lack of spaces between Thai words

[BananaBandit]

How come there are often about 10 Thai words in a row with no spaces between any of them ?

 

I asked a college-educated Thai family. They basically said that's just how it is. No specific reason given. 

 

This lack of spacing definitely makes reading comprehension more difficult for us. But does it also make comprehension more difficult for Thai people ?

 

An alumna of a top-three Thai university told me flat out:   "Thai people don't like to read."   Kinda seems that way. And I somewhat suspect it has something to do with this lack of spacing....Aside from any possible issues with comprehension, I don't see how it could be enjoyable to have to process 85 consecutive letters without a single space, and then repeat the process every two lines for like 300 pages. 

 

What do you guys think ?

[Justgrazing]

I have been in the presence of Thai's that speak what sounds like one huge long word without stopping , no pause , no nothing .. and you think how does it make sense when it is non stop .. But when the other person chips in they do like wise so it must make sense to Thai peoples .. I have no chance of understanding if they don't slow it down and break it up ..

[NCC1701A]

yesitishorrible.

wheniwatchmyThaigirlfriendreadshereallystudiesthesentenceandseemstobedoingahugeamountofwork.

[Nyezhov]

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

(beef labeling regulation and delegation of supervision law)

 

Try Hebrew

[bluesofa]

1 minute ago, NCC1701A said:

yesitishorrible.

wheniwatchmyThaigirlfriendreadshereallystudiesthesentenceandseemstobedoingahugeamountofwork.

Ha ha! Just proves the point though. If you understand the language you can read it's fine.

 

When I started learning Thai, my Thai teacher wrote simple sentences with a space between the words, for me to be able to understand it easily.

Later on she stopped using the spaces as I started to be able to read more Thai.

[DaRoadrunner]

On top of which, written Thai is also dyslexic. The vowels and consonants are not pronounced in the sequence in which they are written. Like so many things here, it makes no sense. Once you learn to read Thai you begin to understand why their thought process is so f***ed up.

[KhunBENQ]

40 minutes ago, BananaBandit said:

They basically said that's just how it is.

Wise answer in a way.

Don't try any logic on natural languages and particularly Thai language.

It's one of the most complicated scripts except from the "symbol" languages (Chinese e.g.).

The exceptions can drive you mad.

The no-space/separator thing is big fun for developers of text processing.

Sometimes hard to read just because of the tiny subtle markers with little difference in shape.

Try to read a bill from a matrix printer.

 

I read that Phibunsongkhram (military ruler during the 40s) tried a language reform but failed  due to strong resistance from "traditionalists"?

[KhunBENQ]

5 minutes ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Once you learn to read Thai you begin to understand why their thought process is so f***ed up.

And you learn why there are still so many full or partial illiterates.

Exotic letters appearing in a total of 20 words.

A couple of letters appearing about every 500 to 1000 words!

[bluesofa]

9 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Wise answer in a way.

Don't try any logic on natural languages and particularly Thai language.

It's one of the most complicated scripts except from the "symbol" languages (Chinese e.g.).

The exceptions can drive you mad.

The no-space/separator thing is big fun for developers of text processing.

Sometimes hard to read just because of the tiny subtle markers with little difference in shape.

Try to read a bill from a matrix printer.

 

I read that Phibunsongkhram (military ruler during the 40s) tried a language reform but failed  due to strong resistance from "traditionalists"?

Oh yes, I remember reading about his idea to simply the Thai language:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_spelling_reform_of_1942

(He was the same guy who introduced the Thai ID card in 1943)

[scorecard]

Well it's also true that many basis sentence constructions in 

English are lacking in logic but a native speaker understands, probably true for all languages. 

[anterian]

The language you use determines one's ability to think, particularly with abstract concepts. Thais are not really that stupid, they just have a poor language to think with. 

[tifino]

evolution since 1943 meant all we hear now is:

ฝรั่งฝรั่งฝรั่งฝรั่ง

unless he/she speaking was well educated....  

 

although a little while back I was listening to (and expecting) that same beat, between Mrs and her sisters... 

but my ears picked up it was a little different to the usual above words... now this...

ฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่ง 

 

so I called her ( the Mrs) out about it very quickly... 

 

Her sister went all Large Stary-eyed, panicky...

crying "No No No, we said 'Eat Chicken' "

 

[Matzzon]

1 hour ago, BananaBandit said:

How come there are often about 10 Thai words in a row with no spaces between any of them ?

Just maybe because it´s a foreign language, that just not have to follow your line of how words should be written or read.

[carlyai]

On top of which, written Thai is also dyslexic. The vowels and consonants are not pronounced in the sequence in which they are written. Like so many things here, it makes no sense. Once you learn to read Thai you begin to understand why their thought process is so f***ed up.

Really dangerous ground critisizing other peoples' language.

I was learning reading and writing at AUA near the American Embassy in Swampy. In out class was a know-it-all German guy. One day he came out and said just what guys here are saying (that the Thai language is stupid) and our very meek, mild lady teacher exploded. And she gave it to him in a few languages.

How can a non-native speaker critisize someone elses language?

Every language is unique, beautiful and special.

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

[canuckamuck]

It's a bad idea, but you won't ever see it changed. Spaces help kids learn how to read, they help people read faster, they help with breaking up sentences for text layout and graphics, and they give an opportunity for punctuation which can help to make more precise sentences.

I would like to hear of an advantage of no spaces, I am sure it doesn't add up to the cons.

[Bangkokazy]

70 to 80% of Thais cannot read or write their own language.
If you want to learn Thai, it must be Bangkok dialect.

The rest of the dialects are wasted learning

[oldhippy]

If Thai language is difficult for foreigners, so be it.

