'de'

[bina]

thanx!!!!!

thats great....

get as much info as possible for us wanna be issaan (in all its varieties) thai speakers .... and pass it on to us ......

[booma]

firefox, i cant read thai, can u transliterate possibly, thanx..... and yes he is a very very close friend as well

pvtdick,

but just tones down a command to make it less harsh.

-- isn't that 'na', like 'kin khou na' ? as in: eat please (a mild command).....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What is 'Kin Loey'? I have used it before and have found it is a sure fire way of making someone eat, the response is rapid to say the least, I hope it is not too harsh.

B

[meadish_sweetball]

firefox, i cant read thai, can u transliterate possibly, thanx..... and yes he is a very very close friend as well

pvtdick,

but just tones down a command to make it less harsh.

-- isn't that 'na', like 'kin khou na' ? as in: eat please (a mild command).....

What is 'Kin Loey'? I have used it before and have found it is a sure fire way of making someone eat, the response is rapid to say the least, I hope it is not too harsh.

B

'Kin loei' - "Just (go ahead and) eat!". Used as an encouraging phrase among friends it is fine. Not particularly polite, but very commonly used among friends and not extremely impolite either. It really depends on the social situation.

With friends it is fine, but with people you havent met before and who you feel are of rather high social status/older than yourself, you might want to use something more tentative like

"thaan[M] kawn[LL] gor[FS] dai[F] na[H] (khrap[H])".

"Thaan[M]" is a more polite word for 'to eat'. It is a shortened form of the excessively polite "rap[H]ra[H]thaan[M]"

[bina]

remember 'der'?

now add: la at the end...

my friend sticks it at the end of many many sentences ; which i thought are along the lines of 'lets do this or...?', or maybe 'alright'

'already'?/ like, 'are we gonna do this already' if i am slow at doing something....

bla bla ba der la?

its definate issan-speak , anybody got a clue, it took me forever to catch him saying it and make him speak what he was saying so i could hear it clearly, but he couldnt give me a definition really...

we now know the 'der' is the 'na', sort of a gentle command issan style.

[taotoey]

Si (สิ) and Di (ดิ) have the same meaning and expression and are colloquial words. Si is the original colloquial word. Di is derived from Si and used mostly among children, teenagers, and even adults, among closed friends.

Si is used mostly to emphasize the meanning of the verb (action of the verb) that comes before it.

[bina]

we know that much; and in issaan its not just the kids but adults as well;

but: he says : 'suey' de la... 'its pretty' but with emphasis...when asked what he thought of a new shirt, for instance...

any other guesses?

[taotoey]

we know that much; and in issaan its not just the kids but adults as well;

but:  he says :  'suey' de la... 'its pretty' but with emphasis...when asked what he thought of a new shirt, for instance...

any other guesses?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"suey de la..." with emphasis? Which word is emphasized? 'la...'?

It is possibly 'suey dii(ดี) laew'.

'suey dii' means very pretty.

'suey dii laew' means like 'it's pretty and it looks good on you'.

'laew' means something of a past tense since you already had the shirt on.

[bina]

definately de la at the end with him stressing the 'pretty'.... will ask tomorrow could be sort of like someone saying 'a'right' at the end of sentences since he says it a lot...he tags it at the end of lot of sentences but doesnt really realize it... had to stop him and say: wait, what did u just say??

[Neeranam]

definately de la at the end with him stressing the 'pretty'.... will ask tomorrow could be sort of like someone saying 'a'right' at the end of sentences since he says it a lot...he tags it at the end of lot of sentences but doesnt really realize it... had to stop him and say: wait, what did u just say??

It is "ler" he is saying. Not sure how to write that in Thai though.

[RDN]

remember 'der'?

now add: la at the end...

my friend sticks it at the end of many many sentences ; which i thought are along the lines of 'lets do this or...?', or maybe 'alright'

'already'?/ like, 'are we gonna do this already' if i am slow at doing something....

bla bla ba der la?

its definate issan-speak , anybody got a clue, it took me forever to catch him saying it and make him speak what he was saying so i could hear it clearly, but he couldnt give me a definition really...

we now know the 'der' is the 'na', sort of a gentle command issan style.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

According to the g/f:

suey de la - สวย เด้อ ละ

definately de la at the end with him stressing the 'pretty'.... will ask tomorrow could be sort of like someone saying 'a'right' at the end of sentences since he says it a lot...he tags it at the end of lot of sentences but doesnt really realize it... had to stop him and say: wait, what did u just say??

It is "ler" he is saying. Not sure how to write that in Thai though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

According to the g/f:

ler - เหรอ

[Insight]

remember 'der'?

now add: la at the end...

my friend sticks it at the end of many many sentences ; which i thought are along the lines of 'lets do this or...?', or maybe 'alright'

'already'?/ like, 'are we gonna do this already' if i am slow at doing something....

bla bla ba der la?

its definate issan-speak , anybody got a clue, it took me forever to catch him saying it and make him speak what he was saying so i could hear it clearly, but he couldnt give me a definition really...

we now know the 'der' is the 'na', sort of a gentle command issan style.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bloody h3ll, it's also Scouse!

Apologies. Please continue your serious discussion about a language I don't put half as much effort into as I should do...

