I just bought this book on the eccentricities of speaking business Thai . . .

Anyway, it said you should use the word โท instead of the word สอง when saying Thai numbers over the phone. Any other number goes by the same name, which just sounds silly . . .

Why is 2 so special? Is this common or does no one actually do this?

This was common 45 years ago, but I don't hear it much, if at all, any more. โท is just two in Pali and why it was ever used in phone numbers is beyond me, but it was. I think it's obsolete now. jmho though.

I looked up the publication date of the book . . . 1st edition was 2537, my copy is 5th edition on 2549. According to the bio, the author was about 40 when he wrote the book . . . so your theory stands . . .

I think it was commonly used in the past for giving phone numbers over the telephone (not in person) when there was a bad connection, and the numbers สอง and สาม could be easily mixed up.

I asked around, and apparently โท would get confused for โทร, so people stopped using it.

And actually, when asking around, they even got confused at what I meant . . .

To is still used in rankings of military and police. the numbers are aek (1), to (2), and tree(3) where aek is the highest rank.

It is also still used in college degrees where aek is a PhD, to is a graduate/masters degree, and tree is an undergraduate/bachelors degree

The most interesting thing about Pali numbers is that, because they are derived from the same Indo-European root language as English and all Romance languages (among others), many of the numbers find echoes in English. Tho is two, of course, trii is three. Four doesn't come across but benja is very close to Greek penta for five, eight, acha is not that far from German Aucht (sp?) These and many other Pali words have obvious cognates in English. โค cow, นาวา navy บุรึ bury (as in Canterbury) นาม name.

Anyone know others?

The most interesting thing about Pali numbers is that, because they are derived from the same Indo-European root language as English and all Romance languages (among others), many of the numbers find echoes in English. Tho is two, of course, trii is three. Four doesn't come across but benja is very close to Greek penta for five, eight, acha is not that far from German Aucht (sp?) These and many other Pali words have obvious cognates in English. โค cow, นาวา navy บุรึ bury (as in Canterbury) นาม name.

Anyone know others?

Great post idea, Mike! (Don't know whether this should be a seperate thread, but this seems as good as any I guess, since you brought it up.) Here are some more:

AARYA, "people from Central Asia, noble, royal, master" (Aryan) Thai: อารยะ, civilized

BHRAATHRA, "brother, fraternity" L. FRATER (BROTHERHOOD) Thai: ภราดร (Like Paradorn Srichapan/ภราดร ศรีชาพันธ, the famous tennis player)

DANTA, "tooth" (DENTURE, INDENT, DENTIST) Thai: ทันต์, as in ทันตแพทย์, dentist

DIV, "shine" akin to DIVA, "heaven; DIVYA, "divine"; DEVA, "god" L. DEUS, "god; DIVA, "goddess" < Gr. THEOS (DEISM/THEISM, DEITY, THEOLOGY, DIVA, "opera singer") Thai: เทวะ and เทพ, angel

KAL, "count", akin to KAALA, "a fixed point in time, time in general, proper season" > L. CALCULARE, "calculate" (INCACULABLE, CALENDAR) Thai: กาล, time, as in กาลครั้งหนึ่ง "once apon a time"

MALA, "sin, moral filth" therefore > L. MALUS, "evil, bad" (MALICIOUS, MALADY) Thai: มาร, a demon, evil

MANTRA, "incantation, song" (MANTRA, "a repeated word" e.g. om/aum) Thai: มนตร์, a spell

SHAALAA< "large room" > Fr. SALLE (SALON, SALOON) Thai: ศาลา, a pavilion

STHAA > L. STARE (STAND, STAY, STATION) Thai: สถา- as in สถาน, place, สถานี, station, and สถาบัน, institution

SVASTIKA, "cross of good fortune, auspicious sign", akin to SVASTI, a salutation meaning "be well" (SWASTIKA) Thai: สวัสดิ์, as in the greeting สวัสดี

VIIR, "be strong, display heroism", akin to VIIRA, "man"; VIIRYA, "manliness, semen, poison" > L. VIRUS, "poison" (VIRILE, "manly, strong". To this we might add L. VIRGA, "rod", which later turns into Eng. VERGE, "rod, penis"; WEREWOLF, "man-wolf"; VIRULENT, "poisonous"; ) Thai: วีระ, heroic, วิริยะ, persistence, perserverence

YU/YUVAN (JUVENILE, YOUNG) Thai: เยาว์, youth

I selected the words in the above list from the list of "English words you speak from Sanskrit" by one Mr. Richard Stoney at http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essay...skritwords2.asp, and added the Thai equivalents and their translations myself. I'm sure there's many more than this; one additional word that comes to mind right now is อวตาร/avatar.

