Occidental Music Lexicography in Thai

Abstract

Occidental Music Dictionaries in Thai can be considered as Specialized Lexicography (SL), as they are bilingual dictionaries. There are at least 5 dictionaries on this subject. These dictionaries prioritize giving equivalent terms over definitions. In cases where the equivalent term does not exist, terms are given descriptive definitions and/or coined as new Thai words, except in ‘The Dictionary of Universal Musical Terms’ by The Thai Royal Society which solely gives equivalent terms or newly coin words, not definitions.

Equivalent terms are given in three main categories: 1) Transliteration: for very specific terms, such as musical instrument names. 2) Translation: for terms that have the same or close meaning to pre-existing Thai terms, mostly used for technical terms related to performance practice. 3) Coinage/ neologism: where a completely new term has been created based on Thai or Pali/Sanskrit lexical elements, to reflect the meaning of the original Occidental word - this category has created problems of understanding.

Use of these dictionaries are considered to be more passive (L2 -> L1) than active, although some have a Thai glossary or active section (L1 -> L2) in the second part. Word entries are organized in alphabetical order. The categories of word entries are vast, also including composers and famous compositions.

The usage of these dictionaries can be both receptive (from an unknown occidental original term to the equivalent in Thai) and productive (from a known occidental original term to an equivalent term in Thai). The second case is rather for advanced users searching for terms in Thai for written purposes. These terms are frequently used in transliterated verbal language, therefore, equivalent terms are often newly coined terms and serve typography correctness rather than understanding.

Numerous problems are encountered in these dictionaries. One such problem is the lack of knowledge in other languages that can be seen in the references of all dictionaries that are exclusively Thai or English. Lack of historical and linguistic knowledge can also be seen.