Translation For Mother, Father, Brother, Sister.....

[220TC]

Hi,

I already have some thai script tattoo'd on my arm but need a translation for the following:

FATHER MOTHER BROTHER SISTER

I have tried a couple of websites but they seem to come up with slightly different translations and meanings.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks,

Duncan

[Rikker]

You will want to go with:

พ่อแม่พี่น้อง

or if you want to space the words (though in Thai words aren't typically spaced):

พ่อ แม่ พี่ น้อง

Literally that's actually "father mother older-sibling younger-sibling," but that's how this idea is expressed in Thai.

[220TC]

cool, thanks for that.

Im a bit confused by the older sibling, younger sibling thing. What if my brother is actually younger than me but you have put older sibling???

Does this work?

พ่อ แม่ น้องชาย น้องสาว

[220TC]

.......just read on the internet that younger brother / little brother is thai slang for dick! is that right lol?

[Rikker]

In English we'd say "brothers and sisters" to refer to our siblings. Thais say พี่น้อง, which is literally "older and younger siblings." It's a cultural difference. The age of the sibling has more weight than their gender.

There is no age-neutral word for "brother" or "sister" in Thai--an age relationship must be expressed.

But if you want a tattoo that says, "father mother brother sister" in a natural Thai way, the phrase is พ่อ แม่ พี่ น้อง.

And yes, น้องชาย "little brother" is a slang term for one's penis.

[Tywais]

There is no age-neutral word for "brother" or "sister" in Thai--an age relationship must be expressed.

Wonder how that works with twins? Guess the one who came out a couple of minutes before would be พี่.

[meadish_sweetball]

^That is indeed the case, my wife happens to have twins as siblings and they carefully maintain who is พี่ and who is น้อง.

[bhoydy]

There is no age-neutral word for "brother" or "sister" in Thai--an age relationship must be expressed.

Wonder how that works with twins? Guess the one who came out a couple of minutes before would be พี่.

Yes, i have 2 students who are twins. The older brother's nickname is พี่ and the younger brother's is น้อง.

[oevna]

cool, thanks for that.

Im a bit confused by the older sibling, younger sibling thing. What if my brother is actually younger than me but you have put older sibling???

Does this work?

พ่อ แม่ น้องชาย น้องสาว

It depends. Obviously if you are referring to your actual brother or sister individually, you would specify them based on their actual age relative to yours (so พี่สาว for your older sister and น้องชาย for your younger brother, etc.).

What people are explaining here is that พี่น้อง as a compound word is a generic term used to refer to your group of siblings as a whole, elders and youngers, so to speak.

[Tod Daniels]

I think part of your confusion is; at least in America we don't make the distinction about siblings being older or younger in relation to us until we're asked. I'd just say I have a brother and a sister and be done with it.

Given the entire glue which seems to hold the fabric of Thai society together revolves around who is older or younger in a given social setting; Thais put a LOT more emphasis on who's who in relation to age. In Thai I hafta say I have a younger brother and younger sister, or at least say I'm the eldest with two younger siblings.

While unrelated to your post (you might find it of interest); you also see this when thais refer to their grandparents, either they are the "father of my father"; ปู่ (paternal grandfather), the "mother of my father"; ย่า (paternal grandmother), the "father of my mother"; ตา (maternal grandfather) or the "mother of my mother"; ยาย ( maternal grandmother). In the US, I'd just say either my grandfather or grandmother. In fact, the Thai term which refers to grandparents as a whole is actually all four thai words combined; ปู่ย่าตายาย. It gets slightly crazier when you start to refer to in-laws too.

Again this is mostly to do with the incredible emphasis thais put on age, whether the older person is smarter or not has actually little bearing; they're afforded deference simply on their age alone. It's also the reason when two unfamiliar thais meet almost the first thing outta their mouths after the mindless pleasantries and asking their names is 'how old are you'. It immediately allows them to being addressing each other in the correct terminology age wise พี่ for elder and น้อง for younger.

Like the poster known as "oevna" said the term พี่น้อง is a generic compound word when referencing siblings, whether they're older or younger than you. It just means my brothers/sisters with no delineation of their sex or age.

I'd forgo the word spacing as it's most definitely NOT something the Thais do EVER when writing Thai. Although I have seen a LOT of foreigners with Thai phrases inked on them in this atypical fashion.

Talk about a strange tattoo; I saw a guy today who had กรุงเทพฯ (the abbreviation for Bangkok) on one forearm and นครราชสีมา (the real name of what is refered to colloquially as Korat) on the other forearm. I was almost gonna ask him about it, but gave it a pass. It's far from the whackiest thing I've seen foreigners ink on themselves in Thai script.

Hope you found it of interest. .. Good Luck. ..

[Hardie]

All Asian languages that I know of make the same distinction, so I wouldn't read too much into its cultural significance.