• ISSN: 2382-6282 (Print); 2972-3108 (Online)
    • Abbreviated Title: Int. J. Lang. Lit. Linguist.
    • Frequency: Quarterly
    • DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL
    • APC: 500 USD
    • Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Jason Miin-Hwa Lim
    • Managing Editor:  Shira.W.Lu
    • Indexed by:   CNKI, Google Scholar, Crossref,
    • E-mail: ijlll_Editor@126.com
HOME > Archives > 2026 > Volume 12 Number 1 (2026) >
IJLLL 2026 Vol.12(1): 28-32
DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL.2026.12.1.626

La Loubère’s Translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Thai

Philipp Brandenburg
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, D-10117 Berlin, Germany
Email: philipp.brandenburg@hu-berlin.de (P.B.)

Manuscript received August 25, 2025; accepted December 24, 2025; published February 27, 2026.

Abstract—One of the earliest documented translations of any biblical passage into the Thai language is the Lord’s Prayer in La Loubère’s report of his diplomatic mission to the kingdom of Siam from 1691. When Komonbut translated La Loubère’s book into Thai in 1967, he also restored the original Thai text of the prayer from La Loubère’s rudimentary transcription. His failure to provide any commentary on his restoration, however, largely conceals his achievement. This paper will evaluate Komonbut’s success in establishing the Thai wording and thereby provide some commentary on both La Loubère’s transcription and the difficulties of restoring a Thai text from it. At the same time some suggestions for minor improvements of the transmitted text will be made.

Keywords—Thai language, Bible translation, Early modern era, Christian missions to Southeast Asia


Cite: Philipp Brandenburg, "La Loubère’s Translation of the Lord’s Prayer into Thai," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 28-32, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

 

PREVIOUS PAPER
Perceptual Cue Weighting of Mandarin High Vowels by Native Japanese Speakers
NEXT PAPER
Who is Kogito Choko in the Novels of Kenzaburo Ōe?: Allowing “The Child” to Speak as an Author’s Introspection
Copyright © 2015-2026. International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics. Unless otherwise stated.
E-mail: ijlll_Editor@126.com