thailandsgreat

I think I'll stick to this course for a while. The pronounciation is easy to understand since it is close to Paiboon dictionary and Google translate (which is synthetic, of course) https://www.dropbox.com/s/cvp730jovzc2q9f/Thaiex 008.m4a?dl=0 I haven't searched for "standard Thai" but so far this is my working definition. Many people on TV speak like this. Of course one should gradually get used to hearing differenct dialects but learning different dialects at the same time is not always the best way to learn. It would be interesting to hear what experienced Thai speakers have to say about dialects of pasa glang and how they differ. Is the dialect in the link what school teachers usually speak and what people often hear on TV and therefore can speak if they wish? ... One deviation you sometimes hear is that จ becomes "ts". The first times I heard Thai people saying "bicycle" in Thai I had no clue.

Of course I should listen to Thai to improve listening. That's what I am doing. I just want to know more about in which ways Thai (pasa glang) is pronounced. Differences are really big. For the moment, when I listen to TV many speakers speak like "Paiboon and Google Translate" I focus on these to "get into the language". Would be interesting to know more about how this can vary. (I haven't had the opportunity to study for a couple of years now and I am picking it up again. I forgot a lot but fortunately also remember some and can refresh some more quickly.)

I think it is up to every student to dedicate his or her time as he/she pleases. We haven't come further on dialects. There are big differences. Many speakers on TV use a pronounciation I understand (except for my lack of vocab) but with some I don't understand at all. It would be interesting to know why. What are the differences, who speaks like this or that. Even the course I did a while ago went into pronounciation that was very different from "Paiboon and Google translate" as the levels went up.

I keep exploring this subject that others surely know better. There are four dialects of Thai, but these use different words. The shifts in pronounciation I have been referring to are probably all variations within the "pasa glaang" dialect

My level of Thai is low, but when I hear "educated" speakers in TV they sound like Google translate or Paiboon dictionary, which also correspond to Paiboon phonetic writing. But one thing is sometimes different, to my untrained ear, this vowel goes "from a to e": ไม่ Not English "e" but more like เ- or แ- - Can you come? - mei daai. (meaning and pronounciation remind of Chinese ???? 没, but tones differ)

E.g. standard Chinese is standard. But mostly we are just improvising based on personal experience now. Let's see if we can find some definition of standard Thai. My own experience in Thai is not enough for that. Let's see if we can find how Thai teachers speak etc ... Regional/social influence etc. Can most educated Thai switch into "standard" pronounciation etc Sorry, a little busy right now. I will try to come back later. For the time being I am happy I made a break with the course I had followed for thousands of sentences. The difference between Paiboon/Google pronounciation and the course became bigger and bigger and learning was ineffecient since I didn't distinguish words I had studied. I might go back later. Now I listen to other material with "standard" pronounciation for a while. Interviews and newscasts are a little above my level but the pronounciation is often "standard", at least to my not so trained ear. I may switch back later if I have time to improve and widen my references for "dialects". The only change inevitable seems to be that "a" goes to "e" (before "i"?).

They say it's Ao Nang https://www.pattayamail.com/thailandnews/stray-dogs-on-ao-nang-beach-in-krabi-targeted-after-attacks-on-tourists-401849

Remember staying in Pattaya while the city was emptying of tourists due to Covid. The occasional stray dogs you had seen before, gradually took back control of the streets as the tourists left.

Quoting from the article The man says he is still trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious sex doll ????

But we have to compare. The difference in pronounciation between newscasters and some daily speakers of standard dialect is larger in Thai than in e.g. Spanish, Russian, Standard Chinese, French, German, Japanese ... English is spoken over such a wide area that one must define which standard to choose. My level of Thai is just beginner/lower intermediate, but I stick to the opinion that what is considered "standard" can vary quite a bit. There must be some "Royal Thai" standard used in schools? Can most Thai switch into "newscaster pronounciation" if they like? (and speak like they learnt in school and like they hear on TV every day?) Some interviewees in the Youtube also spoke pretty standard.

I think the Super soaker loaded with the spiciest DomYam was a suggestion worth trying. And fun ????

I have been more than annoyed by packs of dogs when I have been hiking along public roads in many parts of Thailand, outside tourist areas. It is part of life in Thailand and some other countries. In Buriram I showed some video of particularly aggressive dogs to the police and just asked for advice. The officer showed the video to his collegues and he said he understood my problem. At least that was comforting ???? In some places the owners are also near but don't do anything. One must get used to that. Many funny dialogues: local people: you shouldn't kick, you must pick up something and throw at them me: but if I bend down they will bite me ???? In one place I had a small branch of tree stashed away behind a tree and used to aim at them with when I passed that area. (public road in a city, but hiking on foot is no big thing in Thailand, the dogs rule) But to the defense of Thai dogs I can say that I have only been bitten softly a couple of times and that rabies is hopefully not so common.

This newscast is often above my level in vocab, expecially at this speed, but I can get a general idea of the subjects and pick out many words. Words I don't understand I could maybe find in a dictionary by entering phonetic. These speakers use "dictionary pronounciation" as I hear. "a" goes to "e" (mostly before i?) but "ch" stays "ch" and the "r":s are almost rolling. So what Thai people use isn't really the same pronounciation as the newscasters?

There are really big differences in how "standard Thai" is spoken. Some speakers speak it like the dictionaries and some speak it very differently. This is an important aspect in learning the language which is not so much stressed. Especially the "ch" can change a lot. Like in the example I gave. โอเคก็ดีนะเธอช่วยฉันยกหน่อยได้มั้ย Standard Chinese (also tonal) is not so varied, for example. I am just surprised that this is not discussed and described more in basic courses. The most common I have heard and maybe got used to is "a" to "e" and "ch" to "ts" or "s" (or maybe better described as "sh", but that's a detail). And "r" often goes to "l" in Asia. I don't mind, it is an interesting challenge, but low and intermediate level learners must be aware of it. For the moment I listen to Thaipod101 which so far mostly have used "dictionary pronounciation".

