Farang

[fred2007]

So tell me what is the official word for a white caucasion? Farang,falang,ferang or what ever

[scottyd]

Kee nok 555555555

[sensei]

WHITE CAUCASIAN?

How much whiter do want it to get?

Farang is a term that generally means foreigner in Thailand. You might sometimes hear people say "falang" because of their "inability" to pronounce the letter "R" pLoperly.

Edited February 13, 2009 by sensei

[Travel2003]

So tell me what is the official word for a white caucasion? Farang,falang,ferang or what ever

I dont think there are any.

As far as I remember, reading in some books a long time ago the word (farang, etc) comes from the word farangse, which means France.

France was among the first countries to send people here.

I believe missionaries.

The word came from that.

So I guess all white westerners are called French then.

That was a joke.

Anyhow, I might be corrected here, and look forward to it, so I can learn some new stuff.

[fred2007]

Kee nok 555555555

hey I am not talking about Thai I just wonder why so many people use different words

or can't they spell it right ?

[Travel2003]

Kee nok 555555555

hey I am not talking about Thai I just wonder why so many people use different words

or can't they spell it right ?

How you spell/write it depends of what translator you use.

[Slip]

Transliteration?

[Travel2003]

Transliteration?

Thnx

[fred2007]

WHITE CAUCASIAN?

How much whiter do want it to get?

Farang is a term that generally means foreigner in Thailand. You might sometimes hear people say "falang" because of their "inability" to pronounce the letter "R" pLoperly.

First of all, would you call a chinese a farang? since he is a foreigner in Thailand or some one black? they all foreigners in Thailand are they? Hey I am not a racist or what's so ever I just like to know.

But some of those Falangs,farangs don't even know how to spell the name.

[Farma]

I propose the thread title be changed to Falang as the OP is obviously tone deaf.

[fred2007]

I propose the thread title be changed to Falang as the OP is obviously tone deaf.

Thanks Mate but that is just my connection

[GungaDin]

Farang.

[digitele]

First of all, would you ( You mean Thai's?) call a chinese a farang?

Thais would call him 'Jean" 1st = Chinese.

or some one black?

"Dum" always 1st, then Dum falang...(insert nationality).. Or korn Dum Issan...etc.

123

[bangkokrick]

Farang = Foreign as explained to me by a learned Thai many years ago. They are great at the 'NG' sound, but not so good on the 'GN' sound. LOL

Cheers, Rick

[bangkokrick]

OOPS! I forgot to add that the Thais normally refer to any on there Asian counterparts by country. Japanese, Chinese etc. We from the far off places are referred to as farang. I suppose it's difficult to tell us Westerners apart and I am also told that the term is not meant to be offensive.

Cheers, Rick.

[coventry]

So tell me what is the official word for a white caucasion? Farang,falang,ferang or what ever

Honkey ? White trash ? What's in a name ? Edited February 13, 2009 by coventry

[buffcoat]

As farang is just a translation of the Thai then probably all the spellings are correct.

Certainly it covers Caucasians and not other racial groups although I am aware of African Americans and Indo British being called farang to differentiate them from Africans and Indians.

There was a good reply on this board a while back on this subject and farang is most likely to be a corruption of Frank which was the term for Europeans in Medieval times used by Arabic and Persian traders who would have passed on this term to the Thai and other peoples with whom they had extensive trading links.

The first Europeans to make themselves known in any meaningful way to the Thai were the Portuguese in the 1500's as they expanded their trading network east across India via the spice islands and up to Japan and China (Macau only having been handed back in modern times).

The Dutch (mainly) and English made their prescence felt in the 1600's. The French were late on the scene and only become a regional influence in the 1800's when they subjugated Indo China and took some eastern Thai provinces in the early 1900's.

[coventry]

As farang is just a translation of the Thai then probably all the spellings are correct.

Certainly it covers Caucasians and not other racial groups although I am aware of African Americans and Indo British being called farang to differentiate them from Africans and Indians.

There was a good reply on this board a while back on this subject and farang is most likely to be a corruption of Frank which was the term for Europeans in Medieval times used by Arabic and Persian traders who would have passed on this term to the Thai and other peoples with whom they had extensive trading links.

