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The origin of the name of Assam, a state in India is unclear—among the competing theories, two attribute it to the terrain, whereas the others relate it to the Ahom people. Whatever the source of the English name, ''Assam'' is itself an anglicization.〔Das, Bhuban Mohan (1987) "The Peoples of Assam" (p23 ) "The modern name Assam is an anglicised form of the Assamese name Asom"〕 ==Scholarly views== John Peter Wade (1805) called the Ahom kingdom, that commenced on the Konder Chokey, "Kingdom of Assam".〔"The Kingdom of Assam, where it is entered from Bengal, commences on the north of the Berhampooter, at the Khonder Chokey, nearly opposite to the picturesque estate of the late Mr Raush at Goalpara; and at the Nagrabaree Hill on the South", Wade, Dr John Peter, (1805) "(A Geographical Sketch of Assam )" in Asiatic Annual Register, reprinted 〕 Some have speculated that the Bodo word "Ha-com" meaning low land was Sanskritised to 'Asama', dating its origin to at least first millennium common era.〔Subir Ghosh, ''Frontier travails: Northeast, the politics of a mess'', 2001, Page 20 the word may have been borrowed from a Boro formation like Ha-Com, meaning low land. If this derivation is correct, the name Asama may go back to a period long before the coming of the Shans/Ahoms. It appears, therefore, reasonable to suggest that the Sanskrit formation, Asama, is based on Ha-com.〕〔Sujata Miri, ''Communalism in Assam: a civilizational approach'', 1993, Page 31 It is said to be an anglicised version of the Sanskrit word "Asama" meaning "unparalleled" because of its unequal terrain with hills interspersed with valleys."〕 Banikanta Kakati quotes Grierson in Linguistic Survey of India that "While the Shan invaders called themselves Tai, they came to be referred to as ''Āsām'', ''Āsam'' and sometimes as ''Acam'' by the indigenous people of the country. The modern Assamese word ''Āhom'' by which the Tai people are known is derived from ''Āsām'' or ''Āsam''. The epithet applied to the Shan conquerors was subsequently transferred to the country over which they ruled and thus the name Kāmarūpa was replaced by Āsām, which ultimately took the Sanskritized form ''Asama'', meaning "unequalled, peerless or uneven" Satyendranath Sarma repeats this derivation while quoting Kakati.〔"〕 Colin Masica too endorses this view. Satyendra Nath Sarma writes "Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language of India, spoken by nearly eight millions of people inhabiting mostly the Brahmaputra valley of Assam. The word Assamese is an English formation built on the same principle as Simhalese or Canarese etc. It is based on the English word Assam by which the British rulers referred to the tract covered by the Brahmaputra valley and its adjoining areas. But the people call their country Asama and their language Asamiya".'' 〔Satyendranath Sarma, 1976〕 Grierson records that "Assam" is an corruption (anglicization) of the Bengali name Āsām, he writes "It (Assamese) is based on the English word 'Assam', which is a corruption of the word 'Āsām', the Bengali name of the tract which consists of the Brahmaputra valley."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Etymology of Assam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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