Why Suvarnabhumi?

[tung148]

Suvarnabhumi (pronounced su-wan-na-poom) was chosen by HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej which means "the golden land"

su-wan-na-poom (thai : สุวรรณภูมิ), a thai pronunciation for the sanskrit "Suvarṇabhumī" or pali "Suvaṇṇabhumī"

Edited September 28, 2006 by tung148

[Plus]

What's the point in Romanising the name if it doesn't sound anything like the original?

Perhaps it skipped the minds of people who developed the system. We had ShinawatrA for five years, but not every tourist even heard of him. With airport there'll be a lot more exposure.

[Johpa]

The Thai language has its roots in Sanskrit which the Buddhist monks brought with them from India. Thai phonetics drop the 'i' , 'l' and 'r' in their spoken version along with a host other vowels that I am not

Meeone

No, no, no. the Thai language does not have its roots in Pali/Sanskrit. It is not related to Sanskrit. English is distantly related to Sanskrit but Thai is not. Thai does borrow from Sanskrit for its "higher" vocabulary for art, philosophy, law, and often technology just as English borrows from Latin. But at least Latin and English are related to the same larger language group. These borrowings in both languages create a certain bastardization of the languages. Thai, also akin English, is forced to use a foreign derived alphabet better suited to Pali than Thai.

But yes, Thai does tend to drop word final short vowels in borrowed words from Pali but will retain them when the word is used in combination such as in HRH name.

It gets a little complicated, but it all boils down on attempting to first transliterate Pali into Thai and then transliterate Thai into English. The languages do not always map one-to-one with the respective alphabets (or more precsiely writing systems).

Best taken to the Thai language forum for your introductory class on morpho-phonemics, highly reccommended for those with insomnia.

[astral]

The worst thing is when names get translated, not translitterated.

Try asking a Thai for Thanon Wireless (Wireless Road)

They know it as Thanon Wittayu.

We just have to live with these things.

Like Pattaya, has now been renamed by the Transport Authority who put the sign posts on the roads.

to Phatthaya. Try asking a Brit to get his tongue round that............

[astral]

As the airport name was choosen by HM the King it is not to be critiiced for analysed too deeply.

Topic closed.

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