The spoken language of Thai is purported to have originated from the border of Vietnam and China and has similarities with the languages of Laos, Myanmar and northern Vietnam. In fact, around 70 percent of the words from the Thai dialect of Isan (bordering Laos) and the Lao language are the same, as is the sentence structure. Despite these similarities, however, there are still enough differences to mean that someone who speaks only Thai, Thai Isan or Lao will not necessarily be able to understand other languages.
‘THAI ONLY’
The majority of residents of the rural Thai area of Isan are ethnic Lao and as such are bilingual. Although Thai is now taught and used in schools, as decreed by Field Marshal Plaek through his process of ‘Thaification’, a mixture of Thai and Lao is used in the social environment. ‘Thaification’ was also imposed on the Chinese community in Thailand, resulting in the teaching of Chinese being banned in favor of the Thai language.
HARDER THAN IT LOOKS
On paper, it gets harder, with written Thai at first, second and third glance resembling little more than a series of squiggles. It is believed to have been introduced during the reign of the third Sukhothai sovereign, King Ramkhamhaeng, in 1283. Written Thai was based on the pre-existing Pali, Sanskrit and Indian writing systems and has remained largely unchanged since its inception.
One of the most difficult aspects of the language is that unlike English and other European ‘alphabet languages’, Thai is a tonal (phonemic) language. This means it contains a much greater degree of variation in the pronunciation of its syllables. There are five lexical tones in Thai (low, mid, high, falling, rising), which makes for a very melodic but consequently hard to decipher language. For example, the word mai means ‘new’ if said with a low tone, ‘no’ if said with a falling tone, ‘silk’ if said with a rising tone but creates a question if used at the end of a sentence.
Thai people have a great love of puns and double entendres as heard in the sometimes risqué molam (country music) lyrics, which adds to the complexity.
HEARING THE DIFFERENCE
The Thai written language uses a phonemic alphabet of 44 consonants and 32 vowels. Perhaps because of the diversity and range of sounds, most Thais carry all their lives a school-learned mnemonic picture association with every consonant, for example, gaw gai (chicken), taw tao (turtle), law ling (monkey). In fact, tones are so important that quite often a Thai speaker will add extra sounds when speaking a foreign language. This is most noticeably done when an extra vowel is added between two consecutive consonants. ‘Steak’ becomes ‘st-ay-ke’ and ‘stamp’ becomes ‘sa-ta-m’. Sometimes the Thai speaker may just decide to omit sounding one of the consonants altogether.
Believed by some, but not all, to be the first example of Thai writing.
Easy as A, B, C. Most start off by learning the Thai alphabet.
Although many signs are also in English, there is no guarantee you won’t get lost.
GRUNT LIKE A LOCAL
All manner of grunts, exclamations and interjections pepper Thai conversation. Here are some of the most common you’re likely to hear:
Aow! Used to show either surprise or disappointment.
Hoh! Used to show admiration or astonishment.
Ore! Used to show sudden realization, understanding.
Eh! Used to show confusion.
Oie! Used to show anger or frustration.
Uh! Used to show acknowledgement that the person you’re speaking to has finally understood.
The characters are written left to right, and spaces are only used to indicate the end of a sentence, not to separate words. The Thai language also has its own set of Thai numerals based on the Hindu Arabic numeral system, but nowadays the standard Western system is more common. Thai numerals can, however, still sometimes be seen, especially at places employing a dual pricing system.
Scholars fear that more letters, sounds and, of course, cute accompanying pictures will be lost to future generations as younger Thais seek new, quick and easy ways to communicate in text-speak.
In Thailand, a popular way of showing the ‘efficiency’ of the large smartphone screen is by showing a young Thai texting quickly on the ‘large-enough-screen’ that can accommodate all of the Thai letters, consonants and vowels.
Learning TINGLISH
Anybody who stays in Thailand for an extended period, even if they make little or no effort to learn Thai, will find they will begin to possess a rudimentary level of ‘Tinglish’—a hybrid of Thai and English based on existing Thai rules of grammar and cultural practices.
Tinglish tends to omit pronouns and the verb ‘to be’ as these are not necessarily used in the Thai language. For example, instead of saying “We don’t have...,” a cashier might say, in Tinglish,“No have,” as this is the most accurate translation from the Thai for Mai mee.
Walk past any taxi driver in the kingdom and the likelihood of him enquiring in Tinglish “Where you go?” is not necessarily rude and intrusive but merely a direct translation of the common Thai greeting/enquiry Bai nai? (“Go where?”)
Also quite common in Tinglish is the addition of a Thai particle, for example, ka/krab/na, at the end of a perfectly well-constructed English sentence to indicate polite conduct, as these particles are always used to end a sentence if the speaker wishes to speak formally. I hope you understand krab.
Other common mistakes made in Tinglish include:
I am boring = I am bored
Although it may initially seem like a refreshingly honest statement, it is likely that the Thai speaker merely wishes to convey their lack of interest in a particular activity. This misuse of the present continuous is simply a result of not understanding or remembering the difference in use and meaning. The Thai equivalent of bored (beau) and boring (naa beau) is created in a totally different way.
I play Internet = I go on/use the Internet
This is simply a case of first language interference, as in Thai the verb len (play) is used in conjunction with all games, including football and computers. In Thai, to work is associated with making money, while to play is any activity that doesn’t involve making money.
Same, same = Similar/the same
The doubling up of ‘same’ is, again, a result of direct translation. In Thai, one way of saying ‘similar’ can be deeokwan deeokwan or khlai khlai gap.
After a few months of living in Thailand, do not be surprised if some bad grammatical habits start to form. As there are no articles (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’)
