Why Thais Spell The Same Word In Different Ways?

[AlexDorneles]

Chatuchak and Jatujak

I asked my Thai building manager to write my adress down and she wrote Soi Seuksavittaya, on google maps it is as Soi Suksavithaya.

Bang Rak or Bangrak.

Is this nornal?

[PattayaParent]

Thai is a phonetic language so it all depends on how the writer 'hears' the words and spells them.

Or it could just be that she's not educated well enough to spell correctly?

[KunMatt]

Chatuchak and Jatujak

I asked my Thai building manager to write my adress down and she wrote Soi Seuksavittaya, on google maps it is as Soi Suksavithaya.

Bang Rak or Bangrak.

Is this nornal?

The English alphabet does not have exact representations of a lot of Thai consonants or vowels so because there is no universal system to translate the aphabet there are many different ways to do it. For example J and Ch are very similar to the จ letter which is why you have seen two ways to spell Jatujak.

G/K, D/T, P/B all sound similar are close to the Thai letter they are trying to represent but not exact so you will always see these interchanged too.

[bendix]

Chatuchak and Jatujak

I asked my Thai building manager to write my adress down and she wrote Soi Seuksavittaya, on google maps it is as Soi Suksavithaya.

Bang Rak or Bangrak.

Is this nornal?

Thais don't spell words in different ways.

[TerryLH]

color colour center centre

Maybe they aren't the only ones.

At least they have a reasonable explanation - since it's a foreign language for them.

[Moonrakers]

color colour center centre

Standardised spellings according to differing vernaculars. A completely different thing.

[mstribling]

Chatuchak and Jatujak

I asked my Thai building manager to write my adress down and she wrote Soi Seuksavittaya, on google maps it is as Soi Suksavithaya.

Bang Rak or Bangrak.

Is this nornal?

Thais don't spell words in different ways.

Exactly.

Shame she didn't write it in Thai and hand it back.

These uneducated Thais. Can't even be bothered spelling their words correctly in English. I'm surprised they cover their breasts.

[Carib]

Chatuchak and Jatujak

I asked my Thai building manager to write my adress down and she wrote Soi Seuksavittaya, on google maps it is as Soi Suksavithaya.

Bang Rak or Bangrak.

Is this nornal?

Thais don't spell words in different ways.

Exactly.

Shame she didn't write it in Thai and hand it back.

These uneducated Thais. Can't even be bothered spelling their words correctly in English. I'm surprised they cover their breasts.

Yes, isn't it a shame...about the spelling of course

[IsaanUSA]

Alex, in case you hadn't figured it out yet, the Thai alphabet does not use Latin characters. The words you see in Latin letters are just used to recreate what the Thai word sounds like.

You may find this interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Thai_General_System_of_Transcription

"The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai language words in the Latin alphabet, published by the Royal Institute of Thailand. It is used in road signs and government publications, and is the closest thing to a standard of transcription for Thai, though its use by even the government is inconsistent"

[KhunBENQ]

Some quite ignorant and arrogant comments here.

Bendix and IsaanUSA got it to the point.

Thais don't misspell THEIR language,but transcription (romanization) is a different matter.

For those wise guys: why not try to write (spell) your name in Thai?

The lack of a consistent system leads to such nonsens as "Suvarnabhumi", which in RTGS is "Suwannaphum", in ALA-LC "Suwannaphūm".

thai-language.com offers NINE different transcription (romanization) systems,

---

Edit: IsaanUSA cites RTGS as the official system, which is correct.

But unfortunately it is not used focefully.

Suv,. is one example, others are "Jomtien"-> correct "Chom Thian", "Pattaya" -> correct "Phatthaya".

Thousands of other examples (in my Thai family there exist older passports with different spelling of the familiy name).

[KunMatt]

Some quite ignorant and arrogant comments here.

Bendix and IsaanUSA got it to the point.

Thais don't misspell THEIR language,but transcription (romanization) is a different matter.

