Is It Farang Or Falang

[barky]

It's farang but most Thai's have a problem pronouncing their RRRR's so what you'll hear is falang.

As an example of mispronunciation ask a Thai to say the word Lottery and you will find most struggle to get their tongue around the word.

RRRR' and LLLL's are a problem for many Thai people.

As my Thai teacher used to say, providing you understand does it really matter?

Get used to the word coming out as falang.

What your Thai teacher said is reasonable and logical.

However, he's in an extremely small minority.

More often than not if a westener doesn't get the pronunciation to either a Thai word or an English word pronunced in "the Thai way" then the Thai listener has no idea of what you are speaking (or, at least, pretends they don't understand).

Several times I have been taken to task and/or lectured because I failed to pronunce a particular Thai word perfectly.

So, it doesn't really matter when comes to a Thai speaking, but it's critical if it's a westener doing the speaking

[Jingthing]

It's faRang.

Next ...

[Forethat]

Try getting a Falang to say กล้วย and you will see Thais rolling on the floor laughing.

I believe the difficulty you're highlighting here is depending on the origin of the farang.

[Furbie]

It's farang but most Thai's have a problem pronouncing their RRRR's so what you'll hear is falang.

As an example of mispronunciation ask a Thai to say the word Lottery and you will find most struggle to get their tongue around the word.

RRRR' and LLLL's are a problem for many Thai people.

As my Thai teacher used to say, providing you understand does it really matter?

Get used to the word coming out as falang.

This is exactly what’s wrong with the Thai educational system - laziness. So let’s make no effort to pronounce Thai correctly. As long as you can be understood what does it matter? What nonsense. I suggest you get a teacher willing to teach you Thai properly. The Khru Yai where I leared Thai would have fired such a lazy teacher.

[Hssl]

Falung is the phonetic way i would spell it when hearing Business colleagues from Bangkok saying the F word BUT some of the staff i work with that hail from Issan it sounds more like Farang - go figure

BTW some might say i have a 'professional' set of ears on me!

[inthepink]

Nothing to do with education or dialect (in central Thailand). Just laziness (or an inability to say it) really. I don't blame them either, it can be a pain when there are several ร's in one sentence. Having said that, some words don't sound right to me when you use an 'l' sound instead, such as หรือ and I can't recall ever hearing a Thai pronounce that word as "leuu" although I'm sure someone else probably has.

Edited July 22, 2010 by inthepink

[IanForbes]

I asked the same question about two years ago and got the same correct answer. If written it is farang. If spoken it sounds more like "falong" than "farang" or "falang".

B and P are also almost interchangeable in pronunciation. In actuality they sound a bit like a combination of both letters.

[Garry9999]

Ok ! get a load of this then.

Farang

Used in Thai language as a generic term for foreigner, typically used to refer to those of European ancestry

and strangely enough also black Africans.

It is also used and refers to plants or animals that are foreign in origin e.g. Potato.

The word Farang derives from "Français" because the French people were among,

if not, the first Caucasian foreigners presented in the Kingdom of Thailand.

This may be derogatory depending on context.

Absolute rubbish, try researching it again.

[thaimiller]

It’s farang but most Thai’s have a problem pronouncing their RRRR’s so what you’ll hear is falang.

As an example of mispronunciation ask a Thai to say the word Lottery and you will find most struggle to get their tongue around the word.

RRRR’ and LLLL’s are a problem for many Thai people.

As my Thai teacher used to say, providing you understand does it really matter?

Get used to the word coming out as falang.

Ask a Thai to say "SQUIRREL", I'm LMAO now at some of the attempts I've heard by Thai's trying to say it.

Yeah it's farang but we know what it means.

I pointed at a squirrel and asked the wife what it was and she said " tree rat" looks like she's been round me too long

[Scully]

A little off topic.

Try to get your missus to say fluff, I bet you one thousand baht it comes out flupp.

It took my girlfriend a about a week to say fluff correctly and she says farrang.

[TAWP]

If you want to know how to really pronounce something, listen to a news broadcast.

Not taxi-drivers, tuk tuk-drivers or bar girls...

[sabaijai]

The official Royal Thai Institute General System transcription is 'farang.' This is the system that is supposed to be used by all government bodies for signage and so on. It's not entirely consistent. But it is official

[Beetlejuice]

Falang is a fruit. A farang is someone that does not know this.

Farang (often pronounced falang)is the Thai name for the Apple Guava(Psidium guajava), a tasty tropical fruit found around the world and grown commercially in Thailand. The name came about because it was introduced to the country by Portuguese traders the locals called it the "foreigner tree" since Farang is the generic name used in Thai to describe a foreigner possibly of European or US decent.

The fruit is very nutritious with a high vitamin and mineral content as well as a good source of fibre. In fact the average Farang contains 4 times more vitamin C than an orange. Despite its rather dull look on the outside once you cut into slices the ripe fruit tastes creamy and melts in the mouth.

