I taught myself to read Thai script after I got fed up with trying to work out the transliteration systems that seem to vary from book to book. As for phonetics, another language again. Anyway, whilst reading about varieties of fruits in LOS I noticed a number of them have มะ as the first syllable. Asked TGF without success, looked it up in dictionary but only got a long list of fruit names. Anybody got an idea on the meaning?

It is short for หมาก which in olden times meant fruit/seed or something.

Quote from the dictionary; "หมาก" โบราณแปลว่า ลูกไม้ ผลไม้

May I say how much I agree with you on the 'other language' representing sounds using semi-roman script.

Thanks for that tgeezer. I see หมาก is also the name for the betel nut. Perhaps มะ is used in the name of fruit that contains seeds. Curiouser and curiouser.

Thanks for that tgeezer. I see หมาก is also the name for the betel nut. Perhaps มะ is used in the name of fruit that contains seeds. Curiouser and curiouser.

In the Laos language หมาก is used in front to form fruit names, e.g. หมากม่วง instead of มะม่วง , so it seems that มะ is just a contraction of หมาก

As stated, หมาก "fruit" has eroded to มะ, but is always a bound prefix (i.e. only used as part of fruit names). Whereas หมาก now means betel, shortened from หมากพลู.

Thai Visa, a gold mine of information

As stated, หมาก "fruit" has eroded to มะ, but is always a bound prefix (i.e. only used as part of fruit names). Whereas หมาก now means betel, shortened from หมากพลู.

And then there's หมากฝรั่ง (betel farang) - chicle, chewing gum