Bangkok set for official change of name to "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon"

[PremiumLane]

3 hours ago, tingtong said:

"Hon, where should we go for vacation this year?"

 

"I think to krrrr....krrrruuuu....krumpet mmmmm.....Bali should do"

wow, that is going to really bring the tourist numbers crashing down, right? <deleted>

[PremiumLane]

4 hours ago, desert dueller said:

It won't effect anything, nor will it affect anything. Not in a hundred years will the current common usage of Bangkok disappear in everyday usage. Name changes always crop up to detract from other issues. Do not underestimate the cost of such a change either. 

Never said the common usage of Bangkok would disappear, and agree it won't. But some posters on here seem to think this is the end lol 

[PomPolo]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Thais only use the word Bangkok when addressing foreigners who mostly don't understand the name they use.

What the *? Things are out of control now - those stupid foreigners won't understand our new name.

 

I am officially changing my name to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and will explain to all my foreign friends it actually means John.

[Prometheus33]

10 hours ago, samtam said:

Perhaps it will be shortened to KTMH, like Ho Chi Minh City is HCMC, but still widely referred to as Saigon.

Wrong  ... "Saigon " is long dead and forgotten . MOST people are now familiar with the name Ho Chi Minh City and the shortened ... HCM   

[Gilligan In Drag]

Very good. Bangkok is a small town on Hainan island. Surely "Bangkok" has long since outgrown the sentimentality for such ancestral hamlets as that, Why not Thonburi though? That was the original Siamese city, Bangkok was the city of the immigrants, foreigners etc across the river.

 

That said, its already known locally as Krung Thep. So yeah, why not let the world know, here we call the place Krung Thep?

[nightfox]

They tried changing Saigon to Ho Chi Min and the hole of Vietnam still call their capital Saigon as it doesn't matter what the new name is, its will still be known as Bangkok.

[desert dueller]

6 hours ago, thecyclist said:

A new name a new image. It will be followed by the eradication of all prostitution and the strict enforcement of the zebra crossing laws. 

Thai movers of motorized vehicles of transportation are much cleverer than you might imagine. They have googled "zebra" and found out that this type of black donkey with white stripes does not exist in Siam, and hence no need to s'arreter at designated black and white paint jobs because none of these strange, foreign, four-legged, non-Thai speaking creatures will ever queue to traverser l'avenue. 

[desert dueller]

3 hours ago, EricTh said:

Who is going to remember such a long name except for Thai citizens?

 

Bang kok is so much easier to remember. 

There is a reason why Thais all have nicknames. Cream, Bang, etc. So, by all means, rename what they believe needs to be renamed. Who cares? Nickname is Bangkok, Big Mango, or Big Dump. Whatever tickles your fancy. Tomorrow is another day, another April 1, so we shall await the latest cracker in the morning. Can't wait.

[Tonypandy]

11 hours ago, PremiumLane said:

How will this effect tourism?

What tourism? 

[Enoon]

 

Krung Thep Maha Nakhon already is its official Thai name.

 

Bangkok is its official English name.

 

But that official designation is to be removed from........whatever rule book it's in.

 

What they are actually doing is officially demolishing its English name.

 

Most apposite for a nation with such an astonishingly low level of English profficiency.

 

And also indicative of the darker undercurrents of which many of us are aware.

 

 

 

[ozimoron]

28 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

Krung Thep Maha Nakhon already is its official Thai name.

 

Bangkok is its official English name.

 

But that official designation is to be removed from........whatever rule book it's in.

 

What they are actually doing is officially demolishing its English name.

 

Most apposite for a nation with such an astonishingly low level of English profficiency.

 

And also indicative of the darker undercurrents of which many of us are aware.

 

 

 

Burma Myanmar changed the name of Rangoon Yangon decades ago

 

oh, about English profficiency [sic].

