Talking About The Royal Family

[withnail]

I saw a car sticker today which said เรารักในหลวง which I now know means we love the king and it occured to me that I didn't really know what words to use when talking about the royal family.

Looking in dictionaries there seems to be a large amount of vocab referring to this subject and I wondered what words are generally used by Thai people.

withnail

[Tywais]

I saw a car sticker today which said เรารักในหลวง which I now know means we love the king and it occured to me that I didn't really know what words to use when talking about the royal family.

Looking in dictionaries there seems to be a large amount of vocab referring to this subject and I wondered what words are generally used by Thai people.

withnail

พระเจ้าอยูหัว is the only way I have heard when referring to His Majesty

Edited November 12, 2005 by tywais

[BambinA]

เรารักในหลวง

ในหลวง is sort of slang/abbreviation , come from "ใน(พระบรมมหาราชวัง)หลวง" what people call King

ใน - in (nai)

พระบรมมหาราชวัง - Grand Palace (prá-bà-rà-mom-hăa-râat-chá-wang )

หลวง - royal (lŭang )

[meadish_sweetball]

Transcription oddity in Thai2English, I think.

The only pronuciation I have heard in real life for พระบรมมหาราชวัง is prá-bò-rom-ma-hăa-râat-chá-wang .

[Tywais]

Transcription oddity in Thai2English, I think.

The only pronuciation I have heard in real life for พระบรมมหาราชวัง is  prá-bò-rom-ma-hăa-râat-chá-wang .

พระเจ้าอยู่หัว

# prá jâo yòo hŭa king ; His Majesty

This is what I see at Thai2English and is what I am familiar with on both Thai radio and Thai TV. Perhaps this is more formal then the average Thai would use.

Edited November 12, 2005 by tywais

[meadish_sweetball]

To clarify, I was referring to the automatic transcription of the Thai word for Grand Palace.

As for terms referring to His Majesty, both 'nai luang' and 'phrajaoyuuhua' are commonly used. 'Nai luang' is the more everyday term while phrajaoyuuhua is a bit more formal and official, just like Tywais says.

[BambinA]

Transcription oddity in Thai2English, I think.

The only pronuciation I have heard in real life for พระบรมมหาราชวัง is  prá-bò-rom-ma-hăa-râat-chá-wang .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ohhhh you are absolutely right

i did not check it well before copy-paste

i apologise

[Tywais]

To clarify, I was referring to the automatic transcription of the Thai word for Grand Palace.

As for terms referring to His Majesty, both 'nai luang' and 'phrajaoyuuhua' are commonly used. 'Nai luang' is the more everyday term while phrajaoyuuhua is a bit more formal and official, just like Tywais says.

Thanks for the clarification, lost the context while reading.

[withnail]

Sounds good everyone thanks for the quick replies.

How about a few common sentences referring to his majesty, the sort of thing you might often hear.

[Tywais]

Sounds good everyone thanks for the quick replies.

How about a few common sentences referring to his majesty, the sort of thing you might often hear.

You might watch the Thai news and will often see one of the Royal family there. Also for your interest when one actually has to talk with a member of the Royal family you are required to use the Royal Thai Language. I remember when Her Royal Highness Princess Sirindohn came to visit our facility my Ajarn friend was chosen to do the introduction of the facility. He was basically in a cold sweat and going over his speech which was translated to the Royal Language which he said was complex.

It was a hugh event for us. The entire facility was basically overhauled with new paint jobs, new sidewalks, etc. We were also given instructions and a dress rehearsal. Being a farang I was allowed to use English and refer to Her Royal Highness as Her Royal Highness (already knew that from television).

Edited November 12, 2005 by tywais

[samran]

Sounds good everyone thanks for the quick replies.

How about a few common sentences referring to his majesty, the sort of thing you might often hear.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You might watch the Thai news and will often see one of the Royal family there. Also for your interest when one actually has to talk with a member of the Royal family you are required to use the Royal Thai Language. I remember when Her Royal Highness Princess Sirindohn came to visit our facility my Ajarn friend was chosen to do the introduction of the facility. He was basically in a cold sweat and going over his speech which was translated to the Royal Language which he said was complex.

