whcouncill Posted December 5, 2005 Report Share Posted December 5, 2005 Ok. You know how you can tell someone from New York or Texas by they way they talk. Can you or other Thais tell what part of Thailand by the way they speak Thai? Big difference? Maybe the Northerners have a differenc accent from the ones in the South. Maybe you can give/decribe some examples. Peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted December 5, 2005 Report Share Posted December 5, 2005 Absolutely. Some are so thick that I have trouble understanding them. But I have no idea how to describe an accent in a internet post . Basically, I hear different accents from Northerners (Chiang Mai, etc), Issan, Central and South, but there are probably more that are subtle that I cannot distinguish. Heck, I know from both my old GF and Bourbon St Doug that people in New Orleans can ID the neighborhood in which one was raised from their accents! Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted December 5, 2005 Report Share Posted December 5, 2005 I find the "Central" accent the easiest to understand, useless with most others, oddly southern isn;t too bad as I have staff from tehre/ DOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khwaimaisabai Posted December 6, 2005 Report Share Posted December 6, 2005 Hi dog, In my years in Thailand the easiest understanding came when I once went to Cha Am, near Hua Hin. I told this to my then Thai teacher and he said that that people from this area speak very clearly. Khwai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted December 6, 2005 Report Share Posted December 6, 2005 I have a tough time with the extreme southern accents both becasue of the accent itself AND the fact they speak at an amzing speed. Old Thai friend of mine who has one of the only regular businesses on Soi 6 Pattaya is from Pak Thai and when we speak central its almost like english to me but when his friends come over from Hat Yai and they get going et ctec itsjusta fuckingblur... :: One is always learning more Thai-one can never learn enough vocabulary.dialects etc etc-I enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted December 7, 2005 Report Share Posted December 7, 2005 People here seem to be confusing accents with dialects (actually more like seperate languages in at least two regions). The North speaks Kham Muang and Isaan speaks Lao. If the Kingdom of Chiang Mai had retained its independence, Kham Muang would have been considered a language. If Isaan had remained part of Lao, there would be no "Issan dialect" -- just plain Lao. Only the South has what might really be a dialect, and it is a hard one to understand too. (They do strange things to the tones, besides speaking a mile a minute!) All Thais learn and use Central Thai (the official standard) in school, but sometimes the local prounciation carries over when they speak Central Thai. e.g. There is no "R" sound in Lao, which is why the Isaan girls say "ah-lai" instead of "ah-rai", "ah-loi" instead of "ah-roi" etc. I spent my first years in Thailand in the North, and when I came to live in Bangkok people used to tell me I had a northern accent in Thai. That was news to me. I thought I just spoke with a bad Farang accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted December 7, 2005 Report Share Posted December 7, 2005 Agreed, but I (don't know about the others) was speaking of accents when speaking Thai and those groups seemingly having different ones, at least to my ear. I only understand "central" or schoolbook Thai, so any Lao or Kham Muang would lose me straight away and I am fairly quick to recognize the fact that they are speaking a different language versus an odd accent. I guess the best example of accent is yours of the "l" for "r" that is so frequently heard. I would call that accent. Wouldn't that be correct? Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 The l/ r substitution seems to be something that occurs most freqeuntly in the BKK area and outside of BKK one hears the classic" r "used at least more often-Arai not allai(In my experience.) The r seems to be a simple bastardization FM- true the south and parts of the north have dialects that are different and also many people speak in accents that are mixed with partial dialect dispersal-They combine it... If i a m pretty drunk it all goes better with these dialects. Central Thai is akin to Hoch Deutsch and then there is Bayerisch-Swebisch as I remember etc etc-My German is still in there but alittle distant- A couple of months ago we were sitting aroung with Germans,Thai and English and it was entertaining switiching between the languages. The Belgium and Swiss of course do this all of the time-any hooo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 First time we visited my mrs friend who moved to Austria her german was weak, last year we went again and was almost fluent, she could switch from German (i wonder if Hamburgerians can understand Austrian German spoken by a Thai girl though!) talking to husband (he speaks good English), Thai with my Mrs (shes Nakon Sawan, mrs Pathum/Pakkret area--same same dialect?) and English with me....her German seems much stronger (her fella confirmed this) than her english now.....pretty adaptable girl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FAT_AUSSIE Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 I have to take the piss sometimes, just cant help myself. My wife never spoke a zac of English before we met although now she thinks she can speak a bit, funny thing is I've been teaching her a combination of English and Greek. just like me learning her useless village prattle... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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