Google translate app no audio

[Nout]

I'm sure the Google translate app used to have Thai audio but this no longer appears to be the case.

Also the transliteration seems dreadful and effectively meaningless.

Therefore does anybody have any suggestions for a better translation app.

Ta

[ColeBOzbourne]

I just tested the Thai audio on Google Translate and it works fine for me, and has been working consistently in the past.

 

As for the transliteration, there was very recently a discussion about this very subject. You can scroll down a few threads to the title 'Google Phonetics', or try this link for a better understanding:

 

 https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1177134-google-translate-phonetics-whats-the-name-transliteration/

[Nout]

Thanks. My speaker in the google app is greyed out and I get the message there is no audio available for Thai language.

[Puccini]

On 8/27/2020 at 6:50 AM, Nout said:

Thanks. My speaker in the google app is greyed out and I get the message there is no audio available for Thai language.

What device (PC or phone) and what browser are you using?

 

Can you post a screenshot with the greyed-out speaker option?

 

 

[Nout]

Thank you I have solved the problem by adjusting my phone settings

[RichCor]

4 hours ago, Nout said:

Thank you I have solved the problem by adjusting my phone settings

Just as I read what you did to solve your issue, "check your phone app permission settings" popped into my head. Forgot all about google restricting permissions on already installed apps every so often and causing problems (if you don't know to look there).

[Nout]

My error of 'no audio available for this language' was very misleading.

Are there any decent alternatives to the app. The transliteration is dreadful.

[Puccini]

What you see is not a transliteration, but a phonetic pronunciation guide using the highly sophisticated system ISO 11940 that is currently used apparently only by Google.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_11940

[Nout]

2 minutes ago, Puccini said:

What you see is not a transliteration, but a phonetic pronunciation guide using the highly sophisticated system ISO 11940 that is currently used apparently only by Google.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_11940

Yes I know. But it should be transliteration. Phonetics and phonetics are deemed not useful in modern language teaching but the google phonetics is absurd and not fit for purpose. Is there anything better out there?

[Puccini]

Check out thai2english.com, which uses the bp/p dt/t g/k system and see if or suits you. This is also a pronunciation guide not a transliteration system.

[Puccini]

There is also thai-language.com, which uses superscript capital letters to indicate the tones, eg ของเ khaawng^R

[Nout]

13 hours ago, Puccini said:

Check out thai2english.com, which uses the bp/p dt/t g/k system and see if or suits you. This is also a pronunciation guide not a transliteration system.

Thanks. It is easier for me and know those tone markers. But I don't understand your reference bp/p dt/g/k. What does it mean?

[Puccini]

6 hours ago, Nout said:

Thanks. It is easier for me and know those tone markers. But I don't understand your reference bp/p dt/g/k. What does it mean?

Should have been bp/p dt/t g/k

 

For example:

ไป bpai, พูด pôot 

ต้อง dtông, ทำ tam 

ไก่ gài, ไข่ kài

[Nout]

15 hours ago, Puccini said:

Should have been bp/p dt/t g/k

 

For example:

ไป bpai, พูด pôot 

ต้อง dtông, ทำ tam 

ไก่ gài, ไข่ kài

Thank you for your clear response. I wonder why Google don't use the same system?

[Puccini]

On 9/4/2020 at 7:02 AM, Nout said:

Thank you for your clear response. I wonder why Google don't use the same system?

I guess Google does not use it because it would not be universally understood. It is just one of a dozen or more pronunciation guides used by different Thai language schools in Thailand. If you studied Thai at one school using a particular system you would not understand the rendering of a Thai word using another, totally different pronunciation guide used by another school.

[JHicks]

If you play around with it you'll see that the tone markers are always the same regardless of the tone they indicate, and that leading อ and ห show up in the output rather than just affecting the tone. For example หน้า comes out as h̄n̂ā but น่า comes out as ǹā. These words are pronounced the same but the output is different, so what you're looking at can't really be a guide to pronunciation. What it's representing is the Thai spelling. For example, in the first case above the falling tone is indicated by ^ (because the original spelling is   ้ with a high class initial), while in the second case the same tone is indicated by ' (because the original spelling is  ่ with a low class initial). The system also distinguishes between e.g. ท and ธ, which are identical in terms of pronunciation. All this tells me it's a transliteration system.

 

Bing seems to be a half-way house between transliteration and phonetics. If you have a whole paragraph of text I think thai2english is your best option. You get more of a word-by-word translation, as you'll have seen, but at least the phonetics are given.

[Puccini]

On 9/4/2020 at 7:02 AM, Nout said:

Thank you for your clear response. I wonder why Google don't use the same system?

I guess Google does not use it because it would not be universally understood. It is just one of a dozen or more pronunciation guides used by different Thai language schools in Thailand. If you studied Thai at one school using a particular system you would not understand the rendering of a Thai word using another, totally different pronunciation guide used by another school.

[Puccini]

6 hours ago, JHicks said:

...All this tells me it's a transliteration system...

You are right. What Google Translate uses is a transliteration system, nothing to do with pronunciation. I got that wrong.

[Nout]

11 hours ago, Puccini said:

You are right. What Google Translate uses is a transliteration system, nothing to do with pronunciation. I got that wrong.

It functions as neither in any useful way and is not helpful.  Its, innefcient,  lazy and stupid. I don't belive ANYBODY in the world could understand that nonsense.

[Nout]

11 hours ago, Puccini said:

You are right. What Google Translate uses is a transliteration system, nothing to do with pronunciation. I got that wrong.

Transliteration is a pronunciation guide. For example: ' May wee is French for 'But Yes'..Ju swee is Je suis..