khun_lung Posted October 18, 2005 Report Share Posted October 18, 2005 Okay, someone started a forum thread about the longest word in English. So what's the longest word in Thai? Now, there may be some religious words coming from Bali that are longer, but the longest I've ever learned in terms of normal conversation is this one: ºØ¤ÅÔ¡Åѡɳà English equivalent: personality Anyone disagree? Do you know longer words? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattayaDaz Posted October 19, 2005 Report Share Posted October 19, 2005 If you count Krungtepmahanakorn-etc as one word guess that would be the longest..I think its also the longest name for a capital city.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_lung Posted October 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 If you count Krungtepmahanakorn-etc as one word guess that would be the longest..I think its also the longest name for a capital city.. You're right that it's the longest name for a capital city, but it's not one word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patric Posted October 20, 2005 Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 isn't there another one that's longer... what's the old name for Krungthepmahanokon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_lung Posted October 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 isn't there another one that's longer...what's the old name for Krungthepmahanokon? Nope, none that are longer. As for the old name of Bangkok in Thai, I haven't a clue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inamorato25 Posted October 20, 2005 Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 Hey, what about supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?? Just screwing with you, Khun Lung (again, my weak attempt at humour) To be honest, I'm totally impressed at how good your Thai is. I know people who have been in Thailand for years who can't even read a menu. Very cool, man! For those of you who didn't read the longest word in English post, just skip right by this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoffeeBreak Posted October 20, 2005 Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 I never see long thai word except my firstname and lastname together, many times when I wrote it in english I have to look again and again makes sure that doesnt wrong coz of it too long. :roll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goski Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 You seem to have a problem grasping the concept that the name for the capital is not actually ONE(!!!!!!) word But then again not even khun lungs word is actually one word so it is difficult to establish what is the longest. Thai doesn't work like English and there are alot of words that we just translate straight off and think of them as one. ex. ¹¡á¡éÇ - parrot, but really "bird glass". ¡ÃÃà »ëÒà §Ô¹ - wallet, but really "bag money". and even so with ºØ¤ÅÔ¡ÅÑ¡É³à ºØ¤ÅÔ¡ personality Åѡɳà characteristics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biachung Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 But "Bangkok" means the land of Mahogany tree(Swietenia macrophylla). But for Thai peple call that tree is " Ma-kok" and thought bang was bad, atleast it's not bangmakok! krungthep sounds much better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMatlock Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Antidisestablishmentarianism = longest English word. Meaning = nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chatty Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 why don't u look at the ÃÒªºÑ³±ÔµÂʶҹ (thai) dictionary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_lung Posted December 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 why don't u look at the ÃÒªºÑ³±ÔµÂʶҹ (thai) dictionary But it appears that word is only 6 syllables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goski Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Yes but ÃÒªºÑ³±ÔµÂʶҹ is also the name of the dictionary in which you were advised to look Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_lung Posted December 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 Yes but ÃÒªºÑ³±ÔµÂʶҹ is also the name of the dictionary in which you were advised to look Good point, Goski. But I'm not going to go thumbing through a Thai dictionary looking for long words. My original post simply said that in my own experience, the word ºØ¤ÅÔ¡Åѡɳà is the longest that I know of in common Thai conversation, and so far no one has disputed that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goski Posted December 2, 2005 Report Share Posted December 2, 2005 I see But I dispute that it is not a single word and as long as you don't recognise Krungthepmahankornetcetc to be one word your word will also be cut into two Otherwise we can just put alot of words together and create something like ¼ÙéªèÇ·ºÇ§¡ÒêÃҹѾÔà ÈÉ or something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_lung Posted January 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 they always told me that the old name for Krungthep was Bangkok, and that it meant the garden of olives:anyone advise me on that issue?? gee I'm