Barang...

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prahkeitouj
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Re: Barang...

Post by prahkeitouj »

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: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).
Barang mean French or France in Khmer languge. I don't know when we use the word barang and where it from? In Khmer writing and speaking we called them ( French ) " barang". I never see any book write the word " barang" refer to other nations except French, but most of Cambodians like to call foreigner(white) that barang at the first sight. Maybe because in Cambodia history, Cambodia was under France colony for 90 years and Cambodians know french is white people so they still keep the old concept that white is french. When I was young, i heard old people include my mum like to call white foreigners that barang. I thought they were from France. But when I grow up, i know some friends, they are English, Australians, Swedish... deferent nations..., I realized that not every foreigners are barang. Some of them are not French. Some people still call white (Europeans) that barang even they are not French, but most of us call them " jun bor ro tes/ jun jeat ke= foreigners" . But I have a doutb why foreigners call themselves barang even they are not French?
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Re: Barang...

Post by Samouth »

Soi Dog wrote:
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?
Okay the word barang literally refers to French. For a long long time ago the only white people that Cambodians had seen was French back to the French colony in Cambodia as well as the Indochina countries ( Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam). Then after that whenever we see white people no matter where they are from, we will call them barang. For us, American, French, German and European people are the same, as they have white skin, pointy nose and really tall. Note, we will only call you Barang if you have white skin, pointy nose, tall and have blonde hair. If you have Asian root, no matter if you are from USA or any European countries, we will not call you Barang. :beer3:
Last edited by Samouth on Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Barang...

Post by Soi Dog »

prahkeitouj wrote: But I have a doubt why foreigners call themselves barang even they are not French?
When a foreigner refers to himself or other honkies as barang, it is only because that is what locals refer to him/them as, whether they are French or not.
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Re: Barang...

Post by prahkeitouj »

Soi Dog wrote:
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.
Thank you for you detail answer. In khmer languge we also have words that start from F sound like in Joon Samouth explanation. We have few original word with starting by F sound include the word Foung = group of animal.
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Re: Barang...

Post by prahkeitouj »

Soi Dog wrote:
prahkeitouj wrote: But I have a doubt why foreigners call themselves barang even they are not French?
When a foreigner refers to himself or other honkies as barang, it is only because that is what locals refer to him/them as, whether they are French or not.
I think I confuse when my mum and old people call foreigners barang. In Samdech Choun Nath dictionary (Khmer -Khmer dictionary) barang refer to French and France, and Cambodians also call Europeans that barang. I think only some people have old concept from France colony that still use it because they judge foreigners (white) same group as french. I don't use barang for foreigners, but for French only. I was surprised when my Australian friend call himself barang. I thought any new word ? I check English dictionary then there was no this word. When I join this site I saw most of you use barag for foreigners so I realised what that word mean to you.
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Re: Barang...

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

I know barang means French and that the proper word for foreigner is "pborotey", but why did they call the French "barang"? They couldn't have just already have had a word for "French". You're not properly answering your own question from a linguistic perspective. I'm still going to assume that historically (100-200 years ago), barang might have had a different meaning. Like "foreigner", or "strange", or "white" or something like that. Even now, most Khmers use the meaning as "foreigner", not "French". I don't think it's unrealistic to assume that before the word came to mean "French" as well, it only meant "foreigner". But the original meaning got a new meaning after the arrival of the French. Or as Soi Dog says, it may have been borrowed from Thailand through Battambang. Didn't the French arrive in Vietnam way before merchants were going to Thaïland though? What's the Viet word for foreigner? If I recall it's completely different. It would be interesting to get a definitive answer. I'm sure a Khmer linguist could explain how/why it appeared.

Oh yeah, and soi dog is right. We know it means French, but we call each other that because that's what Khmers use to refer to us.
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Re: Barang...

Post by Joon »

I'm also leaning on Soi Dog's explanation that the Khmer word Barang was borrowed from the Thai word Farang but because Khmers don't use the "F" sound that much, it became a "B" sound.

In French, the words for French (Français) and France sound nothing like "Barang"... The closest could be "Parisien" (pa-ree-ziang) but there's a missing "Z" sound in the middle.
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Re: Barang...

Post by Soi Dog »

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: Didn't the French arrive in Vietnam way before merchants were going to Thaïland though?
Definitely possible. But looking at Google Earth, it seems the natural sailing route would have been around South Africa, up the East African coast, over to India (where France had some significant influence in certain parts) and then hugging the coast to Burma and Thailand well before going around the Malay peninsula to get the Gulf of Thailand and only then to Cambodia and Vietnam. Back then, you probably didn't want to sail very far off land (whenever possible) in order to take on provisions. The French obviously forged much closer ties with Cambodia and Vietnam and established a much greater relationship, but I would think they definitely encountered Thai people first. Maybe they received a more hostile or reluctant initial reception from the Thais.
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Re: Barang...

Post by Sir_Quality_U_Feel »

Wait? Doesn't it mean "Handsome Man"? I just figured that's what everyone was calling me.
I'll give ya 500 Riel for it...
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Re: Barang...

Post by Samouth »

Sir_Quality_U_Feel wrote:Wait? Doesn't it mean "Handsome Man"? I just figured that's what everyone was calling me.
Handsome : Songha or Saart
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