Language In The North East

[mr bilko]

In the village where i recently stayed, near sisa ket, they spoke mainly two languages

Laos and something else, the girlfriend called this languge suay (sounds the same as beautiful in thai)

Can anybody give me an insight into this language, what its even called.

i want to try and learn a bit more before i go again. Although no trip is planned in the very near future.

[lampard10]

In the village where i recently stayed, near sisa ket, they spoke mainly two languages

Laos and something else, the girlfriend called this languge suay (sounds the same as beautiful in thai)

Can anybody give me an insight into this language, what its even called.

i want to try and learn a bit more before i go again. Although no trip is planned in the very near future.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Suay is the language used by the Elephant herders and handlers in Isaan. You rarely hear it outside of this community, although a few, including my wife speak it.

[tso310]

There are infact many different dialects spoken right across the North East from Korat through to Ubon. In Buriram the main language is infact Northern Khmer. In Surin its something simialr. Suay is what my wife gypsy language although the term gypsy is very different from the British view of thieves etc. We have a number if friends who speak Suay and my wife does not understand it at all. Korat speaks a more Lao derived version of Thai. Before Kamphuchea was "open" we used to see a few Khmers coming to the border areas of Buriram and Surin. Conversations between locals and them was easy as there is about a 70% commonality between the two languages.

I suspect languages like these within Thailand will not survive more than 2 or 3 more generations. One problem is that these are spoken languages only and of course the children are schooled in Thai as their first language. This is very noticable in the villages. My wife's parents (in their 70s) speak very little Thai. Mind you it does mean that people like my wife are naturally bi-lingual, at least.

[Thetyim]

Suay is the language used by the Elephant herders and handlers in Isaan. You rarely hear it outside of this community, although a few, including my wife speak it.

There's a punch line in there somewhere but I'm not going to say it.

[jrincon17]

Suay is the language used by the Elephant herders and handlers in Isaan. You rarely hear it outside of this community, although a few, including my wife speak it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There's a punch line in there somewhere but I'm not going to say it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[gburns57au]

In the village where i recently stayed, near sisa ket, they spoke mainly two languages

Laos and something else, the girlfriend called this languge suay (sounds the same as beautiful in thai)

Can anybody give me an insight into this language, what its even called.

i want to try and learn a bit more before i go again. Although no trip is planned in the very near future.

I would have thought that khmer was spoken in Sri sa ket, but I could be wrong

[lampard10]

In the village where i recently stayed, near sisa ket, they spoke mainly two languages

Laos and something else, the girlfriend called this languge suay (sounds the same as beautiful in thai)

Can anybody give me an insight into this language, what its even called.

i want to try and learn a bit more before i go again. Although no trip is planned in the very near future.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would have thought that khmer was spoken in Sri sa ket, but I could be wrong

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Suay is spoken around Tha Tum area, which is not a million miles fron Sisaket cross country. In fact if there are Elephants around, it's odds on their Mahauts will speak Suay.. Of course legend has it, that the Elephants themselves understand Suay.

[gburns57au]

In the village where i recently stayed, near sisa ket, they spoke mainly two languages

Laos and something else, the girlfriend called this languge suay (sounds the same as beautiful in thai)

Can anybody give me an insight into this language, what its even called.

i want to try and learn a bit more before i go again. Although no trip is planned in the very near future.

I would have thought that khmer was spoken in Sri sa ket, but I could be wrong

Suay is spoken around Tha Tum area, which is not a million miles fron Sisaket cross country. In fact if there are Elephants around, it's odds on their Mahauts will speak Suay.. Of course legend has it, that the Elephants themselves understand Suay.

Sorry I wasnt on about the Suay dialect, I seem to remember hearing about that....the OP said that Laos was spoken in Sri Sa Ket....I thought that Khmer was the main lingo there...not Laos

[mr bilko]

Village is in-between sisa ket, and rasi sali(sari), just of the main road, cant rember the name but i think it translated to mango. Certainly no elephant herding going on there. Pretty much everybody works the rice fields, or looks after the water buffalo.

The teaching language in the local school was suay, a Thai teacher moved there from Bangkok and had to learn suay to teach.

Language spoken in village in order.

Suay

Lao

Thai - only spoken to try and communicate with me

Bai sai = go where - speak Lao

Bai nai = go where - speak Thai

Delicious, tasty, very good.

em = suay

alloy = Thai

sep = Lao

These could be mixed up as I wasn’t sure exactly what I was speaking, and not even sure if spelt correct, but its how they sound.

I caused much humour in the village as most of them had never seen a ferrang in the flesh, and to speak in suay and Lao was an absolute wonder.

Incidentally my nickname in Thailand is Chang, mainly because of the amount of beer Chang I consumed. I had to be given a nickname because my name is Mark, and every time somebody said mak (much, plenty, big??) I though they were saying mark.

Thank you very much for the responses from everybody.

[Khutan]

There are infact many different dialects spoken right across the North East from Korat through to Ubon. In Buriram the main language is infact Northern Khmer. In Surin its something simialr. Suay is what my wife gypsy language although the term gypsy is very different from the British view of thieves etc. We have a number if friends who speak Suay and my wife does not understand it at all. Korat speaks a more Lao derived version of Thai. Before Kamphuchea was "open" we used to see a few Khmers coming to the border areas of Buriram and Surin. Conversations between locals and them was easy as there is about a 70% commonality between the two languages.

