How To Write Alfie In Thai ?

[expatgaz]

My son is called ALFIE. The amount of different Thai spellings I've been given for this is incredible.Can someone write it corectly in THai for me ? Please note its not short for anything,just ALFIE.

Thanks.

[BambinA]

how do you pronouce "Alfie"?

al = ul > อัลฟี่

al =elle (L) >แอลฟี่

[In the Rai!]

My son is called ALFIE. The amount of different Thai spellings I've been given for this is incredible.Can someone write it corectly in THai for me ? Please note its not short for anything,just ALFIE.

Thanks.

เอลฟี่

[Tim207]

My son is called ALFIE. The amount of different Thai spellings I've been given for this is incredible.Can someone write it corectly in THai for me ? Please note its not short for anything,just ALFIE.

Thanks.

Note that the spellings given will be pronounced Anfie as Thai does not have a syllable ending L sound. Lor Ling is proniunced as N at the end of a syllable. If you would prefer it pronounced Afie as opposed to Anfie I would sugest adding the silencing character over lor ling like this

อัล์ฟี่ instead of this

อัลฟีี่. Notice the small character above ล.

You should take all the different spellings you have and show them to a Thai who doesn't know what it should say. Listen to how each one is pronounced and decide which sounds closest to what you want. None will be exact but that is the problem with transliteration.

[In the Rai!]

เอลฟี่ will sound like Alfie (or as close as possible) not anfie

You should take all the different spellings you have and show them to a Thai who doesn't know what it should say. Listen to how each one is pronounced and decide which sounds closest to what you want. None will be exact but that is the problem with transliteration.

This is excellent advise... This way you can choose the sound you like..

[Richard W]

I would sugest adding the silencing character over lor ling like this

อัล์ฟี่

Is this an allowable spelling? แอล์ฟี่ would be allowable.

[Rikker]

I do believe อัล์ฟี่ is not a possible(/allowable) spelling.. You can't put a การันต์ on the coda consonant in a mandatory closed syllable (ไม้หันอากาศ requires a closed syllable).

And while แอล์ฟี่ is possible, and there is some precedent for ล์ being pronounced ว (e.g. อีเมล์ is most common spelling of e-mail, but is pronounced อีเมว, not อีเม, unlike รถเมล์ which is pronounced รถเม but not รถเมว), I'd still go with แอลฟี่, myself.

Sounds like the OP was looking for an authoritative answer. Too bad there is not one.

[meadish_sweetball]

My son is called ALFIE. The amount of different Thai spellings I've been given for this is incredible.Can someone write it corectly in THai for me ? Please note its not short for anything,just ALFIE.

Thanks.

เอลฟี่

I guess it depends how you want it to sound. Some Australian accents would pronounce Alfie as เอลฟี่ - but it would sound like 'Elfie' to people who speak or are used to standard American or Southern British. A Northern Brit or Scot might well prefer อัล์ฟี่ as that is closer to how they pronounce the 'a' in Alfie... and this in turn, would sound like 'Ulfie' to a Southern Brit or American.

I agree the best advice so far is to let a few Thais read out the suggestions, and you'll take the one you feel sounds the most like you want the name to be pronounced.

I also think the most likely spelling you'd see in a Thai newspaper of the name, would be แอลฟี่.

Edited December 13, 2006 by meadish_sweetball

[expatgaz]

Thanks for replies, however Iam still confused.Best let his mother decide which is best.

[In the Rai!]

My son is called ALFIE. The amount of different Thai spellings I've been given for this is incredible.Can someone write it corectly in THai for me ? Please note its not short for anything,just ALFIE.

Thanks.

เอลฟี่

I guess it depends how you want it to sound. Some Australian accents would pronounce Alfie as เอลฟี่ - but it would sound like 'Elfie' to people who speak or are used to standard American or Southern British. A Northern Brit or Scot might well prefer อัล์ฟี่ as that is closer to how they pronounce the 'a' in Alfie... and this in turn, would sound like 'Ulfie' to a Southern Brit or American.

I agree the best advice so far is to let a few Thais read out the suggestions, and you'll take the one you feel sounds the most like you want the name to be pronounced.

I also think the most likely spelling you'd see in a Thai newspaper of the name, would be แอลฟี่.

I agree that it does sound more like an E than an A but I am Australian that is the way I would spell it. Best to let him hear the different sounds and choose.

แอลฟี่ is good too!

[gburns57au]

อัลฟี่

Agree with Bambina......

Putting a silence on Law Ling would give the pronounciation Afie

The other 2 propositions give the wrong pronounciation

[In the Rai!]

อัลฟี่

Agree with Bambina......

Putting a silence on Law Ling would give the pronounciation Afie

The other 2 propositions give the wrong pronounciation

I dont agree it would give the wrong sound. That all depends on what sound the OP wants. I woundnt pronounce Alfie (Ulfie) อัลฟี่ (myself) because it doesnt sound the way I would pronounce Alfie. I would go เอลฟี่ with more of an E sound but แอลฟี่ is probably the one most would go for.

I am not disagreeing with any and all could be used it just comes down to how the OP wants it to sound and what accent he has..

[gburns57au]

Depends I guess on how he wants it pronounced..

Al-fie อัลฟี่

El-fie เอลฟี่

Aal-fie แอลฟี่

[expatgaz]

More confused by the day !!! It does though look like Al-fie is the winner, however ,my wife does seem to say Afie rather than Alfie.

[meadish_sweetball]

Depends I guess on how he wants it pronounced..

