The "sophistication" of the english language vs other languages

[Forethat]

English tends to combine two words in a vocab sense in the same way but they are written as separate words.

Table lamp

Lamp post

Light bulb

But then we also combine two words into one.

Taillight

Doormat

Buttonhole

Grasshopper

Some associations are obvious, some are less obvious as in Butterfly. Personally I think the associations are not dissimilar to Thai. Some make sense, some are logical, some are illogical - in both languages.

The best example of Thai-ness weirdness and charm; "rot fai faa tai din" = "electric car in the sky - under ground (MRT in Bangkok)"

Priceless!

"rot fai fah" means electric train

"rot fai fah dtai din" means underground electric train There is no mention of"sky'

'fah' does mean sky but 'fai fah' is the adjective electric.

So it not weird at all.

BTW OP, those are not called brackets around the word sophistication.

Well, my point here is not what the words MEAN, we all know that, but how the words translates directly if we want to understand how the words are constructed.

Am I wrong that "rot fai" means train (electric) and that the word is constructed from merging the words "car" and "electric" the same way "hong naam" is constructed from "room" and "water"...?

To underline this, a steam train would be "rot cak ai naam"...?

I didn't know that "fai fah" was electricity, I always believed "rot fai fah" was "SkyTrain", but your telling me that "fah" doesn't denote "sky" at all in this case, but is used to make the train electric...?

Edited October 8, 2013 by Forethat

[dao16]

English tends to combine two words in a vocab sense in the same way but they are written as separate words.

Table lamp

Lamp post

Light bulb

But then we also combine two words into one.

Taillight

Doormat

Buttonhole

Grasshopper

Some associations are obvious, some are less obvious as in Butterfly. Personally I think the associations are not dissimilar to Thai. Some make sense, some are logical, some are illogical - in both languages.

The best example of Thai-ness weirdness and charm; "rot fai faa tai din" = "electric car in the sky - under ground (MRT in Bangkok)"

Priceless!

"rot fai fah" means electric train

"rot fai fah dtai din" means underground electric train There is no mention of"sky'

'fah' does mean sky but 'fai fah' is the adjective electric.

So it not weird at all.

BTW OP, those are not called brackets around the word sophistication.

Well, my point here is not what the words MEAN, we all know that, but how the words translates directly if we want to understand how the words are constructed.

Am I wrong that "rot fai" means train (electric) and that the word is constructed from merging the words "car" and "electric" the same way "hong naam" is constructed from "room" and "water"...?

To underline this, a steam train would be "rot cak ai naam"...?

I didn't know that "fai fah" was electricity, I always believed "rot fai fah" was "SkyTrain", but your telling me that "fah" doesn't denote "sky" at all in this case, but is used to make the train electric...?

yeah...fai fah...electric....you can drop the "fah" when you are talking about trains, too.

Anyway, HongNam....does it not remind you of WC, as in "water closet"?

[Forethat]

Anyway, HongNam....does it not remind you of WC, as in "water closet"?

my point exactly!