wanting to learn basic south words

[lemonjelly]

peur mang^ (sound goes up).... = what’s up, how ya doing?


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[lemonjelly]

you’ll hear “mung” (you) and “goo” (me) a lot in the south, especially amongst the muslims and all of the teens. In the past, it was considered polite but is now considered impolite, having been replaced by “khun, pom, chan”.... best avoid using unless you’re really sure of the situation, and never use it in a formal situation.


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[phuketsub]

13 hours ago, lemonjelly said:

you’ll hear “mung” (you) and “goo” (me) a lot in the south, especially amongst the muslims and all of the teens. In the past, it was considered polite but is now considered impolite, having been replaced by “khun, pom, chan”.... best avoid using unless you’re really sure of the situation, and never use it in a formal situation.


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Good advice. I teach here and I have a lot of trouble with students picking up vulgar expressions in English, the most popular of which lately happens to be 'what the *uck?'...I think it should be a golden rule not to start using vulgar words unless you have truly mastered the lingo.

[surfdog]

that video is very funny to me, not sure if you guys get the humor.  Kind of a dry humor, but he is kind of making fun of the way Bangkok speakers talk by accentuating and taking breaths.

 

In the beginning of the video he translates:

'Tao Rai'  how much in south, the R is like a regular English R, you might want to throw in a H or HorHeep

to 'Tao Rai' where the R is a 'rolled' R, like a spanish R, they call like a trill I think?  'RorRua' is always supposed to be rolled or trilled to be proper.

 

It's funny because of course anybody who has half of a brain understands that 'Tao HRai' is still 'Tao Rlai'

 

But people in Bangkok are often very condescending towards NE speakers and especially southern speakers, pretending they can't understand what they are saying because the accent is so bad.  Now... If I'm a foreign speaker and I can understand both, how in the hell can a Bangkok speaker not understand that "Tao Hrai' means "Tao Rlai"

 

Hopefully explaining that joke doesn't make it less funny :)

 

Some more words... I've chosen a few from this site:  http://www.thamnong.com/hs9dmc/phasatai.htm

 

Now I'm just reading through and seeing if I've heard any of these, keep in my mind I live in NST, and in laws are mostly from Surat, but have lived in Krabi, Trang, and lived here in NST for a long time, so the south I'm acqainted with in this area is going to different from other people.

 

First off been looking for the wood "Cher-E, Chery" I heard it a lot, in context it means old fashioned, maybe a bit 'ban nog' or stupid.  But I am not certain if this is specifically southern or could be acceptable to say in Bangkok.

 

So some others... the word "E" spelled with OrgOng and SaraE - อี, When you about to do something.. you use "E" before, just like "GamlangJa or Ja" กำลัง จะ, so you will "E Pai, E Tam, E Sua" about to go, do, buy. etc... I think it is much more immediate than Gamlang or Gamlang Ja.  You want to or will do very soon.

 

Also one of my in-laws, a really thick accent on him, will sometimes say "Ai Rai", which you really got to go up and down with volume and drag it out longer.. like "Aiii  Rraii" it means "What" or "what are you doing" or "what do you want".  You can't really translate that one because so much meaning in so few little words.   You would have to actually say it in Bangkok  like.. "Tam Arai Yoo, Ao Arai Krup/Ka, Arai Krup/Ka..."ทำอะไรครับ

 

and last one for today.  Palat, พลัด, you really need the Thai on that one.. just realized this is southern from that website.  Palat is like to fall, faint, or can also be used to talk about accidents, like motorcycles falling over, or I guess a car turning over in an extreme accident.

Edited February 3, 2018 by surfdog
misspell

[surfdog]

23 hours ago, phuketsub said:

Good advice. I teach here and I have a lot of trouble with students picking up vulgar expressions in English, the most popular of which lately happens to be 'what the *uck?'...I think it should be a golden rule not to start using vulgar words unless you have truly mastered the lingo.

yes, I used to teach, and even some of the best behavior students wanted to practice some of the dirty words...

 

On 2/1/2018 at 7:56 PM, lemonjelly said:

you’ll hear “mung” (you) and “goo” (me) a lot in the south, especially amongst the muslims and all of the teens. In the past, it was considered polite but is now considered impolite, having been replaced by “khun, pom, chan”.... best avoid using unless you’re really sure of the situation, and never use it in a formal situation.


