Thai names - To Porn or not to Porn

[canathai8]

I have 2 young attractive Thai nieces named "Bang" and "Boom" - aged 20 and 18

All righty then..

And my wife's name is Varaporn - she took a more subtle nickname once she came to Canada in 2009 - Mamie

Because It got tiring going to the Doctors or Dentists office - and the large receptionist saying aloud - "Varaporn - what on earth does that mean?"

After about a dozen times of that crapola - she started to get pisssed about it..

And pisssed at me when I explained to the ignoramuses that Porn means clothing - not dirty movies..

[richard_smith237]

I thought Porn in thai names meant blessed, but I might also be an ignoramus.

It's just better to change the nickname when moving to the west... Porn is quite a shocker when used in a name. You're not going to to re-educate the rest of the English speaking world.

[daoyai]

Just a silly Brit transliteration, since "porn" is pronounced as "pawn" in Thai why not just change the spelling to Varapawn.

[gk10002000]

Pornanong Phatlum, the Thai lady golfer will be playing in Carlsbad, California in the KIA classic where I plan to go and watch.

[NanLaew]

Just a silly Brit transliteration, since "porn" is pronounced as "pawn" in Thai why not just change the spelling to Varapawn.

...or Varapohn.

[canuckamuck]

Yes blame the British. They invented this wonderful language and exported it all over the world. Then they changed the pronunciation style which plays havoc with phonetic transliteration (But it sounds bloody good). This is a perfect example of the R and a W being interchangeable when it is not the first letter of a word. Most of the rest of the English speaking world sees those sounds as distinctly different .

The problem is that many country transliterate their languages into English based on modern British pronunciation. Making it impossible to pronounce correctly the words written on signs etc. If you you want to go to Koh Larn (to many it would be pronounced Koe and Larn with a pirates arrh) you have to know to read it Gaw Lahn.

Now can anyone explain to me why in Thai, the Wa When sound (ว) is always translated as a V when Thai's have no V sound in their language, and they actually find it difficult to pronounce the letter V. What is wrong with a W? eg. Sukamwhit, Suwhanaboom... Pretty hard to get it wrong spelled like that.

Edited March 24, 2016 by canuckamuck

[uthaithanirules]

Whats the spelling in thai?

Just change the english spelling to b instead of p, even if it is a ป

varabon

Youve got me stumped as to why it would be romanized that way, with a v instead of j or w

เจริญ in thai means prosper, sounds more like jarUn than porn

You got me what vara is supposed to be.

Its like a puzzle, I now have to work out, but romanization of thai is usually retarded

[sturdyd]

Phonetic translations can be tricky. The anglicization of my GF's last name on her Thai ID is spelled Bunplook, while daughter's is spelled Boonpluk. Fancy that.

[CharlieH]

I would go with changing the "p" for a "b".....Veraborn, sounds almost identical, but no chance of misinterpretation as with "porn"

[KhunBENQ]

Just a silly Brit transliteration, since "porn" is pronounced as "pawn" in Thai why not just change the spelling to Varapawn.

Like so many completely misleading transcriptions.

A recent very similar thread in the Thai language forum (where this thread would have to be moved for serious discussion).

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/899256-why-does-%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%94-become-bert-or-bpret/

Transcription for the non-English following RTGS rules is "phon".

For English speakers indeed "pawn" comes closer than "porn" (as good as I can judge as a non native speaker ).

The name (particle) stands for "blessing; good wishes; benediction; favor".

http://www.thai-language.com/id/138258

A prominent combination is "phonthip" where "thip" stands for "divine; supernatural; spiritual; heavenly".

Edited March 24, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[MrTee]

Hold up, why should she change her name to suit the ignorant mindset of a westerner.

I'm sure it may make life difficult at times, but I have a similar problem with my surname.. most westerners cannot pronounce it correctly and get frustrated ..


I think your good wife should give the name she is happy with, and if ignoramuses have issue with that then it is their problem and not your wife's..

