Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Sao Chiang Mai: Kham Mueang from a Jaran Manopetch Song
Sao Chiang Mai ("The Chiang Mai Girl") is a Kham Mueang (Northern Thai) song by Jaran Manopetch that Soontaree Vechanont sang so often it became her signature song. The singer tells the story as a young woman who calls herself kha chao (ข้าเจั้า, Kham Mueang reading kha chao, "I", polite and feminine). This short song has words for addressing people, Northern town names, wedding words and rhymes that link every verse to the next, which makes it ideal for practising listening to the Lanna language.
This article is part of the series Kham Mueang through songs and literature. The song is still under copyright, so we quote only as much of the lyrics as we need to explain them, and invite you to listen to the full song on the official channel.
Listen to the song first
According to the list of Jaran's works on Wikipedia, the song is on the album Folk Song Kham Mueang Luk Khao Nueng (1981), and it was later included on several other albums. Bon Borapet (Manager Online, 2012) wrote that the song "has become Soontaree's own timeless song to this day". Jaran and Soontaree sang many other duets together, such as Noi Chai Ya.
This is the official music video from the Nititad AOA Official channel, which publishes Jaran's and Soontaree's work. Listen once first, then read the explanations below.
The story of the song, in brief
The song opens with a line the whole city knows:
ข้าเจ้าเป็นสาวเชียงใหม่ — Sao Chiang Mai, words and music: Jaran Manopetch
("I am a Chiang Mai girl.")
The young woman tells us that she will soon be fully grown, and that tueng wan (ทึงฯวันฯ, read tueng wan, every day) bao (บ่าฯวฯ, read bao, unmarried young men) come to aeo (แอ่วฯ, read aeo, visit, go out) and to u (อู้, read u, talk, chat). These young men come from many towns, until she has to ask herself which of them, phai (ไผ, read phai, who), she should choose.
One young man says he will come to ask for her hand. She waits a whole year, until her parents have everything ready for the wedding, but the young man disappears without a word. At the end she declares that she will never believe anyone again, and that she will marry a hill-tribe man and go to live up in the mountains. This is our own summary; listen to the full lyrics in the video above.
Town names in Kham Mueang: where do the suitors come from?
The fun of this song is that it says where each suitor comes from, using the Kham Mueang names of the towns, so learners can practise the names of Lanna provinces at the same time.
| In the song | Kham Mueang | Central Thai | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| สาวเชียงใหม่ | Chiang Mai (ชยฯงไห่มฯ) | Chiang Mai | The title is written the central Thai way, but Khon Mueang (Northern Thai people) say jiang mai, so the dictionary calls this song "Sao Jiang Mai". |
| คนละปูน | La-pun (หลฯะพูร) | Lamphun | The song writes ละปูน. |
| อ้ายบ่าวเจียงฮาย | Chiang Hai (ชยฯงรายฯ) | Chiang Rai | One version writes เชียงฮาย. |
| คนแป้ | Mueang Pae (เมิอฯงแระฯพ่) | Phrae | The dictionary says Kham Mueang pronounces Phrae as pae, so this is probably a young man from Phrae. |
(RTGS writes ช and จ alike as ch; in Kham Mueang these names begin with the sound of จ, close to English "j".)
The other young men do not say where they are from, only their nicknames in the style of older Northerners: "Ai Kham, Ai Mun, Ai Som, Ai Mi". ai (อ้ายฯ, read ai) means elder brother, and is used for any man older than oneself.
A wedding word: pu sa-li
In the part where the young woman says she has been waiting for a year, there is a phrase, "po mae tha pu sa-li" (ป้อแม่ท่าปู๋สะลี), that younger people may not understand.
- po (พํอฯ, read po) is father, so po mae is father and mother, parents.
- The tha in the song corresponds to the word the dictionary spells tha ถ้า (ถ้า, read tha), meaning to wait. It is not the central Thai ถ้า, meaning "if".
