Thai language

“ In producing acceptable approximations to the five tone-combinations of Thai, it is not necessary for us to do anything that even the most tone—deaf of us does not do every day in speaking English. The problem lies not in the mechanics of controlling the pitch, but in the uses to which we are accustomed to put pitch distinctions. In English, we employ pitch to show where a given word is in the sentence, or to signal that we are asking a question, or to convey attitudes and emotions. ”

“ II. Problems of Sentence Structure
23. In the way they are put together, even the simplest Thai sentences bear little resemblance to their English counterparts. True, the subject does ordinarily come before the predicate, as in English, and the verb does stand before its object, but almost everything else is different. The following are nine of the differences that cause English speakers the most trouble.
24. (a) Every English statement must have a subject, even if the subject is only a personal pronoun (I, etc.)
In Thai, the subject may be omitted if no ambiguity would result:
25. ”

“ Since the experience area covered by a particular word in Thai will usually differ from that in English, the student will usually not know the range of meaning of the word in Thai and may extend it into areas where it is not used. ”

“ There already exists at least one reference grammar of Thai, as well as courses which contain detailed grammatical notes. But people learn things when they are ready to learn them. They also need to have the same facts available on more than one scale. Experience with basic courses in other languages suggests that most students need a connected summary of the main points of structure, in addition to and not instead of the notes that are scattered among the lessons. ”

“ Race and Language.—According to the census of 1901 there were 787,087 Shans (see above) in Burma. The Thai or Tai, as they call themselves, were first known to the Burmese as Tarôks or Tarets. The original home of the Thai race was S.W. China, or rather that was the region where they attained to a marked separate development as a people. It is probable that their first settlement in Burma proper was in the Shweli valley, and that from this centre they radiated at a comparatively recent date N., W. and S.E. through Upper Burma into Assam. ”

“ Thailand is founded on blood and flesh Thai people share, Luang Saranupraphan Phra Chen-Duriyang
Thailand is founded on blood and flesh Thai people share, Every portion of the land belongs to us, thus we must care; It has long maintained its sovereignty, Because the Thais have always been united. The Thai people are peace-loving, But they are no cowards at war. They shall allow no one to rob them of their independence, Nor shall they suffer tyranny. All Thais are ready to give up every drop of blood For the nation's safety, freedom and progress. ”

“ Free to contemplate the unequal plight of man (or woman as it was in his case) , to see color in forms and feelings and thought, to mix with forms by allowing licentious whims to twist around the kite in accordance with natural mandates to reign in those turbulent skies, he basked in others perceptions of him as handsome, successful, and affluent. Like juicy fruit on the stem, his days in the sun, as an elated appetite of women and an envy of men—at least for those who knew something about contemporary Thai art—were embarrassing and awkward to the modest Jatupon that he was ”

“ Thais with a disposition and willingness to scrutinize their own cultural suppositions were rare but for those who were so inclined to repugn family and Buddha, if only in outward aloofness and tacit pondering, little remained sacrosanct from intellectual dissection except for issues in reference to the king, for to cease to revere him would make one something other than Thai. ”

“ Their serious probing of life and their awareness of the geyser of unique thoughts that erupted in them certainly didn’t seem Thai. A typical urban Thai yearned to languish if not extinguish himself or herself in strolls in a shopping mall, a movie, a video game, laughter, cellular telephones, beer, and comic books. Jatupon did pursue the pejorative in comic books as most Thai males from five to fifty and the two of them were pursuing their quest of leisure as lazily as the best of Thais ”

“ It was like a homeless bottle collector pushing an unwieldy cart away from him or, if it could be transmuted to sound, that of a man repudiating his own impecunious past. Hadn't that faded memory of a mother once told him that thunder was a diamond falling from some goddess when struggling in the heavens against a diminutive monster?—he could not remember any of the specifics; hadn't some uncle in the United States of America, the country of his birth, once told him that thunder was the sound of Thai monkeys angrily tossing coconuts from coconut trees in the hope of getting to the bananas? ”

“ It is supposed that the Thai race boasts of representatives across the whole breadth of Indo-China, from the Brahmaputra as far as the gulfs of Siam and Tongking; that it numbers among its members not only the Shans proper, the Laos and the Siamese, but also the Muongs of French Indo-China, the Hakas of S. China, and the Li, the inhabitants of the interior of the far Eastern island of Hainan in the China seas. But no exhaustive survey of the Thai has yet been accomplished. For the purposes of Burma they may be divided into the N.W., the N.E., the E. and the S. Shans. ”

“ Among them exist the purest types of the Thai race. They are found all over the province of Yunnan and in the borderland between China and Burma. Politically, where not under the direct control of Chinese magistrates, the tribes are organized under their own chiefs, who are recognized by the Chinese government and endowed with official rank and title. ”

“ The syntax, moreover, is wholly against any such reference. The phrase with which it begins, แต่ คน อัน มี ใน เมือง ไท, cannot be the subject, since the introductory preposition แต่ marks it plainly as adverbial—"Of men that are in the Thai realm, . . . . find a man to equal [him] you cannot". Some pronoun, of course, our western idiom compels us to supply ”

“ This Thai family includes the Shans proper, and the Siamese. The name Lao, which appears to mean simply “man,” is the collective Siamese term for all the Thai peoples subject to Siam, while Shan, said to be of Chinese origin, is the collective Burmese term for those subject to Burma. Lao is therefore rather a political than an ethnical title, and the people cordially dislike the name, insisting on their right to be called Thai. Owing to the different circumstances which have attended their migrations, the Thai peoples have attained to varying degrees of civilization. ”

