Meanings of place names

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Gilmore
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Re: Meanings of place names

Post by Gilmore »

Wat Phnom is an artificial hill built to house the miraculous statue discovered by Lady Penh, according to legend.
Siem Reap means Siam defeated.
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Sidewalker
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Re: Meanings of place names

Post by Sidewalker »

@explorer Here you can find a other view, how PP got is name. There was a lady Penh involved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phnom_Penh
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Re: Meanings of place names

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

explorer wrote: Sun Aug 19, 2018 7:00 am It may help people learning the Cambodian language if they know the meaning of place names.

Kampong Cham - Gompoong Jaam. Jaam means wait, and gompoong means ing, so Gompoong Jaam means waiting. In ancient times, there was trade along the rivers by boat. People used to wait for the boats in Gompoong Jaam.
Kampong កំពង់ and Kompung កំពុង are 2 different words mate

Kampong - means a port, landing or river town (Kampong Chhnang has the Tonlesap river, Kampong Cham has the Mekong river, Kampong Thom has the River Sen/Saen and Kampong Som/Saom has the obvious
Kompung - is your present tense "ing" particle

Cham ចាម - doesnt mean wait, thats a completely different word, Cham's are an ethic Muslim group living in Cambodia
to wait = ចាំ - Jam

Kampong Thom actually used to be called Kampong Puos Thom - river town of the great snakes, because there was a local legend that there were large snakes living in a cave along the river Sen/Saen that runs through the province, when the snakes disappeared then the province got shortened to just Kampong Thom
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
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Kampuchia Crumbs
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Re: Meanings of place names

Post by Kampuchia Crumbs »

Username Taken wrote: Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:23 am There's an old thread about this.
Khmer provincial towns - Names & Meanings
Thank, thank you very much.... That thread is perfect.....
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Re: Meanings of place names

Post by username »

My favorite is Thma Bang - ថ្ម​បាំង.

ថ្ម​ (thma)​ means rock.
បាំង​ (bang)​ means to block / be in the way / hide / obscure view.

So it basically means it's a place where mountains are in the way. Very fitting name for a place with narrow valleys in the middle of the Cardamoms.
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