La toponymie khmère / Khmer Toponymy

While Sanskrit remained the medium for religious and official inscriptions and topographical designations, the Khmer language was rapidly developing as a specific linguistic system among the general population.

Based on a thorough epigraphic analysis, but also an intimate knowledge of modern Khmer idiomatisms, the study vividly shows how Sanskrit names mutated through Khmer pronunciation, or how the popular tradition often opted for renaming buildings and places according to its own worldview, with a predilection for references to geophysical characteristics or specific flora — and fauna in a lesser extent — encountered in the area. 

While derivatives from Siamese, Vietnamese or Cham languages were not uncommon, in particular in the northernmost and southernmost regions, a genuine Khmer toponymy developed through the centuries. Sometimes, the phonetic similarity between Sanskrit words was played on, as with the words ´sri´ (glory) and ´stri´ (woman).

With some fascinating insights on the etymology of major toponyms (Angkor Wat, Bayon, Koh Ker…), the study also considers the instances where a famous, official site-naming simply disappeared to be substituted for a humbler, realistic designation. This is the case with Mahendraparvata, then the name of the mountain on top of which Jayavarman II established a temple proclaiming its ´god-king´authority against the Javanese invaders in the 9^th century, a name still mentioned two centuries later in the Sdok Kak Thom inscription but never used in Khmer oral traditions, this hill being known as Phnom Kulen (Mountain of the Lychee Trees). ´Spontaneous naming´, as the philologists would say…

Note on ​‘Bayon’ name: It has been said that the Bayon Temple was initially named Jayagiri (Mountain of Victory in Sanskrit), and that much later the French explorers called it ​‘The Banyan Temple’, due to the number of banyan trees in the area; in the Khmer pronounciation, ​‘Banyan’ became ​‘Bayon’…

However, Saveros Pou offers two possible etymologies for the name: 1) Pa Yantra, ​“The High Yantra”, yantra being a circular building. 2) Vaijajanta, ​“Indra’s Palace”, mutated into Vejayantaratna in Khmer recitation, then Veyant, heard as Bayon in modern times…