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I'm not sure if this is specific to the south, but yes between informal friends, and especially older speakers you will hear this a lot.  I think I've seen this used in a few comedies and series on Tv series, that's why I don't think it is particularly southern.   I've heard this quite a bit in Kanchanaburi when I lived there.. and they don't 'Raeng Tai" there. :)

 

Also yeah.. avoid these two words at all costs.  The context of the words and the humor is too difficult I think for us to pull off, it's toilet humor, best done by Thai speakers.

Edited February 3, 2018 by surfdog

[surfdog]

two more words... this thread opened up my mind a bit more to what people are saying... and so before I forget, some words came up talking about thieves.

 

rak/lak ลัก - mean to steal.  normal Thai you would say Kamooey- ขโมย

 

"soon" it's a short u, so maybe better transliteration like 'suun' - to disappear or to be lost, missing - normal thai word would be 'hai/hiii' - หาย

[phuketsub]

Another one that seems to have somehow not been brought up yet is the hugely popular exclamation AIYA! อัยย๊า. I know we aren't supposed to write in all caps, but I think it is merited for this word, which is used to express frustration and dismay.  I am sure most followers of this thread are familiar with it by now...

 

[surfdog]

yes Ai Yah.. is this only southern?  Sometimes hard for me to know what is really southern or not. 

[phuketsub]

On 2/6/2018 at 7:57 PM, surfdog said:

yes Ai Yah.. is this only southern?  Sometimes hard for me to know what is really southern or not. 

My wife said it is a southern Thai thing, but I can't say definitively that it isn't used elsewhere. I don't ever remember hearing it so much when I lived in Bangkok or Phuket.

 

This has indeed been a useful thread. In the past I would kind of turn my brain off when the locals started going  at each other in Southern Thai, but now I am listening more and asking more questions...not that I really want to speak it myself, just want to understand what is being said and going on around me.

 

I had a root canal today and the cleaning staff outside the treatment room were in high gear with it, so it gave me something to focus on other than the drill hitting the pulp or the fact that I always felt on the verge of drowning in my own saliva. [sorry if that's TMI]

 

Anyway, I totally agree that it is hard to know what really is exclusively Southern Thai and what is not. I have just started to work a few Southern Thai expressions into my interactions with the locals and they really get a kick out of it.

[surfdog]

There is another southern slang I really don’t understand at all. Mix of Hakka and southern Thai, I know some Mandarin, but not any help there, Hakka speakers know Mandarin, but prefer Hakka, they’ve been here so long, that there main language is southern Thai but mixed with a lot of Hakka vocabulary.

So if your not understanding one word they are saying, and the people are merchants/store owners, could be Hakka.



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[phuketsub]

On 2/7/2018 at 9:42 PM, surfdog said:

There is another southern slang I really don’t understand at all. Mix of Hakka and southern Thai, I know some Mandarin, but not any help there, Hakka speakers know Mandarin, but prefer Hakka, they’ve been here so long, that there main language is southern Thai but mixed with a lot of Hakka vocabulary.

So if your not understanding one word they are saying, and the people are merchants/store owners, could be Hakka.



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There was a really unique dialect in Phuket that was a Hokkien/South Thai mash, but it has been largely displaced by the tourism tsunami there...there were some efforts to keep it going, but nowadays even more standard versions of Southern Thai are hard to find on the island. I guess its demise started when they build the bridge to the mainland.

[markwhite]

On 2/7/2018 at 9:13 PM, phuketsub said:

My wife said it is a southern Thai thing, but I can't say definitively that it isn't used elsewhere. I don't ever remember hearing it so much when I lived in Bangkok or Phuket.

 

I've been told its a Southeast Asia thing. I heard it a lot in RP on vacation, but not so much in Thailand.

[surfdog]

 
I've been told its a Southeast Asia thing. I heard it a lot in RP on vacation, but not so much in Thailand.

I was thinking I heard it in Hawaii also...


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[CaptainKiiNiaw]

I'm new to the South, but I just heard this one today: สูบบุหรี่ (suup buri - to smoke) is duup buri or dtuup buri in the southern dialect.  I told the mae ban I wanted a non-smoking room ไม่สูบบุหรี่.  She didn't understand at first but finally got it and radioed the office staff to inform them I wanted 'mai duup buri.'

 

This is my first time to the far south, I had no idea the southern thai was so different from central thai.  Good on you for trying to learn the local dialect.

