoi, which is really the cashew.
• Not every word starting with ba is a fruit: ba tom (button), ba to (takraw ball).

Look up more fruit names in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), learn the words used when buying fruit in Going to the Kat Like a Khon Mueang, and hear the ma → ba sound in a song in Kin Lam Kin Lam.

More in the same series: Kham Mueang vegetable names · Lanna wild fruits, or see the whole series at ชื่อผักผลไม้คำเมือง (in Thai).

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): บ่าม่วง · บ่าเต้า · บ่าขะหนั๋ด · บ่าก้วย · ก้วย
• Fruit photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each photo.