22
votes
Is Thai language related or a descendant of Sanskrit?
The script has nothing to do with the origin of the language. In fact, every script can be used to write any language. Usually a language adopts the script that is associated with the religion and/or ...
- 18.6k
13
votes
Accepted
Is there a theory challenging the "strict" distinction between Thai and Vietnamese?
There is a theory, applicable to all human languages, that is even encoded in what certain words mean in linguistics. Namely, "related" is taken to be a claim about genetic (historical) relations ...
- 83.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Phonemes or allophones?
You've almost got it!
The trick is, the professor isn't asking if [p̚ t̚ k̚] are allophones of a single phoneme. That is, they're not asking if there's a single underlying phoneme /C̚/ that surfaces ...
- 69.6k
7
votes
Accepted
(Why) did the Thai script convert Sanskrit द /d/ to /th/ and then introduce its own character for /d/?
We have a case of historical spellings. We'll use the descendants of the alveolar stops as the easiest to understand:
ISO Romanisation: ta - tha - da - dha
Devanagari: त - थ - द - ध
Khmer script: ត - ...
- 7,626
6
votes
Accepted
What's the origin of the Lao (ຈິງໂຈ້) and Thai (จิงโจ้) words for "kangaroo"?
I can't comment on Lao, but I know that the Thai word originally meant "water skipper" (insects of the family Gerridae). Nowadays these bugs can be called จิงโจ้น้ำ /ciŋ.côo náam/, according to my ...
- 111
5
votes
Google Translate Thai with IPA transcription?
No, because they don't provide a transcription, they provide a transliteration. Note that if the language uses the Latin alphabet, you get no help. It is also not always the "best" transliteration, ...
- 83.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Why does Thai have no words for "yes" or "no"?
Short answer: Because Thai language has other tools for expressing polarity (affirmation and negation).
Polarity is a grammatical category for expressing the speaker's assertion that a certain clause ...
- 8,641
5
votes
Accepted
How complex contour tones get in languages
At the phonetic level, nobody really know how complex it "can" be. As you presumably know, F0 is a windowed function, and if we take a standard window of 10 msc., you can get a huge number of integer ...
- 83.4k
5
votes
Origin of ratchasap/ราชาศัพท์ phenomenon in Thai and/or Tai-kadai languages
ราชาศัพท์ raa-chaa-sàp itself is a Pali-derived word, ราชา raa-chaa (राज rājā "king, monarch") + ศัพท์ sàp (originally from Sanskrit शब्द śabda "word"); hence, "Royal Language&...
- 7,626
4
votes
(Why) did the Thai script convert Sanskrit द /d/ to /th/ and then introduce its own character for /d/?
I believe the full answer would take a whole book. Here's the brief:
ท ([d] → [tʰ]) is not alone here.
The original Pali consonant list had consonants ordered according to where they are produced in ...
- 8,641
4
votes
Accepted
Is there is a theory according to which both West Asian and East Asian form a sprachbund?
There isn't such a theory. For starters, a sprachbund only occurs through contact, and so it's unlikely to have a sprachbund broken up by South or Central Asia.
Second of all, the different types of ...
- 2,364
4
votes
Accepted
Modern Thai writing system and modern Khmer writing system and the sharing of Non-Sanskrit symbols
The symbols the Thai and Khmer scripts share but which are not used in Classical Sanskrit are few. They are these:
Consonant: Khmer ឡ [lɑː] and Thai ฬ [ḷa]. This symbol is used in Pali and Vedic ...
- 18.6k
4
votes
Accepted
'Interstitial' tones in Thai
Tone sandhi is the term you are looking for.
According to Wikipedia,
Tone sandhi is a phonological change occurring in tonal languages, in which the tones assigned to individual words or morphemes ...
- 8,641
4
votes
Politeness particles `krap`/`ka`
According to the Thai wiktionary ขอรับ kráp is a shortening of ขอรับ kɔ̌ɔ-ráp "ask to serve" = "may I serve you?". Ká, however, is uncertain.
