Probing into Buddhism's Influence on Thai Language

Abstract

Thailand is a typical Buddhist country. Buddhism has very important influence on the language and characters of Thailand during the process of its spread. This paper uses historical analysis and applied linguistics to analyze the influence of Buddhism on Thai language from three aspects: characters, phonetics and vocabulary, and reveals the close relationship between Buddhism and Thai language. The development of Thai language is a process of introducing and absorbing foreign language culture. The Sanskrit language and the Pali language, which are the carriers of Buddhist culture from ancient India, has laid the foundation of Thai language and enriched phonetics and vocabulary of Thai language.