Talking Dictionary For Farang

[DeDanan]

Hi All,

I am attempting to learn Thai or at least some of the basics. I have got a home study "Linguaphone" course with book and CD's. On my last trip to LOS i went looking for a talking dictionary designed for faranf to learn thai. All that appeared to be available were the ones to help Thai people learn english. I would like to find one that if i input the Thai word in phonetic spelling i will get the english meaning. eg input "dii" result "good". also if i input english word i get the thai word with phonetic spelling and pronunciation. Asking for too much??? Any suggestions ???

Have a Happy....

Jim

[maerim]

I would stick with the Linguaphone course if I were you.

A backpacker turned up at my better half's shop with one and tried it out on her, she said it sounded as though it had a speech impediment

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

I have looked right into all of the available talking dictionaries, and none of them are able to speak Thai properly. The synthesized voice merely "reads" out the romanized version of the Thai word (rather than the Thai text), so the pronunciation is just as bad (and incorrect) as if you were reading it out yourself.

[meadish_sweetball]

I would really like that too.

The problem is phonetic spelling - very few of the people who learn Thai, in my experience, go through the trouble of learning any of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) based systems - there are two more generally accepted - Mary Haas and AUA.

Simply put, the market for such a machine as you describe might be very limited.

For the programmers, there is the added difficulty of the phonemic tones - in other words - "dii" is no problem as it is the mid tone, which is not marked in phonetic script. On the other hand of you hear the word "dîi" and want to know what it means (it has a circumflex over it, and means "feminine lesbian" as opposed to "thom", "mannish lesbian") you would need to be able to hear that word is pronounced with the falling tone AND also know how the falling tone is represented in phonetic script to be able to get the right reply from the machine.

Most farangs can't get their heads around the tonal system properly, so would the tool really be that useful and marketable? I am not so sure. It is certainly possible though, and if one pops up I would buy it.

If a company has constructed such a machine based on English and Mandarin Chinese written with the pidgin system, it should be easy enough to adapt to suit Thai as well, because the problems you would face in design/construction and programming would be very similar.

[Up2U]

Hi All,

I am attempting to learn Thai or at least some of the basics. I have got a home study "Linguaphone" course with book and CD's. On my last trip to LOS i went looking for a talking dictionary designed for faranf to learn thai. All that appeared to be available were the ones to help Thai people learn english. I would like to find one that if i input the Thai word in phonetic spelling i will get the english meaning. eg input "dii" result "good". also if i input english word i get the thai word with phonetic spelling and pronunciation. Asking for too much??? Any suggestions ???

Have a Happy....

Jim

Best place I've found for a 'talking' dictionary is the bar - any bar.

Dozens of willing talking dictionaries available - problem is trying to stop them talking

[KevinN]

didn't their mother ever teach them not to talk with their mouth full?

[ka12345]

Talking dictionary? Don't know about that. There are loads of walking dictionaries around though...

[crazymonk]

This has been my latest research also.......What about a Palm PC with a Thai/Engligh dictionary loaded. Have any of Yawl tried this approach?

Any comments would be welcome.