What does Barang mean in Khmer languge? Why do Cambodians call white people barang? Why the White call themselve Barang? I hope you can share your experience about this word.

prahkeitouj wrote:What does Barang mean in Khmer languge? Why do Cambodians call white people barang? Why the White call themselve Barang? I hope you can share your experience about this word.

I never understood how barang came to be in use in Cambodia, but I read and explanation of the Thai word farangset (ฝรั่งเศส) that makes some sense. The theory was that when the French naval merchants first encountered Thailand, they would have repeatedly spoken the word Français to indicate where they came from. Changing the pronunciation to meet Thai-language consonant-vowel rules, an "a " was added between the "f" and the "r", and was then abbreviated to just farang, which eventually came to mean "white foreigner" regardless of nationality.

So is it possible that this original Thai word for Frenchman made its way to Cambodia and then was changed to barang due to some Khmer pronunciation issues with the F sound? I dunno...does Khmer have words that start with a hard F sound? I had to leave my 'Learn to Speak Khmer' books in Thailand a couple years ago. Never got far with the Khmer lessons.

This one is really easy to answer. I think many Cambodians ( not all) can answer this question. Right now I am not sobered enough to write a long comment. I will do it tomorrow if no one could give the answer. However I am sure that our members here know exactly why they are being called barang. I think General Mac has got the answer.

Soi Dog wrote:So is it possible that this original Thai word for Frenchman made its way to Cambodia and then was changed to barang due to some Khmer pronunciation issues with the F sound? I dunno...does Khmer have words that start with a hard F sound? I had to leave my 'Learn to Speak Khmer' books in Thailand a couple years ago. Never got far with the Khmer lessons.

The "F" sound is not used that much in Khmer. It had to be constructed from existing vowels ("hor" + "vor" foot --> ហ្វ) when the need arose.

So for instance "Phở" is written ហ្វើ. The French currency, the Franc, was written​ ហ្វ្រង្គ and the French word for brake, "frein", is written ហ្វ្រ័ង.

The only Khmer words I know that uses that combination is "ហ្វឹក​ហាត់"​ (voeuk hart, which means "to practice" and that I jokingly pronounce as "fuck hard'​) and "ហ្វឹកហ្វឺន" (voeuk voeun, which means "to instruct, to teach").

and the French word for brake, "frein", is written ហ្វ្រ័ង.

We actually don't write ហ្រ្វ័ង either we write ហ្រ្វាំង

Samouth wrote:

and the French word for brake, "frein", is written ហ្វ្រ័ង.

We actually don't write ហ្រ្វ័ង either we write ហ្រ្វាំង

Good point. I went with the Lemon Khmer-English Dictionary's spelling.

Some other words borrowed from French are "phare" (lighthouse, car lights) and is written ហ្វារ and "film" (photography) written ហ្វីល (and pronounced "phil").

I always assumed barang was just the old Khmer word for foreigner. Other nationalities were borrowed from French (besides neighbouring countries, and others whose existence was known, such as China).

Username Taken wrote:Actually, I think it descended from the Franks:

The Frankish influence over Europe was so important from the Merovingian period onwards that the term for 'European' or 'non-Muslim' became (and remains up to this day) Faranji in Arabic and Farangi in Persian, a derivative of the word "Frank". The term became used in the Indian subcontinent as well after the Muslim conquest. Firang or Farang are also used in South Asia (the latter in Thailand as well) to refer to Westerners.

http://www.eupedia.com/europe/frankish_ ... rope.shtml

Thanks for your link,I'll read it.

Samouth wrote:This one is really easy to answer. I think many Cambodians ( not all) can answer this question. Right now I am not sobered enough to write a long comment. I will do it tomorrow if no one could give the answer. However I am sure that our members here know exactly why they are being called barang. I think General Mac has got the answer.

Okay...then you can answer the question now. How did the Khmer word barang originate?