It was a hugh event for us. The entire facility was basically overhauled with new paint jobs, new sidewalks, etc. We were also given instructions and a dress rehearsal. Being a farang I was allowed to use English and refer to Her Royal Highness as Her Royal Highness (already knew that from television).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yep, most Thai's would struggle to speak the royal language. My friend (Thai) aso had the crown princess visit. As he was educated overseas the protocol officer said he should speak English rather than try and converse in any form of Thai.

There is even a special language used in the civil service for writing documents. One of the reasons things take so long in government is that a documents have to be vetted by the language expert in the department.

[mike_l]

Transcription oddity in Thai2English, I think.

The only pronuciation I have heard in real life for พระบรมมหาราชวัง is  prá-bò-rom-ma-hăa-râat-chá-wang .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

fixed now!

[katana]

Sometimes in Bangkok when there's a Royal procession of cars and the traffic stops, you'll hear เสด็จมา which is I think ราชาศัพท์ for 'The royal procession's coming'...

[Johpa]

Maybe you got the spelling wrong here, and I apologise that I do not have a Thai keyboard, นา(then yaa yak)

Nai is an older feudal (sakdina) term for what we might call 'Lord'. In the rural villages one still hears rural folks refer to wealthy folks from the city as,, as "cao nai." The wealthy Bangkok banker who built a retirement home in the village is referred to as "pho nai" (the lord who acts like a father, a positive connotation) while the even wealthier longer term resident is referred to as "pho liang" ( the father who provides, also a positive honorific title which is actually the common honorific used to address him even in the City of Chiang Mai by all below the rank of the Provincial Governor).

So as other have pointed out, it is very, very common in the rural areas to hear His Majesty referred to as nai luang in common speech, referring to him as the Royal Lord.

[Richard W]

Maybe you got the spelling wrong here,  and I apologise that I do not have a Thai keyboard, นา(then yaa yak)

....

So as other have pointed out, it is very, very common in the rural areas to hear His Majesty referred to as nai luang in common speech, referring to him as the Royal Lord.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ในหลวง is the commoner form - 17,600 raw Google hits, as opposed to only 234 raw Google hits for นายหลวง. Interestingly, หลวง seems to have been adopted as a Khmer word for 'king'.

[taxexile]

could someone please post the words (common and official) for the other main members of the royal family.

[Johpa]

Maybe you got the spelling wrong here,  and I apologise that I do not have a Thai keyboard, นา(then yaa yak)

....

So as other have pointed out, it is very, very common in the rural areas to hear His Majesty referred to as nai luang in common speech, referring to him as the Royal Lord.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ในหลวง is the commoner form - 17,600 raw Google hits, as opposed to only 234 raw Google hits for นายหลวง. Interestingly, หลวง seems to have been adopted as a Khmer word for 'king'.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have never really paid attention to the spelling of the term ในหลวง as such a casual word would not normally be found in print. But I always assumed it was related to นาย. ( I can copy and paste the Thai you folks post) So it is interesting trying to figure how it came about. The only thing that comes to my mind is a distant memory that perhaps it refers to the most inner palace, perhaps even a krom nai. But this is very hazy memories as I clearly need to refresh my memory of 18th century Thai bureacracy.

And to clarify the last statement, the Khmer words were adopted by the late arriving Thai elites attempting to replace the great Khmer rulers and these Khmer loan words into Thai form the basis of the royal language, raatchasaap. Perhaps

ในหลวง is but a transliteration of a Khmer phrase.

**Last sentence deleted. You just did what you were warning about**

Edited November 13, 2005 by cdnvic

[sleepyjohn]

I occasionally meet a northern princess in Chiangmai. I also often hear my Thai friend talk to her on the phone. One simply uses "Jao" as the title and for instance when getting her attention one would simply say Jao, when she is being talked about it's Jao. Sorry don't have Thai font but Jor Jahn sara Ao

Sleepyjohn