For those wise guys: why not try to write (spell) your name in Thai?

Who are you trying to condescend? What comments (plural) are you referring to?

PattayaParent made a dumb comment first but who are all these "wise guys" you are talking about?

I thought most people answered the OP correctly and were helpful so I dont see why you felt the need to make a comment like that.

[AlexDorneles]

Take it easy KhunBENQ

Does this make sense:

here is the address she gave me in Thai, numbers were changed to X

xx/xxx ไลฟ์ แอด สาทร10

ซอยศึกษาวิทยา ถนนสาทร 10

แขวงสีลม เขตบางรัก 10500

And here is what she wrote in the roman alphabet:

xx/xxx Soi Seuksavittaya

Sathorn 10 Silom, Bangrak

Bangkok 10500

I want to receive some stuff in the mail from abroad and I want to make sure the address is correct that's how the spelling question came up inicially. When one gets mail from abroad do you write in both ways (sanskrit and roman alphabet) or just in the roman alphabet form is enough?

[BookMan]

Take it easy KhunBENQ

Does this make sense:

here is the address she gave me in Thai, numbers were changed to X

xx/xxx ไลฟ์ แอด สาทร10

ซอยศึกษาวิทยา ถนนสาทร 10

แขวงสีลม เขตบางรัก 10500

And here is what she wrote in the roman alphabet:

xx/xxx Soi Seuksavittaya

Sathorn 10 Silom, Bangrak

Bangkok 10500

I want to receive some stuff in the mail from abroad and I want to make sure the address is correct that's how the spelling question came up inicially. When one gets mail from abroad do you write in both ways (sanskrit and roman alphabet) or just in the roman alphabet form is enough?

I have both Thai and English on my package Sending/receiving from an English speaking country, i figure they can't read Thai. At the Thai end I also assume they don't read English.

I have sent stuff just in the English translation and it has always arrived.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Some quite ignorant and arrogant comments here.

Bendix and IsaanUSA got it to the point.

Thais don't misspell THEIR language,but transcription (romanization) is a different matter.

For those wise guys: why not try to write (spell) your name in Thai?

Agreed.

Unlike, say, the English, who manage to write the very same sounds in 5-6 different ways. It's vowel-roulette, looking at the number of different ways the letter 'A' can be pronounced in various words that use it.

In Thai you don't get that. An ' า ' is always that.

[KhunBENQ]

@AlexDorneles: I should take things easier, THX for the hint

I did some research on the Thai text.

I split the words and show you the raw result (RTGS).

For the second word in the first line ("Aed") I could not find a reasonable explanation (some name?).

Interestingly there are some "fillers" which do not appear in english (Kwaeng, Khet) and on the other hand "Bangkok" (Krungthep or so) does not appear in the Thai text.

"Khet" and "Kwaeng" both mean something like "district", "region"...

Here my knowledge ends.

Maybe you can discuss with your friend.

Anyway I am optimistic that the letter would arrive.

---- First line

xx/xxx ไลฟ์ : xx/xxx Lai

แอด : Aed (?)

สาทร 10 : Sathon 10

----- Second line

ซอย : Soi

ศึกษา : Sueksa

วิทยา : Witthaya

ถนน : Thanon

สาทร 10 : Sathon 10

---- Third line:

แขวง : Khwaeng

สีลม : Silom

เขต : Khet

บางรัก 10500 : Bangrak 10500

[bannork]

I printed out my address in Thai and sent my family in England 20 copies, they just write Thailand at the bottom of the envelope and the letter/ parcel always arrives.

Regarding transliteration, what with increasing globalization and the Asean market of 2015 I would have thought the thai authorities would reform the process.

In the past it was decided that each letter of the Thai alphabet would be represented by a different English letter or combination thereof- this has led to unnecessary confusion, for instance there are 3 p sounding letters in Thai (but with different tonal rules) so p in Thai gets written as p ph or bh in English!

