So how on earth do you say his name?

I don't know how to describe the pronunciation in English, but I can give the name in Thai: เสนาะ เทียนทอง, which makes it clear for those who can read Thai. "Snoh" is spoken with two very short syllables... somethong like sa-noh... "a" as in "such"...

Erwin

If he becomes PM and gains the approval of PAD, will that make him Yellow Snoh, because I was always taught to avoid that....

Another old pirate who has been waiting decades to feed at the top of the trough. Bandit comes to mind.

am moving this to the Thai language sub forum.

those that want to discuss the political aspect, please do so on the various threads running in General and News

cheers

San-O

I don't know how to describe the pronunciation in English, but I can give the name in Thai: เสนาะ เทียนทอง, which makes it clear for those who can read Thai. "Snoh" is spoken with two very short syllables... somethong like sa-noh... "a" as in "such"...

Yep, that's it. To expand a little:

Any word that starts with a 's' + other consonant sound, will automatically take a short /a/ in between the consonant sounds when pronounced in Thai. This short /a/, English most commonly writes with a 'u' (as in 'such' 'luck' etc.).

This is because 'sn' is not a phonetically allowed consonant combination in native Thai words.

To understand how this comes about, contrast English with for example some Slavic languages that allow longer and/or different consonant combinations that native English speakers may find difficult to pronounce without adding 'helper' schwa vowels or removing one or more of the consonant sounds in pronunciation.

Dnyepr, anyone?

For a detailed examination of this, see http://www.thai-language.com/id/830221 - especially the section on "Non-conforming leading consonant clusters."

If this new PM is as good as his name claims, Thailand will get a good future.

เสนาะ = nice, melodious sound (เพราะ)

เทียนทอง = golden candle

One other word with the same (2) vowel(s): เฉพาะ (specific)

but:

เสนาะ : low + low tone

เฉพาะ : low + high tone

Edited December 5, 200817 yr by kriswillems

If he becomes PM and gains the approval of PAD, will that make him Yellow Snoh, because I was always taught to avoid that....

Is Snoh an ethnic Thai? I was told, many years ago, that he was ethnically Cambodian, which would make the pronunciation monosyllabic and like Estuarine English 'snot'.