ร.ย.ล.

[PvtDick]

Does anyone know what ร.ย.ล. stands for on palace vehicles? Been wondering for a long time, just curious.

[Edward B]

ร.ย.ล. = รถยนต์หลวง (a royal car)

ร.ร.ล. = เรือรบหลวง HMS (a royal ship)

[PvtDick]

Makes perfect sense. Thank you!

[PvtDick]

Another quick question.

The word "หลวง" actually begins with "ห" rather than "ล". Is it common practice, when abbreviating words in Thai, to use the first letter that actually makes a sound -- i.e., ignoring silent letters like "ห"?

[Edward B]

ห is the only letter in Thai that can be silent at the start of a word (ok, there's also the อ but this only occurs in 4 words). Yes, it is common practice to ignore the silent ห. This would therefore be different to the English acronyms system.

บลจ = บริษัทหลักทรัพย์จัดการกองทุนรวม

[wolf5370]

Ed,

why do you think there are only four word beginning with Or Ang (อ)?

There are hundreds - see in these dictionary listings:

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/thai/thaidict/thailex16.htm

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/thai/thaidict/thailex17.htm

[PvtDick]

I guess he is referring to words in which the Or Ang is silent. Like in "อย่าง". For other words where the Or Ang reflects a vowel sound, the acronym is usually given as "อ." The word "ongkarn", for organization, for instance.

[Edward B]

Yep,

the others are:

อย่า

อยาก

อยู่

[meuok]

For those people that can read Thai, I suggest they buy the Abbreviation Dictionary (ปทานุกรมอักษรย่อ) from any branch of Asia Books there's 400 odd pages of mainly interesting information for about B60.