[KhunBENQ]

Phonetic translations can be tricky. The anglicization of my GF's last name on her Thai ID is spelled Bunplook, while daughter's is spelled Boonpluk. Fancy that.

And none of these follows the rules (double "o" is always an "inventive" transcription).

We also have three different transcriptions of the same Thai family name in the kinship.

All thanks to the island in the North Sea drifting away from rest of world (first Brexit)

Great Vowel Shift

Edited March 24, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[samsensam]

seems the easiest solution would have been to just change the way it was spelt and pronounced; the p to a b, no need for the poor dear to change her nickname.

[rak sa_ngop]

Reminds me of somebody posting a long time ago that they had a Thai lecturer in college. His name was Titiporn.

You can imagine how that went down in class!

[AdamRich]

I thought it meant blessing as well. But why not just educate them instead of changing who you are?

[prakhonchai nick]

I well remember a very good Taiwanese tennis player named Shiting Wang

.More thought needs to be given to Thai nicknames.

20 years ago, in Kasikorn Bank Pattaya a lovely looking lass had the nickname MOO.

Where I live , we have M and N, Wan and Waan, Ib and Eb

[Aforek]

I don't know who translates from Thai to English ( or what they think is English ), but many road signs have bad transcription, they don't understand that phonetics must retranscribe the sound, not the writting

for instance, my GF . Her first name finishes with pon in thai; of course, as said above, on her ID in phonetics it's written porn ( why, where is the R in the Thai name ? nowhere )

and her family name in Thai finishes with L , it's true, but it's pronouced N because L at the end of a syllabe is pronouced N, but these <deleted> who transcribe in phonetics write L at the end of her name, it means that the phonetics in roman letters is wrong two times ( first name and family name )

[canuckamuck]

I thought it meant blessing as well. But why not just educate them instead of changing who you are?

Because the name in Thai is not supposed to sound like porn it is supposed to sound like pawn. So change the way you write it in English and you'll have people saying it correctly in two languages. Also it no longer becomes fuel for a hundred jokes.

[dotpoom]

Got a bit of a let down myself after entering a bar on my first arrival in Thailand named "Bar Porn"...couldn't believe how open they were about it.

Still, 15 years later now I realize that my initial thoughts were not too far off the mark.

[mamypoko]

Sound more like 'pawn' when said in Thai, no?

and most certainly, don't further add 'ography'

[sead]

No you will no Porn your children <deleted>

[Petchou]

Yes blame the British. They invented this wonderful language and exported it all over the world. Then they changed the pronunciation style which plays havoc with phonetic transliteration (But it sounds bloody good). This is a perfect example of the R and a W being interchangeable when it is not the first letter of a word. Most of the rest of the English speaking world sees those sounds as distinctly different .

The problem is that many country transliterate their languages into English based on modern British pronunciation. Making it impossible to pronounce correctly the words written on signs etc. If you you want to go to Koh Larn (to many it would be pronounced Koe and Larn with a pirates arrh) you have to know to read it Gaw Lahn.

Now can anyone explain to me why in Thai, the Wa When sound (ว) is always translated as a V when Thai's have no V sound in their language, and they actually find it difficult to pronounce the letter V. What is wrong with a W? eg. Sukamwhit, Suwhanaboom... Pretty hard to get it wrong spelled like that.

They didn't invent anything, they just collected most of it from French, german and Latin. :-).

[JHolmesJr]

Torture the dental clinic....give them her thai surname next time

That'll show them.

[laislica]

Hold up, why should she change her name to suit the ignorant mindset of a westerner.

I'm sure it may make life difficult at times, but I have a similar problem with my surname.. most westerners cannot pronounce it correctly and get frustrated ..

I think your good wife should give the name she is happy with, and if ignoramuses have issue with that then it is their problem and not your wife's..

+1 Mr. Tee

My wife is a สมพร, [appropriate (proper); suitable; well matched] - [blessing (gift, benediction)]

and she keeps it as Somporn. It is both a female and a male Thai name.

