The Pronunciation Rule For เสริม

[farangnahrak]

What is the pronunciation rule that says เสริม should be pronounced as สะ เริม and not as เส ริม?

I mean, why isn't it written as สเริม?

There are many other words like this, for example everyone's favorite politician Mr เฉลิม.

(hehe)

fyi, Google claims to have found 1,830,000,000 results for สเริม, although I can't seem to find it in a dictionary . . .

[bdw]

เ always comes first, even it's it's not pronounced at the beginning of the word.

[katana]

เสริม (to supplement, add to etc) is pronounced SERM เสิม and not SA-RERM สะ เริม isn't it?

Edited September 9, 2012 by katana

[bdw]

yes, it is pronounced Serm

[farangnahrak]

เสริม was a bad example . . .

Anyway, the question is still valid for เฉลิม . . . and hundreds of other words.

For example, เปล่า . . . I know it's ป + เล่า as I've memorized it that way . . . but why not เป + ล่า?

And then เปต้า is เป + ต้า, and not ป + เต้า. The reverse!

Now, I know the correct way to say all of these words through memorization, but I'm trying to codify these rules . . .

[AyG]

(1) Google only has 1.15 million results for สเริม, - and a large proportion of those is a result of Google's incorrect parsing of Thai words. For example, อาหารสเริม appears under this search. เสริม has 153 million hits.

(2) The spelling is probably either an artifact of how the Thai language has lost initial consonant clusters over the centuries (and continues to do so), or reflects an initial consonant cluster in an imported word which can't be pronounced in Thai. (Though in the latter case I think it's more usual to insert an extra unstressed /a/ after the initial consonant, as in, for example, "sport -> "sa-port".)

[bdw]

You just have to know, there's no set rule.

Kind of like the way you know that "That's mine." and "mine shaft" are not the same "mine".

[AyG]

For example, เปล่า . . . I know it's ป + เล่า as I've memorized it that way . . . but why not เป + ล่า?

เปล่า is not ป + เล่า - ปล่ is a consonant cluster an is treated as a single unit. First thing the OP needs to do is read up about consonant clusters in Thai. There's an introduction at http://www.thai-language.com/ref/double-consonants, though most textbooks will probably give a clearer explanation.

[farangnahrak]

Thanks AyG, that link explains many of my questions.

However, I'm reading through the lists, and I'm a bit confused for จร. That list says จร should be pronounced as just จ, such as in จริง. Makes sense.

But that rule falls apart for words like จริต, จรัส, เจริญ, and many others.

And again for สร. It claims to use it as ส. However, these two words seem to be contradictory . . .

สรตะ = สะ + ระ + ตะ

สรณะ = สอน + ณะ

Perhaps, maybe, all these words fall into additional rules that the above link just didn't account for?

ps - what is อาหารสเริม, as opposed to อาหารเสริม?

pps - I'm still getting 1,830,000,000 results for สเริม

https://www.google.com/search?q=%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%AA%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%A1&sugexp=chrome,mod=9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&ei=XTNNUJ7gB6Pj0QHKtoGoCQ&ved=0CBoQvgUoAA&q=%E0%B8%AA%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%A1&nfpr=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=bf525e541b623bda&biw=1745&bih=986

But now looking past the first few pages of results, it's obvious that google is just counting any page that has the letter ส and the combination เริม, not necessarily together.

Adding quotes to make it "สเริม" gives me 1.14 million returns, similar to yours. But even then, it appears google doesn't care if เริม and เริ่ม are entirely different . . .

[DavidHouston]

The Thais refer to this class of consonant cluster as a "false cluster" (อักษรควบไม่แท้). Such clusters are of two sub-types: In the first type of cluster, typically when the second consonant in the cluster is ร, only the first consonant is pronounced. This class includes the words จริง, ไซร้, ศรัทธา, เศร้า, สรง, and เสริม.

The second type of false cluster is where the consonants are ทร and the cluster is pronounced with the single sound /s/ (ซ). This type includes the words ทรง, ทรัพย์, ทราบ, and โทรม.

For a discussion in Thai by the Royal Institute discussing true and false clusters see http://www.royin.go.th/th/knowledge/detail.php?ID=2036.

Edited September 10, 2012 by DavidHouston

[Richard W]

(2) The spelling is probably either an artifact of how the Thai language has lost initial consonant clusters over the centuries (and continues to do so), or reflects an initial consonant cluster in an imported word which can't be pronounced in Thai. (Though in the latter case I think it's more usual to insert an extra unstressed /a/ after the initial consonant, as in, for example, "sport -> "sa-port".)

Yes, these clusters generally reflect a loan from a foreign language - usually Khmer or English, but sometimes Sanskrit (e.g. กษ-). Thai allegedly has a cluster /sr/, so it's not surprising that there should be two possible simplifications - s- and sa-r-. As a result of these intermittent losses, sometimes an unetymological consonant is added, and sometimes it even affects the pronunciation.