Southeast Asian countries and peoples
When we say ‘we’, the post is, of course, written from the point of view of a native English speaker and we’re not going into the various, for example, French, German or Spanish names used to refer to Southeast Asian countries and their peoples. We’re comparing names currently in use today in the English language, along with historical terms for the various Southeast Asian countries and peoples, with the local names – official and colloquial – that the inhabitants use to refer to themselves, their homelands and their languages.
The collection of small to medium-sized nations occupying what is commonly termed Southeast Asia comprises what, in their current incarnations, are largely, relatively new entities created in the post-Second World War era, following their independence from the colonial powers, France, Britain, and the Netherlands. Often, rather arbitrary borders were hastily drawn up in offices in Paris or London, and the resulting problems can be seen right up to the present day, with the very recent Cambodian-Thai border conflict. (Motivations in that instance were certainly more to do with domestic politics in Phnom Penh and Bangkok than possession of a remote patch of mine-filled scrub, but a poorly defined frontier was the pretext.) Certain of these modern nations existed in some form or another long before the arrival of colonial powers, albeit not in the form we see today; others are recent constructs
The small temple Ta Muan Thom, situated in the short stretch of no-man’s-land between Thailand and Cambodia, was at the centre of the recent conflict Burma-Myanmar
Although for obvious reasons, and with much regret, we’re unable to offer our Burma/Myanmar tours at present, we will give a brief mention to the country as the terminology is interesting and reflects many factors common to the nomenclature of other Southeast Asian countries and peoples. It boils down to whether a country derives its name from a geographical location/feature or from the predominant ethnic or linguistic group which occupies a given area. The outline of England was to a large extent drawn up during the Roman occupation, although etymologically, the current name, of course, derives from subsequent arrivals, the Angles. English is not, and never has been, an ethnic group and the ancient gene pool incorporated Britons, Celts, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, etc. The English language is merely a sub-branch of a branch of the wider Indo-European family.
Burma is a cognate of Bamar, which is the name given to the region’s principal ethno-linguistic group. Although the same goes for Thailand or Vietnam, their populations are today more homogeneous. However, in a country with some 135 recognised ethnic groups, the largest of which accounts for only slightly more than 50% of the population, this becomes more of an issue. The new name, Myanmar, was considered to be more inclusive; however, while the idea is perhaps fair enough, since a large percentage of the population doesn’t like the government that came up with the new name, it never fully caught on. (Most of our Burmese friends do not have strong feelings either way and, frankly, they have bigger problems than the name at the moment.)
Cambodia
Officially, the Kingdom of Cambodia, with the latter term considered to be derived from the French title Cambodge. (Cambodia formed part of French Indochina along with Laos, Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina.) This, in turn was a French effort to transliterate Kampuchea (pronounced Cambodgia), which is what the inhabitants call their nation. (It’s originally derived from the Sanskrit Kamboja or Kampojadesa, meaning land of the descendants of Kambu. According to legend, Kambu was a Brahman from India who married a nymph!) Cambodian citizens refer to themselves as Khmer and their language is Khmer, a part of the Austronesian linguistic family. The widely used name Cambodians is not, therefore, strictly correct, but, in our experience, won’t offend anyone. The mythical Kambu is rather lost in the mists of time and is not synonymous with Khmer so the Cham, Vietnamese and Austronesian-speaking tribes of the northeast can’t really object to the name Cambodia either.
The very intricate Khmer script originated in South India Indonesia
While this continent-sized, multi-ethnic nation has its fair share of domestic problems and certain minorities, such as the Papuans of Irian Jaya, even object to being part of Indonesia full stop, few would argue about the name. Early European explorers vacillated between the Indian Archipelago and Malay Archipelago. However, since the latter option was subsequently taken, they were left with the former, which, with the addition of a Greek suffix, provided Indonesia. Unlike Cambodia, for example, the vast archipelago simply didn’t have an ancient name to fall back on as it was formerly comprised of separate ancient kingdoms on separate islands such as Bali, Java and Sumatra or smaller sultanates limited to smaller geographical areas. (At certain periods, some of these kingdoms, such as Sumatran-based Srivijaya, expanded to incorporate neighbouring areas, but nothing like the entirety of what is today Indonesia.)
The majority of Indonesians, as with their Malay cousins, are from Austronesian stock, although myriad indigenous populations remain on many islands. Eastern regions, including Irian Jaya, have predominantly Melanesian populations. The country is home to an estimated, and mind-boggling, 600-plus ethnic groups and covers over 5,000 kilometres from east to west, so more than any of the other Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia is a very recent concept/construct with little or no historical or geographical basis.
Even on core islands such as Java, many locals still possess strong regional identities and speak a unique Javan dialect. Adjacent Bali is, in anything other than political terms, a country apart.
The official language is Bahasa Indonesia, which, as the name suggests, is closely related to Bahasa Melayu and a member of the Austronesian linguistic family. (Javanese has co-official status in Yogyakarta District.) No less than 700 additional languages are identified – many of which are spoken as first languages.
