กำลัง
Thai
Etymology
From Middle Khmer kuṃlāṃṅa (“strength; vigour; brawn; force; power; might; energy; clients; dependents; servants; helper; aid; ally”), Angkorian Old Khmer kanlāṅ, kanlaṅ (“strength; force; power; one who is strong or powerful”), or Pre-Angkorian Old Khmer kanlaṅ, kanlāṅ (“strength; force; power; one who is strong or powerful”); compare Modern Khmer កម្លាំង (kɑmlang). Cognate with Lao ກຳລັງ (kam lang).
The Khmer word is derived from -m- infixation of the root ខ្លាំង (khlang, “strong; vigorous; robust”), whence also Thai ขลัง (klǎng, “magically potent; magical; having supernatural powers; miraculous”).
The auxiliary verb evolved from the noun senses and was first attested in mid-19th century writing. It supplanted the earlier postverbal auxiliary อยู่ (yùu, “to stay”) for marking the progressive or continuous aspect. The current use of preverbal กำลัง (gam-lang) is either in addition to, or instead of, postverbal อยู่ (yùu). Using อยู่ (yùu) alone to indicate the present tense is found in rural Thai dialects.
Pronunciation
Orthographic | กำลัง k å l ạ ŋ | |
Phonemic | กำ-ลัง k å – l ạ ŋ | |
Romanization | Paiboon | gam-lang |
Royal Institute | kam-lang | |
(standard) IPA(key) | /kam˧.laŋ˧/ |
Noun
กำลัง • (gam-lang)