Isaan girls don't speak Thai?

[Flashermac]

The Mon are an ancient people, fairly closely related to the Khmer. There were in the area before the Thais and had their own kingdoms. But the Burmese pretty well finished them off. There are still a lot of Mons left in southern Burma, but many fled to Thailand for safety. There are a lot of them around Nakorn Pathom. I don't know how many of them still speak Mon. The Mons and part-Mons I've known all spoke Thai or English to me.

 

As I recall, the Thai royal family is directly descended from a Mon nobleman who returned to Siam with King Naresuan when he left Burma and decided to fight for independence in the late 16th century.

 

re: Isaan, there are many Lao dialects and Isaan Lao is not the same as you'll hear in Wiengchan. All schools teach in Central Thai, which is why the BGs speak it as easily as their own Lao. But don't ever make the mistake of calling a BG a Lao! They consider it an insult. They will snap at you, "I may speak Lao, but I am THAI!" They are quite firm about that.

 

p.s. I learnt my Thai in the North. I didn't realise anything was different until I moved to Bangkok. Then some colleagues finally asked me, "Why do you speak Thai like a northerner?" (I wasn't speaking Northern Thai, just Central Thai as a northerner would pronounce it.) Oh, well ...

[Pescator]

Hi Wonderlust.

 

There are several dialects in this area.

Suay, Lao Phuan, lao Khrang, Mon, Thai Rong, Lao Vieng, Lao Song, Kui or Suay, Karen, Khmer and chinese.

No point in going there. Just stick to central thai.

They dont necessarily understand each other when they speak their own dialect. Somebody speaking Suay or Khmer would not be understood by a thai speaker for instance. Nor would they understand each other.

 

Cheers

Hua Nguu

 

[jasmine]

[color:"red"] As I recall, the Thai royal family is directly descended from a Mon nobleman who returned to Siam with King Naresuan when he left Burma(not the first time) and decided to fight for independence in the late 16th century.

 

[/color]

 

I am sorry to contradict you that the Royal family is directed descended from a mon. You must have meant about the Mon immigrants who migrated to Ayuddhaya with King Naresuan, in fact his queen was a Mon.

 

The current Royal family has Chinese and Khmere (and Loa) in the families. No Mon anywhere that I know of, and I can b e wrong. In fact I will try to find out from some Thai history expert, thanks for bring this subject up.

 

Cheers!

[Guest lazyphil]

Thanks for this info.

[Lamock Chokaprret]

From Hua Nguu:

There are several dialects in this area.

Suay, Lao Phuan, lao Khrang, Mon, Thai Rong, Lao Vieng, Lao Song, Kui or Suay, Karen, Khmer and chinese.

No point in going there. Just stick to central thai.

They dont necessarily understand each other when they speak their own dialect. Somebody speaking Suay or Khmer would not be understood by a thai speaker for instance. Nor would they understand each other.

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Actually Khmer refers to the people and the language is Khmen. It is nothing at all like Thai. My wife speaks it around the house because she is from an area where it is prevalent and her sister lives with us. The variant of Khmen they speak in Issan is not the same as that spoken in the rest of Cambodia but similar. My wife tells me she can understand other Khmer people and they can understand her but there are differences.

 

As far as Lao, she speaks this also and as noted above it is quite similar to what is spoken in Laos but again slight differences appear. Also, I've read that the closest language to Thai is Lao and from my limited understanding (again as noted above) there are many similarities in grammar and words in common.

 

My guess is, that among BGs at least, Lao is the most prevalent second language. Knowing a few of the Lao variants will probably get you a laugh or two if you get into that. Try this one: See gan bau.

[Guest]

All schools teach in Central Thai, which is why the BGs speak it as easily as their own Lao

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Not really true. Teachers at the government schools speak Issan. There may be a teacher assigned to teach Thai but it's almost as if it is a second language.

 

The private schools tend to teach in Thai.

 

I think much of the Thai the young ones pick up come from TV and radio. But try speaking Thai to an Issan kid and they will often answer with a blank look.

 

BGs don't speak Thai anywhere near as easily as they do Lao. In ways they are easy to speak Thai with as they are not really that advanced (smaller vocabulary), same same me but better. (Threw that last bit in for Hua Nguu )

 

[Guest]

My guess is, that among BGs at least, Lao is the most prevalent second language. Knowing a few of the Lao variants will probably get you a laugh or two if you get into that. Try this one: See gan bau.

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Try saying this to a hotel maid and you will surely get a big smile. Or maybe a taxi driver. ::

[limbo]

Says bahnawk:

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</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

My guess is, that among BGs at least, Lao is the most prevalent second language. Knowing a few of the Lao variants will probably get you a laugh or two if you get into that. Try this one:

See gan bau

.

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Try saying this to a hotel maid and you will surely get a big smile. Or maybe a taxi driver. ::

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Or try this one, especially when they talk too mutts;

Sau wau.

[Guest]

Khmer refers to the people and the language is Khmen

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"Khmen" is simply the romanization of the Thai pronunciation of the word "Khmer".

 

If you're speaking English then "Khmer" refers to both the language and the people. If you're speaking Thai then what sounds like "Khmen" refers to both the language and the people.

 

The Khmer in Surin/Buriram/Sri Saket is known as "Highland Khmer" and there's about 50% overlap with Cambodian Khmer. My wife (100% Khmer-blooded Thai, from Surin) can get by in the Khmer grocery stores around town, but only barely. However, there's a straightforward "mapping" between Cambodian Khmer and Highland Khmer, so the more she encounters these people, the easier it seems to get.

 

From previous experience I think Isaan Lao is closer to Laos Lao, more like 75% overlap or more.

[Mentors]

wonderlust:

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I was thinking of doing a course in Thai to make my visits to Thailand more enjoyable but then someone told me they speak Lao in Isaan. Seeing as most bar girls are Isaan girls, do they speak Thai or Lao or what?

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People from Isarn speak neither Thai nor Lao. They speak the Isarn dialect, and every every provicne has another difference nuance. They learn the Thai language (Central) in the school. Isarn is familiar to Lao but is not the same, especially writing is different. And we should not forget the dialect in areas near to Cambodia.

 

Same in South Thailand. They speak a dialect and then learn in the school the Thai (Central/Bangkok) dialect. The son of my GTG brother is going to the school since some month and first he has some problem with the "different" styles of the thai language. He knows that i can speak (Central) Thai, so he told me i have to learn it to him ::

 

I remember when i was a boy i was on holiday in the Swiss Alps. There was a

very old lady (i think around 90yrs) in a restaurant. She smoked daily her pipe and she said always: "Im able to speak 4 languages: Swiss-German, German, Silly and Insolent".