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Title: Satya, śapatha et sākṣī dans la culture khmère
Author(s): POU, Saveros
Journal: Journal Asiatique
Volume: 297    Issue: 2   Date: 2009   
Pages: 399-421
DOI: 10.2143/JA.297.2.2046908

Abstract :
Parler de l’impact du sanskrit sur nos langues de l’Asie du Sud-Est. n’est pas une vaine affaire. Encore faut-il préciser que ses traits ne se relèvent ni en grammaire (phonétique, morphologie, syntaxe), ni en littérature. C’est le lexique sanskrit qui a profité pleinement aux locuteurs, en l’occurrence les Khmers, leur permettant de modeler leur pensée et l’enrichir, comme le montre ici l’examen du thème «serment» parmi des centaines de thèmes similaires relevables dans la langue.



Scholars have rightly emphasized the impact of Sanskrit on South-East-Asian languages in contact. While entirely agreeing, I wanted further to examine how this came about in the case of the Khmer language, in choosing one famous lexical theme, 'oath-taking'. As I revealed in my previous research-works, Sanskrit has never interfered with indigenous grammar or literary composition. Instead, it provided its abundant lexicon together with the conceptual potentiality of words to the Khmer speakers, which gave rise to a new culture overseas, neither Indian nor Khmer, which we can term 'Indo-Khmer'.

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