Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

wilked aka Khun Deng · 30th December 2004, 06:03 AM

Just as I was finishing this long post explaining the Thai language and alphabet and my conclusions, one of my buddy's a native Thai stopped in. Here's his explanation.

He says "daab" is a low class term used for common warrior swords of a certain type and pointed to a picture of a dha. "Krabi" is a mid-class term used for the swords of officers of a certain type and then id'ed the sabers in my book. There is no high class term for sword, the sword itself will have a "name" as in "Andura the Flame of the West" (can you tell I did the Lord of the Rings marathon on Christmas) preceded by the word "prasang" which is used to identify any item of high class use.

So
daab/darb is dha
krabi is an officer's saber
And the swords of the upper class can be of any type, dha, krabi, or japanese but will have their own unique name.

Philip, interesting note on the resemblance of Vietnamese sabers. Now that you mention it I did note the same type sabers held in old pictures of Vietnamese and Khmer royalty. I won't be able be at Timonium but maybe you could post it afterwards.

30th December 2004, 06:03 AM	#7
wilked aka Khun Deng Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Oahu, Hawaii Posts: 166	Foreign conotations Just as I was finishing this long post explaining the Thai language and alphabet and my conclusions, one of my buddy's a native Thai stopped in. Here's his explanation. He says "daab" is a low class term used for common warrior swords of a certain type and pointed to a picture of a dha. "Krabi" is a mid-class term used for the swords of officers of a certain type and then id'ed the sabers in my book. There is no high class term for sword, the sword itself will have a "name" as in "Andura the Flame of the West" (can you tell I did the Lord of the Rings marathon on Christmas) preceded by the word "prasang" which is used to identify any item of high class use. So daab/darb is dha krabi is an officer's saber And the swords of the upper class can be of any type, dha, krabi, or japanese but will have their own unique name. Philip, interesting note on the resemblance of Vietnamese sabers. Now that you mention it I did note the same type sabers held in old pictures of Vietnamese and Khmer royalty. I won't be able be at Timonium but maybe you could post it afterwards.