The first Europeans to make themselves known in any meaningful way to the Thai were the Portuguese in the 1500's as they expanded their trading network east across India via the spice islands and up to Japan and China (Macau only having been handed back in modern times).

The Dutch (mainly) and English made their prescence felt in the 1600's. The French were late on the scene and only become a regional influence in the 1800's when they subjugated Indo China and took some eastern Thai provinces in the early 1900's.

Too deep for me.

[Slip]

Who's Frank?

[bangkokrick]

Who's Frank?

Frank Shinawatra (Sinatra) as he was called in Manchester.

Cheers, Rick.

[MidoriApple]

As farang is just a translation of the Thai then probably all the spellings are correct.

Certainly it covers Caucasians and not other racial groups although I am aware of African Americans and Indo British being called farang to differentiate them from Africans and Indians.

There was a good reply on this board a while back on this subject and farang is most likely to be a corruption of Frank which was the term for Europeans in Medieval times used by Arabic and Persian traders who would have passed on this term to the Thai and other peoples with whom they had extensive trading links.

Oh...really? ... never heard of this before...

farang = ฝรั่ง = foreign..

falang = ฝลั่ง = ???

[buffcoat]

<H2 class=title>Managed to grab this off the net which gives the background to this potential derivation of farang quite well.

The Thai word "Farang", its variations in other languages, and its Arabic origin</H2>Submitted by Khalid on Sun, 2004/11/28 - 22:16

• Linguistics
  

While reading a recent issue of the Canadian Geographic, I came across a news item mentioning two Canadians in Thailand, who run a magazine targeted for Westerners, called Farang. The similarity of this term to the Arabic ones piqued my interested, so I did some research on it.

I found that this term Farang means "White European" in Thai. The Wikipeda Farang article says that the origin of this term is uncertain.

The term Arabs used for Eastern Europe in the seventh century was Rum الروم being the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). For Western Europe, the term Firinjia came to be used somewhat after that, and specially during the Crusades, since a large percentage of the Crusaders were Franks. Hence the term Firinjah stuck to all Western Europeans.

As Arab traders travelled to East Asia, the term was borrowed into the languages of that region. Initially describing the Portuguese, it was used for all "whites" later.

Arabic WordTransliteration in Latin charactersCommentsفرنجةFirinja, FirinjahPluralفرنجيFirinjiSingular of above termأفرنجIfranj, AfranjAnother plural formأفرنجيIfranji, AfranjiSingular

Here are the derivations in other languages.

TermLanguageCommentsfrangos, firanjaGreek"Westerner", "Latin Catholics", "Land of the Franks"ifrangiTurkishfrangSyriac"a European", "The Country of the Franks; Western Europe; Latin language or church"afrangi, ifranji, faranjiArabicArabic variations. See details in table above.afrang,faranj, ferang, ferangi, feringhiPerisanfarenghiHindifarengi, farangi, pirangiTamilfarangiMalayalamfarangThaibarangCambodian Khmerpha-rang, pha-lang-xaVietnamese

[buffcoat]

<H2 class=title>Managed to grab this off the net which gives the background to this potential derivation of farang quite well.

The Thai word "Farang", its variations in other languages, and its Arabic origin</H2>Submitted by Khalid on Sun, 2004/11/28 - 22:16

• Linguistics
  

While reading a recent issue of the Canadian Geographic, I came across a news item mentioning two Canadians in Thailand, who run a magazine targeted for Westerners, called Farang. The similarity of this term to the Arabic ones piqued my interested, so I did some research on it.

I found that this term Farang means "White European" in Thai. The Wikipeda Farang article says that the origin of this term is uncertain.

The term Arabs used for Eastern Europe in the seventh century was Rum الروم being the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). For Western Europe, the term Firinjia came to be used somewhat after that, and specially during the Crusades, since a large percentage of the Crusaders were Franks. Hence the term Firinjah stuck to all Western Europeans.

As Arab traders travelled to East Asia, the term was borrowed into the languages of that region. Initially describing the Portuguese, it was used for all "whites" later.

Arabic WordTransliteration in Latin charactersCommentsفرنجةFirinja, FirinjahPluralفرنجيFirinjiSingular of above termأفرنجIfranj, AfranjAnother plural formأفرنجيIfranji, AfranjiSingular

Here are the derivations in other languages.

