Farang (in Thai: ฝรั่ง), sometimes pronounced falang, is the generic Thai word for a foreigner of European ancestry. Thai (th ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration:; pʰāːsǎːtʰāj is the national and Thai (th ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration:; pʰāːsǎːtʰāj is the national and While generally farang is a neutral word, it can be used in a mocking manner, or even as an insult depending on context. For instance, the expression "farang ta nam khao" (listen ) (in Thai: ฝรั่งตาน้ำข้าว - which literally means "farang with rice-milk-colored iris") would be considered an insult. Thai (th ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration:; pʰāːsǎːtʰāj is the national and It is common in Thai to just say "farang" to point out the presence of one, without making a whole sentence. Black Americans have been occasionally referred to as farang dum (black farang) in Thai: ฝรั่งดำ especially American servicemen during the Vietnam War. Thai (th ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration:; pʰāːsǎːtʰāj is the national and The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
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Farang and food
Farang is also the Thai word for the guava fruit, which of course can lead to "farang eating farang" (ฝรั่งกินฝรั่ง) jokes from Thai people when foreigners are seen eating a guava in Thailand. Guava is a Genus of about 100 Species of Tropical Shrubs and small Trees in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. The Kingdom of Thailand (ˈtaɪlænd ราชอาณาจักรไทย, râːtɕʰa-ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k-tʰɑj This is because the guava was brought to then Siam by Portuguese traders over 400 years ago. The tree was thus called the farang fruit. Farang kee nok (Thai: ฝรั่งขี้นก) is a particular variety of guava, feijoa. Thai (th ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration:; pʰāːsǎːtʰāj is the national and The Feijoa ( Feijoa sellowiana, synonym Acca sellowiana) also known as Pineapple Guava or Guavasteen, is an Evergreen Stingy or unruly foreigners may called Farang kee nok. This is usually taken to mean "bird-shit farang", as kee means waste and nok means (wild) bird; but, while keenok may mean guano, it is also a species of fish, Diagramma pictum, a species of grunts Haemulidae. Guano (from the Quechua 'wanu' via Spanish) is the Feces of Seabirds Bats and seals The grunts are a family Haemulidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes. [1]
Varieties of food/produce which were introduced by Europeans are often called 'farang' varieties. Hence, potatoes are man farang (in Thai: มันฝรั่ง), whereas man (มัน) alone can be any variety tuber; parsley is called phak chii farang (ผักชีฝรั่ง, literally farang cilantro); and chewing gum is maak farang (หมากฝรั่ง). Thai (th ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration:; pʰāːsǎːtʰāj is the national and Maak (หมาก) is Thai for betel, which many rural Thais chew for the euphoria it gives. The Betel ( Piper betle) is the leaf of a vine belonging to the Piperaceae family which includes pepper and Kava) When chewing gum was introduced, it was labeled maak farang, from association with a "chew".
In the Isan Lao dialect, the guava is called bak seeda (TH: บักสีดา "guava"), which is sometimes jocularly refers also to a farang. Isan (Isan ภาษาอีสาน RTGS: phasa isan IPA: pʰaːsaː iːsaːn is the principal language of the Isan (northeastern region of
Origins and related words
A popular theory of the word's origin derives it from farangset, the Thai pronunciation of français, the French word for 'French' or 'Frenchman'. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people France was one of the first European nations to establish cultural ties with Thailand in the 17th century, so to Thais at that time, 'white man' and 'Frenchman' were synonymous. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar However, the Portuguese, Dutch and others arrived long before the French, which makes that origin unlikely. A few others have suggested that in the Ayutthaya period, land was given to the Portuguese merchants to conduct their business at "Baan Farang" (Guava Village). The kingdom of Ayutthaya (อาณาจักรอยุธยา was a Thai kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767 Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula.
Another common etymology, which explains why many other Southern Asian and Southeast Asian languages use the word, has to do with the French but in a more indirect way, saying that it derives from the earlier Persian word farangi, 'foreigners'. Farangi is a term for foreigners in Persian, possibly linked to the Franks. This in turn comes from the word frank via the Arabic word firinjia, which was used refer to the Franks (French) in the Middle Ages. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The Franks or Frankish people (Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an Ethnic group Legal residents and citizens To be French according to the first article of the Constitution is to be a citizen of France regardless of one's origin race or religion ( The French were later the first European nation that helped the Ghajar Kings modernize the Iranian government, in particular with the establishment of customs. The Qajar dynasty (also known as Ghajar or Kadjar ( ( - or دودمان قاجار) is a common term to describe Iran (then known as Persia) under For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. Customs is an Authority or agency in a Country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods Long before English, and until about the 1960s, French was the foreign language of choice for educated Iranians. The abundance of French words in the Persian language attests to this fact.
By another account the word comes through Arabic ("Afrandj"), and there are quite a few articles about this. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language One of the most detailed treatments of the subject is by Rashid al-din Fazl Allâh[2].
Farang is closely related to the Khmer word barang. Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia.
In Tamil, the word that refers to Europeans (most specifically to the British) is parangiar, presumably because Tamil does not have the "F" sound. Tamil (ta தமிழ்; t̪əmɨɻ is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. Many South Asian and Southeast Asian languages, including Hindi-Urdu and Malay, also use this word to denote foreigners. Hindi ( Devanāgarī: hi [[wiktहिन्दी हिन्दी]] or hi [[wiktहिंदी हिंदी]] IAST:, IPA:) is Urdu ( ur '''{{Nastaliq اردو}}''' trans Urdū, historically spelled Ordu) is a Central Indo-Aryan language Urdu is a standardised The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the
References
- ^ ThaiSoftware Dictionary Version 5. 5 by ThaiSoftware Enterprise Co. , Lrd. www. thaisoftware. co. th www. thaisoft. com
- ^ Karl Jahn (ed. ) Histoire Universelle de Rasid al-Din Fadl Allah Abul=Khair: I. Histoire des Francs (Texte Persan avec traduction et annotations), Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1951. (Source: M. Ashtiany)
See also
External links
- The Thai word "Farang", its variations in other languages, and its Arabic origin
- Gaijin, Farang, Gweilo - Confused?
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