Lay Crisps - Very Clever

[JetsetBkk]

I just realised that the "Lay" crisps packets have the name written using Thai letters, but they spell "Lay" in both English and Thai!

English: Lay

Thai: เลย์, but it looks like the English "Lay":

I think that's pretty clever! I wonder if there are other products whose name is spelt using Thai letters but look like English?

[mangkorn]

The advertisements for the last Harry Potter movie did that, very creatively.

[meadish_sweetball]

The Harry Potter ( แฮร์รี่ พอตเตอร์ ) logo is easily recognizable but could a person completely unfamiliar with the books actually read out what it says? I tried to google for a picture of it but came up blank.

Some of them do not spell out the same word, breeze washing powder for example - the stylized Thai font makes it look like the letters บรีส form the word 'usa'.

[mangkorn]

I'm not familiar with the books nor the movies. But when I saw the billboards, I read the name as both Thai and English. In fact, I had to look closely the first time to see the Thai, because at a glance it looked like some Gothic English font. It was very a stylized, impressive design.

[Cuban]

Some of them do not spell out the same word, breeze washing powder for example - the stylized Thai font makes it look like the letters บรีส form the word 'usa'.

Exactly the conversation we were having in the office yesterday. (About use of fonts to convey menaing.)

[tgeezer]

I just realised that the "Lay" crisps packets have the name written using Thai letters, but they spell "Lay" in both English and Thai!

English: Lay

Thai: เลย์, but it looks like the English "Lay":

I think that's pretty clever! I wonder if there are other products whose name is spelt using Thai letters but look like English?

I thought that, but it isn't true is it? only looks a bit like English and because we spend a lot of time with Thai I think we do a double-take, I bet my brother in England wouldn't see it! I agree though it is an excellent job.

[chaamguy]

Just out of curiosity, if you asked a Thai who had never seen the advert for "breeze" washing powder.

How do you think he / she would pronounce it?

I had the same thing with my wife a few months ago, there was a billboard advertising the orange drink called, splash...Never sounded anything like the English pronounciation.

Tony.

[Tony Clifton]

First thing I asked my wife when I moved here. "What's with the USA signs everywhere?"

I always read Coke as Fan.

[sutnyod]

Wow guys, how do you do that? I completely lost this ability to read Thai as anything other than Thai. Great exercise...

[Richard W]

I think that's pretty clever! I wonder if there are other products whose name is spelt using Thai letters but look like English?

'Lady Scott' tissues did quite a good job, though I haven't seen them for decades.

[tgeezer]

Wow guys, how do you do that? I completely lost this ability to read Thai as anything other than Thai. Great exercise...

I wrote my last post using W when I meant to write พ I was a phonetic spelling so I still read P, I suppose after you have read someting you couldn't say which language it was in sometimes.

[meadish_sweetball]

Just out of curiosity, if you asked a Thai who had never seen the advert for "breeze" washing powder.

How do you think he / she would pronounce it?

I had the same thing with my wife a few months ago, there was a billboard advertising the orange drink called, splash...Never sounded anything like the English pronounciation.

Tony.

Without getting to technical, that's because Thai does not have the possibility of representing 's' or 'sh' sounds when they occur at the end of a syllable - they transform into a silent t/d except with some speakers who already know English and modify their pronunciation.

Further, /s/ + consonant becomes /sa-/ + consonant. So you get something like 'sa-plaed' or 'sa-paed' for Splash and 'breed', 'bleed' or 'beed' for Breeze, 'bleed' probably being the most common.

Then you have the obligatory tones - every syllable in Thai must have one of five tones, and these tones are not just there to sound nice, if you change it, you change the meaning of the word, in the same way as /l/ vs. /r/ in bleed and breed determine a change of meaning.

Most loan words from English with one syllable take the high tone, which can add to it sounding strange from an English speaker's point of view.

[JetsetBkk]

'Lady Scott' tissues did quite a good job, though I haven't seen them for decades.

Yes, that's a good one - and it's another name starting with "La..." - so it's easily written in Thai as "เล..." but it looks like the English "La...". I can't make out the rest of the letters, but it looks pretty clever:

I'll see if I can find some in the shops.

[siamesekitty]

Coke / Coca-Cola:

(โค้ก / โคคา-โคล่า)

Colgate:

Anybody see the " a l n " in " คอลเกต " ?