√ Asian languages or funny (useful) philology
Today we will speak about phonetic details of English language in Thailand. As Thai people know English very good, in Thailand exist special meaning for Thai pronunciation of English – Thaiglish. It is English language, but in Thai assimilation. The main features of Thai-English will be phonetic and pronunciation. In Thai language itself, there are many loan words from English, and many of them are different in pronunciation from the original.
Pronunciation the sound L instead R in English language in Thailand – it is common thing. Thai people do not like pronounce sound “R” in English. They try to make the words little bit softer. Even the word Farang in Thailand will be Falang. Examples:
- Really = Lili
- Room = Luum
- Rent = Lent
- Fried Rice = Flai Lai
Changing the sound L on the sound N at the end of English words in Thailand. Most of all, in Thailand it is used in the names of sports games : basketboon, footboon. And the word ball will be bon in Thai. If you want to ask a check in the restaurant in Thailand – say “Check bin”, and after long living in Thailand you will start to say “Check bin” instead just check or bill not only in Thailand.
Thai people do not like to pronounce English sound “th” (as many others nations). So, the word month will be “man”, and monthly will be “manly” in Thailand. In common, Thai people like to swallow and to miss most of the sounds, when they speak in English.
- Tennis = Tennii
- Monthly = Manlii
- Golf =Gof
- Supermarket = Suppaamaket
- Apple = Apen
- Sandwich = Sandwe..
If in a row there are several consonants in the English word – Thai people will put something like a/e sound between them:
- Start = Sahtat
- Speak = Seapiak
- Stupid = Seahtupiid
- Germany = Geremany
- Lipstick = Lipseatick
In the noodle plate 
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a friend who has been doing a little research on this.
And he actually bought me lunch due to the fact that
I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So let me reword this….
Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending time to talk about this subject
here on your web site.
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next time, you must share lunch with us))
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Why people still make use of to read news papers when in this technological
globe everything is accessible on net?
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We use FORMAL Thaiglish at the Starfish Country School (Maetaeng, Chiangmai, to teach children to properly pronounce English words with an American accent. Our FORMAL Thaiglish uses Thai letters when they give the proper sound of the English word and almost always uses Thai written vowels since Thai vowels are BETTER THAN English vowels for distinguishing correct sounds of English vowels. In English the letter A can have at least five sounds but these are represented by 5 different written Thai vowels. The weakness with Thai for transcribing English sounds, however, is that Thai has only ~6 final consonant sounds so we usually use the English letter rather than Thai to give the proper sound of the English word. For instance แบt = BAT, แบd = BAD, แบth = BATH, แบj = BADGE, แบg = BAG, แบk = BACK, แบs = BASS but most Thais say essentially baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa for all 7 words with a very short or no more likely no final sound.
Sometimes though we have to use English consonants at the beginning of words such as spอูน = SPOON because Thais usually break diphthongs so that SPOOP = SA–POON and SCHOOL = SA–KOOL. We have to use TH for all words that contain initial or final TH too. ALL THAIGLISH sounds that end in S have to be written with the English letter S and those that end -ER have to use -ER because Thai does not have final -S, -L, -R sounds. Tahis also have problems with the letter R in the middle of a word such as ARM, which they pronounce AHM.
“British” Thaiglish would be more consistent with Thai so that American English is SIS_TER but British is probably SIS-TUH and Thai is closer to SI-TUH.
With Thaiglish, some recorded audio and other innovations such as pictures for every word, we can teach even our 4-year-old Thai and hill tribe kindergarten students to read and properly pronounce English (and Thai) and our free school for needy children gets better academic results on the national ONET tests than ALL 120+ Thai schools in the city of Chiangmai.
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“most Thais say essentially baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa for all 7 words with a very short or no more likely no final sound”
Will you be surprised, if I say that I hear only “Kao” 5 times, but I know that depending on the tone the word “Kao” has different meanings (nine, knee, rice, come in, or news).
And thank you, Richard, for your comment 🙂
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Technically there are three different sounds in your “kao” words plus one more for the translation of WHITE. Transliteration of all but the Thai word for NINE เก้า should be khao rather than kao and the kh sound is an aspirated sound of the Thai consonant kaw kai (egg K), whereas the word for NINE starts with a very distinct G sound (starts with gaw gai, chicken G).
RICE ข้าว has a falling tone and NEWS ข่าว a low tone
KNEE เข่า and COME IN เข้ามา have the same falling sounds but the “ao” vowel sound is shorter in these words.
You forgot though WHITE ขาว which is also “KHAO” but has a longer rising tone and differs in pronunciation from all the rest.
If you want to drive a Thai crazy, though, ask them to differentiate the sounds of the English word pairs CHOP/SHOP, CHIP/SHIP, CHEAP/SHEEP, CHAIR/SHARE, CHOOSE/SHOES, WATCH/WASH, CASH/CATCH
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This is a great trouble for me not to understand where is falling tone and low tone, but to hear them in the speech.
Also sometimes, I can hear 35 Baht instead 30 Baht. Especially in short answers. How much – Thai people say Sam Sib Bath – I hear Sam Sib Kha.
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“BAHT” or “BATH” (บาท) is another interesting Thai word and your post illustrates the issue. Technically, บาท should be transliterated as BATH rather than BAHT because the final sound is an aspirated “T sound” as in THAILAND, which is NOT pronounced THAI—LAND with the TH sound pronounced as in the word THis. But most Thai publications write บาท as BAHT with an “ah” vowel sound (as in the American pronunciation of GOT) and farangs probably think it is the Thai who transliterates บาท as BATH who is ignorant.
BAHT has a low tone.
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scheme in our community. Your website provided us with useful info to work on. You’ve performed a formidable activity and our whole group shall be grateful to you.
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Do not quite understand what exactly you want from us? If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to contact helgapehkel@yahoo.com
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Amazing blog! Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own website soon but I’m a little
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Interesting that you asked us about this and in the topic about Thai language. “In The Noodle Plate” is a young travel blog about Asia, we just start in March. So, we can’t give to you any recommendations. Maybe later when we will become more popular)
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An interesting discussion is definitely worth comment.
I do think that you should publish more about this topic, it might not be a
taboo matter but usually people don’t discuss such
subjects. To the next! All the best!!
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People discuss any topics. For us topic of Asian languages is very interesting, and yes we will continue 🙂
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Kao can also mean scratching, old, or he. “Kao doo Kao leh Kao. Kao kin Kao Kao Kao” He watches news and scratches. He eats old white rice.
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