you mean the “ha” as the lower sound or the higher one tho? if it’s the former, only older generations use it. idk why but i guess it’s easier for them when speaking. but if it’s the latter, initially, it’s what boys use. you can notice it from something like “ใช่แล้วฮะ” which actually comes from “ใช่แล้วครับ” i know it doesn’t even sound similar but that’s how it has changed from time to time ahahahaha. but nowadays, girls do use it too. i, personally, also use it, but with my friends or people who are around my age only. but yeah the “ha” actually exists.

most thais, when speaking in an informal situation aka in our daily life, we always drop the ร and change it to ล instead. just like อะไร, technically it should be arai right? but as it’s kinda easier for us to pronounce, we just drop it to alai (อะไล) this is also why you can see thais (mostly teenagers) typing อะไร as อัลไล. so yup it’s about the formality. if we have to speak in a formal language, we all just change it to ร immediately ahahahahaha

ʚ 9th june 2018 ɞ

ʚ 26th may 2018 ɞ

recently went to wat arun (temple of dawn) a couple of weeks ago, and here are some of the pictures i have taken while i was there. one of the rumours has it that after the fall of 417-year ayutthaya kingdom, king taksin had vowed to establish the new kingdom at any place he arrived in the following morning. turned out he arrived at this temple at dawn, king taksin then established the new kingdom of thonburi around this area, and renamed the temple as wat arun of the “temple of dawn”

as many of you might already know, i’m chinese-thai. growing up being exposed to thai, teochew, hakka, and mandarin, i always experience a eureka moment while learning the languages. what i list down below are things i’ve noticed between both of the languages that i want to share with you guys!

similarities

particles in both thai and chinese actually share the same pronunciation and almost the same functions. eg. มั้ย (mai) = 吗 (ma), นะ (na) = 呢 (ne), แล้ว (laew) = 了 (le), กี่ (gi) = 几 (ji), ไม่ (mai) = 没 (mei)

thai borrowed so many chinese words, just like how korean and japanese also do. eg. เก้าอี้ (gao yi) = 椅子 (yi zi), ก๋วยเตี๋ยว (guai tiao) = 面条 (mian tiao), เฉาก๊วย (cao guai) = 仙草 (xian cao)

both languages are tonal languages. both share the same tones; there’s only thai 4th tone (๊) that chinese doesn’t have

both have so many exclamative particles (啊, 哦, etc.), and quite a great number of them are used similarly which led me to personally believe that thai people did pick them up from chinese people. (my point is i can’t imagine how it originally came from the old thai)

both have tons of word counters, like, TONS.

both languages count numbers similarly, especially thai and the teacher dialect, most of the numbers from 1-10 are so similar. for thai, it’s หนึ่ง(nueng) สอง(song) สาม(sam) สี่(si) ห้า(ha) หก(hok) เจ็ด(jed) แปด(ppad) เก้า(gao) สิบ(sib) for mandarin, it’s yi er san si wu liu qi ba jiu shi. for teochew, it’s dzek ji/nor sa si kgou lak chit poik kau zaap. though they don’t look that similar here, if you look up for their pronunciation, you’ll definitely see similarities among them.

both languages have specific words to address family members.

both are isolating languages (some may say not entirely. i’m not a linguist or anything, but this is what i’ve always been taught; therefore, both of the languages more or less possess many qualities of an isolating language)

both structure sentences in “subject - verb - object” way

differences

people who use different chinese dialects might not be able to understand one another. (i’m a mandarin learner but my family is teochew-hakka and i’d say it’s not intelligible since i’ve tried to understand them with my mandarin knowledge. yes, they sometimes have similar pronunciation, but still, aren’t mutually intelligible. some people even classify them as different types of language) however, for thai dialects, they are mutually intelligible. even laotian is intelligible to us. (there’s a backstory to this)

the way we structure sentences like “i have 3 books” are different. thai does it in “noun - number - counter” eg. ฉันมีหนังสือสามเล่ม while chinese does it in “number -  counter - noun” eg. 我有三本书。

in thai, we form words by putting vowels and consonants together, just like english. but in chinese, we have separate characters.

in chinese, when we want to place an indication of time, we either put it in front of the sentence or after the subject. in thai, we either place it in front or at the very end of the sentence.

at this point, you’re probably asking why they both possess so many similarities right? the thing is that, linguistically, both belong to the same language family, a language family that was originated somewhere in southern china. also, thai has always been influenced by so many languages. although it’s not the one that has the most impact, chinese is among one of them. culturally, since the last two centuries, a great number of chinese people have immigrated into thailand continuously, which results in having around 40% of population as chinese-thai. and because so many of them settle down here, they also gradually influence our language along with our tradition and belief into how it is today.