I don't think there's a single equivalent to these ...
- 5,000
4
votes
Accepted
How Thai Vowels Work
I believe that this question comes from misunderstanding between the orthography and typography.
From the typography point of view, you don't care how characters "encode" sounds. Your only concern is ...
- 8,641
3
votes
Accepted
How common are the “politeness particles” in Thai?
I was there in the rural areas and they used the particles among each other as well. A lot of standard phrases wouldn't even sound right without it - like Kop Kun Kaa/Kap.
Also, it is used ...
- 322
3
votes
Accepted
How does the Thai language express the instrumental?
The serial verb construction is the most common and least marked way of expressing the instrumental meaning. Among the verbs used in the first verb position include:
เอา (ao)
ใช้ (chái)
นำ (...
- 7,626
3
votes
Phonemes or allophones?
To restate the question, is it possible to derive every instance of [p̚, t̚, k̚] from some other consonant by applying a rule (what is that rule), and if so, what consonants underlie phonetic [p̚, t̚, ...
- 83.4k
3
votes
Accepted
Is it true to say that in Thai languages past is default or generally guessed from context?
No, the "default" is just the verb itself, without tense.
It is true that tense has to be generally inferred and that goes for present tense as well, but it would be a mistake to assume present tense ...
- 7,626
3
votes
Accepted
Modern Khmer and modern Vietnamese genetic proximity
In speaking of a comparison of vocabularies between the languages, one may refer to the Swadesh list, which is a commonly used compilation of vocabulary items used for quantifying the relations ...
- 459
2
votes
Was the Thai letter ด really derived from ต?
The Thai letter ด would not have been derived from the Thai letter ต. Both letters were introduced at the same time when the Thai alphabet was constructed (in the 1200s in Sukhotai).
When the Thai ...
- 91
2
votes
Accepted
Does Vietnamese mười reflects the Thai/Lao/Khmer uu sound?
Short answer
The Thai vowel อู is a high, back, rounded vowel.
The corresponding Lao vowel is very similar and for the Khmer one I can’t comment.
The first element of the Vietnamese diphthong in ...
- 462
2
votes
Accepted
Thai basic day time-units
The words in question seem to be (in order of appearance):
ดึก [dɯ̀k] — late at night;
มืด [mɯ̂ːt] — dark; never heard of it used to tell time of day;
สาย [sǎːj] — late; as in "to be late"; again, ...
- 8,641
2
votes
Do the Thai masculine & feminine "polite particles" have counterparts in Lao?
Another word widely heard in Laos when they want to make a sentence more polite, I hear "ໂດຍ" or "ໂດຍຂ້ານ້ອຍ". After asking some friends who speak Lao as a mothertongue, they always use "ໂດย", the ...
2
votes
Which language among South East Asia has the most and least loanwords from English?
The languages with the most loanwords from English: There are several candidates, depending on how you define "loanword" (which is not quite clear in the case of creoles), "language" (as opposed to a ...
- 1,779
2
votes
Accepted
What might account for different numbers of formants in plots of male and female speakers pronouncing the same vowel?
The traditional account is that formants frequencies are based on tube length, with resonances being at those frequencies corresponding to 4L, 4/3L, 4/5L, 4/7L... Formants shift up or down as the tube ...
- 83.4k
2
votes
'Interstitial' tones in Thai
Well, I am also very interested in the issue of tone sandhi in Thai, as I have just started learning Thai. I do speak Mandarin, and have spent 15 years studying the language, and am very familiar with ...
- 21
2
votes
Accepted
When is a conjunction not a conjunction?
There is a special name for this kind of part of speech, they are called Conjunctional Adverbs or Conjunctive Adverbs¹. In a broader classification of part of speech, they are subsumed under Adverbs (...
- 31.1k
2
votes
Language identification
No, it's not Thai. I'm almost sure the script is Javanese, but it's upside-down in your picture. The language is not necessarily Javanese, because the script is used for several languages; check out ...
- 137
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