I suspect languages like these within Thailand will not survive more than 2 or 3 more generations. One problem is that these are spoken languages only and of course the children are schooled in Thai as their first language. This is very noticable in the villages. My wife's parents (in their 70s) speak very little Thai. Mind you it does mean that people like my wife are naturally bi-lingual, at least.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is interesting;

I was of the understanding that "suay" was a Stock Language, rather than a dialect. My wife speaks a little bit of Lao or e-sarn, plenty of Thai and Khmer, but cannot understand "suay". She understands a few words, only because her mother speaks "suay".

I sis a little research and I thought it to be nother language.

I am very interested to hear other's opinions.

BTW the spoken language at home is English and Khmer. You seldom hear a Thai word spoken at home these days.

[Johpa]

Suay is a Mon-Khmer language and not a Tai language and thus the Suay probably pre-date the arrival of the Thai and Lao into the region.

The Suay were the traditional elephant people of the Northeast just as the Karen were the traditional elephant herders of the Northwest. The Thais, having migrated relatively recently into the region, were always dependent upon the indigenous folks in the forests and hills to provide elephants for use in the miltary and as Royal accoutrements. There was an earlier Thai King who wrote a long treatise on elephants, but he was more of an armchair pachyderm expert.

The largest elephant I ever saw in Thailand was a Suay owned elephant that brought oohs and ahhs from my Karen neighbors.

[sabaijai]

Surin Province has the largest concentration of Suay (ส่วย) speakers, followed by Si Saket and Buriram provinces. Altogether linguists estimate there are 275,000 Suay speakers in Thailand. Populations of Suay speakers can also be found in Cambodia (15,500) and Laos (64,000). (source: Ethnologue)

The language belongs to the Katuic branch of the Mon-Khmer language family and is closely related to Northern Khmer. It's known as 'Kuy' (กูย) or 'Kuay' (กวย) among native speakers of the language, according to Smalley's book Linguistic Diversity and National Unity.

Two years ago I took a 10-day introductory mahout training course at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre near Lampang, and all the commands we used to drive the elephants were in Suay/Kuy. I've forgotten most of it, but still remember the phrase for 'Stand up!', which was 'Hap soon!'.

[bina]

sabaijai can u give me the list of commands?

i want to try them with the jer. zoo elephants next time we go to visit the thai guys there (they have two mahouts that live in special apartment with the elephants)... surprisingly enough, the last two guys spoke english also, young guys...want to make their jaws drop (they did already when they spoke about me to sompong and i answered them....)

[Johpa]

sabaijai can u give me the list of commands?

i want to try them with the jer. zoo elephants next time we go to visit the thai guys there (they have two mahouts that live in special apartment with the elephants)... surprisingly enough, the last two guys spoke english also, young guys...want to make their jaws drop  (they did already when they spoke about me to sompong and i answered them....)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There is an elephant at my local US zoo that originally came from Chiang Mai. I once yelled at it using some Karen phrases, it came sauntering directly over to me to the amazement of the local zoo handler.

[bina]

There is an elephant at my local US zoo that originally came from Chiang Mai. I once yelled at it using some Karen phrases, it came sauntering directly over to me to the amazement of the local zoo handler.

i'd love to do that with an ellie....

now if we really want to irritate people, we can start discussing whether or not animals (elephants ) understand dialects of languages, bi lingualism among thai elephants (dogs are so should be elphants), whether they speak issaan, laos, etc etd etc... just joking: (been there done that..)

now i have to find out which dialect these four ellies speak..... ... but it cant be that all the mohouts that these elephants get speak the same dialect if the suay lang/dialect is only spoken in a very specific area and mahouts change about every four/six years (go back home to wife and kids) and come from, probably, different areas each time??

what is a stock lang.; i'm anthro/ oriented but have not heard the term?

Edited June 1, 2005 by bina

[speleo]

what is a stock lang.; i'm anthro/ oriented but have not heard the term?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think Mattnich means it is a language for speaking to stock i.e. animals.

Where I come from farmers use a dialect derived from classical Anglo-Saxon and the occasional Old French word when working with animals.

[bina]

thanx matnich....

come to think of it every country has a 'stock' language but most probably died out with draft animals etc not being used anymore.... like: gee , haw, diou etc for mules/donkeys.. will be in jerusalem zoo in week after next, will ask about the suay lang..

[thai3]

In the village

Suay is spoken around Tha Tum area, which is not a million miles fron Sisaket cross country. In fact if there are Elephants around, it's odds on their Mahauts will speak Suay.. Of course legend has it, that the Elephants themselves understand Suay.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not spoken in Tha Tum, only at the elephant village about 30 klm away called something like baan paa plang. Main area for suay speaking is the sangkha district of surin near to buri ram.-peter

[sabaijai]

sabaijai can u give me the list of commands?

i want to try them with the jer. zoo elephants next time we go to visit the thai guys there (they have two mahouts that live in special apartment with the elephants)... surprisingly enough, the last two guys spoke english also, young guys...want to make their jaws drop  (they did already when they spoke about me to sompong and i answered them....)

Bina - Sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been travelling lately. Not by elephant ...

Like I said, the only command that I remember clearly is hap soon, 'stand up'. I do have a little notebook filled with the commands, in roman spelling, but it's in Chiang Mai. When I get back, I can look for it if you remind me.