farang_subson Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 And in Thai there is no "uh" sound, so Thais have to substitute "ah". So the Thai pronunciation would most likely be "andan" or "andah". äà ·Ô§¤ì «Ñà ºÃ´ÕéÊì à δ ÃÔÊ ÃÑ¹à ´ÃÃì ÎÔÊ áÃÊ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joopjip Posted April 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 And in Thai there is no "uh" sound, so Thais have to substitute "ah". So the Thai pronunciation would most likely be "andan" or "andah". äà ·Ô§¤ì «Ñà ºÃ´ÕéÊì à δ ÃÔÊ ÃÑ¹à ´ÃÃì ÎÔÊ áÃÊ We do say auu, and umm Ãà Ã×à but i dont know if thats a new thing cos my grandmas never make any sound to imply that she's thinking of something to say before she says it lol We do have sort of like uh sound which we mostly add at the end of the sentence like na,ner,la ¹à à ¹Ãà Åà ,etc which dont have any meanings.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joopjip Posted April 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 Actually many people including me say Ãëà (aor) which means" i see" or "yes"and äÃè (mai) which means" no" a lot before we start saying something and often it's like uh sound and has nothing to do with what we are about to say or the questions your replying to which dont require yes/no answers and it's very funny when someone wanna be a smartass and ask you yes what? or no what? does this make any sense to you lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farang_subson Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 Actually many people including me say Ãëà (aor) which means" i see" or "yes"and äÃè (mai) which means" no" a lot before we start saying something and often it's like uh sound and has nothing to do with what we are about to say or the questions your replying to which dont require yes/no answers and it's very funny when someone wanna be a smartass and ask you yes what? or no what? does this make any sense to you lol Yeah, it makes sense. There are a lot of books about Thai language for foreigners, but most of them don?t touch the slang, the junk words, interjections, etc. They give you all these rules about Thai culture and language, but then you come to Thailand and you hear women saying ?krup? and men saying ?ka?. So it?s good to learn about Thai as spoken by real people. But my main point was just that I disagree with somebody who wrote that Thais can?t pronounce ?under? correctly because the ?uh? sound isn?t in the Thai language. The Thai language can capture that sound just fine (ÃÑ¹à ´ÃÃì ). Back to the English/American question?.at least the French have the ?Academie Francaise?. It?s an institution that actually decides what proper French is and isn?t. I think the Thais have something like that too. But the English language doesn?t have anything like that, so you?re with left two views: 1) English English is like the mothership. All the other versions of English spring from it, and we should humbly defer to upper class Brits when in doubt. 2) Because both American and English English have continued changing since the time they branched off, arguing about the superiority of one version over the other is like arguing whether gorillas or orangutans are better apes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smartass Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 solution to understand british accents better: - get rid of all the american friends and stop watching american movies. then look for new brit friends with strong accent...hang out with them. stalk them. sleeping with them might not help but try....and watch more brit movies. anyway, how about english english VS french english... :shock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venus Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 solution to understand british accents better: - get rid of all the american friends and stop watching american movies. then look for new brit friends with strong accent...hang out with them. stalk them. sleeping with them might not help but try....and watch more brit movies. anyway, how about english english VS french english... :shock: lol even better... simply has an english kid. :shock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_lung Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 But my main point was just that I disagree with somebody who wrote that Thais can?t pronounce ?under? correctly because the ?uh? sound isn?t in the Thai language. The Thai language can capture that sound just fine (ÃÑ¹à ´ÃÃì ). I stand by my original post, and the examples you gave illustrate my point clearly. If you have taught English to Thais, then you will know that the "uh" sound is not a natural spoken sound. They can come close, but without some coaching cannot replicate the sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldMember Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 solution to understand british accents btter: - get rid of all the american friends and stop watching american movies. then look for new brit friends with strong accent...hang out with them. stalk them. sleeping with them might not help but try....and watch more brit movies. anyway, how about english english VS french english... :shock: There are dozens of regional and London dialects.'Standard English' as already pointed out is essentially Public School English.So you would have to hang out outside the likes of Harrow,Eton,Stowe,Winchester etc etc without looking like a pimp/hooker.Getting arrested is the most likely outcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joopjip Posted April 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2007 But my main point was just that I disagree with somebody who wrote that Thais can?t pronounce ?under? correctly because the ?uh? sound isn?t in the Thai language. The Thai language can capture that sound just fine (ÃÑ¹à ´ÃÃì ). I stand by my original post, and the examples you gave illustrate my point clearly. If you have taught English to Thais, then you will know that the "uh" sound is not a natural spoken sound. They can come close, but without some coaching cannot replicate the sound. I think i can pronounce "under" just fine..I would think thai people struggle more with the R word like right as opposed to light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHISKERS Posted April 3, 2007 Report Share Posted April 3, 2007 My wife can pronounce "under" just fine, but when I asked her to pronounce "husband" it came out hussbell to the best of my recognition . . lol She has much more trouble with r's l's v's and w's. If you check out her "About Me" on her profile, you will see she tried to say she loved her husband "MORE" . . . instead . . . well I think she loves my mole!! http://www.thailandfriends.com/MonKeyPhong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joopjip Posted April 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2007 I think it's just a matter of time when it comes to pronunciation...when you hear something for hundred of times u will eventually learn how to say it right and I dont believe that it's not possible to have perfect pronunciation when you start too old. Most people just dont even give it a try. I know farangs who have perfect thai pronunciation and the same for thais with english or u need good tongues i dont know lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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