[surfdog]

where you at in south? never heard that, sure the lady wasn’t missing her teeth? were her lips all red from mak?


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[phuketsub]

On 2/14/2018 at 10:16 AM, CaptainKiiNiaw said:

I'm new to the South, but I just heard this one today: สูบบุหรี่ (suup buri - to smoke) is duup buri or dtuup buri in the southern dialect.  I told the mae ban I wanted a non-smoking room ไม่สูบบุหรี่.  She didn't understand at first but finally got it and radioed the office staff to inform them I wanted 'mai duup buri.'

 

This is my first time to the far south, I had no idea the southern thai was so different from central thai.  Good on you for trying to learn the local dialect.

My wife said this can be heard all over Thailand, though I don't readily recall hearing it much myself.

[surfdog]

some more, heard today, and thought yeh, I didn’t learn that in any books.

“arai ga” อะไร ก่า” it is similar to “arai ah” don’t know if that is standard. But I think all of us have heard question particle “ah อะ” before. I have only heard “ga” used with “arai ga”

“pa nan” พะนั่น - this can be used in “arai pa nan” to mean “something like that” I guess standard Thai could say “arai baeb nan” “อะไรแบบนั่น”

where แบบ baeb = like, so “pa” is used instead




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[phuketsub]

Another one I realized today, again inspired by my in-laws, is that you have to use the word ตาย (dtaay!, which sounds a lot like the English equivalent in meaning: die) multiple times in succession as an expletive if a current situation is not going in the most desirable fashion. I am not sure if this is just a southern thing, but I don't remember hearing it that much, if at all,  when I lived in Bangkok.

 

Given the similarity, I have often wondered if this is actually a loan word from English.

 

However, yelling 'Die!, Die, Die' in English would conjure up images of witch-hunts and KKK lynchings, whereas here any mildly frustrating situation seems enough to set it off...

 

 

 

 

[surfdog]

it’s my opinion ‘die’ and ‘tdai (thai: to die)’ are rooted in very old shared language. That is just too much of a coincidence, and such an important word.

Perhaps the Thai “die” is from Sanskrit/Tamil influence, and there is an English Sanskrit link, although not sure what that is.

The old link of language places parts of India very more important than currently taught, up there with Babylon and Egypt.

In any case heard the ‘die die die’ before means like everthing is <deleted> up. Where I’m at is much more impolite swearing ‘maem’ , ‘yet poom’ , ‘yiip maem’ I believe one of these literally translates to ‘<deleted> grandmas pussy’ These are not limited to southern Thailand.

Yesterday hear my very first ‘jung sia’ which confused me as I understood what was said as there was too much and it was going bad “sia”

But ‘jung sia’ is just like ‘jung hu’

I am not sure of the regional difference, as ‘jung sia’ is not spoken in the house.

‘jung sia’ also appeared one of the old webpages I linked but did not mention because had never heard it.


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[phuketsub]

I heard a new one today when I was trying to find a good location to plant a small guava tree in our yard. It turns out that 'guava' in these parts is called 'chomPOH' not 'farang'.

 

AND, I later find out, the name for 'rose apple' is not chompoo, but 'nam dohk mai'.

[surfdog]

yeah phuketsub there is some confusing things about that farang/chompoo naming still don’t understand, luckily for purchasing vendors like to stick to standard.

here is something just realized today, rainy season/dry season

‘ridu raan’ ‘ridu fon’ ฤดูร้อน ฤดูฝน

here always say ‘hna fon, hna raan’

หน้าฝน หน้าร้อน

this isn’t acceptable standard Thai as หน้า = face





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[phuketsub]

On 3/20/2018 at 9:03 AM, surfdog said:

yeah phuketsub there is some confusing things about that farang/chompoo naming still don’t understand, luckily for purchasing vendors like to stick to standard.

here is something just realized today, rainy season/dry season

‘ridu raan’ ‘ridu fon’ ฤดูร้อน ฤดูฝน

here always say ‘hna fon, hna raan’

หน้าฝน หน้าร้อน

this isn’t acceptable standard Thai as หน้า = face





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Yes Surfdog...sometimes I feel like I am stuck inside a computer simulation and the differences between local and standard versions were programmed in with sole intention of vexing me. Good point on the seasons...I definitely hear that a lot of naa rawn and naa fon down here, and I have even used it myself.  ฤดู (reudoo) sounds kind of old timey posh by comparison now.

