Levels of politeness

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

"I sometimes use 'bpay suam' instead of 'bpay hong naam' just to piss people off (and it usually does)."

Try "bpay ying krataai" (go shoot a rabbit), slang for taking a piss.

As for different words for eating, there is also "rappathaan khao", more polite than "thaan khao".

Sanuk!

[Guest]

or a girl would "by gep dookmaay"

go and pick flowers

[luckyfarang]

Perhaps I am confusing SOM®DET with SA-DET(l), but I don't think so because the tonal difference is so distinct. I can clearly recall seeing Thai movies where the prince and princess address the king/emperor and queen/empress as SA-DET(l) PAW(f), SA-DET(l) MAE(f).

And what about RAP(h) SA-DET(l)? (to have a royal audience) You don't RAP(h) SOM® DET!

By the way, I find it surprising that someone who obviously has a good command of several languages and has spent years in LOS such as Scum Baggio would have trouble with the tones at this point. I guess that is why everyone everywhere seems so amazed to hear me speak Thai with a decent accent, especially upcountry.

KS Wrote:

"As for different words for eating, there is also "rappathaan khao", more polite than "thaan khao"

"RAP(h)PRA-THAAN A-HAAN®" (to dine) is the one I have only read about but have never actually heard used in real life or even on TV. You must travel in higher social circles than I do.

[ July 21, 2001: Message edited by: luckyfarang ]

[Guest]

taan, rapprataan are high words where kin is

a low word so, with taan or rapprataan it would be better to use ahaarn rather than khao, as khao is a common word for food. A lot of the words you see identified as being issarn dialect are really just common or low thai words but the people in the country use them a lot because they are uneducated. Most educated people when speaking with some one they dont know or to an elder etc speak using the more polite language and also in the correct "standard thai" accent they learn at school,pronouncing all the r's

and double consonant sounds. Often though when friends get together they drop back

into the more familiar speech.

[Guest]

Originally posted by luckyfarang:

"By the way, I find it surprising that someone who obviously has a good command of several languages and has spent years in LOS such as Scum Baggio would have trouble with the tones at this point. I guess that is why everyone everywhere seems so amazed to hear me speak Thai with a decent accent, especially upcountry."

Funny thing is, my spoken Thai is pretty to very good (humble me!) and I unfailingly get complimented on it. But if someone asks me what the tone is that I've just pronounced I really have to think hard. After so many years in Thailand speaking Thai comes naturally, without ever pondering tones etc.

And even more funny is the fact that I often speak Thai with a distinctive Indian accent -I guess I've spent a few years too many on the old Subcontinent. I get a lot of grins for that, and if somebody points it out to me, I always ask them if they want to borrow some money from me - pretending to be an Indian money-lender, that is!

[Guest]

If you want anymore words for 'to eat', you can try using 'daek'. It's very impolite though, you'd almost certainly piss people off by using it

[Chanchao]

I used "daek" at the office last week and people didn't stop laughing for minutes. :-) I didn't actually say it though, I kinda spelled it out by saying '11-D-K' ('sip-et-daw-kaw') which would spell out as แดก, with 11 looking like the sara-ee vowel, then D-dek and K-kai. That took like 3 seconds before they realized what I was saying. :-)

(I offered a co-worker some snack and she sad it wasn't 'aroi' so I asked her if it wasn't delicious, then she shouldn't 11-D-K it! All in good spirit of course.

11-D-K is my own invention, modelled after their way of saying 'pai 11-R-D' as an answer to 'pai nai?' (11-R-D = 'Raed!' as in loose, showy, teasing, slutty, mischievous (for women).

It's a wonderful language, isn't it..

Cheers,

Chanchao