A real classic is the Thai word เทเวศน์ this is an area near the Jaophraya river quite near Khaosan road, it's pronounced tay wait but following the letters it's written as Thewes !

[IsaanUSA]

Regarding transliteration, what with increasing globalization and the Asean market of 2015 I would have thought the thai authorities would reform the process.

Now that is something to think about! Actually, does anybody know what Myanmar and Cambodia (and Laos too) are doing regarding that issue?

[sparebox2]

Peking or Beijing?

Canton or Guangzhou?

brussel bruxelles?

Problem is world round, not only in Thailand.

[sparebox2]

I printed out my address in Thai and sent my family in England 20 copies, they just write Thailand at the bottom of the envelope and the letter/ parcel always arrives.

Regarding transliteration, what with increasing globalization and the Asean market of 2015 I would have thought the thai authorities would reform the process.

In the past it was decided that each letter of the Thai alphabet would be represented by a different English letter or combination thereof- this has led to unnecessary confusion, for instance there are 3 p sounding letters in Thai (but with different tonal rules) so p in Thai gets written as p ph or bh in English!

A real classic is the Thai word เทเวศน์ this is an area near the Jaophraya river quite near Khaosan road, it's pronounced tay wait but following the letters it's written as Thewes !

No wonder Apisit becomes Abhisit.

[Eff1n2ret]

I printed out my address in Thai and sent my family in England 20 copies, they just write Thailand at the bottom of the envelope and the letter/ parcel always arrives.

I did this for my family, but they just use the English version, as do my banks, pension providers and suchlike. I can't say everything always arrives, as I didn't get the tax return form last year which HMRC say they sent, but I don't think much goes astray. I think the Thai system is pretty much like the UK, where if you just write the house number and the postcode it should get to you, so "77/77 Moo4 + postcode" requires no language skill but pretty much pinpoints where we are.

Incidentally, I received a Christmas card a couple of weeks ago from friends in the UK who had omitted 'Thailand' from the address. Written in pencil on the envelope was "try Indonesia". Presumably someone in the Jakarta Post Office had enough oil in his lamp to realise the correct destination.

[KunMatt]

Peking or Beijing?

Canton or Guangzhou?

brussel bruxelles?

Problem is world round, not only in Thailand.

Completely different thing. The first two examples you gave are different names to each other used by different nations, not different spelling.

Its already been answered in this thread several times why it is possible to spell a Thai word several different ways with the English alphabet. I have a different method to transliterate Thai into English to everyone else, and so on.

[PattayaParent]

color colour center centre

Maybe they aren't the only ones.

At least they have a reasonable explanation - since it's a foreign language for them.

tomato tomato

I've often found English to be a foreign language for most Americans.

[KhunBENQ]

A real classic is the Thai word เทเวศน์ this is an area near the Jaophraya river quite near Khaosan road, it's pronounced tay wait but following the letters it's written as Thewes !

This proofs the confusion

The transcription in google maps is "Thewet", which makes good sense for me as a native german speaker.

Your "tay wait" confuses me though...

Unfortunately I could not find a sound clip of a native speaker for it.

"Thewes": to confuse those who never dealt with Thai script, you should have added the "n" at the end, which is not spoken:

-> "Thewesn"

[PattayaParent]

Some quite ignorant and arrogant comments here.

Bendix and IsaanUSA got it to the point.

Thais don't misspell THEIR language,but transcription (romanization) is a different matter.

For those wise guys: why not try to write (spell) your name in Thai?

Who are you trying to condescend? What comments (plural) are you referring to?

PattayaParent made a dumb comment first but who are all these "wise guys" you are talking about?

I thought most people answered the OP correctly and were helpful so I dont see why you felt the need to make a comment like that.

So you don't agree that Thai is a phonetic language?

[bendix]

Exactly.

Shame she didn't write it in Thai and hand it back.

These uneducated Thais. Can't even be bothered spelling their words correctly in English. I'm surprised they cover their breasts.

Which, given the p*ss poor quality of spelling on this forum by native English speakers, is rather ironic.