The most interesting thing about Pali numbers is that, because they are derived from the same Indo-European root language as English and all Romance languages (among others), many of the numbers find echoes in English. Tho is two, of course, trii is three. Four doesn't come across but benja is very close to Greek penta for five, eight, acha is not that far from German Aucht (sp?) These and many other Pali words have obvious cognates in English. โค cow, นาวา navy บุรึ bury (as in Canterbury) นาม name.

Anyone know others?

Great post idea, Mike! (Don't know whether this should be a seperate thread, but this seems as good as any I guess, since you brought it up.) Here are some more:

AARYA, "people from Central Asia, noble, royal, master" (Aryan) Thai: อารยะ, civilized

BHRAATHRA, "brother, fraternity" L. FRATER (BROTHERHOOD) Thai: ภราดร (Like Paradorn Srichapan/ภราดร ศรีชาพันธ, the famous tennis player)

DANTA, "tooth" (DENTURE, INDENT, DENTIST) Thai: ทันต์, as in ทันตแพทย์, dentist

DIV, "shine" akin to DIVA, "heaven; DIVYA, "divine"; DEVA, "god" L. DEUS, "god; DIVA, "goddess" < Gr. THEOS (DEISM/THEISM, DEITY, THEOLOGY, DIVA, "opera singer") Thai: เทวะ and เทพ, angel

KAL, "count", akin to KAALA, "a fixed point in time, time in general, proper season" > L. CALCULARE, "calculate" (INCACULABLE, CALENDAR) Thai: กาล, time, as in กาลครั้งหนึ่ง "once apon a time"

MALA, "sin, moral filth" therefore > L. MALUS, "evil, bad" (MALICIOUS, MALADY) Thai: มาร, a demon, evil

MANTRA, "incantation, song" (MANTRA, "a repeated word" e.g. om/aum) Thai: มนตร์, a spell

SHAALAA< "large room" > Fr. SALLE (SALON, SALOON) Thai: ศาลา, a pavilion

STHAA > L. STARE (STAND, STAY, STATION) Thai: สถา- as in สถาน, place, สถานี, station, and สถาบัน, institution

SVASTIKA, "cross of good fortune, auspicious sign", akin to SVASTI, a salutation meaning "be well" (SWASTIKA) Thai: สวัสดิ์, as in the greeting สวัสดี

VIIR, "be strong, display heroism", akin to VIIRA, "man"; VIIRYA, "manliness, semen, poison" > L. VIRUS, "poison" (VIRILE, "manly, strong". To this we might add L. VIRGA, "rod", which later turns into Eng. VERGE, "rod, penis"; WEREWOLF, "man-wolf"; VIRULENT, "poisonous"; ) Thai: วีระ, heroic, วิริยะ, persistence, perserverence

YU/YUVAN (JUVENILE, YOUNG) Thai: เยาว์, youth

I selected the words in the above list from the list of "English words you speak from Sanskrit" by one Mr. Richard Stoney at http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essay...skritwords2.asp, and added the Thai equivalents and their translations myself. I'm sure there's many more than this; one additional word that comes to mind right now is อวตาร/avatar.

Very interesting indeed.

I was taught โท for two in phone number in school but never actually do it. It was explained to me the same as the post above, to prevent confusion between สอง and สาม. I was also told that they also do this in the Navy where noise from wind and wave might be a problem. When I asked what about สี่ and สิบ and ศูนย์ I was told to shut up.

The most interesting thing about Pali numbers is that, because they are derived from the same Indo-European root language as English and all Romance languages (among others), many of the numbers find echoes in English. Tho is two, of course, trii is three.

Not only are the words cognates, but the symbols used as the numerical diacritical tone marks are the same as the Arabic numerals we use, although two need to be rotated 90 degrees.

Interesting. Also i have always thought that...

ไม้เอก looks like the number 1

ไม้โท looks like the number 2

ไม้ตรี looks like the number 3 if you turn it on its side

I actually used these similarities to remember them when first learning the tones.

ไม้จัตวา doesn't look like the number 4, but it has four points.

On further inspection, my dictionary lists เอก โท ตรี จัตวา as the numbers 1 to 4 respectively.

บุรึ bury (as in Canterbury) นาม name.

This one's a coincidence - บุรึ is probably related to Greek polis 'city'.