Help..is There A Thai Word For.....

[Jay_Jay]

I know that this subject is meat and bread to you lot but it doesn't have to be so complicated does it? I suggested เพศrymes with hate. This discussion is not about what the sound is, but what English sound is closest. I feel เอ is close to hate and the Thai phonetic team which produced the dictionary, five of them, felt that เพศ sounded like hate.

In that case - Meadish_sweetball's answer is the right answer. This sound does not appear in RP English. Many of my Thai students come to me frustrated, wondering why 'near enough' pronunciation in their eyes is not understood by Thais. English has many different accents / dialects that we are used to hearing daily, and if someone pronounces 'hate' in a different way, it has no real effect on comprehension.

As nice as it would be to have this rule reciprocated with Thais, it is not the case (unless of course as was pointed out you speak with a Scottish, Jamaican, New Zealand ('a' in man in New Zealand Accent comes close) or other dialect of English that does have the long เอ sound.

[tgeezer]

I know that this subject is meat and bread to you lot but it doesn't have to be so complicated does it? I suggested เพศrymes with hate. This discussion is not about what the sound is, but what English sound is closest. I feel เอ is close to hate and the Thai phonetic team which produced the dictionary, five of them, felt that เพศ sounded like hate.

In that case - Meadish_sweetball's answer is the right answer. This sound does not appear in RP English. Many of my Thai students come to me frustrated, wondering why 'near enough' pronunciation in their eyes is not understood by Thais. English has many different accents / dialects that we are used to hearing daily, and if someone pronounces 'hate' in a different way, it has no real effect on comprehension.

As nice as it would be to have this rule reciprocated with Thais, it is not the case (unless of course as was pointed out you speak with a Scottish, Jamaican, New Zealand ('a' in man in New Zealand Accent comes close) or other dialect of English that does have the long เอ sound.

Firstly, thanks to both you and Meadish for indulging me in my ignorance, it is not often I get a good discussion here in spite of being as controversial as possible. This little interlude has sent me backwards but it was good revision.

I suppose to assume that the poster would not 'out' the 'te' in mate was a bit of a stretch; I was talking about the vowel, and the word, which is not unreasonable to a Thai speaker who, because the sound 'te' is not to be used the tongue never approaches the อี position. I shouldn't think เอ exists in any English once you put it into a word but if you say a, e, i, o, u, it definitely does, or would I be wrong again? I commonly say a as in mate, to me the 'e' after the closeing consonent gives the original 'aeiou' value to the vowel. Oh dear, it has just occured to me that if someone were English and schooled in a different era when the construction of these sounds were considered beyond the reach of our children you would have learnt a(cat) e(bed); come to think of it this may be the cause of my problem.

Some individual Thais, as you know, can easily accommodate us by understanding our attempts at Thai, but it comes from a wider education or experience. What do they know of England, who, only England know? I hope I know more of England now and also that if I am not understood there is a 50/50 chance that it is not me who is wrong.

Soon I hope to meet a teacher from the system, who I hope will straighten me out, I will warn her of the topic of course.