Stingray Names In Thai Language

[redsox]

Hi,

I was searching for some translation of english to thai and stumbled upon this informative website. I apologise if I post in the wrong forum.

Does anyone know the following stingray names in thai?

Reticulata Ray

Polka Dot Ray

Motoro Ray

Sakura (flower) Ray

Thanks.

redsox

[OOLEEBER]

Hi redsox and welcome,

I have a poster on my wall of freshwater fish in Thailand (becasue I have a fish farm) but that's not going to help you unfortunately.

I'm very grateful for all the help this forum has given me so I'll try my best to be a helper for the first time.

Sorry I'm not good at the pronunciation so hopefully someone else will give you the romanised pronunciation.

Ray - รังสี

Reticulata - I cant find this in my dictionary. The closest I get is reticulate

Polka Dot - Amazingly it's in the dictionary. Jeez this is a big word. Gonna take me 20 min with my thai spelling. ลำยดอกเป้นจุดเล็ก, 8 minutes - not bad.

Motoro - Sorry not in dictionary either

Sakura (flower) - No sakura (sounds Japanese) but flower is ดอกไม้

LIke I said, this will not be of much use to you unless someone tells you how to say it. Sabaijai, snow_leopard, meadish or Richard, can you help?

I had a website for all types for fish but I've not saved the address. google 'saltwater fish thailand database' and you should find something usefull.

Good luck redsox

[meadish_sweetball]

Hi Redsox. I know precious little about fish, but anyway:

Ray - รังสี - /rang sii/ OR 'rung see' to make it less according to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) but clearer for an English speaker. The first syllable has a short vowel sound and a mid tone, the second syllable has a long vowel sound and a rising tone.

CORRECTION: rang sii means ray as in 'radiation', not as in the fishes name!!!

This is why it is impossible to determine usage on the basis of most Thai dictionaries - very few of them list examles of actual usage of a word.

It is too adventurous to assume that the common names for rays in English can be translated more or less word for word into Thai. The possibility of that approach to work would only be if none of these fish are native to Thailand, or not close enough to have been known in Thai culture before English became widely used (since after WWII). In this case, Thai may (a big MAY) have adopted straight translations of the English names. It is quite unlikely though.

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One of my dictionaries lists "stingray" as

ปลากระเบน ชาย ทอง

plaa krabeen chaay thawng / 'bplah grabehn chuy thorng'

As for 'ray' it says (my translation:) a flat fish e.g. 'bplaa grabehn' and 'yee son'

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When I look up "grabehn" กระเบน under ปลา in another dictionary, there is the following text:

rays, skates, of the genus Raja and other allied genera, comprising various species like กระเบนขาว กระเบนดำ กระเบนธง กระเบนนก กระเบนหิน / กระเบนไฟฟ้า the electric ray

----------- There are no English or Latin translations available in that dictionary for the above names, but you may be able to venture guesses if I translate the attributes they take -

"white" grabehn, "black" grabehn, "flag" grabehn, "bird" grabehn, "rock" grabehn.

-----------

[OOLEEBER]

I belive our friend redsox will now be as confused as I am.

I've seen many 'rays' while scuba diving but they were all in fiji. My friends have told me that they've seen them in thailand but I'm not sure which ones. They must have most of them here though.

Richard, can you assist with translations?

[OOLEEBER]

It is too adventurous to assume that the common names for rays in English can be translated more or less word for word into Thai. The possibility of that approach to work would only be if none of these fish are native to Thailand, or not close enough to have been known in Thai culture before English became widely used (since after WWII). In this case, Thai may (a big MAY) have adopted straight translations of the English names. It is quite unlikely though

This assumption (which I'm sure is correct) defines a whole new area of understanding for me.

Thanks Meadish.

[Richard W]

Richard, can you assist with translations?

Barely. To have any confidence, we need the species names. (I have only limited confidence in the secureness of the meanings of the English names!) Then we can use the results of googling in Thai. For eample, two species are identified on this government fisheries web page.