If some "official" pen pusher ever asked what kind of name is that? I would call for their supervisor and report unacceptable and their abusive behaviour.

I would not enter any discourse with the "official" nor would I punch their lights out (however much I felt like doing so).

I would calmly, but in a loud voice, say. I need to speak to your supervisor now please!

I can see how some "officials" may think they have the upper hand and that they have got you by the small spherical objects but that would not stop me!

May I suggest that the OP does something similar!

How very Dare they?

[LukKrueng]

I don't understand what you attractive nieces have to do with your wife's name or you being in Canada....

As I guess your main point is your wife's name and what ignorant people in the erst imply to it I'll only reply to this issue.

In written Thai there are basically only 3 sounds to ending consonants: b/t/n

all consonant change their sound to one of these when they appear at the end of the word. R belong to the group that changes to N. basically Thai people can't pronounce porn like western people. Many westerners think by mistake that R at the end of the word makes the preceding vowel longer thus phown. This is not true as the length of the vowel doesn't change according to the following consonant, so what written in English letters as phorn our porn is actually pronounced simply as pon. In พร the vowel O is short so it is just pon.

So the easiest thing to do if she wants to keep her name and not be questioned about it is just spell it as it really sounds

[jspill]

It's actually spelt Pon in Thai, if you think about it

It's two characters, a P followed by an R ... พร

However the R character is an 'N' when it's at the end of words, in the same way the character for L is... which is why you hear 'futbon' not 'football'. L and R are similar sounding (as in other Asian languages)

So it's a P followed by an N, in terms of sound... and when two consonants are next to each other without a vowel, in Thai that's like putting a quick 'o' in between them... so 'Pon'

Some Thais will pronounce it 'Porn' but others will say 'Pon', if you ask enough Siriporns, Ratchadporns, Supaporns, etc.

If I had a daughter I'd definitely be putting Pon on the birth certificate

Google Siripon or search Facebook, plenty will spell it that way, and plenty the other way. It's flexible so just choose Pon to avoid the embarrassment

Edited March 24, 2016 by jspill

[Acharn]

"Varaporn - what on earth does that mean?"

Christ, that's rude. That's as bad as saying, "Hillary -- what on earth does that mean?" Since when have names in the West meant anything? Seventh, eighth century C.E.? Many years ago there was a Bob Newhart comedy bit where he was trying to get the operator to connect him to a number (really, many years ago) and he told the operator he was trying to call Sally Jones, "That's spelled J - O - A- N - apostrophe - S. It's not her fault, operator, her parents were illiterate."

As another commenter pointed out, Porn, or Pawn in an American spelling, means Blessing. No wonder she was pissod off at you.

[TKDfella]

There are several criticisms of the RTGS but the one applicable here is that it does not distinguish between long and short vowels. I give the example below. Both Thai words are spelled with different vowels, the first being short and second, long so this adds to the confusion.

The letter 'ร' following a 'true' long vowel will act as 'น' as in 'การ' but without the 'true' long vowel as 'กร' (from royal language or as in ต่อกร) it is pronounced as 'orn (or awn)ฟห in 'corn' or 'dawn'.

พล phohnM

pronunciation guide Phonemic Thai พน Royal Thai General System phon
pronunciation guide Phonemic Thai พอน Royal Thai General System phon

พร /พอน พร phaawnM

[grabitanrun]

Be thankful, I saw a Thai cookery book entitled "Cooking with Poo".................

[NanLaew]

I thought it meant blessing as well. But why not just educate them instead of changing who you are?

Because the name in Thai is not supposed to sound like porn it is supposed to sound like pawn. So change the way you write it in English and you'll have people saying it correctly in two languages. Also it no longer becomes fuel for a hundred jokes.

Only a hundred?

Sorry but hasn't "Little Britain" done this to death already?

Edited March 24, 2016 by NanLaew