[EricTh]

1 hour ago, desert dueller said:

There is a reason why Thais all have nicknames. Cream, Bang, etc. So, by all means, rename what they believe needs to be renamed. Who cares? Nickname is Bangkok, Big Mango, or Big Dump. Whatever tickles your fancy. Tomorrow is another day, another April 1, so we shall await the latest cracker in the morning. Can't wait.

Some of these politicians have nothing better to do than to make people lives more miserable by remembering long Sanskrit names.

 

Even Thai names are ridiculously long that nobody use except in formal situation.

 

 

[ozimoron]

4 minutes ago, EricTh said:

Some of these politicians have nothing better to do than to make people lives more miserable by remembering long Sanskrit names.

 

Even Thai names are ridiculously long that nobody use except in formal situation.

 

 

Thais will continue to use the shortened version Krung Thep. They have never widely used Bangkok. They also use Meuang Thai instead of Thailand.

[sezze]

This will certainly attract foreigners ... a whole new city . They might ever been to Bangkok but now they can visit a new city Krung Thep ....

[ozimoron]

2 minutes ago, sezze said:

This will certainly attract foreigners ... a whole new city . They might ever been to Bangkok but now they can visit a new city Krung Thep ....

Then they could visit HCMC.

[Thunglom]

I'd like to hear the cultural justification for this.

I've called the place Krung The" for years with my Thai friends and colleagues and only use Bangkok with foreigners.

However I get worried when governments change names (e.g. Burma to Myanmar) it is usually attempts by dictatorial governments to establish a history that fits their own dogma.

so can someone explain why the current authorities think this is necessary.

please if you are a dumb expat with only a racist perspective on Thailand, keep you views to yourself.

[ozimoron]

Just now, Thunglom said:

I'd like to hear the cultural justification for this.

I've called the place Krung The" for years with my Thai friends and colleagues and only use Bangkok with foreigners.

However I get worried when governments change names (e.g. Burma to Myanmar) it is usually attempts by dictatorial governments to establish a history that fits their own dogma.

so can someone explain why the current authorities think this is necessary.

please if you are a dumb expat with only a racist perspective on Thailand, keep you views to yourself.

The most obvious justification is to ask the world to use the name almost all Thais use. China changed the name Canton to Guangzhou. There are many examples. Even in oz there's a push to use Aboriginal names are more culturally appropriate.

[it is what it is]

 

come on thailand, the least you can do is give your capital its full name;

 

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

 

[daveAustin]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

Ministers are expected to rubber stamp the request

Surprised they haven’t done a Burma yet and put a new pointless capital in the middle of nowhere with no people in it. Or at least revert to Siam… again. But the notion that Bangkok is not really a Thai word is daft. Bangs all over Thailand. 

[ozimoron]

3 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Surprised they haven’t done a Burma yet and put a new pointless capital in the middle of nowhere with no people in it. Or at least revert to Siam… again. But the notion that Bangkok is not really a Thai word is daft. Bangs all over Thailand. 

Of course it's Thai, just that nobody much uses it. An earlier capital of Thailand was Ayyutayah. In Burma it was Pagan. Now that's really out of the way. When I went there in 1979, we had to ride in the back of a truck for 10 hours to get there, it was the only way.

[Thunglom]

31 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

The most obvious justification is to ask the world to use the name almost all Thais use. China changed the name Canton to Guangzhou. There are many examples. Even in oz there's a push to use Aboriginal names are more culturally appropriate.

I'm aware that Thai people use this name, but the original was Bangkok....is it a re-writing of history or just a simple updating of the name

 

[ozimoron]

3 minutes ago, Thunglom said:

I'm aware that Thai people use this name, but the original was Bangkok....is it a re-writing of history or just a simple updating of the name

 

The origin of the name Bangkok (บางกอก, pronounced in Thai as [bāːŋ kɔ̀ːk] (listen)), is unclear. Bang บาง is a Thai word meaning 'a village on a stream',^[13] and the name might have been derived from Bang Ko (บางเกาะ), ko เกาะ meaning 'island', stemming from the city's watery landscape.^[9] Another theory suggests that it is shortened from Bang Makok (บางมะกอก), makok มะกอก being the name of Elaeocarpus hygrophilus, a plant bearing olive-like fruit.^[d] This is supported by the former name of Wat Arun, a historic temple in the area, that used to be called Wat Makok.^[14]