- pu sa-li (ปูสลี, read pu sa-li) comes from pu (to spread out) and sa-li (สลี, read sa-li, a kapok-stuffed mattress).
The dictionary explains that chuea sa-li or pu sa-li is the elders preparing and laying out the bed for the couple on their wedding day, and it quotes this song as an example of the word in use. So "po mae tha pu sa-li" says that her parents are already waiting to hold the wedding, all in one phrase, without mentioning the wedding directly.
Tua di and hai saep hai soi
The next line, "ai bao tua di, hai saep hai soi" (อ้ายบ่าวตั๋วดี หายแซบหายสอย), is a complaint that is both funny and painful.
tua di (ต฿วฯดี, read tua di) sounds like praise ("a fine fellow"), but the dictionary defines it as a bad person, two-faced and untrustworthy. In this song it is sarcasm aimed at the young man who broke his promise.
hai saep hai soi (หายฯแสัปฯหายฯสอฯยฯ, read hai saep hai soi) means to vanish without a word, to disappear without a trace. The lyrics printed by the official channel write หายแซบหายสอย, while the dictionary writes หายแส็บหายสอย. It is a paired expression of the kind Kham Mueang loves, with "hai" (to vanish) repeated twice.
On its own, tua (ต฿วฯ, read tua) is a pronoun for "you" used with a close friend or a sweetheart, paired with poen (เพิ่นฯ, read poen), used for "I". In this song, poen appears in the phrase "poen bok wa cha ma kho" (he said he would come and ask for my hand), where it means "he, that person", another meaning of poen: someone at a distance from the speaker.
The ending: off to pai doi
In the last verse the young woman says "cha taeng kap maeo pai yu pai doi" (จะแต่งกับแม้วไปอยู่ป๋ายดอย, I'll marry a Maeo [Hmong] man and go to live on the mountaintop). pai doi (ปลฯายดอฯยฯ, read pai doi) means the top of a mountain, and the dictionary quotes this line of the song as an example of the word. doi (ดอฯย, read doi) is a high mountain. The next line says she will "sell her rings and sell her necklaces" up on Doi Pui, which is in Doi Suthep–Pui National Park, west of the city of Chiang Mai.
Sound changes from central Thai
The words of this song show how central Thai sounds become Kham Mueang sounds. Every pair in the table comes from the dictionary and applies only to this set of words.
| Central Thai | Kham Mueang | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| เชียงใหม่ · ชื่อ | เจียงใหม่ · จื้อ | ช becomes จ (ch → j) |
| เชียงราย (Chiang Rai) | เจียงฮาย (Chiang Hai) | ช becomes จ, and ร (r) becomes ฮ (h) |
| พ่อ · แพร่ · ลำพูน (pho, Phrae, Lamphun) | ป้อ · แป้ · หละปูน (po, pae, la-pun) | พ (ph) becomes ป (p) |
| ปลาย (plai) | ป๋าย (pai) | no l cluster, and a rising tone |
| ปี · ตัว (pi, tua) | ปี๋ · ตั๋ว (pi, tua) | a rising tone |
| ทุกวัน (thuk wan) | ตึงวัน (tueng wan) | a different word: tueng means every |
Some small words you will hear often in the song are not headwords in the dictionary: mae แหม (again, more), as in "mae bo tao dai" (before long), ko ก่ (then, also) and chuea เจื้อ (to believe), as in "bo chuea mae laeo" (I won't believe it any more). bo (บ, read bo) means not, and tao dai (เทัาฯฯได, read tao dai) means how much.
Rhymes that chain from verse to verse
The song has four verses of four lines each. If you look only at the last words of the lines, you can see a pattern that repeats in every verse. This is our own count, from the lyrics on the official channel.
| Verse | Last word of line 1 → word in line 2 | Last word of line 2 = last word of line 3 | Passed on to the next verse |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mai → dai | laeo · aeo (and saeo in line 4) | pun |
| 2 | phai → hai | lun · chun | mi |
| 3 | kho → ro | pi · sa-li (and di in line 4) | soi |
| 4 | laeo → maeo | doi · phloi (and soi in line 4) | pui |
The last word of one verse sets the rhyme for the next. For example, pun at the end of the first verse rhymes with lun and chun in the second, and mi at the end of the second verse rhymes with pi, sa-li and di in the third. Chained rhymes like these are similar to those found in Lanna verse forms such as khao, and they help each verse flow smoothly into the next.
