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The Dictionarium Linguae Thai is provided online as a part of an effort to facilitate easy and efficient access for those interested in Old Thai. As the oldest surviving published Thai dictionary, it is a well-known and oft-cited source and is especially valuable for use in searching the meanings of archaic words. The Royal Society of Thailand, too, has found the Dictionarium useful in the creation of their dictionaries as the former includes mention of the sources of the information given in its entries, making it an invaluable resource for the study of Rattanakosin Era Thai.
Thai Ministry of Education publishedthe dictionary once again, but its use was less than convenient given the large size of its print (with a width of 11.5 inches, a height of 14.5 inches, and a depth of 2.75 inches) and its astounding 897 pages. Furthermore,the dictionaryis not accompanied by a preface nor a guide to its use. It merely states on the cover its Thai name followed by the text, ‘Dictionarium Linguae Thai Sive Siamensis’ as well as its publish date of ‘1854’ (B.E. 2397).Main entires are printed in bolded lettering measuring 0.3 centimeters in height and 0.2 centimeters in width. Romanizations provided for pronunciation purposes are written completely in capital letters. Sub-entries are provided in the same size font as main entries, with only a slight indentation of around a quarter of an inch separating the two types. No grammatical classifications are given.
Despite its now being provided digitally, use of the dictionary remains challenging due to its idiosyncratic organization. Pronunciations are given in Romanized script, while translations are provided in Latin, French, and English. Aside from this, many of the entries are spelled in a way that deviates from typical modern spelling, making it difficult for untrained users to access it properly.
This digitized version of the Dictionarium Linguae Thai is a product of the efforts of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Research Unit under the Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University, which sought to create a pre-modern Thai language resource for researchers of Thai language, literature, and history as well as a reference for the general public. This digitized version of the dictionary was created based on the digital file disseminated through the Internet Archive and checked for accuracy. Modern spellings were also added along with IPA pronunciations.
The version presented here is also the product of a process that began with the project,‘Changes in length of Thai vowels: The significance for modern Thai spelling’, sponsored by the National Research Council of Thailand, which concluded in 2016. From there, it developed in its own right as an effort to build a digital resource for the study of pre-modern Thai language and literature. We would like to express our most sincere thanks to NAME and our corporate sponsors, Thai Beverage PCL.
ChulaSEAL gratefully acknowledges sponsorships from the following:
Should information from Dictionarium Linguae Thai Online be referred to in an academic and non-academic work, please cite: Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. “Dictionarium Linguae Thai Online.” Dictionarium Linguae Thai, 2021, https://www.arts.chula.ac.th/chulaseal/dlto/dictionarium/.