similarities

the way to form words in both languages is by putting a consonant(s) and a vowel(s) together, unlike the language that has different characters like chinese

they both have roots from old languages. most english words have the roots from latin, greek, etc. most thai words have the roots from sanskrit, pali, khmer, etc.

they both have the sentence structure of “subject - verb - object”

both languages have contracted words

there are some words that can be pronounced in different ways

differences

thai is a tonal language while english is not. thai has 5 tones in total. using the wrong tone can result in conveying the wrong message.

in thai, we don’t use a full stop, comma, or any of the punctuations. we only space when we start a new sentence or want to separate clauses from each other for better understanding.

thai has levels of formality/honourifics. i’m aware that english also does, like, there are ways to structure the sentences or change some words to make the sentences sound softer. but for thai, different words = different levels of formality. for example, แ*ก (swearword) กิน ทาน รับประทาน เสวย all have the meaning of “to eat”, but each of them is used in different levels of formality.

in thai, we have specific words to address each member of the family, just like chinese. we have different words for your dad’s dad, your dad’s mum, your mum’s dad, your mum’s mum, etc.

thai has dialects. different dialects = different sets of vocabulary but are still intelligible among thai speakers

Spring - ฤดูใบไม้ผลิ Sun - พระอาทิตย์ Sunlight - แสงแดด Wind - ลม Warm - อุ่น Warmth - ความอบอุ่น Flower - ดอกไม้ Leaf - ใบไม้ Tree - ต้นไม้ Sunflower - ดอกทานตะวัน Cherry Blossom / Sakura - ดอกซากุระ Rose - ดอกกุหลาบ To bloom - บาน To wither - เหี่ยวเฉา Insect - แมลง Ladybug - แมลงเต่าทอง Bee - ผึ้ง Honey - น้ำผึ้ง Umbrella - ร่ม Cloud - เมฆ Rainbow - สายรุ้ง Rain - ฝน Raincoat - เสื้อกันฝน Rainy Season - ฤดูฝน Dew - น้ำค้าง

- ̗̀ Bonus  ̖́-

thai vowels have 21 symbols and 32 sounds (which on some sites might say we have 32 vowels) in thai, there are 18 short vowels and 14 long vowels. below here is a list of all vowels. the ones i group together have the similar sounds, it’s just that some are short vowels while some are long, if this makes any sense. it’s like the words “italy” and “we”. “i” in italy is short right there, while “e” in we is long. then try making the “i” in italy longer, yup, sound similar to “e” in “we” right? that’s how vowels work here.

ps. these may not be linguistically correct. but as a native, it’s the best explanation i can come up with. and it’s pretty challenging to break down one of the most basic things which we natives often neglect lol anyway, enjoy!

well, i’ve never answered about this before and am glad that you asked! first things first, you have to understand that thai people ALWAYS call/address everyone as พี่/น้อง/ลุง/ป้า/น้า/อา/etc. even though that one person is not their family member. we even address the strangers on the street AS IF they are our family members through those words. for example, if a woman in front of me (who looks older than me) drops her wallet, i’ll say “พี่คะ ทำกระเป๋าสตางค์ตกหรือเปล่าคะ” (p’ ka did you drop your wallet?)

and for your question, technically, we should call everyone who is older “p’” but in reality, especially in schools, there will be both people who are older and younger than us that we consider them as “friends” so it will depend on each person how they are going to address/treat their friends who are older/younger.

now, when i say “friend” it’s those people who are in the same grade as you, not the ones who are in a grade above, not the ones who are in a grade below in case some people consider their seniors/juniors as friends

- if someone is older/younger than us, was born in the same year, but is our friend, we don’t call them “p’”/ “n’”- if someone is older/younger than us, was born in the same year, and is our senior/junior, we call them “p’” / “n’”- if someone is older/younger than us, was born a year before/after us, but is our friend, we don’t call them “p’” / “n’”- if someone is older/younger than us, was born a year before/after us, and is our senior/junior, we call them “p’” / “n’”- if someone is older/younger than us, was born 2 years before/after us, but is our friend, now this depends on each person’s decision. i, personally, address those who are older as “p’”, don’t address those who are younger as “n’”, but still treat BOTH of them as my equals. most people here also decide to do the same thing in this case. this doesn’t mean that we treat them unequally, but we just want to show our respect to those who are older though we still consider them as our friends.

to conclude, we don’t call our friends “p’” / “n’” if they are around the same age (let’s say 2 years are maximum) but other than this, we call them according to their age. i won’t say this “friends = don’t call them p’ / n’ despite them being older/younger” is a restriction, it’s just how things work here. and everyone is allowed to break, though no one really does hahaha