Al-fie อัลฟี่

El-fie เอลฟี่

Aal-fie แอลฟี่

To make it even easier for the OP, here are links to a native Thai speaker pronouncing the the first vowel sound in the different spellings - click on them to get an idea of what each one sounds like:

อั

แอะ

เอะ

Now, even though the vowel sounds in เอลฟี่ and แอลฟ are long vowel sounds in writing, there is no way of representing short เอ and แอ in syllables that do not end with a glottal stop. For this reason, the Thai person who reads out such a syllable has to make a decision whether to apply a long or a short vowel sound for such syllables.

Since these spellings make it apparent that we are dealing with an English name, readers would be likely to apply the short vowel sound.

[BambinA]

More confused by the day !!! It does though look like Al-fie is the winner, however ,my wife does seem to say Afie rather than Alfie.

No needs to be confused ..all is up to you coz it's your language and you Thai wife does not know how to pronouce it perfectly.

Depends I guess on how he wants it pronounced..

Al-fie อัลฟี่

El-fie เอลฟี่

Aal-fie แอลฟี่

yes.. following from these 3 choices

[meadish_sweetball]

However ,my wife does seem to say Afie rather than Alfie.

That's because Thai doesn't have a final /l/ sound as an option. When there is a ล (the Thai equivalent of L) at the end of a syllable in a Thai word, it will mostly be pronounced as /n/. Cf. the Thai word for football pronounced like 'foot bawn'.

People who have studied English may instead apply a /w/ sound - as in Estuarine English (Richard W taught me this is an acceptable pronunciation, something I did not know before). Cf. the Thai pronunciation of 'kill', 'hill', 'fill' etc.

Somebody who knows there shouldn't be an /w/ or a /n/ sound there, may opt to not pronounce it altogether, which is what your wife has done. Possibly the best solution short of the actual pronunciation, as it does not sound as weird as aiw-fee or ain-fee.

[gburns57au]

my name in Thai is.......

แกรม

anyone care to pronounce??

This is as close as they can get it.....but hey it works for me, close enough.....good enough. But this is a hard name in most non english languages.....others are quite simple.

Edited December 18, 2006 by gburns57au

[In the Rai!]

my name in Thai is.......

แกรม

anyone care to pronounce??

This is as close as they can get it.....but hey it works for me.

Graeme or graham I am guessing. but its not real close.

[gburns57au]

my name in Thai is.......

แกรม

anyone care to pronounce??

This is as close as they can get it.....but hey it works for me.

Graeme or graham I am guessing. but its not real close.

Yep....they actually pronounce it like Graam...an elongated version of Gram....but it shows that english words and names are not always easily spelt or even pronounced in Thai....sometimes close enough is good enough without being too precise.

Perhaps เกรหัม would be better, but the first one is easier....

Edited December 19, 2006 by gburns57au

[tgeezer]

My son is called ALFIE. The amount of different Thai spellings I've been given for this is incredible.Can someone write it corectly in THai for me ? Please note its not short for anything,just ALFIE.

Thanks.

scrub round replcing English letters with Thai and go for the sound, or you will get an 'n' in there. I haven't got Thai on this computer but I would go for. Sala 'a' 'o' ang 'w' wen 'f' fan sala "e' this will sound cockney "eewfi" which if you were born within the sound of the 'Bow bells" would be great, but I think cockney is also popular with Americans. If you prefer received English it wont work.

[meadish_sweetball]

Not a bad idea to get a Cockney pronunciation, but you would need to place อ before า though > อาวฟี ...

[tgeezer]

My son is called ALFIE. The amount of different Thai spellings I've been given for this is incredible.Can someone write it corectly in THai for me ? Please note its not short for anything,just ALFIE.

Thanks.

scrub round replcing English letters with Thai and go for the sound, or you will get an 'n' in there. I haven't got Thai on this computer but I would go for. Sala 'a' 'o' ang 'w' wen 'f' fan sala "e' this will sound cockney "eewfi" which if you were born within the sound of the 'Bow bells" would be great, but I think cockney is also popular with Americans. If you prefer received English it wont work.

Correction: I just spoke to a linguist and you can not do as you feel there is a pattern and the correct spelling of the name is อัลฟี and you have to say it in English Alfie most uneducated will give you "anfi" when they read it. I tried my Thai effort above and got ELFI from the "garu" and he got pissed off when I said that mine worked. As with Phaholyothin , pronounced Phahonyothin, proper names can not be screwed with. I tried to get "I couldn't hit a

Cow's ass with a banjo" translated for my golf game and the result was not good. Thai respect musical instruments and anything to do with them and so it is not translatable! If I did say it Thai would not think it a joke. I tried " standing too close to the ball after you've hit it on my Thai group and that went down like a lead balloon too. They are just too serious!

[tgeezer]

Not a bad idea to get a Cockney pronunciation, but you would need to place อ before า though > อาวฟี ...

I meant sara "a" yours I call sara "ah" I never bothered to learn two 'ees' backwards and upside down prefering to cut out the "middle man" and go straight to Thai.

[tgeezer]

Not a bad idea to get a Cockney pronunciation, but you would need to place อ before า though > อาวฟี ...

I meant sara "a" yours I call sara "ah" I never bothered to learn two 'ees' backwards and upside down prefering to cut out the "middle man" and go straight to Thai.

found Thai I meant เอ็วฟี

[Richard W]

I've just found an authentic Thai spelling in one of our Christmas cards - แอฟี. I don't approve of the way the boy's mother has spelt it, though.

[gburns57au]

I've just found an authentic Thai spelling in one of our Christmas cards - แอฟี. I don't approve of the way the boy's mother has spelt it, though.

I would argue the use of the word "authentic" in your post as it gives the connatation of it being the correct way of spelling it, when even you disagree with it. Her way of spelling it would sound something akin to Aafi or Airfi....