I can't speak for the rest of Thailand but here down south the most common greeting is my very rough transliteration shown about meaning have you eaten yet. What is this word (leeyang)? I can't find it in the dictionary so am assuming it is a southern bastardisation...did wonder if it was a mix of leao (already) and yaang (not yet) as that would be typically southern. Or am I way off mark and is it just a Bangkok Thai word. If so what is it and what is the direct translation?

Thanks!

The correct form is

กินข้าวหรือยัง > gin[M] khaao[F] reuu[R] yang[M] which means (as you guessed) "Have you eaten?"

หรือ which is like the conjunction "or" in english has many altenative spelling in colloquial/informal speeches

so it can sound pretty different from the original spelling.

I am not aware of how in south thailand they spell this word so I can't help more than this

Many people around here use that expression all the time, so it isn't limited to the south. Don't know what the literal translation is, always just understood it to mean 'eaten yet?'

//edit/see above.

Edited June 6, 200818 yr by Thaddeus

Have you eaten, or not yet. Reu Yang.

Thank you thank you. The southern accent would be why I hear reu as leu. Good, now I can make sure I am saying it right...

The southern accent would be why I hear reu as leu

I guess in most part of Thailand it will be pronounced more or less the same, as commonly the R sound is substitued with L. รึ is an alternative informal spell of the conjunction "or"

"Have you eaten yet?" is perhaps the most common greeting encountered throughout rural Thailand. Amongst neighbors it is usually followed, if answered in the affirmative, by 'kin khao kap arai?', what did you have to eat. The second most common greeting, used with strangers or more distant acquaintances is 'pai nai?' , where are you going?, or 'pai nai maa?', where are you coming from.

All in all far more sensible then the western tradition of immediately asking the far more existential 'how are you?', a phrase that many Asians find a bit bewildering.

As for the reu pronunciation vs the leu pronunciation, the /r/ and /l/ liquid consonants are in pretty free variation throughout Thailand. It is totally by happenstance that when and where the alphabet and "official" spelling were devised that the local dialect of Thai tended towards the /r/ variant.

Edited June 6, 200818 yr by Johpa

Southerners pronounce their r's very clearly.

This is not reu yang it is lao yang, as in I have eaten already 'gin khao lao' and I have not yet eaten 'yang mai gin'..

So, it is 'have you eaten already or not yet?'

I think sbk is correct.

The full sentence is:

กินข้าวแล้วหรือยัง kin khaaw laew rue yang [eat (rice) already or not yet]

But in informal quick speech it will also sound like:

กินข้าวแล้วยัง kin khaaw laew yang

กินข้าวรึยัง กินข้าวลึยัง kin khaaw ru' yang / kin khaaw lu' yang

But in informal quick speech it will also sound like:

กินข้าวแล้วยัง kin khaaw laew yang

กินข้าวรึยัง กินข้าวลึยัง kin khaaw ru' yang / kin khaaw lu' yang

As I've heard that sometimes และ is used as an informal abbreviation of แล้ว, this could be another version?

กินข้าวและยังและ kin khaaw lae yang?

I personally think กินข้าวรึยัง กินข้าวลึยัง kin khaaw ru' yang / kin khaaw lu' yang are the one I've heard more frequently, but this doesn't mean nothing.

Yes, meadish, I am certain that is what it is, I had to ask in the past. Southerners are, as you know, masters of fast speaking and leaving off words or parts of words that are inconvenient to their quick speech.