So Thai is a little different from many other languages here. There is one pronounciation of words in references like Paiboon dictionary and Google Translate. The dialogues in Thaipod101 mostly sound the same and I pick up about 80-90% of the words I have studied. (They are not "synthesized", but actual people speaking, it seems.) But with some other speakers I am down to 20-30%. Interesting. There must be explanations about the differences between "dictionary pronounciation" and "conversational pronounciation".

So Paiboon, Thaipod101 and Google Translate are not using "normal conversational speech"?

I switched course for a while and with these speakers I recognize about 80-90% of the words I have studied, whereas with the former course (from which the examples above come) it is often down to 20-30%. One change is "ch" to "ts" or "s" like in this example. (Maybe this can be described in better terms.) This also comes in the new course I listen to: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nzj95h047slycj/Thai ex 007.m4a?dl=0 โอเคก็ดีนะเธอช่วยฉันยกหน่อยได้มั้ย "chuai chan" has become "sueisheng" (and "a" becomes "e", which happens very often) It is interesting to read your analysis. But I am not so good with IPA and detailed phonetics so I leave that, but there is a difference. Some of you guys know Thai. It would be interesting to know the reasons for differences of "standard Thai" (not Isaan language) pronounciation. Are there differences in different regions, different social levels, someone just getting "careless", or what?

One well known course teaches the word for "photo" like this. But I keep looking.

I have been using Glossika for quite a while. I like the structure. Just useful sentences combined with Thai script/phonetic and English. You can repeat and save sentences as you like. But in my humble opinion, the speakers sound different to e.g. Google translate, Paiboon dictionary and also Thaipod101 which I just listened a little to. So I wish to get used to other ways of pronouncing Thai. Preferably like Paiboon/Google translate which pronounce similarly, at least to me as a beginner/lower intermediate learner. So please. Which Thai course should I choose to get immersed in spoken Thai with English/phonetic/Thai script transcriptions? I read Thai script but slowly so I prefer to also have phonetic writing. But English and Thai script is probably enough. I prefer to emphasize listening comprehension. Thank you. ... What I found in thaipod101 has so far been too much English chat around the Thai and too much arrangement of lessons. I just want the sentences. The structure I will look up myself.

I just copied the sentence into Google translate which "speaks like Paiboon" and I (at my low level) immediately understood. I like this course because sentences are useful and it works technically well. But maybe I should switch course a while just to get back some "self confidence" and then gradually explore other "dialects". That works in Mandarin. If you get the hang of Mandarin you can gradually extend to other dialects/pronunciations. We have two votes for "Google and Paiboon" and one vote for this pronunciation. Maybe the first is "more standard" ? I don't know which other course to use together with this? I like this course because it just gives you useful sentences in audio and writing. It doesn't waste a lot of time on other talk. Structures you want to know more about you can look up elsewhere.

Interesting how you analyze. I have no real training or practice in Thai but this standard Thai is different from Paiboon. You mention Mandarin pronunciation. Standard Mandarin is not as varied. An interesting challenge of Thai language. I just have to listen more.

This is clear and words are basic, but compared to Paiboon, pronounciation is a little different ร goes from R to L and ช goes from CH to TS, I am used to, but here ช becomes S and ข้างหลัง becomes "kaagang" https://www.dropbox.com/s/d5qgk0w7d0vkrsj/Thai ex 006.m4a?dl=0 รถคันข้างหลังชนรถเรา I don't mind, it is good practice, but takes a while since I haven't practiced listening so much yet. The course is good. The sentences come without context which makes them interesting in a way but harder to interpret for a less experienced listener.

The question is simply if there are more variations of "standard Thai" pronounciation than most other languages. These recordings come from a reputable language course and probably speak "standard Thai", but they sound different than e.g. Paiboon dictionary. What do you Thai speakers say? Are there many variations/dialects to "standard Thai" (naturally excluding Isaan language)? (It is no problem to me, I find it an interesting challenge to find different sources for practice.) https://www.dropbox.com/s/hlrbo972cgu4nxc/Thai ex 001.m4a?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/gbboteia1b0gzfw/Thai ex 002.m4a?dl=0 (end of sentence)

After 7 years in China, in school for a large part of that I must say I don't recognize these problems from Mandarin. Mandarin is standardized. People from different areas learn it in the same way and use similar constructs so you quickly get into it and gradually decipher the different dialects. The tones are not so critical imho. My Chinese friends occasionally could construct sentences to put me off. When we were watching TV about floods in Sweden they said the levels of water are high in Sweden as I heard it, but taxes and water have different tones so they were joking with me and speaking about the level of taxes while we were watching water. That tricked me at the level I was. ???? But in context tones are not so critical imho. But what do you Thai speakers say about the example. Isn't it quick and "drawn together"?

The words are not difficult, but Thai is a hard language to recognize the words of when they are spoken, if you just have heard them from e.g. Paiboon dictionary before. This is "normal" speed (not slowed down) Glossika when about half of the 6000 (?) sentences have been listened to. Admittedly I am just a beginner. Good challenge, I don't mind ???? https://www.dropbox.com/s/hlrbo972cgu4nxc/Thai ex 001.m4a?dl=0 And Glossika is good, useful sentences and works well technically. (I follow this thread and I can find it under notifications but not under "manage followed content". Maybe that is as it should be. Maybe I better bookmark it.)