Batak speakers on their way to church, northern Sumatra Laos
We’ve written an entire post on the short, but confusing name of this small, land-locked, mountainous country whose official name is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. (The acronym LPDR is sometimes, jokingly, termed ‘Laos – Please Don’t Rush’ in reference to their laidback reputation.) The silent S was added by the French but then pronounced by the Americans during the war in Indochina. However, at a time when the CIA were trying to conjure support for pro-Western Lao elements in their conflict with communist insurgents, the pronunciation was changed to Lay-os as they thought Laos with an S sounded like a parasitic insect and so wasn’t great for PR purposes.
The nation is commonly called Lao by its inhabitants with the official language also Lao. The latter is very close to Thai and is a part of the Tai-Kadai linguistic group. Correspondingly, Lao people are part of the wider Tai ethnic family. The long-suffering Lao are used to being called Laos, or even Laotians, so they won’t object, but Lao is the correct pronunciation even if spelt with an S.
Over 40% of the Lao population consists of minority groups such as these Lanten people of Luang Nam Tha Province Malaysia
Renamed the Malaysian Federation upon independence in 1957, the country was previously known during colonial times as Malaya. Malaya referred simply to the Southeast Asian peninsula which was inhabited primarily by people of the Malay ethnic group. The latter group also inhabited parts of what is today southern Thailand, Borneo and Sumatra and several smaller islands of the Indonesian archipelago and belong to the same Austronesian family as the majority of today’s Indonesians. Geographically speaking, the far southern provinces of Thailand can be included in the Malay Peninsula along with Singapore. As is the case with Burma/Myanmar, a large minority of the population of the Federation, which also includes the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, are not ethnic Malay. Approximately 23% are of Chinese origin (mainly Hakka and Hokkien), some 7% Indian (including a large number of Tamils) and 70% ethnic Malay. However, government statistics are skewed by the inclusion of the numerous indigenous populations of Borneo, as well as smaller groups of Orang Asli in West Malaysia, in the Malay category. This accounts for some 11-13% meaning the total ethnic Malay population is less than 60%. (Predominantly ethnic Chinese Singapore was expelled from the Federation in 1965.)
Malaysian then is the nationality and Malayan the predominant ethnic group, although it does also refer to a geographical region. So most, but not all, Malayans are Malaysian, but only some Malaysians are Malayan. The official language is Bahasa Malay, with the government now preferring the term Bahasa Melayu. (Melayu harks back to pre-colonial times and was sometimes used to refer to earlier Peninsula Sultanates such as Malacca (Melaka).) Despite the best efforts of the government, it is still common to hear, for instance, Hokkien and Tamil citizens conversing in English.
In Malaysia, therefore, it depends a lot on who you’re chatting with, and it would soon become clear that a lot of urban Chinese and particularly Indians have no deep-seated affinity for the term Malaysian and are often happier speaking English than Bahasa. Conversely, if you’re talking to Malay fishermen or village farmers, then it’s far from certain they would speak English, and they may well take offence at the term Malaya and its colonial connotations.
Chinese and Malay signs in KL’s Chinatown District Thailand
This is another of the Southeast Asian countries and peoples we discussed in earlier posts – see Thailand, Thai and Tai. It is also one of the more confusing examples when it comes to Southeast Asian countries, their names and peoples.
Firstly, Tai is an ethnic group – which includes Lao, Shan, Northern Thai and Thai, along with numerous smaller groups – while Thai with an H refers to a citizen of the country of Thailand. Tai is equally a linguistic group with Thai simply being the official language of Thailand. At least that is the English term for the country. The full Thai name, Ratcha Anachak Thai meaning Kingdom of Thailand, is not one you hear very often, although the two more common alternatives, Prathet Thai or the colloquial Muang Thai, are pretty much interchangeable. Prathet (pronounced pattet) Thai translates as land of Thai people and is perhaps slightly more formal, while muang (or mueang) is a more archaic term originally referring to a city-state or chiefdom. Somewhat confusingly, muang today also means city or provincial capital, so Muang Chiang Mai is Chiang Mai City and consequently Muang Thai is actually Thai City.
Thailand’s very mixed population includes substantial Mon, Khmer and Malay minorities as well as Sino-Tibetan hill-tribe populations, while famously, more speakers of the Lao dialect live in Thailand than live in Lao itself. Urban areas such as Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai have significant ethnic Chinese populations, although the latter are far more integrated into Thai society and culture compared to those inhabiting, for instance, Malaysia. (Most Sino-Thais have adopted Thai names and today use Thai as a first language.)
We discussed the term Siam in the above-mentioned post, so for now, suffice to say that the country is Thailand, the language is Thai and few citizens of the kingdom would object to being called Thai.
Thai and Chinese in Chiang Mai’s Chinatown Vietnam
Similar to Thailand, in that while the population is certainly far more homogeneous than Burma or Malaysia, significant Cham and Khmer populations still exist in the Delta, along with numerous Sino-Tibetan, Hmong-Mien and Mon-Khmer minorities in the far north and Central Highlands. As part of Indochina, the French governed Vietnam as three political entities: Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre with its capital at Hue and Cochinchina in the south. The term Vietnam – or Viet Nam as it is written in Vietnamese, originally meant Vietnam South in reference to it being the southernmost Chinese Province, which was inhabited by ethnic Vietnamese people. The subsequent centuries-long expansion to the south and what can only be termed ethnic cleansing of Cham, Khmer and more recently Chinese populations is touched upon in our North and South Vietnam post but deserves an entire book in its own right.
The country is officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the official language and the people are Vietnamese.