[meadish_sweetball]

You should get an mp3 player with a microphone, bina. Then record your friends speaking... this just becomes a guessing game. We dont know what words are dialect and what words are Central Thai.

I think taotoey may be on the right track here. "laeow" is often shortened to "la".

Not that I know much Isarn dialect, but "der la" sounds very weird in my ears.

I dont think he would use "suay" (Central Thai) and then use Isarn particles afterwards... If he was speaking Isarn he should be using "ngaam" instead of "suay"...?

[RDN]

You should get an mp3 player with a microphone, bina. Then record your friends speaking... this just becomes a guessing game. We dont know what words are dialect and what words are Central Thai.

I think taotoey may be on the right track here. "laeow" is often shortened to "la".

Not that I know much Isarn dialect, but "der la" sounds very weird in my ears.

I dont think he would use "suay" (Central Thai) and then use Isarn particles afterwards... If he was speaking Isarn he should be using "ngaam" instead of "suay"...?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My Isaan g/f just confirmed that she said "suay de la" to her Isaan neighbour about a beautiful house that we visited.

She said "suay de la" just means "Beautiful, no question" or "Beautiful, I tell you", and the "la" is not short for "laeow".

She also said that sometimes she uses "ngaam", instead of "suay".

[bina]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU RDN;

GET YOUR GIRL SOMETHING NICE AND TELL HER THANK YOU FROM ME i.e. if she wont get jealous that a woman is thanking her....

because everyone here is mixed issan and some khmer etc, they mix their words and when speaking to me directly tend to try to use 'better' thai i.e. central thai....

maybe your girlfriend should be an advisor to the forum for all these wierd little sayings and words....

thats what i though from context, like we say its beautiful alright.....

sorry meadish i know this drives u crazy but i have a really well tuned ear to slight differences in dinky words... i listen for days and then try to figure it out; rather like doing animal observation to catch a particular behavior like... did the alpaca get it in (breeding female)or not .... leave the rest to your imagination but it took us 40 minutes to watch and see....

[meadish_sweetball]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU RDN;

GET YOUR GIRL SOMETHING NICE AND TELL HER THANK YOU FROM ME  i.e. if she wont get jealous that a woman is thanking her....

because everyone here is mixed issan and some khmer etc, they mix their words and when speaking to me directly tend to try to use 'better' thai i.e. central thai....

maybe your girlfriend should be an advisor to the forum for all these wierd little sayings and words.... 

thats what i though from context, like we say its beautiful alright.....

sorry meadish i know this drives u crazy but i have a really well tuned ear to slight differences in dinky words... i listen for days and then try to figure it out; rather like doing animal observation to catch a particular behavior like... did the alpaca get it in (breeding female)or not .... leave the rest to your imagination but it took us 40 minutes to watch and see....

Hey bina, I am not that upset and I am sure your ear is great...

It is just that Latin letters dont do a very good job of describing the tonal differences and vowel length etc. that are crucially important to interpret Thai and Lao words.

But with RDN and his girlfriend onboard I suppose you will receive answers to your questions anyway.

I still think the mp3 player is a good idea, if you can afford it. I will get one myself... so stay tuned for Northern Thai peculiarities.

[RDN]

The amazing coincidence is that I had just read this thread about "de la" earlier today and then went outside for a breath of air, and as soon as I got outside I heard my girlfriend say "Suay de la" to our neighbour! Incredible coincidence!

[Neeranam]

According to the g/f:

ler - เหรอ

That's the one, thanks.

[bina]

if i can afford it........aaaah.! that is the key problem... nyet... nichevo.... cant do no how....

the other problem is i can now read simple stuff, but if i hear a word, you really think i can write it? what with all those extra letters and vowels i have to choose from... surely your joking... my hebrew spelling is also bad.... cant imagine i'lll improve in thai...

ok, neeranam, what is 'ler' ??ler - เหรอ as opposed to 'เด้อ ละ' ?? dialect difference, or meaning difference???

curioser and curioser....

i am printing this stuff out to day as am visiting some man w/thai wife (she writes thai-tel aviv newspaper, ) will attempt to sort this out!!.

BTW have started to read recipes in same newspaper; they also have vocab lists for workers so i do the thai half... after 10 minutes i get a headache... why are all thai fonts so small???

[RDN]

.... why are all thai fonts so small???

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think you mean "why are they so difficult to read when they are small" and I think this is not so much that they're so small, it's that you (and me) need to be able to identify every loop and curve in each character in order to recognise them. Thai people will recognise them just from the general shape - just think of your own language and how small the letters can be while you still can recognise them. There are only a few bumps, loops and curves on the Thai letters that differentiate them, but you - and I - as beginners just haven't learnt which bits are critical.

As an example, look at some of the fonts used in advertising or on food stuffs - the raw reua ร looks like an S, but that's OK for Thais because only a raw reua ร has that shape.

I think as you learn to recognise the characters - through sheer practice - you will be able to recognise them when they are small because your brain will know which bits to look for. I hope that makes sense.

P.S. Benjawan Poomsan Becker's Thai-English dictionary has these Thai fonts and shows how each character can be displayed using them - very good for learning the "critical bits" in the Thai characters.