How the different versions of the lyrics differ
We compared the lyrics from three sources: (A) the description of the video "Sao Chiang Mai Ver. Folk Song Kham Mueang" on the Nititad AOA Official channel, (B) the description of the music video on the same channel, and (C) the two passages quoted in the Moradok Lanna dictionary. Most of the words match; the differences are in spelling.
- เจียงฮาย (A) / เชียงฮาย (B)
- จื้อแก้วมาลูน (A) / ชื่อแก้วมาลูน (B)
- อ้ายก๋อง (A) / อ้ายป๋อง (B): the name of the young man from Phrae differs
- ท่าปู๋สะลี (A, B) / ถ้าปู๋สะลี (C)
- หายแซบหายสอย (A, B) / หายแส็บหายสอย (C)
- แต่งกับแม้ว (A, B) / แต่งกั๋บแม้ว (C)
- ข้าเจ้าก่รอ (A, B) / ข้าเจ้าก็รอ (C)
What the song means as a whole
A Chiang Mai girl is about to become a young woman, and young men from Lamphun, Chiang Rai and Phrae, and several from her own village, come to visit her every day. One of them promises to come and ask for her hand. She waits a year, until her parents have the wedding ready, but he vanishes without a word. So she decides never again to believe anyone's sweet talk, and declares, half in spite, that she will marry and go to live on Doi Pui, selling cloth and jewellery. The tone of the song is fun and playful, with a touch of hurt feelings underneath.
Summary
- Sao Chiang Mai, by Jaran Manopetch and sung by Soontaree Vechanont, is told by a young woman who calls herself kha chao.
- The song helps you practise town names in Kham Mueang: Chiang Mai (jiang mai), La-pun, Chiang Hai and Pae (Phrae).
- pu sa-li is laying out the bed for the couple on their wedding day, tua di is an untrustworthy person, and hai saep hai soi is to vanish without a word.
- Clear sound changes: ช becomes จ, ร becomes ฮ, and พ becomes ป.
- The last word of each verse sets the rhyme of the next, chaining the whole song together.
Look up more wedding words and forms of address in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), read about the courting language of young Lanna men and women at Kham U Bao U Sao, and another song by Jaran and Soontaree at the song Noi Chaiya.
More in the same series: Sao Motorcycle · Long Mae Ping · the song Noi Chaiya, or see the whole series at Kham Mueang through songs and literature (in Thai).
Sources
- Moradok Lanna dictionary (dict2), entries ข้าเจ้า, เจื๋อสะลี, ปู๋สะลี, ตั๋วดี, หายแส็บหายสอย, ป๋ายดอย, เมืองแป้, แม้ว and the other words in this article. In Thai.
- Nititad AOA Official. (2016). สาวเชียงใหม่ Ver. โฟล์คซองคำเมือง [Sao Chiang Mai, Folk Song Kham Mueang version]. YouTube (lyrics in the video description).
- Nititad AOA Official. (2014). สาวเชียงใหม่ – สุนทรี เวชานนท์-จรัล มโนเพ็ชร (Official Music Video) [Sao Chiang Mai – Soontaree Vechanont and Jaran Manopetch]. YouTube.
- บอน บอระเพ็ด [Bon Borapet]. (7 May 2012). “จากยอดดอย-มิดะ” อมตะเพลง“จรัล”ยุคคลาสสิค ["From the mountaintop to Mida": Jaran's timeless songs of the classic era]. Manager Online. In Thai.
- วิกิพีเดีย [Wikipedia]. จรัล มโนเพ็ชร [Jaran Manopetch] (used for a first check of the album list). In Thai.
