Abstract: Toponyms with Tai-Kadai root “Baan” are of unique historical value for ethnography on China’s southwest border. After investigating into the original and extended semantic meaning of the word “Baan” in Bangkok of Thailand, and Panyu and Sipsongpanna of China, it is found that they all retain the original meaning of “villages”. “Banna” in the phrase “Sipsongpanna” originally refers to rice-growing township, an administration unit for taxation. Secondly, it is observed that “baan” in original Tai-Kadai underwent a semantic extension from “village” to “family members”, “home”, “house”, then further extended to such bigger concepts as “city”, “lang”, “muang”. Finally, the “baan” is a meta structure, motivating the evolution of the rice growing villages and communities from one single village to a nation. “Baan-Muang” conceptualizes that process. The evolution of “Baan” word is actually due to the migration of its people, recording their cognitive change regarding the concept of “homeland”.

Key words: toponyms with “baan”, “Baan-Muang” systems, cognitive semantics, evolution of autonomous management