Multiple Pronunciations

[ArtVandalay84]

How come in Thailand there are sometimes multiple pronunciations for some words? Here are a few examples off the top of my head.

"Cobb Coon Krop" or "Cobb Coon Cop"

"Farang" or "Falang"

"Koh Samed" or "Koh Samet"

"Pat-ta-ya" or "Pat-thai-ya"

What up with dat?! Is it a regional dialect thing?

[AngelofDeath]

The problem is not with the pronunciation, but the type of transliteration they use. As there are no universally agreed transliteration system to use, therefore you ran into this problem. The best solution to this is to learn to read Thai alphabet and ditch transliteration asap.

Edit: Except for the "Farang" and "Falang" pronunciation, some Thais pronounce " r" as "l". Other examples would be "roo" and "loo", which means "to know". I think they pronounced this way due to laziness. I'm not sure about this, but I'm sure someone else can explain it better than me.

Edited May 28, 2012 by AngelofDeath

[MaxwellsDemon]

I believe that the utmost proper Thai R is supposed to have a single roll. So instead of rolling your Rs, you just get one of those tongue slap sounds. It almost comes out as a pre-vocalized D sound, which is actually quite close to a hardened L sound.

Make funny noises and you'll get it eventually. Also make sure no one else is around when doing so.

But yeah, the alternate spellings come from no standard transliteration system. Some Thai consonants also have a different sound when put at the end of a syllable as opposed to the beginning, for example S becomes a T-ish sound, thus the occurrence of both sawasdee (letter-for-letter) and sawatdee (phonetic).

[Richard W]

Edit: Except for the "Farang" and "Falang" pronunciation, some Thais pronounce " r" as "l". ... I think they pronounced this way due to laziness. I'm not sure about this, but I'm sure someone else can explain it better than me.

Like most other Tai dialects, North and North-Eastern Thai turned native /r/ into /h/, and natively have no /r/ sound. When trying to pronounce a Pali, Sanskrit or Siamese /r/, the speakers of these dialects use the closest sound available, /l/. My wife was taught how to say /r/ in school, but I've never heard her use it in Thai. However, she has no trouble using it for English.

Richard.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Edit: Except for the "Farang" and "Falang" pronunciation, some Thais pronounce " r" as "l". ... I think they pronounced this way due to laziness. I'm not sure about this, but I'm sure someone else can explain it better than me.

Like most other Tai dialects, North and North-Eastern Thai turned native /r/ into /h/, and natively have no /r/ sound. When trying to pronounce a Pali, Sanskrit or Siamese /r/, the speakers of these dialects use the closest sound available, /l/. My wife was taught how to say /r/ in school, but I've never heard her use it in Thai. However, she has no trouble using it for English.

Richard.

Ah, interesting Richard. (Lichard?...Lichald?...Hichald?) Derp

[BWPattaya]

The problem is not with the pronunciation, but the type of transliteration they use. As there are no universally agreed transliteration system to use, therefore you ran into this problem. The best solution to this is to learn to read Thai alphabet and ditch transliteration asap.

Edit: Except for the "Farang" and "Falang" pronunciation, some Thais pronounce " r" as "l". Other examples would be "roo" and "loo", which means "to know". I think they pronounced this way due to laziness. I'm not sure about this, but I'm sure someone else can explain it better than me.

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

[TXBeth]

The problem is not with the pronunciation, but the type of transliteration they use. As there are no universally agreed transliteration system to use, therefore you ran into this problem. The best solution to this is to learn to read Thai alphabet and ditch transliteration asap.

Edit: Except for the "Farang" and "Falang" pronunciation, some Thais pronounce " r" as "l". Other examples would be "roo" and "loo", which means "to know". I think they pronounced this way due to laziness. I'm not sure about this, but I'm sure someone else can explain it better than me.

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

55555 "official" does not translate to "universally agreed," much less remotely accurate.

[infernalman7]

Sometimes when Thai speakers are a bit lazy to actually roll their tongues for the /r/ sound so they use /l/ instead. (which is quite acceptable and more regularly used in some parts of Thailand)