The Myth of the Thai Tones

[Bredbury Blue]

Not 100% related to this subject, but many of us have experienced the situation where we think we say something perfectly in Thai and the Thai person just doesn't understand us.

 

This is the lovely Som from YouTube channels 'English fit and firm' (for Thais learning English) and 'My Thai language school' (for non-Thais learning Thai). She plays around here to show what happens when a Thai sa-peaks inglit with a Thai accent to a natural English speaker - he really struggles at times. It's cute and funny. I can only assume the British guy hadn't been in Thailand long as i understood everything she says perfectly. Som speaks perfect english.

 

 

Using google translate of the text to her video:
"In this video, Som chats with Chris. (A young Englishman who came to Thailand for the first time Of course, I'm not familiar with the Thai accent before) It's an experiment to see Chris' reaction.
1. Overall, Chris listened to a Thai accent. can talk in a story
2. When Chris listens to Som, he doesn't know anything. not because of the Thai accent But it's because sometimes Som pronounces words incorrectly, such as smile and fast.
3. Som says broken grammar. Chris also listened to Som about it. Catch the beginning of the end - guessed correctly
In conclusion, the grammar is not perfect. It's not a communication problem this time.
4. Most people have good manners at level 1. We say something wrong. He will try to guess. Instead of blaming or insulting us, let's talk English, keep practicing and you'll be fluent.
** Don't let your accent and grammatical accuracy block your confidence.
** This video is made for people who are practicing English. More confident in communication
** This video is not intended to mock Thai accent. or the use of broken grammar in English in any way"

 

[katana]

"You think it difficult unnerstand me?"
Well, the music blaring in the background at 90Db didn't help.

[Damrongsak]

"...I now realise tones are more like regional accents than strict rules, and that Thai people actually use context more than tone to understand the meaning.  I also realised my attempts at tones were adding to the confusion when I spoke. ..."

 

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My wife and I were at a Lao temple in the USA on Monday.  3 Lao women commented that my wife, her brother and sis-in-law (from Loei) spoke with a Luang Prabang Lao accent.  It got me to searching.  I found research papers about Isaan regional dialects and they are all over the map. Old Lao Khrang, Luang Prabang (though they came from the same place), Vientiane and others.  Loei has a couple dialects but it's mixed with others as they borrow tones and stuff. Some use one fewer tone than others. "Major Loei" vs. "minor Loei" and so forth.   

 

Some 40+ years ago in Loei, I hailed a samlor pedicab to go to the market.  I asked "bai talat, boh?" instead of "bai talat, mai?).  But the "talat" was high tone, not low. And the "bai" might have been a different tone or at least tone of voice.  The samlor driver said that I spoke Loei well.  555