Comments on: Phonetic Spelling in Thailand

By: Talen

Talen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:48:57 +0000

Good to know…I have visited Thailand QA and it has been very informative at times.

By: Nice is Thai

Nice is Thai — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:05:27 +0000

Thai language has no air/end-sound.
so I guess whatever you hear is because of your Farang’s ears.

B or P at the end, we pronounce (and hear) it as the same in Thai words – or even in English words
———-
Krub – just an example of “up to me” thai romanize/phonetic spelling. lol

Even I and my dad spell our lastname differently in our national ID card
I spell rak (love), he spell ruk

p.s. I love to read http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/ to see how foreigners learn Thai. Have you ever visited this site?

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:20:12 +0000

Rikker’s point is important, and the key to the confusion, most Thais don’t speak the language properly.

They rarely pronounce Rs, often replacing them with Ls – eg fast (reo, pronounced leo), school (rongien, pronounced longien) and know (roo, pronounced loo).

Or they omit the R sound all together – as with polite male article (krup/krub – depending on personal taste, English (angrit/angrid – personal taste again).

Makes it one hell of a lot harder, but hey, at least they don’t have lots of tenses as we do in English?!

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:09:46 +0000

Those hundreds of spelling variants are really a pain if one tries to find information on a specific place. Luckily at least for the official traffic sings they now seem to use only the RTGS transcription, which has its problems (no tone, no long or short vocals to name the biggest) but at least is a standard and makes it possible to identify a place name without any guessing. To learn the right pronunciation this transcription is obviously not the best choice, but then it has standards like IPA for that as well – but then this is not easily readable either. If only the Thai spelling would be more simple, especially the tone rules with the different consonant classes still make me struggle…
.-= Andy´s last blog ..District boundary signs =-.

By: Talen

Talen — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:05:42 +0000

I believe your Thai friend. As for Thai script I wish it were Greek to me then I might get a grasp of it quicker.

By: john

john — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:00:57 +0000

i have never tried really to learn thai our should i say issan /lao but i have lived it so speak with the accent been a yorkshire man ie up north maybe it makes it much more easy either way i am getting a feel for Thai without much effort

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:06:01 +0000

Hi Talen,

Great post, communication is so important and those tones can make the difference big time – for example mispronounce snow and you have a female dog’s private ‘bits’ – oops!

I agree with Western Observer, I’ve been learning Thai script for a few months and its really worth the effort. Makes it easier but comes with new challenge such as no spaces between words.

A Thai friend once jokingly told me the language was constructed to prevent foreigners learning it — perhaps it’s a fact after all?
.-= Jon´s last blog ..A tribute to the pancake man =-.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:40:21 +0000

Oh dear. This is another one for Rikker but I SO agree on the conspiracy angle.

I enjoy my Thai teacher very much as we have a lot of fun, but it takes me knowing something first before she’ll loosen up and teach me real Thai.

Ok, ok, being a lousy student doesn’t help
.-= Catherine´s last blog ..The Streak-eared Bulbul in Bangkok =-.

By: Talen

Talen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:49:31 +0000

Rolling R’s bring even more questions for me. For instance when saying carrumbing ( airplane ) or similar my girl my girl will pronounce the r but other words she’ll give it the old L…

I’m begining to think it’s a conspiracy!

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:44:05 +0000

Boy, do you guys stay up late!

Talen, I’m also hearing a p at the end of khap/gap. Sort of a swallowed p.

Rikker, thanks for coming in. I’m glad you are around to clear things up.

I know what I’m hearing but it’s nice to have you say that it is so. Especially when even Thai teachers try and get students to roll their r’s!

I took it that the guy seemed to think that colloquial Thai is broken Thai. But now I’m wondering just how proper his spoken English is… and what his Thai teacher is telling him…

I did find his comment about the tight pants hilarious. And if I can get over being nervous about posting in a gay forum, I just might. Just to see if anyone else is hearing something different too…
[rq=3997,0,blog][/rq]The Streak-eared Bulbul in Bangkok