Commoner Party of Thailand

[DavidHouston]

"วานนี้ (20 เม.ย. 57) มีการแถลงข่าวเปิดตัวพรรคคนธรรมดาแห่งประเทศไทย (คธท.) หรือ CPT ซึ่งได้จดทะเบียนพรรคขึ้นใหม่เมื่อเดือน มี.ค.ที่ผ่านมา"

"A announcement was made on April 20 2014 of the creation of a new political party, the "Commoner Party of Thailand" or CPT. This party formally registered this past March."

See http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/720424-fed-up-with-pheu-thai-activists-form-alternative-party/

I have a question regarding the English name the party chose. First "Commoner" tends to imply "not-royalty", a concept I suspect is not necessarily embodied in the word คนธรรมดา, although I guess it is one of its meanings. (cf. เจ้า and ไพร่) If "commoner" is not the best choice, then I am a bit stuck for an alternative. "Proletariat" works, but is a bit Marxist for Thailand, as is the unfortunate choice of CPT as the initialism. Historically, the CPT has been "The Communist Party of Thailand." The party could have selected "Ordinary Peoples Party", but that sounds so Hollywood (Robert Redford directing the 1980 film.) "Hoi Palloi Party" sounds too flippant and is obscure. Even "Party of the Common People" would sound better to me.

Can anyone suggest a better English translation for this group?

Edited April 22, 2014 by DavidHouston

[krisb]

Labor party?

Democratic party?

Family first party?

Edited April 22, 2014 by krisb

[Mole]

I would use the word "สามัญชน" as in พรรคสามัญชน.

Just พรรคสามัญ should also be fine too. I'd say probably even better. It'd mean like "party for the ordinary", but the word สามัญ has a more generic meaning of "common" which is often applied to a variety of words and concepts.

สามัญชน would explicitly mean common (non royal) people.

สามัญชน is the word mostly resemble the English "commoner" where the meaning of "non-royal" is also included.

คนธรรมดา just means "regular people" or something more like "average joe". To my native Thai ears, พรรคคนธรรมดา actually sounds a bit funny and not so elaborate.

You can compare it for example "labour party" and "worker party", which is almost the same meaning.

OK, I read TFA, and it seems they've deliberately chosen the word คนธรรมดา in order to mean just that, "average joe", as in non-rich and non-royal. The choice if this non-elaborate word also reflects what they're trying to image themselves.

They should indeed has used the English "Ordinary Peoples Party" which would much more reflect the cheesy "พรรคคนธรรมดา" in Thai.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Mole

[DavidHouston]

Great idea, Mole. However, I believe that that name is already taken by another party. See https://www.facebook.com/PeopleActionParty

[Mole]

Well, that may explains why they had to resort to using พรรคคนธรรมดา instead.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Mole

[DavidHouston]

Well, that may explains why they had to resort to using พรรคคนธรรมดา instead.

My question is not with the choice of Thai names, but with the English name and initialization they chose. I would have expected อาจารย์นิธิ to be more sensitive to the English nuances.

[Mole]

I guess they maybe wanted the name and meaning of the Thai สามัญชน, but since that name is taken already, they had to use the Thai คนธรรมดา instead, but used the English "Commoner Party".

Also, he is after all not an English teacher, so this may not be one of his strengths.

I do agree though that "Common People's Party" is a more direct and appropriate translation of the name.

[CaptHaddock]

I hesitate to disagree with Mole since he is a native speaker, but my Thai teacher has always explained to me that คนธรรมดา means "a commoner" in contrast to royalty or aristocracy while คนปกติ is the way to refer to an "ordinary" person. I see that dict.longdo.com gives this definition of "commoner":

commoner (n) คนธรรมดา,สามัญชน

[Mole]

Actually, คนปกติ, would mean more like a "normal person" as in "person with no physical or mental disabilities".

สามัญชน is commoner as in "non royal".

คนธรรมดา is just common person or common people, which even in English, the term "common people" doesn't really imply non royal.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Mole

[DavidHouston]

Actually, คนปกติ, would mean more like a "normal person" as in "person with no physical or mental disabilities".

สามัญชน is commoner as in "non royal".

คนธรรมดา is just common person or common people, which even in English, the term "common people" doesn't really imply non royal.

The Royal Institute Dictionary reflects exactly what Mole is saying:

"สามัญชนน. คนธรรมดาที่มิใช่เจ้า."