Language as Culture

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I’ve been struck, recently, by how much of a culture and a society’s experience is wrapped up in its language.

In English we have one word for rice: rice. There are at least 3 words for rice in Khmer: “baay” is cooked rice, “angkaa” is uncooked rice, and “sreuw” is rice growing in a rice field. (There are probably a lot more than 3 words for "Rice," but that’s all I know at this point.) Of course, Cambodians eat a lot more rice than many other people.

We were recently learning about the weather and seasons in our Khmer language class. In Cambodia, there are only 2 seasons: the hot season and the rainy season. Since there is no Spring, Fall, or Winter, there really is no word for those seasons. To say “Spring” in Khmer, you would say “Season Flowers Open.” Winter is the “Season Ice Falls.”

Showing proper respect for people, based on their age, gender, job title, and economic status is a big deal here. This becomes very obvious to any language learner. If you are speaking to someone your age or slightly older, you would call him “Bong.” However, if you are speaking to someone who works in an office, you would call him “Look” (or “Look Srey” if she is a woman). Anyone who has grey hair is called “taa” (grandfather) or “yeeay” (grandmother). (Or, if they work in an office: “Look Taa”/”Look Yeeay.”) People are “neak,” unless you are talking about Buddhist monks, who are “ang.”

The Khmer language also carries traditional roles for each gender. The male is “May Kruesaa” = Head of Family. The female is “May Ptaeh” = Head of House (traditionally, the extent of her influence).

There is also a lot of stuff I haven’t been able to figure out yet: why is there a word “peak,” meaning “to wear clothes above the waist,” while there is another word “sleak,” meaning “to wear clothes below the waist”? And, why do you say: “peak sbike churing” = “to wear shoes.” (Shouldn’t it be “sleak sbike churing?”)

Final fun fact: “sbike churing” (shoes) directly translates into English as “leather feet.”

By the way, we have passed the 3-month mark! I have officially lived in Cambodia longer than I have lived in any other country, besides the USA. There is still so much to learn and so much to do...thank goodness we're not going home, yet!

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Comments

[Sean]

Too Right
This is why I became so interested in languages after SST. It was amazing to me how important it was to the culture of a place. The Dutch have at least 5 different words for canal, depending on where it is, how big it is and what it's for. However, many things that contain other things like buckets, baskets, bowls, boxes, and pots are described by one word: "bak" or "bakje" if it's small (or you're being cute), sometimes with various modifiers. This explains why Dutch people will say something in English like "Boil the potatoes in the basket", because they usually just translate "bak" back into basket. Urinals are often called "pisbakjes" (Little Piss Baskets) although are also "blasbomen" (Urine Trees). To confuse matters more, "bakken" means "To bake" in addition to being the plural of "bak". As a result a "bakje" can also mean a baked good or bakken can be mean several baked goods. So if someone says something like "Ik wil een bakje", (I want a .... bakje) context, much of it cultural, is how you know whether to hand them a muffin or a mop bucket.