TermLanguageCommentsfrangos, firanjaGreek"Westerner", "Latin Catholics", "Land of the Franks"ifrangiTurkishfrangSyriac"a European", "The Country of the Franks; Western Europe; Latin language or church"afrangi, ifranji, faranjiArabicArabic variations. See details in table above.afrang,faranj, ferang, ferangi, feringhiPerisanfarenghiHindifarengi, farangi, pirangiTamilfarangiMalayalamfarangThaibarangCambodian Khmerpha-rang, pha-lang-xaVietnamese

oops this has compressed, sorry it is hard to read

[PoorSucker]

The word was used long before the "French" came here.

Comes from the Farsi word farangi meaning "foreigners".

[GungaDin]

Falang is just a corruption of Farang as Thais can't get their tongue around "r"s.

Saying that, how come "school" becomes "....skoon" ?

I love it when they say "Wiktawee Monument"

bless 'em.

[sassienie]

Falang is just a corruption of Farang as Thais can't get their tongue around "r"s.

Saying that, how come "school" becomes "....skoon" ?

I love it when they say "Wiktawee Monument"

bless 'em.

Falang/falung is actually a Thai friut.

As far as most of the uneducated Thais are concerned, us whites are all Farangs. Our culture is Farang, we are all Christian, our language is Farang and we all come from, Farangland.

I can remember about 10 years ago one of my mother in laws neighbours, kept asking me, when am I going back to France? I replied but I`m English. The guy just stared at me with a confused look on his face. I guess he just couldn`t see the difference.

But putting the boot on the other foot, one of my neighbours back in England kept referring to my wife as being Chinese. I said, no, my wife in Thai. Again my neighbout couldn`t understand why this offended us as she considered all orientals as being the same.

When I first met my Thai wife in England, she once ask me, what is the difference between English people and Americans? I replied, we are basically the same, only Americans have more money.

Edited February 13, 2009 by sassienie

[Goshawk]

Interesting that both "farang" and "ferengi" (the fictional extraterrestrial race from the Star Trek universe) both share the same etymological root.

beam me up somchai...

[MidoriApple]

Falang/falung is actually a Thai friut.

As far as most of the uneducated Thais are concerned, us whites are all Farangs. Our culture is Farang, we are all Christian, our language is Farang and we all come from, Farangland.

I can remember about 10 years ago one of my mother in laws neighbours, kept asking me, when am I going back to France? I replied but I`m English. The guy just stared at me with a confused look on his face. I guess he just couldn`t see the difference.

But putting the boot on the other foot, one of my neighbours back in England kept referring to my wife as being Chinese. I said, no, my wife in Thai. Again my neighbout couldn`t understand why this offended us as she considered all orientals as being the same.

When I first met my Thai wife in England, she once ask me, what is the difference between English people and Americans? I replied, we are basically the same, only Americans have more money.

Falang/farung is actually a Thai fruit??????

Oh...really? ... never heard of this before...

IMO, is the same spelling, the fruit and foreigner = farang (caucasion, guava)

What you've said up above is so true... I couldn't see the difference among each caucasions too...

But for Oriental people, I guess I do know... a lot more%, at least...

[Pakeha]

When I first travelled to Cambodia some years ago the local children simply referred to me and another farang I was travelling with as 'moneyball'... Every time we walked passed them they would come running up screaming "moneyball moneyball" with their hands out...

They simply viewed us as big walking balls of money and I guess someone had tricked them all into believing 'moneyball' was the correct thing to call us. We found it highly amusing and tried explaining that we were not Americans and this was a term reserved for Americans only . I've never come across this again since by the way.

Anyway people use the term/spelling they are used to or are taught. If your teacher or text book teaches 'ferang' you will probably use that. If it teaches 'falang' you will probably use that.

Nonetheless it still frustrates me when farangs use anything other than 'farang'. I generally assume they've spent about ten minutes in Thailand...

[GungaDin]

Nonetheless it still frustrates me when farangs use anything other than 'farang'. I generally assume they've spent about ten minutes in Thailand...

You are correct!