Is there any research available on how difficult it is for Thais to learn to read, as compared to other languages?

The fact that 1 word always has many meanings makes reading even more difficult.

 

 

[timendres]

You get used to it. Of course, using spaces to separate sentences eliminates the need for those pesky periods! And we all know now much we dislike periods.

[poohy]

31 minutes ago, tifino said:

evolution since 1943 meant all we hear now is:

ฝรั่งฝรั่งฝรั่งฝรั่ง

unless he/she speaking was well educated....  

 

although a little while back I was listening to (and expecting) that same beat, between Mrs and her sisters... 

but my ears picked up it was a little different to the usual above words... now this...

ฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่งขี้นกฝรั่ง 

 

so I called her ( the Mrs) out about it very quickly... 

 

Her sister went all Large Stary-eyed, panicky...

crying "No No No, we said 'Eat Chicken' "

 

What i gods name are you on about!?

[greeneking]

Sorry I can not remember where I heard this.  The rich and well educated were able to somehow come to understand reading and writing the language with teaching and persistence.  But it was not desirable the rest should be able to reach the competency they could have managed if there had been gaps between the words.

[poohy]

13 minutes ago, Bangkokazy said:

70 to 80% of Thais cannot read or write their own language.
If you want to learn Thai, it must be Bangkok dialect.

The rest of the dialects are wasted learning

My Mrs BKK Thai cannot easily (or most times not at all) understand our neighbours in Prachuap

[simon43]

The fact that 1 word always has many meanings makes reading even more difficult.

 

Hmm, I'd say that English has far more words with the same meaning than Thai.  Dr Google tells me that the English word 'set' has 430 different senses or meanings...

 

If you mean that Thai words have the same meaning, then that's not true.  English has no tones, so the words really do sound and read the same as each other.  Written Thai for a word that sounds like 'mai' (no tones shown) is completely distinguishable from the same word that has a different tone - you can see the different tone mark and know that it needs to be pronounced with the appropriate tone.

 

Now if you're tone-deaf, hearing the tone and speaking it might be difficult.  But I've found that it's the context of the word in the sentence that's more important for Thai people to understand me.

[oldhippy]

10 minutes ago, simon43 said:

 

 

 

Hmm, I'd say that English has far more words with the same meaning than Thai.  Dr Google tells me that the English word 'set' has 430 different senses or meanings...

 

If you mean that Thai words have the same meaning, then that's not true.  English has no tones, so the words really do sound and read the same as each other.  Written Thai for a word that sounds like 'mai' (no tones shown) is completely distinguishable from the same word that has a different tone - you can see the different tone mark and know that it needs to be pronounced with the appropriate tone.

 

Now if you're tone-deaf, hearing the tone and speaking it might be difficult.  But I've found that it's the context of the word in the sentence that's more important for Thai people to understand me.

Does "naam" not mean water, toilet, liquid,... or even German TV poster (a Klingon)?

[Damrongsak]

In the USA, my wife taught several adult Thai women to read and write, after a fashion.  GI wives from Isaan...

---

Not having spaces between words makes unconscious recognition more difficult in my opinion.  Combine that with characters (vowels) "wrapped around" or leading the consonants and it's a mess.  Not conducive to speed reading at all.

[tgeezer]

Has anybody noticed that English is written with gaps between words but spoken without gaps between words? 

  

[Damrongsak]

4 hours ago, simon43 said:

 

 

 

Hmm, I'd say that English has far more words with the same meaning than Thai.  Dr Google tells me that the English word 'set' has 430 different senses or meanings...

 

If you mean that Thai words have the same meaning, then that's not true.  English has no tones, so the words really do sound and read the same as each other.  Written Thai for a word that sounds like 'mai' (no tones shown) is completely distinguishable from the same word that has a different tone - you can see the different tone mark and know that it needs to be pronounced with the appropriate tone.

 

Now if you're tone-deaf, hearing the tone and speaking it might be difficult.  But I've found that it's the context of the word in the sentence that's more important for Thai people to understand me.

430 meanings including dialects?  "I set down hyar a lookin at this post fer awhile."

 

English may have no official tones but tone of voice does significantly change the message.  We can convey anger, sarcasm, agreement, etc.  I suppose Thai has some other ways of emphasis if I think about it. 

[eric67]

7 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

I would like to hear of an advantage of no spaces, I am sure it doesn't add up to the cons.

 

It saves space...

[Oxx]

9 hours ago, Bangkokazy said:

70 to 80% of Thais cannot read or write their own language.
If you want to learn Thai, it must be Bangkok dialect.

 

Don't let facts get in the way of your ignorance and prejudice.

 

The literacy rate in Thailand is 96% - rather better than somewhere like the USA, where it's 86%.

 

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-highest-literacy-rates-in-the-world.html

 

And I'm not aware of the Bangkok dialect being taught anywhere, or used outside some of the working class in Bangkok.  Perhaps you meant the Central Thai dialect?

[Denim]

Children's books in Thai often have spaces between the words to make it easier for them to learn to read.

Why they don't bother in adult reading material therefore is strange since it is clearly understood that spaces make reading easier.

[Blue Muton]

10 hours ago, Bangkokazy said:

70 to 80% of Thais cannot read or write their own language.
If you want to learn Thai, it must be Bangkok dialect.

The rest of the dialects are wasted learning

The literacy rate goes down in Thailand

According to UNESCO Thailand it has an adult literacy rate of 92.87%. While the male literacy rate is 94.66%, for females is 91.19%.

Compared to the rest of countries is number 77º in the ranking of literacy rate.

 

So you know more than UNESCO, that research of yours must have taken you ages, great job.