“ A lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside Thailand and through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the Thai, with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the United Nations, will at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and their Japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free men." ”

“ They are husbandmen, shepherds, and hunters. [450]
It is perhaps among the Siamese that the primitive Thai type has been most changed by intermixture with the Khmers, Kuis, Hindus, and Malays. In stature above the average (1 m. 61) , very brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 85.5) with olive complexion, they have prominent cheek-bones, lozenge-shaped face, and short flattish nose. They are fervent votaries of southern Buddhism, and are the most civilised of the Thai. ”

“ Early childhood experiences were the arsonist, and the tower of his manhood would burn to a final implosion hoping for one who could fan ebullient flames or put him out entirely.
And of this second Boi, the Thai from Nongkai who claimed that he had come into the restaurant of the guesthouse because of the heavy rain, this unknown boy who already seemed as a passing dream, a wet dream, an evaporated being or residual abstraction oozing out of the furthest corners of memory, would he, Nawin, really have paid for his education? ”

“ Introduction Thailand Background: A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US ally following the conflict. Thailand is currently facing armed violence in its three Muslim-majority southernmost provinces. ”

“ If I am not entirely wrong, there is no other document extant which records the achievement of letters for an untamed speech by one to whom that speech was native, and which at the same time fully illustrates that achievement. When we recall the part these very letters of this very inscription have played in the culture and the life of the Thai race both north and south, and when we reflect that the very form in which we read and write Siamese today is the lineal descendant of that,—not far removed and but little changed,—we may be interested to know something more about it. ”

“ However refreshing this acrimony so unencumbered by Thai-Laotian etiquette was, it was not worth dying for; and so he retreated for a few moments on his bunk until dangling once again with an opened can of beer.
He thought again how this stranger defied the obsequious norm with a refreshing brashness that was like having cold water thrown into his face. But like a fish that was suddenly snagged on a hook, images of himself in poverty, which he did not care to recall, caught him within. His pleasure in the stranger waned as impressions of beings and beings themselves waned. ”

“ Paphnutius knelt down, and threw his long black arms around her.
“Do not die!” he cried, in a strange voice, which he himself did not recognise. “I love thee! Do not die! Listen, my Thais. I have deceived thee? I was but a wretched fool. God, heaven—all that is nothing. There is nothing true but this worldly life, and the love of human beings. I love thee! Do not die! That would be impossible—thou art too precious! Come, come with me! Let us fly? I will carry thee far away in my arms. Come, let us love! Hear me, O my beloved, and say, ‘I will live; I wish to live.’ Thais, Thais, arise!” ”

“ Both Governments consider anyone of Chinese nationality or origin who acquires Thai nationality as automatically forfeiting Chinese nationality. As for those Chinese residents in Thailand who elect to retain Chinese nationality of their own will, the Chinese Government, acting in accordance with its consistent policy, will enjoin them to abide by the law of the Kingdom of Thailand, respect the customs and habits of the Thai people and live in amity with them. ”

“ The Laotian burst out in a laughter which started out as a mild guffaw before burning away any acrimony against opulent Bangkokians, their ignorance, and more specifically, this rich Thai's obtuseness, to become a pleasant and embracing cacophony of good will.
Nawin noticed a blanketed entity at his feet that puzzled him and made the reason for the laughter cease to matter. Then the Laotian spoke and the blanketed one who was half on the floor and the two seats before the window was forgotten.
"So, a rich man like you doesn't know where elephants are kept but then why would you? ”

“ Of the twenty-one Thăi words accounted as not current now in Siamese speech, I have marked but six as known to me to exist in Lao. No doubt there are others as well, of whose use I am ignorant. To answer the question quantitatively, one would have to know also how many words out of this whole vocabulary are not—or rather were not—current in Lao. And even so, mere vocabulary does not by any means cover the whole ground of dialectal divergence, which consists quite as much in special applications of the same words, and in tone, accent, and phrasing—matters as yet wholly beyond our reach. ”

“ Words no longer current either in Siamese or in Lao are marked obsolete. Those found only in the northern dialect are marked Lao. No attempt has been made to isolate elements common to Shan and Thai, nor the inherited Chinese element. ”

“ Among men that live in the realm of the Thai, for 112 knowledge and insight, for bravery and daring, for energy 113 and force, there cannot be found a man to equal him—able to subdue hosts of 114 enemies with cities wide and elephants many. ”

“ It seemed odd to do so, for he was feeling the desire to turn in the opposite direction toward the Laotian himself, so that he might say, "Phom tongkarn khun [I want you] " and "Phom gamlang ja pai gap khun [I will be going with you] ." Odder yet, his mind itself retained the hauntings of Kimberly, who was even more similar to him than Noppawon in being a little of this and that, and belonging to no group or family for she was French-American, and he Thai American, or at any rate an American Thai, and, unequivocally, both were expatriates of this world. ”

“ All upper class Thai darkees are the same. Cleansed and made beautiful and white by money they are a vain lot—solitary cowards behind face fortresses. They are like the Chinese in that sense, and both Thai lightees and darkees with money pretend to be of a higher species. They try to avoid foraging, disease carrying primates like me. Their fortresses are built from fear that lack of money will make them have to acknowledge that they are merely hairless monkeys—no more special, no more potential to matter than any animal. ”