[meadish_sweetball]

Well, for what it's worth, through googling I found a Thai-speaking forum on keeping exotic fish where I have now posed the same question, in Thai.

http://www.ninekaow.com/wbs/view.php?sub=02&id=1590

By browsing other posts in that forum I came across one of the names on your list - The Motoro

which is referred to in the site as โมโตโร่

mootoorôo long mid - long mid - long falling or "motoro", quite simply. Whether this is the name commonly used all over Thailand I do not know. The word sounds very Japanese, or possibly Polynesian.

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I now tried to Google on "โมโตโร่ " where I came up with another site -

Quick summary in ENG of the text contained in that page:

The text is about an aquatic animal show that was held in Thongthani. One especially beautiful specimen (because of its bright colours) was a grabehn not native to Thailand. Thailand has 2-3 species of grabehn fish, all of them brown-coloured and therefore not attractive as pets (all according to the author).

ปลาดังกล่าวมีหลายชนิด แต่ที่สวยและแปลกมีเพียง 5-6 ชนิด เท่านั้น อาทิ โพโกดอต (ดำจุดขาว) Potamotrygon leopoldi โมโตโร่ Potamotrygon motoro ไทเกอร์ Potamotrygon sp. จากัวร์ Potamotrygon sp. และแอปเปิ้ล Disceus aiereba

"There are many types of said fish, but as for beautiful and rare ones, there are only 5-6 types, namely: Phoogoodawt [=Polkadot] (black with white spots) Potamotrygon leopoldi; Mootoorôo, Potamotrygon motoro; thaigêr [=Tiger] Potamotrygon sp.; jaagua [=Jaguar] Potamotrygon sp., and aeppeun [Apple] Disceus Aireba."

พันธุ์โพโกดอต มีลักษณะเหมือนจานวงกลม มีหาง พื้นของลำตัวจะเป็นสีดำทั้งตัวจรดหางและจะมีจุดสีขาวขึ้นกระจายอยู่ทั่วไป ทั้งจุดเล็กจุดใหญ่ตลอดทั้งลำตัวจนถึงหาง

"The Polkadot looks like a round plate with a tail. Its base is all black, */jarot/ tail with white dots of variying size all over, including the tail."

พันธุ์โมโตโร่ สีของลำตัวเป็นสีน้ำตาลอ่อนและเข้ม มีจุดวงกลมเป็นสีส้มขึ้นกระจายทั้งตัว

"The motoro's body is a bright, light brown with round orange dots all over its body."

ไทเกอร์ ลำตัวเป็นสีเหลือง มีลวดลายเป็นสีดำทั้งตัวและหาง คล้ายกับเสือโคร่งหรือเสือลายพาดกลอน จึงได้รับฉายาว่า กระเบนไทเกอร์

"The Tiger's body is yellow with a black pattern all over including the tail, resembling a tiger (Felix tigris) which is the reason for it being called Tiger."

พันธุ์จากัวร์ ลำตัวกลมมีหางยาวประมาณ 1 ฟุต พื้นผิวเป็นสีน้ำตาลเข้มและอ่อน แตกต่างกันไปตามธรรมชาติ มีจุดสีเหลืองทั้งเล็กและใหญ่กระจายไปทั่วลำตัว คล้ายกับลายของเสือดาวจึงเป็นที่มาของชื่อ กระเบนจากัวร์

"The Jaguar has a round body with an approx. foot-long tail. Its skin is a light, bright brown of natural variation, with yellow dots of varying size spread all over its body, similar to a leopard's [ sic! ] Hey, look Snowy, you've got a fishy doppelganger ] which explains the origin of its name grabehn jaguar."

พันธุ์แอปเปิ้ล ลักษณะลำตัวคล้ายผลแอปเปิ้ลที่ผ่าครึ่ง ส่วนหางจะเหมือนกับก้านผลแอปเปิ้ล จึงเป็นที่มาของชื่อดังกล่าว

"The Apple variety looks like an apple split in two and its tail like an apple stalk, which explains the origins of its name."