told that indeed it is listed in the Guiness Book as the record holder for the longest city name. But is is a poem, and not a single word. It took the lifespans of two kings to complete it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyper223 Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 ¡ÃÃÃÊÔ·¸Ôìà ¤Ã×èçËÃÒÂáÅÃÂÕèËéáÒäéÒ¢Ò ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loburt Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Since when did they ever grow olives in Thailand? I thought the 'kok' in bangkok meant plums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narmada Posted February 5, 2006 Report Share Posted February 5, 2006 Very difficult question indeed ... As Thai has a vocabulary made up of Thai/Tai-based words which are usually monosyllabic, and Sanskrit/Pali-based words which can have xxx-amount of syllables, the longest word would certainly have to belong to the latter category. That long name for Bangkok, "Krung-Thep-Mahanakhon ... " etc. that some people here quote is a compound of numerous Sanskrit and a few Khmer words; but it's a compound, so it doesn't count. While pondering this, the word 'prachathipatai' (democracy) came to mind, but even this is a compound of Sanskrit words (pracha/praja meaning people or subjects). Now, leafing through a Thai dictionary, I'm sure one would find longer words than this, but they would in all likelyhood also be compounds of various Sanskrit/Pali-based words. And if in future some new idea, concept or technical innovation comes up, one could make up a Sanskrit-Thai word which could have any amount of syllables or words in it, there's no limit really. It's a bit like German in which you can virtually merge any number of nouns and create something new. In German, you can have a noun like 'Bahnhofshallentoilettenputzeraushilfsgehalt', which is made up of six nouns really, and not a common combination at all, but people would exactly understand what it means, at least after a short consideration. The translation is 'railway-station-toilet-cleaner-deputy-wages'. Sanskrit-based Thai words are a bit similar, as really long Sanskrit-based words can be made up if necessary. But they're all just compounds. So, I guess the question is a bit like a Zen riddle, there's no real answer to it. But it keeps your mind going. Sorry, I wish I could say 'xxxxxxxxxxx' is the word we're looking for, but it's not that simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niranahm Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 I posted on this topic before at length under a different profile, but I later deleted that profile. Anyway, Khun Lung and others do seem to miss the point. In Thai we cannot clearly distinguish between syllables, words and phrases. It's more than simply a question of inserting spaces or not. Who's to say whether something is a compound word (Khun Lung's example), a collocation, or two or three words pushed toegther? Those gramatical terms do not easily apply to Thai. There are longish words in Thai that are imported from Pali, Sanskrit and increasingly English. Those words are imported by transliteration so the individual syllables don't usually have a meaning in Thai. On the other hand, if you take a long "word" in Thai where we define "word" as a concept that translates to a single English word, then that word could just as easily be broken into many other recognizable Thai words. In the end, the question "what's the longest word in Thai" doesn't really have a clear meaning. I have written quite a lot of the technical significance on the non-segmentability of Thai and related languages. It affects many IT issues such as indexing and automatic formatting of XML and even the HTML standard on use of the wordbreak <WBR> tag. The real expert on this subject BTW is Doug Cooper who does a lot of practical reserach into computational linguistics and SE Asian languages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niranahm Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 I'm confused here I always though plums were ÅÙ¡¾ÅÑà (look plum) at least when there are not dried in which case they become prunes (¾Ãع) Olives in olive oil and the green and black varieties that are found in salads are Ãáá (ma-gawk) or rather ÅÙ¡Ãáá (look ma-gawk) Perhaps they are closely related botanically -- they are similar in structure and texture if not taste. I've not heard ¡Ã¡ (gawk) used in everyday speech but dictionaries say it can mean plum or fig. On the other hand, the things used in SomTam would not be called olives by farangs... While we're on the subject, why are cashew nuts called à Ãç´ÃÃÃèǧ (literally "mango seeds")?? I'm a confused guava Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roaming Posted January 29, 2018 Report Share Posted January 29, 2018 Would this count? English: Word Processor n. (a machine) in Thai: อุปกรณ์อิเล็กทรอนิกส์เพื่อสร้างจัดเก็บข้อมูล Pronounced: ùp-bpà~gɔɔn-.ì~lék-trɔɔ-nìk-pʉ̂ʉa-sâang-jàt-gèp-kɔ̂ɔ-muun Seen in my Thai–English English–Thai Talking Dictionary by Benjawan Poomsan Becker and Chris Pirazzi © 2010 Paiboon Publishing Inc. and Word in the Hand Inc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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