What's กะบ่ ?

[Guitar God]

All the online translators think it's "Huckabee" but I doubt that's the correct translation. Any ideas?

[Briggsy]

This is not Thai but Isaan/Lao or Northern Thai/Kham Meuang. Sorry can't help with translation. Thai speaker only.

[Gsxrnz]

It's ga baaw and is Isaan.

Baaw can be no/not or it can form a question similar to the Thai mai. You hear this all the time from Isaan speakers in place of mai or mai chai or when they form a question.

Ga is similar to gap in Thai and can mean as/with/as like/to/also, or a whole lot of other meanings depending on context and preceeding or following words.

If I had to guess I'd say it probably is a question asking if something/someone is "as like" or "with" something or somebody. It really depends on the context of the rest of the dialogue.

But I'm probably wrong.

[jspill]

Yeah กะ 'ga' is usually กับ 'gap', meaning 'with', in Issan and บ่ 'bor' is ไม่ 'mai', meaning 'not'.

But here I believe กะ is being used for ก็ 'gor' meaning 'well....'

For example this twitter handle กะบ่มีหยังหลายดอก is the Issan equivalent of ก็ไม่มีไรมากหรอก a slang phrase.

Also seeing a song name that would seem to be 'no love, well then no jealousy'.

So I'm guessing it's 'well no' / 'well not' ก็ไม่

Here you see 'oiyyy well i don't know...' to start the sentence, โอ๊ยยย กะบ่ฮู่... Issan for โอ๊ยยย ก็ไม่รู้

[sanuk711]

Yes its cross between Hmong & old Thai, roughly translated it means....

Your privates are the size of a dung Beetle,

If it wasn't for your ATM card, I would be outa here.

Or something along those lines.................

[Guitar God]

Here's a couple examples:

ไอกะบ่ได้ลบไรเนาะ กะว่าหมู่กัน

กะปล่อย มันกะบ่มีจักเทื่อ

รำคานแล้ว อยู่ไปกะบ่แฮปปี้

And I should have mentioned, yes, it's most likely Isaan.

[jspill]

^ Yeah so it's definitely what I said, do find/replace in MS Word for กะ with กับ and บ่ with ไม่ and it'll be easier to machine translate. There's a couple more words that won't machine translate though.

Last sentence รำคานแล้ว อยู่ไปกะบ่แฮปปี้ = รำคาญแล้ว อยู่ไปก็ไม่แฮปปี้ = I'm annoyed. I feel, well, not happy as time goes on.

The 'happy' is the English word written in Thai script แฮปปี้ so that won't machine translate. And she spells the word for 'annoyed' incorrectly, uses a different 'n' sound at the end, so translators will fail again.

I'm a bit confused by the first two sentences. Something about not having deleted anything. Can read them but they doesn't make sense on their own out of context.

[cooked]

Yes its cross between Hmong & old Thai, roughly translated it means....

Your privates are the size of a dung Beetle,

If it wasn't for your ATM card, I would be outa here.

Or something along those lines.................

Makes me wish my Thai reading skills were better.

[Briggsy]

Are you sure กะ does not mean ก็ in this rather stereotypical Isaan arguing couple chat?

[jspill]

do find/replace in MS Word for กะ with กับ

Typo, meant to say ก็

[rak sa_ngop]

In the Laos language the word 'bo' can be used to say 'no', or used at the end of a sentence as a question word (but with a different tone).

This is similar to way mai in Thai can be used to say 'no', or as a question at the end of a sentence (with a different tone).

(curious that in English we can also use the word 'no' with a rising tone at the end of a sentence to signify a question)

In Laos the correct spelling of bo is บ with small circle above, or บ with a small circle plus a mai ek tone mark. I think bo meaning 'no' has the mai ek tone mark.

[phuketsub]

I would also love to know how กะบ่ could be translated as "Huckabee". This is more interesting that the math behind a random number generator.

[Pla shado]

I would also love to know how กะบ่ could be translated as "Huckabee". This is more interesting that the math behind a random number generator.

Yes, that is a bit of a mystery. Living in Isaan I hear กะบ่ often. It's sort of like saying "nah" or "nope". Heck, for that matter, other than being the name of a former Arkansas governor I don't even know what a Huckabee is.

[Briggsy]

It is clearly a transliteration of English with some combination of consonant clipping (very common in Thai transliterations of English words), dictionary approximation (Longdo finds the best fit) and / or vowel "shift" (ask a Thai to say "store" or "dove"; there are better examples).

[bannork]

Here's a couple examples:

ไอกะบ่ได้ลบไรเนาะ กะว่าหมู่กัน

กะปล่อย มันกะบ่มีจักเทื่อ

รำคานแล้ว อยู่ไปกะบ่แฮปปี้

Issan sure, first sentence, I don't disparage, (we're) friends

Second-let it go, it doesn't often happen

3- annoyed, not happy if stay

กะบ่ is similar to ก็ไม่ ie not

[Lara Alex]

There are many interesting comments here.

As a native Isaan, I may help share something with you.

People say 'กะ and บ่' all the time in Isaan.

กะ is one word and บ่ (not) is another word.

The word บ่ is easy to use,so I'm going share more about how to use the word กะ in different contexts in Isaan.

1) กะ can mean กับ (with) when you want to use it as a preposition in a sentence

e.g. ไปกะไผ? or ไปกับไผ? (Who do you go with?)

Additionally, please be aware that Isaan people may omit the subject when they say.

e.g. เจ้าสิไปไส? (Where are you going?) -> สิไปไส?

2) กะ can mean ก็ (also)

e.g. บอกไห่เฮ็ดเวียก กะบ่เฮ็ด (I told you to work but you also din't do it.)

3) กะ+ได้ (กะได้) means Okay

Hope it helps.

[otocheater]

Isaan language. This word got lots of meaning in different sentence.

?