Thais will often joke about eating farang(foreigner/Guava) and it usually brings a smile to a fruit sellers lips if a foreigner asks for a Farang(Guava) to eat!

[otherstuff1957]

I can put this to bed. It's Farang, because the r would be the most common way to transcribe the Thai letter ร. That said, this letter is very often pronounced as L. Still, "Farang" is the most obvious way to transliterate ฝรั่ง (Either the fruit or the common word for Westerner)

Note: when in writing I think "Farang" is the best option, but in colloquial spoken language, Falang is fine. Large parts of the country don't really pronounce the ร as R. In the Lao and Northern Thai alphabets there even isn't an R at all.

So it's no biggie either way. Mai Pen Lai, as they say.

Not be be pedantic Winnie, but there actually is an R in the Lao alphabet, though they may pronounce it as an L:

ຣ ຣົຖ (rōt, car) or ຣະຄັງ (rākʰáŋ, bell) r/n r/ne r/n r/n r Low

ລ ລີງ (líːŋ, monkey) l/n l/ne l/n l/n l Low

I guess the real question is: Do we spell words the way that they are pronounced or they way that they are spelled? Unfortunately, Thais are even more inconsistent in their transliteration than most Farangs are!

Edited July 23, 2010 by otherstuff1957

[inthepink]

If you want to know how to really pronounce something, listen to a news broadcast.

Not taxi-drivers, tuk tuk-drivers or bar girls...

Are you suggesting that only taxi-drivers, tuk-tuk drivers and bar girls use the "L" sound for ร ? Because if you are then that's ridiculous.

[Jingthing]

Now that we have established the correctness of Farang vs. the incorrectness of Falang, can the software here be changed not to show Farang as a misspelled word?

[thaimiller]

Falang is a fruit. A farang is someone that does not know this.

Farang (often pronounced falang)is the Thai name for the Apple Guava(Psidium guajava), a tasty tropical fruit found around the world and grown commercially in Thailand. The name came about because it was introduced to the country by Portuguese traders the locals called it the "foreigner tree" since Farang is the generic name used in Thai to describe a foreigner possibly of European or US decent.

The fruit is very nutritious with a high vitamin and mineral content as well as a good source of fibre. In fact the average Farang contains 4 times more vitamin C than an orange. Despite its rather dull look on the outside once you cut into slices the ripe fruit tastes creamy and melts in the mouth.

Thais will often joke about eating farang(foreigner/Guava) and it usually brings a smile to a fruit sellers lips if a foreigner asks for a Farang(Guava) to eat!

No that is a Bucsida (spelling?)

[TAWP]

If you want to know how to really pronounce something, listen to a news broadcast.

Not taxi-drivers, tuk tuk-drivers or bar girls...

Are you suggesting that only taxi-drivers, tuk-tuk drivers and bar girls use the "L" sound for ร ? Because if you are then that's ridiculous.

Ofcourse I did not.

I implied that people that is not from Bangkok and/or of a lower class will speak 'low-class thai' (if you don't believe there is such a thing, try talking to the regional boss for Microsoft in your bar girl Thai and see her contempt for you ) that seems to be inheritly...sloppy in the pronounciation to the point that they have a hard time understanding proper Thai in some cases. See: 'Ram Intra' (road)

[astral]

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

If you study the Thai language you will find there are seperate words for

all the Asian nationalilties, all the rest are lumped together as Farang.

Possibly having the same origins a ferenghi in India/Arabic and foreigner in English.

[Beetlejuice]

Falang is a fruit. A farang is someone that does not know this.

Farang (often pronounced falang)is the Thai name for the Apple Guava(Psidium guajava), a tasty tropical fruit found around the world and grown commercially in Thailand. The name came about because it was introduced to the country by Portuguese traders the locals called it the "foreigner tree" since Farang is the generic name used in Thai to describe a foreigner possibly of European or US decent.

The fruit is very nutritious with a high vitamin and mineral content as well as a good source of fibre. In fact the average Farang contains 4 times more vitamin C than an orange. Despite its rather dull look on the outside once you cut into slices the ripe fruit tastes creamy and melts in the mouth.

Thais will often joke about eating farang(foreigner/Guava) and it usually brings a smile to a fruit sellers lips if a foreigner asks for a Farang(Guava) to eat!

No that is a Bucsida (spelling?)

A Bucsida? How dare you swear at me, you, you nasty falang, you.

[Jingthing]

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

If you study the Thai language you will find there are seperate words for

all the Asian nationalilties, all the rest are lumped together as Farang.

Possibly having the same origins a ferenghi in India/Arabic and foreigner in English.

It almost definitely has nothing to do with the old wive's tale that it has anything to do with the FRENCH.

The Ethiopian word for foreigner --

ferengi

Note the R. Not felengi.

