Montira Rato
Klairung Amratisha
Nureeda Hayiyakoh
Chairat Polmuk
Moodjalin Sudcharoen
Chulalongkorn University
This panel aims at studying the expressions of flowers in Southeast Asian languages, namely Khmer, Lao, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese. The study will explore how flowers are used in Southeast Asian languages, such as idioms, naming, metaphors and euphemism. Each panelist will focus on the functions, meanings – either fixed or extended/ negative or positive – and cultural aspects of the expressions of flowers found in Southeast Asian languages. Toward the end of the session, a comparative study will be done in order that we can gain a better understanding of languages and culture in Southeast Asia. The panel will also highlight how the region is linguistically and culturally connected.
(Presented in the 2014 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: Flower Culture in Asia, 8-9 July 2014, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, and Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)