[KunMatt]

Some quite ignorant and arrogant comments here.

Bendix and IsaanUSA got it to the point.

Thais don't misspell THEIR language,but transcription (romanization) is a different matter.

For those wise guys: why not try to write (spell) your name in Thai?

Who are you trying to condescend? What comments (plural) are you referring to?

PattayaParent made a dumb comment first but who are all these "wise guys" you are talking about?

I thought most people answered the OP correctly and were helpful so I dont see why you felt the need to make a comment like that.

So you don't agree that Thai is a phonetic language?

O course it is a (mostly) phonetic language, did you read my replies in this thread?

I was referring to the second part of your post and was not intending to have a go at you, just making the point that yours was the only reply with any hint of negativity but KunBENQ was talking like everyone was stupid and arrogant.

[partington]

The problem is that the transliteration system for representing Thai script in English letters is (as has been pointed out) not standardised, even by the Thai government.

So even within the same area you can find signposts that spell the name of the district in completely different ways, for example "Vadhana" and "Watthana" in Bangkok.

Secondly, even the "official" transliteration systems are only partially phonetic, that is, they sometimes do not represent the sound of the word with the correct roman letter(s).

So for some unfathomable reason they decided to use "ph", which is always pronounced "f" in English, to represent the sound "p" in transliterated Thai. Also in Thai, when a consonant appears at the end of a word it changes its sound, (for example "j" and "s" are always sounded as "t" ; "l" is sounded as "n", etc), but this is often completely ignored in the transliteration.

So in Bangkok you often see On Nut (phonetic) written as "On Nuj" -clearly non-phonetic, giving no correct indication of pronounciation.

It always puzzled me, before I knew the Thai pronounciation rules, why Thais seemed so baffled by plurals in English. It seemed such a simple a grammatical rule: if there's more than one thing add an "s" to the end of the word.

But of course pronouncing a final "s" on a word doesn't exist in Thai , so they can't really do it.

[MediumPaceBowler]

It always puzzled me, before I knew the Thai pronounciation rules, why Thais seemed so baffled by plurals in English. It seemed such a simple a grammatical rule: if there's more than one thing add an "s" to the end of the word.

But of course pronouncing a final "s" on a word doesn't exist in Thai , so they can't really do it.

A bit more to it than that.

1 man; 2 mans

1 woman; 2 womans

1 wife; 2 wifes

1 child; 2 childs

1 knife; 2 knifes

1 radius; 2 radiuses

There are many other irregular plureaux, too. Or maybe that should be plura. Or perhaps plurum.

Transliterating Thai into English is hard because it's usually not obvious what spelling should be used. I think it was George Berhard Shaw who "invented" the perfectly valid word GHOTI. So even an official system of transliteration will contain flaws.

I do agree though that not adhering to one system (and one system only) is sometimes confusing.

[ludditeman]

Take it easy KhunBENQ

Does this make sense:

here is the address she gave me in Thai, numbers were changed to X

xx/xxx ไลฟ์ แอด สาทร10

ซอยศึกษาวิทยา ถนนสาทร 10

แขวงสีลม เขตบางรัก 10500

And here is what she wrote in the roman alphabet:

xx/xxx Soi Seuksavittaya

Sathorn 10 Silom, Bangrak

Bangkok 10500

I want to receive some stuff in the mail from abroad and I want to make sure the address is correct that's how the spelling question came up inicially. When one gets mail from abroad do you write in both ways (sanskrit and roman alphabet) or just in the roman alphabet form is enough?

The only thing that actually matters in the Thai address is the numbers. In your address xx/xxx 10500, identifies your place.

You can write anything else you want in Roman letters as the postman can't read Roman letters, only Thai script.

[Richard W]

The only thing that actually matters in the Thai address is the numbers. In your address xx/xxx 10500, identifies your place.

Thai postcodes are more like US zip codes than English postcodes. They cover a very large area, so unlike the UK house number plus postcode is not enough!