[bunta71]

It's farang but most Thai's have a problem pronouncing their RRRR's so what you'll hear is falang.

As an example of mispronunciation ask a Thai to say the word Lottery and you will find most struggle to get their tongue around the word.

RRRR' and LLLL's are a problem for many Thai people.

As my Thai teacher used to say, providing you understand does it really matter?

Get used to the word coming out as falang.

What your Thai teacher said is reasonable and logical.

However, he's in an extremely small minority.

More often than not if a westener doesn't get the pronunciation to either a Thai word or an English word pronunced in "the Thai way" then the Thai listener has no idea of what you are speaking (or, at least, pretends they don't understand).

Several times I have been taken to task and/or lectured because I failed to pronunce a particular Thai word perfectly.

So, it doesn't really matter when comes to a Thai speaking, but it's critical if it's a westener doing the speaking

My sentiments exactly...I had to say "Krabi" about twelve different ways to a thai friend before she understood what I was saying. It's really hard to say "Krabi" twelve different ways. Jeesh!

[elkangorito]

Thais totally understand 'formal' pronunciation & 'informal' pronunciation. Actually, the 'informal' pronunciation is usually just laziness (a bit like saying 'gunna' instead of 'going to').

Thais can say 'Farang' if they want to...the same as they can say 'Arai' (not Alai), 'My ben rai' (not My ben lai) & 'Aroy' (not aloy). Introducing an 'L' sound next to an 'R' sound (or visa versa) will cause plobrems (promplams).

Edited July 23, 2010 by elkangorito

[inthepink]

If you want to know how to really pronounce something, listen to a news broadcast.

Not taxi-drivers, tuk tuk-drivers or bar girls...

Are you suggesting that only taxi-drivers, tuk-tuk drivers and bar girls use the "L" sound for ร ? Because if you are then that's ridiculous.

Ofcourse I did not.

I implied that people that is not from Bangkok and/or of a lower class will speak 'low-class thai' (if you don't believe there is such a thing, try talking to the regional boss for Microsoft in your bar girl Thai and see her contempt for you ) that seems to be inheritly...sloppy in the pronounciation to the point that they have a hard time understanding proper Thai in some cases. See: 'Ram Intra' (road)

I don't have any "bar girl Thai" to use, thanks

.

I'm still not sure of the point you are trying to make. The "L" pronunciation we are discussing on this thread has absolutely nothing to do with class or education.

By the way, if you went around speaking Thai like a news reader you would sound rather odd except in very formal situations.

I'm well aware of the different levels of Thai. An easy example would be when talking about eating, where you could say "daek" kaao (very coarse), gin kaao (informal and used in daily conversation by all classes I have encountered), "taan kaao" (polite and used when addressing elders or betters) and "rap prataan ahaan" (very formal and I have never heard it used in spoken Thai by anyone yet). In addition to those you have the words used when speaking about the royal family and monks.

Edited July 23, 2010 by inthepink

[elkangorito]

BTW, I have no problem at all, to get my students to pronounce the 'R' sound correctly.

[Garry9999]

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

If you study the Thai language you will find there are seperate words for

all the Asian nationalilties, all the rest are lumped together as Farang.

Possibly having the same origins a ferenghi in India/Arabic and foreigner in English.

Well done Astral. You got it.

[inthepink]

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

If you study the Thai language you will find there are seperate words for

all the Asian nationalilties, all the rest are lumped together as Farang.

Possibly having the same origins a ferenghi in India/Arabic and foreigner in English.

Well done Astral. You got it.

if you study the Thai language how can you miss, khon angrit, khon farangseyt, khon yeraman, khon amerigan etcetera???

Edited July 23, 2010 by inthepink

[Jingthing]

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

If you study the Thai language you will find there are seperate words for

all the Asian nationalilties, all the rest are lumped together as Farang.

Possibly having the same origins a ferenghi in India/Arabic and foreigner in English.

Well done Astral. You got it.

Yeah, but people will still be slinging and buying the French connection schmegegge 100 years from now.

[Garry9999]

In this day and age farang or falang used to describe a group of people who's skin is a different colour is completely unnecessary, rude and ignorant in every sense.

If you study the Thai language you will find there are seperate words for

all the Asian nationalilties, all the rest are lumped together as Farang.

Possibly having the same origins a ferenghi in India/Arabic and foreigner in English.

Well done Astral. You got it.

if you study the Thai language how can you miss, khon angrit, khon farangseyt, khon yeraman, khon amerigan etcetera???

"Oh look, there goes a Khon Angrit." No actually, I never heard anyone say that.

[elkangorito]

"Oh look, there goes a Khon Angrit." No actually, I never heard anyone say that.

Is that 'con' (1) or 'coon' (2)?

(1) The 'o' is said like the 'o' in hot.

(2) The 'oo' is said like the 'oo' in foot.