James_Malaysia Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 they pronous my name is Jim_Malay. :oops: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 @ farangy Khorat is only an abbreviation of Nakhon Ratchasima, see in my list. I'm not sure about Khon Kaen. Kaen does not sound like a Sanskrit-derived word to me, possibly rather Khmer. The way Sanskrit changes into Thai, khon could be from Sanskrit gala, rock. But I'm not sure of the spelling of Khon in Thai. That makes all the difference. Sanskrit-derived words are pronounced differently from how they're spelled, which makes it difficult for foreigners without any knowledge of Sanskrit (and for Thais, too!). Example: nakhon (town) is spelled in Thai n(a)-g(a)-r(a), just as in Sanskrit. But the pronounciation is nakhon! There are hundreds of examples like this. Sanskrit-derived words are often used in 'higher' speach. In everyday speech, 'dog' is maa, a Tai-derived word. In formal language, it's sunak, from Sanskrit shunaka, dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farangy Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 thanks narmada! so udon thani would be 'northern town'? =) how about thonburi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 thanks narmada! so udon thani would be 'northern town'? =) how about thonburi? I've added Thonburi, see former post. The uttara in Udon has many meanings: North, subsequent, following, late®, upper. North might make the most sense in this case. And they keep coming .... Aranyaprathet (aranya pradesha) - land/area of forest Chaiyaphum (jaya bhumi) - land/earth of victory Lopburi (labha puri) - town of profit/gain Nakhon Phanom - I'm not quite sure about this. Phanom could be from Skt. phanama, 'hands folded in prayer', but it could also be from Khmer phnom, mountain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moo_noy Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 my hard word while learning my fruits and vegies was grapes....i could not for the life of me pronounce it in Thai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Aranyaprathet (aranya pradesha) - land/area of forest Chaiyaphum (jaya bhumi) - land/earth of victory Lopburi (labha puri) - town of profit/gain Nakhon Phanom - I'm not quite sure about this. Phanom could be from Skt. phanama, 'hands folded in prayer', but it could also be from Khmer phnom, mountain. Are these indian accent?? mm.. Phanom is kinda more like panama.. ---got it.. yay bali n sanskrit but aint sound so indian at all They don't sound so Indian because their pronounications are 'Thai-ized'. There are so many Sanskrit/Pali-based words in Thai that the average Thai never thinks of them of being of foreign origin. They're just part of the vocabulary - just like, how many British ever consider that possibly half their vocabulary is derived from Latin? Everyday works like factory, satisfaction, function, malfunction, bonafide, fortune, misfortune, pedestrian, minor, major, and a gazillion others are all from Latin. While there are thousans of words in Thai which come from Sanskrit/Pali, I can think of only one which came from Tamil: thong (gold) from Tamil thangam. The word probably travelled from South India to the Khmer empire (courtsey of Tamil Brahmin immigrants) and from there to Siam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 my hard word while learning my fruits and vegies was grapes....i could not for the life of me pronounce it in Thai Angun. This is not from Sanskrit, but a later entrant from Persian, angur, which possibly arrived in Thailand via India. In Hindi, grapes are angur as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaibel Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 My last name is 'Nieuwendijk', seems very simple.But i didn't met one person yet, who is not a native Dutch speaker, who can pronounce the name correctly. So, most of the people (like the hotel personel) call me mister Eric or mistel Elic . BTW Nieuwendijk = new dike PS and don't start the obvious jokes about that I should change it to Oudendijk (old dike) and also dike, not d*ck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 My gf's name is Yiwa.........and she has no idea what that means.........anyone know?Is it "ÂÔËÇÒ"? If so, it means ´Ç§ªÕÇÔµ, ´Ç§ã¨ or a poetic version of 'heart' (The Royal Institute Dictionary) http://rirs3.royin.go.th/ridictionary/lookup.html Maybe 'heart' in a kind of extended meaning ... The origin, I'm quite certain, is from Sanskrit jiva, soul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 And some more ... Mukdahan (mukta hara) - necklace of pearls Petchabun (vajrah punya) - the virtue of the diamond Saraburi (sara puri) - town of substance/essence/heart Suphanburi (subhana puri) - atractive/pleasure-giving town Suwannaphum (suvarna bhumi) - golden land/earth Uff, enough already ... :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 I'm sorry if that one post of mine above sounds a bit condescening. But I really though the derivation 'farang' from 'foreigner' was meant as a joke - until I re-read it. :oops: OOPS, this was meant for the 'Farang' subject, but it ended up here. And I 'm too lazy to post it again there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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