COLLOQUIAL and other C-words

Look away now if you are of a sensitive disposition. Look away now if you have a tendency towards nut allergies. And if the idea of Combining linguistic insensitivity with nuts appals you, SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER.

One of the people Pensri and I always visit and look forward to seeing in Phana is Yai Air. She is in her late seventies, but when she was a girl fresh out of primary school she used to take Care of Pensri and her sisters while their mother was teaching reception Class. Yai Air lives near Wat Burapha, about 150 metres from Pensri’s Childhood home, as she did even then. She Came to our wedding in Bangkok, so I have known her a long time, too.

Pensri went to visit her recently. Yai Air asked her to wait a while because her step-son had gone to her field nearby to harvest some of her Cashew nuts and she wanted to give some of them to us. She said that last year she made 3,400 Baht (she was very precise, but I doubt she fills in a tax form) by selling them in the market. That surprised Pensri, because Cashew nuts are quite Cheap, so it represents a whole lot of nuts. Yai Air said her step-son would return with a bucketful.

Now what really surprised Pensri was the reminder of what people in the village Call Cashew nuts. Pensri knew, but away from the village for so long she had had no need to discuss Cashew nuts with anyone from Phana.  In Phana, Cashew nuts are referred to by the same word as Clitoris.

Something to do with shape, size, the way they grow enfolded in … well, no need to go into too much detail, perhaps.

So when Pensri heard that the venerable Yai’s step-son would be Coming home with a bucketful of Clitorises, she was momentarily taken aback.

He didn’t, in fact, but that is a (short) story for another day.

If you have read this far, think of Life in Phana next time you order Chicken with Cashew nuts. Or maybe you never will.

For those of you struggling to enlarge your Thai vocabulary, I won’t help you. The word is probably a Lao one, anyway. Colloquial, Certainly and local, possibly.

In language learning, as in just about everything else, you learn best by finding out for yourself, not from being told. But this is not a quiz. No need to post the word. I know it already, though I didn’t before Pensri got home from visiting Yai Air.

Comments

[Martyn]

Lawrence I'm nuts about cashews, I absolutely love them, especially if they're heavily salted. There was a bar (now closed) in Udon Thani that sold lightly fried cashew nuts with finely chopped spring onion sprinkled on top. I used to enjoy nibbling on them with a cool beer to wash them down.

If Tesco Lotus find out about this post then their cashews are going to be put on the top shelf.

I don't know the word but I do know a girl who might.

Good post.

[Catherine Wentworth]

Hilarious! I'll never see a cashew in the same light again :-)

[Lawrence]

Martyn, I know the dish you mean (I'm referring here to the fried cshew nuts) but not the bar. Those nuts are especially good for making you want to drink morre cold beer.

Good luck it your language studies!

[Lawrence]

Cat, I'm glad you enjoyed this. On Saturday I should have a few pics of cashews.