Officially, the town was known as Thonburi Si Mahasamut (ธนบุรีศรีมหาสมุทร, from Pali and Sanskrit, literally 'city of treasures gracing the ocean') or Thonburi, according to the Ayutthaya Chronicles.^[15]Bangkok was likely a colloquial name, albeit one widely adopted by foreign visitors, who continued to use it to refer to the city even after the new capital's establishment.

 

source: wiki

[moon47]

What a truly unintelligent idea. =[

 

The official transliteration is useless for both locals and foreigners. 

 

Simply put. It is not pronounced anywhere near how it is spelt here in roman characters.

 

Most Thai people can not even pronounce the "TH" sound like in "THis way to Bangkok" 

 

Why write the official name of the capital in those characters? Confusion for both sides.

 

...=/

[Swampy999]

14 hours ago, mlkik said:

No not everyone. All Thai people call it Krung Thep Mahana Khon. 

ALL Thai people? No, Bangkok is referred to as Krung Thep by the vast majority of Thai people unless you live in one of those bubbles that Thailand is becoming infamous for ????????

[arithai12]

14 hours ago, lemonjelly said:

Krung Tep would be a closer transliteration. The Thai obsession with the letter “H” is weird 

Thai people write using Thai script. If anything, the problem is with the representation of their alphabet in other languages, e.g. in English. The obsession is with us, not with them. And it is not limited to T/TH, just check out in how many ways users of this forum write "sawasdee krup" or "mai bpen rai".

btw, speaking of English, it is just about the most irregular language concerning writing and reading.

[webfact]

Bangkok To Get New English Name

 

    

BANGKOK (NNT) - The official English name of Thailand’s capital is being changed from “Bangkok” to “Krung Thep Maha Nakhon” which is the same name used in the Thai language.

 

The Cabinet yesterday approved in principle the Office of the Prime Minister’s draft announcement about the updated titles of countries, territories, administrative regions, and capital cities.

 

This new update, proposed by the Office of the Royal Society, includes the change of the official English title of Thailand’s capital city from Bangkok to Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, with the commonly known title of “Bangkok” kept within parentheses.

 

The Office of the Royal Society said this update will enable government agencies to use the same titles that better reflect the current situation.

 

The name “Bangkok” can continue to be used to refer to Thailand’s capital, even after this official update goes into effect.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2022-02-17

 

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[Puccini]

14 hours ago, ezzra said:

More word to write add on the million forms we are being asked to fill on a daily bases, ithink they will have to change the form to to contain the long new name of BKK, or can we put KMN now?...

Thai language texts use the acronym กทม, which transliterates as KTM.

Source: https://th.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/กทม.#:~:text=อักษรย่อของ กรุงเทพมหานคร,ของ ศาลาว่าการกรุงเทพมหานคร,,,

 

Therefore, I suggest that people on this forum who have the habit of using BKK, which is really the IATA airport code for Suvarnabhumi airport, should use KTM for Krungthep Maha Nakhon if they do not want to write the full name. I may be doing the same, as I keep forgetting whether the first syllable is Khrung or Krung.

[Henk Langeweg]

[Time Traveller]

ok, but I'm going to keep calling it Kokbang

[Dustdevil]

16 hours ago, internationalism said:

bangkok is a name taken from thai language - means village of olive tree.

Krung thep is pali language, now only used by budhist monks (actually, most of monks don't understand meaning of recited words). Means in pali city of angels.

This language is much more extinct than Latin. All south european languages are based on latin and are close to each other, so for example italians are able understand some basic from partugese etc.

But pali based languages in India are so far apart, that they can comprehend each other. In the south india alone there are 720 different languages used by tribal populations

English has lots of etymological connections to Latin as well. That's one reason Latin used to be required in schools.