Thai Spelling Alphabet

[uhuh]

Yesterday it took me 30 minutes to spell the letter "z" on the phone until I could make myself understood. The other side insisted that she could speak English and refused to look for someone who could speak better English.

So, how should I have spelt it?

I know "a ap-pen", "b boy", supposedly "c cat maew", "d dog", "e egg".... how does this go on?

"zee zebra" or stuff like "zulu" obviously won't work. GF just said "sech" ("zed" does not work) and this worked.

BTW I am talking about phone calls to companies with international customers, the persons on the phone regularly pretend to know English.

[withnail]

Pretty much any foreign word that is commonly spoken by Thai people has a Thai spelling because, as I see it, the nature of the Thai language is such that pronouncing a word in different ways basically means you're saying a different word and by giving a word a Thai spelling this automatically fixes the pronunciation

This creates problems when, like me, you are trying to teach Thai students English because if I say the word 'coke' for example they have to realise that it is a word they already know.โค้ก however which is the Thai spelling has a fixed pronunciation/vowel length and tone which is very different to how I say it.

This goes as well for the English alphabet, each letter of which has a fixed Thai spelling and pronounciation. Some examples can be seen here http://www.thai-language.com/id/589908

Unfortunately they don't have z there but I'm pretty sure the Thai spelling is เซ็ด which would be pronounced 'set' with a high tone.

Sorry for the long winded reply.

withnail

Edited January 21, 2006 by withnail

[Richard W]

Unfortunately they don't have z there but I'm pretty sure the Thai spelling is เซ็ด which would be pronounced 'set' with a high tone.

That is indeed the spelling used in TIS 1075-2535, the 'Standard for Conversion between Computer Codes and 6-Bit Teletype Codes'. Perhaps the original problem is that an English 'zed' wasn't perceived as being in the right tone. I must say that เซ็ด is an amazingly infrequent word - only 341 Goggle hits!

Now, how do Thais normally distinguish between เอช 'h' and เอส 's'?

Edited January 21, 2006 by Richard W

[siamesekitty]

Yesterday it took me 30 minutes to spell the letter "z" on the phone until I could make myself understood.

"zee zebra" or stuff like "zulu" obviously won't work. GF just said "sech" ("zed" does not work) and this worked.

Next time try "zat" (แซ็ด, but with falling tone), most of my Thai friends seem to use this.

I know "a ap-pen", "b boy", supposedly "c cat maew", "d dog", "e egg".... how does this go on?

The companies I talk to often use countries, eg. "M - Malaysia" "N - Norway" "P - Phillippines"... not sure if they use "Z - Zimbabwe" or not

Now, how do Thais normally distinguish between เอช 'h' and เอส 's'?

I usually hear "H - Hong Kong", "S - Singapore" (pronounced "etch - Hong Gohng" and "ed - Singapoe" )

[Richard W]

Next time try "zat" (แซ็ด, but with falling tone), most of my Thai friends seem to use this.

That only gets 119 Google hits. However, แซด (presumably representing [FS]saet - i.e. falling tone, short vowel) gets 822 Google hits. Is แซ่ด (294 Google hits - possibly not all 'z') an attempt to show both short vowel and falling tone?

[siamesekitty]

Next time try "zat" (แซ็ด, but with falling tone), most of my Thai friends seem to use this.

That only gets 119 Google hits. However, แซด (presumably representing [FS]saet - i.e. falling tone, short vowel) gets 822 Google hits. Is แซ่ด (294 Google hits - possibly not all 'z') an attempt to show both short vowel and falling tone?

hmm.. did a bit of Googling myself. Most of the results for แซ่ด show usage of the word แซ่ด as in "gossip", comparable to the word "buzz" (think of the hissing sound made). The results for แซ็ด are mostly for the letter "z", though on later pages the word used in the "gossip" context shows up a few times as well. แซด has a mix of both.

Oh, and while I was at it I checked out เซ็ด, เซ็ต and เซ็ท; they were all used as the word "set" (settings on Windows, set A set B, etc.) with the exception of the SET - Stock Exchange of Thailand.

[uhuh]

Next time try "zat" (แซ็ด, but with falling tone), most of my Thai friends seem to use this.

That only gets 119 Google hits. However, แซด (presumably representing [FS]saet - i.e. falling tone, short vowel) gets 822 Google hits. Is แซ่ด (294 Google hits - possibly not all 'z') an attempt to show both short vowel and falling tone?

hmm.. did a bit of Googling myself. Most of the results for แซ่ด show usage of the word แซ่ด as in "gossip", comparable to the word "buzz" (think of the hissing sound made). The results for แซ็ด are mostly for the letter "z", though on later pages the word used in the "gossip" context shows up a few times as well. แซด has a mix of both.

Oh, and while I was at it I checked out เซ็ด, เซ็ต and เซ็ท; they were all used as the word "set" (settings on Windows, set A set B, etc.) with the exception of the SET - Stock Exchange of Thailand.

"sat" with a falling tone is what seems to be most common for "z". Supposedly Thais know "sat zebra" or "sat zero" (yesterday one out of three knew "zebra", the others had no clue - but the one who understood "zebra" told me "we (sic) know zebra, off course")

BTW countries don't work if you have to deal with receptionists/switchboard operators of limited education (countries work very well with airline staff). I learned today that I should use the children's spelling table, tomorrow I will buy one.

"c cat" seems to be standard, no real need to add "maew". "f frank" or "f father". "g game". "h home". " m man". "v victor". "w". "y yawk" (supposedly "yawk" is yolk).

It seems they cannot remember the letters in the second half of the alphabet very well.