[lemonjelly]

Yes Surfdog...sometimes I feel like I am stuck inside a computer simulation and the differences between local and standard versions were programmed in with sole intention of vexing me. Good point on the seasons...I definitely hear that a lot of naa rawn and naa fon down here, and I have even used it myself.  ฤดู (reudoo) sounds kind of old timey posh by comparison now.

I’ve been under the impression that the “na”, as in na fohn, na gin, etc implies adjective, as in “rainy, eatable (tasty)”, whereas “luduu” translates as “season”.... rainy season = luduu fohn, also refers to the growing seasons for different fruit etc, it is/isn’t the season (luduu) for durian etc.


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[phuketsub]

So today I was informed that the word for 'ass or butt' is 'waan', not 'kon', as in central Thai. You learn something every day...I tried to make a joke by asking 'Does this mean pla waan [=whale] means 'assfish', but they didn't think it was funny. I am still at the point where my deliberate attempts as humor in Thai fail, whereas my blunders can still get a good laugh.

[surfdog]

On 3/22/2018 at 5:01 PM, lemonjelly said:

I’ve been under the impression that the “na”, as in na fohn, na gin, etc implies adjective, as in “rainy, eatable (tasty)”, whereas “luduu” translates as “season”.... rainy season = luduu fohn, also refers to the growing seasons for different fruit etc, it is/isn’t the season (luduu) for durian etc.


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It's easy to see why you would think that, but because Thai has tones, it is more complicated.  

 

Na - น่า - yes, like --- 'na gin', is kind of like the adjective tasty, but I think this is more of a multi-modal verb, pretty sure this is spoken with a dropping tone.  I don't think you can use "na-fon" as the adjective rainy, but you can definitely say "na fon tok, or na ja fon tak", --- likely to rain.

 

hna หน้า - so many translations, just take a look:  https://translate.google.com/?oe=utf-8&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&client=tw-ob#th/en/หน้า

 

I believe this is spoke with a lazy 'n' , which gives you the 'h' sound before, with a falling and rising tone.

 

The southern Thai spelling for "nafon" uses the hna - หน้า

 

Anyways keep in mind we just talking about southern Thai spoken by southern people.  "Ridu" is acceptable, and understandable here, just not used.  Plus remember that it is 'Reeduu' or you could "leeduu" but definitely not "luuduu".  In south we favor the 'R', the Northeast favors the L.  The proper is a trill which is both an R and a L at the same time.

 

Hope that helps!

[surfdog]

On 3/22/2018 at 7:28 PM, phuketsub said:

So today I was informed that the word for 'ass or butt' is 'waan', not 'kon', as in central Thai. You learn something every day...I tried to make a joke by asking 'Does this mean pla waan [=whale] means 'assfish', but they didn't think it was funny. I am still at the point where my deliberate attempts as humor in Thai fail, whereas my blunders can still get a good laugh.

Might be something in the spelling of the word to help distinguish what we should be attempting to say or say differently.  I'll see if I can come up with the spelling of this southern slang.

[phuketsub]

On 3/27/2018 at 2:48 PM, surfdog said:

Might be something in the spelling of the word to help distinguish what we should be attempting to say or say differently.  I'll see if I can come up with the spelling of this southern slang.

PM sent

 

[phuketsub]

Another Southern word I learned today is namkheng bok, whicn means popsicle. In central Thai it's waan yen. I don't know if it is across the south or just here in Songkhla though.

[surfdog]

cool Phuketsub,

did the reseach for you, asked wife about ‘waan’ which is spelled ‘วาน’

and whale is spelled with ‘วาฬ’

different spelling but same sound, so it is a homonym and perhaps a play on words, because ‘waan’ refers to ‘butt cheeks’ not actually just ‘butt’

So our fat in butt cheeks and whales are fat... :)

Also thanks for pointing out the Thai langauge subforum, interesting stuff, and someone asked for a translation, and my word I know is not in the dictionary, turns out it is southern and I don’t know the proper Thai word.

Baang - บัง = to block a view or path

example - yaa baang = stop blocking (view or path from context)


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[phuketsub]

Thanks Surfdog...I am pretty sure that yaa baang is used in Bangkok too,,,I used to have a lot of students tell me that when I was blocking their view of the whiteboard. BTW, at that agricultural fair you went to did you happen to notice any avacado trees? I'd like to try growing one here.