5 hours ago, Prometheus33 said:

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

Have you ever been to the city? It's perfectly acceptable to refer to the city as Saigon when you're in Saigon. I know because I visited a gf there often. I also knew students from Saigon in the U.S. They called it Saigon even though as international people we all knew it's officially Ho Chi Minh City.

13 hours ago, coops said:

The transliteration 'Thep' is the correct one....

 

The typical transliteration systems all use the 'h' to denote a hard consonant - so 'ph' is a hard p sound as in 'paste' or indeed Phuket. And also 'kh' is the transliteration for a hard 'k' sound like the C in 'cake' - whereas 'k' on its own is a 'g' sound like the g in 'game' - and that does mean Phuket is properly pronounced with a 'g' sound not the wrong hard k sound... mind you it would be better transliterated as Phuuket to indicate the long initial vowel sound.

And similarly, 'th' is a hard t sound like t in 'taste'.

 

Transliteration systems all have to deal with the problem of the Western alphabet only having 26 symbols... whereas Thai has many, many as it is phonetic.

 

 

True, only 26 letters, but within the 5/6 vowels are about 24 or so vowel *sounds*.

13 hours ago, TheScience said:

They all do...Pah-ma.

 

But tbh the Myanmarese (?) Call it Myanmar as well.

 

Burmese is the predominant language. Dozens more.

 

The American insistence to call it Burma is just stupid. The name was changed decades ago. There are dozens of ethnicities the nation hardly just belongs to the Burmese.

U.S. news outlets call it Myanmar. Having worked in East Asia and the Middle East with all the Commonwealth nationalities in addition to Americans, it was obvious to me that while everyone knows it's Myanmar, Burma and Myanmar are used more or less interchangeably, because of the country's vivid history especially in the context of WWII.

13 hours ago, Caldera said:

What's the point? Thais already call the city Krung Thep anyway, and foreigners will continue to call it Bangkok anyway. 

In emails and messages, everyone calls it "BKK."

9 hours ago, thaibook said:

So does anyone who speaks English.  Just like the Englia=sh say Moscow, not Moscova, or as French speakers say Anvers while Flemish speakers say Antwerpen.  Just because the Chinese Communist Party wants something and the BBC is too craven to left wing ideologues to do anything but bow, there is no need to follow.

Well, nobody says Peking or Canton anymore. Those are the old names. Everybody says Beijing and Guangzhou, as they should. What you're talking about is current names with their English translations. For example, nobody says "Oh, I took the train from Roma to München."

"Ironically the Thais still call Bejing - Peking." No, they don't. Native speakers of English say Beijing and Guangzhou, not Peking and Canton.

4 hours ago, ozimoron said:

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

I know the historical facts, it's the reasons behind changing it that are of interest to me.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

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.

Since when is "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon" more English than Bangkok?

Just leave it alone and stop the tinkering.

4 hours ago, Puccini said:

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.

Lol. KTM is already in use, it's the IATA code for Kathmandu Airport. 

Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์

 

 

3 hours ago, Dustdevil said:

Have you ever been to the city? It's perfectly acceptable to refer to the city as Saigon when you're in Saigon. I know because I visited a gf there often. I also knew students from Saigon in the U.S. They called it Saigon even though as international people we all knew it's officially Ho Chi Minh City.

All the Viet here in the Bay Area also call it Saigon.

7 minutes ago, TooMuchTime said:

All the Viet here in the Bay Area also call it Saigon.

Just like Thailand. Ya think there might be a reason why Viets in the US call it Saigon?

4 hours ago, Puccini said:

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.

Hmmm, the system is that t=ต and th=ท (Thailand=ประเทศไทย)

16 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

Will be interesting to see the new name on airport departure boards throughout the World.

Confusion reigns.!!

The WORLDS dumbest idea, EVER!

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.... or in this case.....

You'd think the Thai cabinet has more pressing issues to deal with, what with the economic situation due to Covid etc. Pure lunacy. 

21 hours ago, internationalism said:

Krung thep is pali language

Not really.  "krung" is from Old Khmer, and can be traced back to the Proto-Mon-Khmer "kruŋ" meaning "to confine".
 

It is unclear whether "thep" is ultimately from Pali or Sanskrit.  However, it's more likely to have arrived in Thailand via the Old Khmer "debbha".
 

Why not use the full name and have a laugh at the queues at travel agents?

22 hours ago, happysoul said:

What about the IATA code (BKK)... KTM is already taken by Kathmandu airport ????

It will probably stay the same (BKK), just like Ho Chi Minh City remained SGN, Mumbai kept BOM, Beijing is still PEK, etc.

21 hours ago, trainman34014 said:

They think they can shake off the World Wide image people talk about wherever you go... ''Bangkok; oh yes, the Sex City of The World, one big Brothel and in the rest of the country people still live in Mud Huts with Straw Roof's don't they ? ''

 

Don't laugh; i've heard similar things said in many country's when people ask me where i live !    Another view you get when in Singapore or Malaysia,Taiwan etc is  ''Ah yes; Thailand, the Lunatic Asylum of South East Asia'' !

Seems quite accurate description of Bangkok and the rest of Thailand. 

They probably don't like 'Bangkok' because it highlights the bar nightlife !!

beat this Bangkok!

What don't they change the name of the country while they are at it? 

6 hours ago, Puccini said:

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.

If you do wish to write the full name, before you begin, dont forget to have plenty of Food and Drink handy.

The full new Name is 13 - Yes ! - 13 words long, not just the abbreviated 4.

18 hours ago, Jimbo53 said:

Most Thai's i know just call it Krung Thep.

Yes I agree however my point was that Thai people do not refer to it as Bangkok .

23 hours ago, Puccini said:

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.

KTM is Kathmandu airport in Nepal....

Narrator: But nothing actually changed...

Vietnam changed the name of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City after the end of the American War in 1975.  45+ years later the local people there call it.............Saigon.  Looks like it didn't really take hold.  I wouldn't expect the Thais to really accept this change that much in their daily lives either.

Just now, Hanuman2547 said:

Vietnam changed the name of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City after the end of the American War in 1975.  45+ years later the local people there call it.............Saigon.  Looks like it didn't really take hold.  I wouldn't expect the Thais to really accept this change that much in their daily lives either.

But the local people already use the 'new' name and have done forever...........

Different case......

7 hours ago, Dustdevil said:

"Ironically the Thais still call Bejing - Peking." No, they don't. Native speakers of English say Beijing and Guangzhou, not Peking and Canton.

do you how the French and Portuguese call/refer to these 2 names