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[performancefitnessRob]

AjarnP helped me with this so far... I need to verify before I ink this to my skin...

Five English names to Thai.

Can ya'll help me verify the most correct pronunciation and spelling of these??

Thanks!!

Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your confidence, I hope I can justify it in transliterating your names I think this is what you mean, i.e. not 'translating'

Rob โรบ or รอบ the first gives more of a 'robe' sound which I always feel is wrong but it is the comon form as used by ROBinson (the department store)

Dana เดนา I am not sure of whether you want "DAYNAH" OR "DAHNAH" but I have assumed the first as it's the most common English pronunciation

Isaac ไอซาค Said as it's spelt

Lily ลิลลี Said as it's spelt

Erin เอริน Said as it's spelt

Anyway, don't take my word for it, post your request on the Thai Language forum and you will be inundated with answers

You're welcome (LOL)

AjarnP

[oevna]

Rob โรบ or รอบ the first gives more of a 'robe' sound which I always feel is wrong but it is the comon form as used by ROBinson (the department store)

I agree with the second suggestion: รอบ

Dana เดนา I am not sure of whether you want "DAYNAH" OR "DAHNAH" but I have assumed the first as it's the most common English pronunciation

Dana pronounced like DAYNAH: เดนา

and pronounced like DAHNAH: ดานา

Isaac ไอซาค Said as it's spelt

Lily ลิลลี Said as it's spelt

This one you gotta be careful with, because the "L" (or its equivalent, ล) in the final place of a syllable is pronounced like an "N" in Thai. So the way it is spelled here would be pronounced lin-ly by Thai speakers instead of lil-ly. There are a couple ways of dealing with this.

One is to drop the middle "L" like this: ลิลี

The other is to silence it with a special mark that is often used in foreign loan words: ลิล์ลี

Both of these will be pronounced li-ly (the middle "L" is barely missed, IMO).

Erin เอริน Said as it's spelt

This one you also have to be careful with, because the "E" followed by "I" vowel combination can be combined to form a different vowel altogether. This is usually seen when both vowel signs are written on the same consonant, but there are some words where they are written on different consonants that appear one after the other. Some examples of this are:

• เจริญ - jaroen (sometimes transliterated "charoen")
  
• เสริม - soem
  
• เฉลิม - chaloem
  

So, เอริน could have the alternative pronunciation "Aroen" (sort of like "Uh-rern"). This can be dealt with by spelling it with the short-duration form of the vowel "E" (which in my opinion is closer to the pronunciation of "Erin" anyhow).

This is my suggestion: เอะริน

[performancefitnessRob]

Very interesting and subtle suggestions!!!

Awesome.

I'm sitting here with my mother going over these.

Thank you for your time and effort; so nice, thank you.

[yoot]

If you are going to tattoo these words, I think I should give you decent transcription.

Rob - ร็อบ . If you transcribe it as รอบ, it would look the same as Thai word which mean cycle or round. So, in this case the shorten sign above the word is needed.

Dana - ดาน่า(DAHNAH) or เดน่า (DAYNAH)

Isaac - ไอแซค

Lily - ลิลี่ (Li-ly)or ลิลลี่(Lil-ly)

Erin - อีริน(E-rin) or เอริน(A-rin)

Although the rules state that it doesn't need to put tone mark on English transcription, sometimes putting tone mark would sound better and sound foreign to Thai people.

[mangkorn]

Rob - ร็อบ . If you transcribe it as รอบ, it would look the same as Thai word which mean cycle or round.

But if Rob is really fat, carry on...

[performancefitnessRob]

Rob - ร็อบ . If you transcribe it as รอบ, it would look the same as Thai word which mean cycle or round.

But if Rob is really fat, carry on...

I did used to race/sprint bicycles on the road and in velodromes... maybe round is appropriate, but thanks for the variation. Very intriguing! I'll ask my wife...

Thanks again.

[oevna]

Rob - ร็อบ . If you transcribe it as รอบ, it would look the same as Thai word which mean cycle or round. So, in this case the shorten sign above the word is needed.

This is a good point. The question for Rob then, is does he mind if his name coincidentally has an unrelated meaning in Thai? If not, then which spelling most closely resembles the way he pronounces his name?

ร็อบ - This is pronounced with a very short duration vowel sound, like the "O" in the word "cop", and has a high tone.

รอบ - This is pronounced with a longer duration, like the "O" in the word "mob", and has a falling tone (i.e. the tone starts out medium-high, rises to high and then falls low).

Note: these pronunciation examples are from the perspective of a person speaking with an American accent; they may differ if you are English, Irish, Scottish, Australian, New Zealander, etc. Ask a native Thai speaker to pronounce them to give you a clearer understanding.

Another alternative would be to spell out the full name "Robert" (assuming that your name is Robert). This would be spelled: ร็อบเบิร์ต

Note that this is technically not correct by Thai spelling rules. It is an attempt to wedge the letter "R" (Thai: ร) in, for the sake of remaining somewhat faithful to the English spelling, and silencing it with -์ (mai garan). The "R" sound isn't really pronounced in this case, but the vowel that is used here is pronounced similar to "ER" (sometimes transliterated "OE").

To remain true to correct Thai spelling rules but not as faithful to the original English spelling, you could alternatively spell it like this: ร็อบเบิต

In my mind, the first option ร็อบเบิร์ต is better, in spite of being spelled incorrectly in Thai. Often Thai spelling rules are deliberately broken when attempting to import foreign words and names in order to remain faithful to their original spelling. There is a long tradition of doing this with words of Pali or Sanskrit origin, which results from the fact that those languages have more phonemes and allow consonant clusters in more places than Thai language does. In modern times this has been used when importing words from other languages as well, but extended to include use of mai garan to silence letters in the middle of words, when it is, strictly speaking, only allowed on final syllables.

This has the effect of making foreign words and names stand out, and Thai people know not to try to treat them as native Thai words that might have unintentional meanings, such as the case with รอบ that yoot pointed out.