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Will continue tomorrow. Good night /Meadish

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Latin names of your species:

Urotrygon reticulata - Reticulate ray

Potatrygon Shroderi - Flower ray

(How widespread is "Sakura Ray" anyway? Google indicates the name is not in common use)

Potamotrygon motoro - Motoro ray

Potamotrygon leopoldi - Polkadot ray

Since these species are South American rays, species preferred for breeding and keeping as pets, they are unlikely to have unique Thai names - and the discussion board I found seems to indicate Thais will use the English names but with Thai-ified pronunciation.

To make a Thai understand what type of fish you mean, you use กระเบน 'grabehn' which is a fish most Thais will know (my girlfriend lives far from the sea and still knows what a grabehn fish is, without any special interest in fishes).

What are you using these names for? If you want to talk to Thais who are breeding these fish they will most likely be familiar with the English common names but pronounced in Thai fashion. This means you should be able to say

grabehn motoro

grabehn pokadot

grabehn flower ??

grabehn reticulate

....

If I receive an answer in the Thai forum I'll be back to post it here.

[meadish_sweetball]

I received this reply at the Thai web board today:

"Hej Martin,

It is uncommon to have Thai name for any Amazonia rays.

varsågod"

('varsågod' means - 'there you are/you are welcome' in Swedish for anyone who's interested)

... this seems to confirm that you should use the English and Latin names if you want to talk 'fishy'. :-)

----------

And here is more information from the same very helpful person I found through the Thai site:

"For your question about Thai name of many South America rays, as I said in the webboard. It is uncommon to have Thai name for most of alian species,of course with some exemptions such as Star tortoise we call " àµèÒ´ÒÇ ". Actually, we rarely invent new name but directly translate word by word from English to Thai. So, if you want to try, you can call as list below.

Reticulata Ray= กระเบนลายผ้าปูม grabehn laay phaa puum

Polka Dot Ray= กระเบนดำจุดขาว grabehn dam jud khaaw

Motoro Ray= I have no idea for motoro

Sakura (flower) Ray= กระเบนดอกไม้ grabehn dawk maai

But I think no one can understand if you call those rays with their Thai names. To prevent misunderstanding, it would be much better to call those rays as their English names."

So there you go redsox - use the English names and Latin names to prevent misunderstanding, and you may use the helpful suggestions by Khun Bbendum above if you want to further clarify what you mean.

Cheers,

Meadish

[redsox]

A big thank you to ooleeber, meadish sweetball and Richard W for all your efforts to translate the names to me.

I saw one particular ray which I want to buy in Chatuchak Plaza last weekend but was unable to determine the breed. If I recalled correctly, the owner pronounced something like "too la taay" or "too laay tak".

In the end I just got it and if I'm not wrong, it should be a potamotrygon reticulata. Still confused about what it is called in thai though.

Thanks again.

[sbk]

Just as an FYI from a fishing widow: generally only local fish (ie fish found in Thailand) have their own Thai names. Usually for exotic fish it will just be the name of the fish pronounced in a Thai way.

[Hua Nguu]

Yep, like the Arapaima. Plaa Chon Amazon

Cheers

Michael

[snowleopard]

Just as an FYI from a fishing widow: generally only local fish (ie fish found in Thailand) have their own Thai names.  Usually for exotic fish it will just be the name of the fish pronounced in a Thai way.

Here are some rays with Thai names...

1.กระเบนแมลงวัน "gra-baen maleng wan"=banded whip-tail stingray

2.กระเบนนกจุดขาว "gra-baen nok juht kaow"=spotted eagle ray

3.กระเบนน้ำจืด "gra-baen nahm jeut"=freshwater stingray

4.กะบาง "ga-baang"=imbricated stingray

Cheers.

Snowleopard.