“Siao Savat” : An Analysis of Its Wording and Meanings

Dr.Boonchoo Poosri

Abstract

This study aimed to find wording and meaning of “Siao Savat” from ancient palm leaf manuscripts. The word “Siao Savat” is a compound word derived from “Siao” and “Savat”. “Siao” could be found in manuscript as and in Thainoi alphabet as , Actually, the word “Siao” derived from “Saliao” with its three handwriting characters comprising of , , and . There are three general meaning of “Siao” including 1) a kind of tree, 2) beautiful appearance, and 3) cleverness. For the word “Savat”, it could be found in Tham alphabet as and , while it was presented in four patterns in Thainoi alphabet as , , , and . There are five common meanings of the word comprising of 1) intelligence or omniscience, 2) affection, 3) recital, 4) splashing, and 5) going beyond over. Therefore, “Siao Savat” has five general meanings as 1) many Siao trees, 2) a person with intelligence and a charming characteristic 3) a person with beautiful and winsome body, 4) a literature of Siao Savat, and (5) a character in Siao Savat literature called Thao Siao Savat, while Thao is used as a title of authority for a king. In relations to wordings and meanings of “Siao Savat”, it was found that its meanings and wording styles were quite increased since the local vocabularies were more chosen to use in everyday life, consistent with its communication contexts.