Chapter 16

Dearest Beloved:

Both the English and French languages have a word which can be used to mean ‘darling’ or ‘expensive’. This word is ‘dear’ or in French ‘cher’. I believe that other so called romance languages such as Spanish and Italian also share this attribute. Caro?. I guess that the confusion comes from it meaning 'valued' which can be applied to people or objects. It allows a subtlety of expression which is, I believe missing in Germanic languages.

I feel that my new found knowledge of Thai culture suggests that there should be a similarly broad meaninged word in the Thai language to describe how a man feels about a woman when he is assured that the transfer of funds from a man to a woman is deemed to be precisely equivalent to the amount of love that he is showing her and that she in reply will love him all the more.

I have to admit that it doesn’t seem to always work out just like this and there have been times when, for me at any rate, it hasn’t worked out like this at all.

I have not been able to track down this word.

So I have a modest suggestion.

The word สดทีรัก (sut tee rak) means darling, honey or dear and the word มีราคา (mee raa-kaa) means be expensive or valuable.

My suggestion is that we invent a new word มรักคา(mee rak kaa) to combine the elements of both.

Of course I must consult with my Thai friends to see if this would do but I can think of several alternatives and I would like the chosen word to be as flexible as its English equivalent.