Should I learn Thai or Lao?

[BigBadGeordie]

I should also point out that I can speak 83 different languages.

 

But only a few words in each. Such as:-

 

I love you………Translates to……HOW MUCH

 

Shit…………….. Translates to……You never told me you were married

 

Beer……………..Oh well

 

Taxi………….

 

I have my Passport………….

 

And as a last resort

 

 

Embassy Now

 

That is after all the $$$$$$$ do not work

 

Posted by an old bugger who has a dim viewo n life

[leadpencil]

Thai (ภาษาไทย Phasa Thai[2] [pʰāːsǎːtʰāj] (help•info)) is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively link the Tai-Kadai languages to any other language family. Some words in Thai are borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer. It is a tonal and analytic language. Thai also has a complex orthography and relational markers. Thai is mutually intelligible with Lao[3].

 

Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ), or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language (after Vietnamese), with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through the vehicles of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon-Khmer family, predating Mon and by a significant margin Vietnamese. As a result of geographic proximity, the Khmer language has influenced, and also been influenced by; Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and Cham many of which all form a pseudo-sprachbund in peninsular Southeast Asia, since most contain high levels of Sanskrit and Pali influences.[2]

Khmer has its own script, an abugida known in Khmer as Aksar Khmer. Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Thai, Lao and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language.

The main dialects, all mutually intelligible, are:

• Battambang, spoken in northern Cambodia.

• Phnom Penh, the capital dialect and is also spoken in surrounding provinces.

• Northern Khmer, also known as Khmer Surin, spoken by ethnic Khmer native to Northeast Thailand

• Khmer Krom or Southern Khmer, spoken by the indigenous Khmer population of the Mekong Delta.

• Cardamom Khmer, an archaic form spoken by a small population in the Cardamom Mountains of western Cambodia.[3]

Lao or Laotian (BGN/PCGN: phasa lao, IPA: [pʰáːsǎːláːw]) is a tonal language of the Kradai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for the multitude of ethnic groups in Laos and in Isan. Lao, like all languages in Laos, is written in an abugida script. Although there is no official standard, the Vientiane dialect has become the de facto standard.

 

Isan language (Thai: ภาษาอีสาน, RTGS: phasa isan, [pʰaːsǎː ʔiːsǎːn]) is the collective name for the dialects of the Lao language as they are spoken in Thailand. It is spoken by approximately 20 million people, which is nearly one-third of the entire population of Thailand.[1], predominantly in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand. There are also large numbers of speakers in Bangkok by migrant workers. It serves as the primary lingua franca of the Isan region, used as a communication medium amongst native speakers and second language speakers amongst various other minority groups, such as the Northern Khmer. There are more speakers of Lao (Isan) in Thailand than in Laos.

Although the Lao language is vibrant in Thailand, spoken as the main language in 88% of speakers’ households, the language suffers from a lack of alphabet, reduced transmission, and absence in media, official events, and education[2]. The language is also heavily being influenced by Thai, as this is the principal language of writing, education, government, and most official situations and a second language for most speakers. Code-switching is common, depending on the context or situation. Adoption of Thai neologisms has also further differentiated Isan from standard Lao.[3]

 

Thanks for posting that. I don't recognise any of the languages as being the one that the girl told me.

 

I too have been searching on the internet and came up with the following list of languages spoken in Thailand from that trustworthy site, Wikepedia;

 

Thailand Thai, Minnan Chinese, Hakka Chinese, Cantonese, English, Malay, Lao, Khmer, Isaan, Shan, Lue, Phutai, Mon, Mein, Hmong, Karen, Burmese, others [43]

 

I thought it may be Mon but looking further into that, it seems that Mon-Khmer is the name given to the group of languages that include Katuic and Khmer in Thailand.

 

I have struggled to find out any more about Mein but also came across Mlabri (spoken on the border area between Thailand and Laos) and Moken however the latter seems to be more of Andaman / Burmese origin.

 

Mlabri seems the most likely candidate however I am clutching at straws a bit now so will have to wait until I next speak to the girl to find out.

[swagman]

Thanks for the reply, extremely interesting. The girl that I was asking comes from Ubon so south east Isaan, near to the Lao border. She speaks Thai and Lao (they employ Lao workers on the farm) but was talking about another language. I thought it was Khmer but she said not.

 

I was seeing a girl from Buriram before and she spoke Thai, Lao and Cambodian. I believe that the mother was from Cambodia and that was why she spoke the language (rather than due to their proximity to the Cambodian border).

 

I've noticed that the Issan girls's over here in England quite often struggle to understand each other when they converse in issan, like the girl with a Khorat dialect (the loud fat one) talking to the girl with an Udon dialect.

My wife often has a saturday get together & maybee 8 or 9 girls call around to eat & be noisy (I go for a pint & house stinks of som-tam) they speak mostly in Thai to ensure all can follow what's being said.

Also, A TG here who speaks something the rest don't even understand at all- half Khmer (lots of rolled 'R's) she say's it's widely spoken around Ubon Ratch,....the other girls look down on that so there's Issan/Thai snobbery for you!

[Dr.Winston]

I've noticed that the Issan girls's over here in England quite often struggle to understand each other when they converse in issan, like the girl with a Khorat dialect (the loud fat one) talking to the girl with an Udon dialect.

My wife often has a saturday get together & maybee 8 or 9 girls call around to eat & be noisy (I go for a pint & house stinks of som-tam) they speak mostly in Thai to ensure all can follow what's being said.

Also, A TG here who speaks something the rest don't even understand at all- half Khmer (lots of rolled 'R's) she say's it's widely spoken around Ubon Ratch,....the other girls look down on that so there's Issan/Thai snobbery for you!

I find this a lot too. Sometimes being a foreign speaker can actually be an advantage over an Thai/Isaan native speaker speaking to a person from another province. Not because our understanding is any better than theirs but because our ears are more flexible. To the Thai/Isaan girls one mis-pronounced tone or syllable can be enough to throw them off whereas a foreign speakers understanding can be more flexible to the possibility of unexpected tones. This is because in Western languages an altered tone doesn't necessarily change the meaning of a word.

[swagman]

I find this a lot too. Sometimes being a foreign speaker can actually be an advantage over an Thai/Isaan native speaker speaking to a person from another province. Not because our understanding is any better than theirs but because our ears are more flexible. To the Thai/Isaan girls one mis-pronounced tone or syllable can be enough to throw them off whereas a foreign speakers understanding can be more flexible to the possibility of unexpected tones. This is because in Western languages an altered tone doesn't necessarily change the meaning of a word.

 

I like to tease them that if they're going to speak Thai -then they should stretch their noses out a bit more, as Issan/lao folk have very flat conks, allways goes down well! & some have come back from holiday in Thai with more western hooters. (thiner-longer.... ugh!)

[Sam Hill]

Khorat has its own dialect, sort of halfway between Thai and Issan Lao. Not surprised someone from Ubon can't understand it. Kham Khorat is only spoken by about 1 million people, Issan by around 20 million.

 

The Lao language has numerous dialects - on both sides of the Mekhong River. Vientiane Thai is the standard in the so-called PDR Lao, but there is no standard in Issan. The main difference between Lao and what is known as Issan is that Issan is now written with the Thai alphabet. The Lao alphabet is similar and was derived from the Thai alphabet, but it has not been taught on the Thai side of the border for maybe a century.

 

Many words are virtually the same in Thai and Lao / Issan ... except for the tone. Oddly enough the first time I went to Laos people complimented me on how well I spoke Lao. But I was speaking Thai. I later asked a Thai colleague and she said the way Farangs speak Thai makes it sound more like Lao.