How To Use ນີ້ (This)?

[Aulok]

I know that the word ນີ້ can be pronounced as a mid level tone or a high falling tone. What is the difference between them? Can I say that the high falling tone ນີ້ modifies nouns without a classifier and the mid level tone ນີ້ modifies classifiers. The high falling tone ນີ້ is a pronoun implying "this/here". The other ນີ້ is a modifier implying only the meaning "this" and never occur alone as subject or object by itself? Can anyone give me some clues?

[meadish_sweetball]

I am unable to see what Thai words you have written. Have tried changing character encodings to all the Thai options I have in Firefox, but still your supposedly Thai text comes up as boxes. Maybe it is just me though. If not, could you check if there is a way to fix this?

[Totster]

I am unable to see what Thai words you have written. Have tried changing character encodings to all the Thai options I have in Firefox, but still your supposedly Thai text comes up as boxes. Maybe it is just me though. If not, could you check if there is a way to fix this?

It has been written using Lao characters.

totster

[Tywais]

I am unable to see what Thai words you have written. Have tried changing character encodings to all the Thai options I have in Firefox, but still your supposedly Thai text comes up as boxes. Maybe it is just me though. If not, could you check if there is a way to fix this?

Same for me, copied and pasted in MS Word and tried several other fonts and can't get to change to something recognizable. Taking a guess based on context suspect it is this:

นี้

[meadish_sweetball]

Thanks Totster and Tywais. That would also be why the tone designations are not the same as Central Thai. The Lao language is not the most common topic here in the Thai language forum but there may be a few people who have studied it and can tell you about conventions.

[Aulok]

I am unable to see what Thai words you have written. Have tried changing character encodings to all the Thai options I have in Firefox, but still your supposedly Thai text comes up as boxes. Maybe it is just me though. If not, could you check if there is a way to fix this?

It has been written using Lao characters.

totster

That means you can read this character? It IS a Lao word. I thought some Lao speakers may come by and give me some help. In fact, I have asked similar questions about the Thai นี้ and its falling tone variant. Lao have these two words written as one character, but two pronunciations.

[Aulok]

Who can kindly point out the nuance between these two tones of this word? Thanks :jap:

[tgeezer]

Who can kindly point out the nuance between these two tones of this word? Thanks :jap:

I can't, but that isn't surprising since this is a Thai language forum.

I think you are trolling; when you are reading Lao how do you know what tone they are said in if there is no indication in the spelling?

[Rikker]

Hey there, tgeezer--watch it. I don't know enough about Lao to comment on the nuances, but I can confirm that from what I've read, he's right. There are two tonal pronunciations with one spelling. I don't know, however, which is used when.

[tgeezer]

There are two tonal pronunciations with one spelling. I don't know, however, which is used when.

I suspect that to the initiated trolling is probably a bad thing to suggest; I withdraw it.

How are tones explained in English, we just know don't we? and if the wrong tone or emphasis is used we somehow understand. Why can't that happen in Lao? Does Lao have a dictionary?

[Rikker]

How are tones explained in English, we just know don't we? and if the wrong tone or emphasis is used we somehow understand. Why can't that happen in Lao? Does Lao have a dictionary?

The only online one I know of is http://sealang.net/lao (though granted I haven't look elsewhere)

It combines two dictionaries: Lao-English Dictionary by William L. Patterson and Mario E. Severino (1995) and Lao-English Dictionary by Allen Kerr (1972).

You need a Lao Unicode font installed to use it (there's a link on the page). And if you use the virtual keyboard (click the blue keyboard icon) you can "type" without installing Lao as an input language on your operating system.

[hiero]

he's not trolling, he posts on thai language dot com a lot and has a lot of questions on there.

Hey Rikker, when people ask me what the difference between laos and thai is I often answer with "well, it's a bit like portugese and spanish.. it sounds similiar and they're very similiar languages"... am I about right? the other week I watched "สบายดีลวงประบัง" (spelling is wrong there probably) with thai subs and for the most part I could 'get the jist' without looking at the thai subs for the basic conversation parts.

Cheers