Thai Voice Over Agency

Everything you never wanted to know about the Thai language

The Thai Language
The Thai language is sometimes called Siamese because the country used to be called Siam until it was changed in 1939. Around 40 million people speak Thai and you’ll also hear it spoken in Laos and Vietnam.

The Thai Alphabet
The Thai alphabet has 72 letters. There are 32 vowels and 44 consonants. They also use five different tones when they speak. This means some words that have a similar spelling take on a different meaning according to the tone that’s used.

Kidding the youngsters
Elderly Thai people tell young, single female relations not to sing in the kitchen or they will end up marrying an old man.

What’s the real name?
Did you know the capital city of Bangkok is only known by that name because it’s real name in Thai is 12 words long with 93 letters in total!

Buddha
If you want to see the world’s largest solid gold Buddha, then pay a visit to Wat Traimit in Bangkok. The Buddah came from a Thai temple, but it was saved from looters because it was covered in stucco and nobody knew its real value.

It’s all in the name
When Thai babies are born their parents give there children two names, one is a traditional name and the other is used as a nickname and is usually something significant or a foreign word the parents like. The baby will be known by its nickname at home and some popular names are mouse, tadpole, or bear.

If you enjoy a water fight…
There’s a celebration in Thailand called Songkran. It takes place between April 13-15 and it is a time for cleansing yourself, your home and the temple Buddha’s. Youngster’s though take the cleansing theme once step further. During these days you will see water fights being carried out in the streets by people who have buckets, water pistols and bottles. The water is thrown around and everyone gets soaked.

Mind your manners
The head is considered to be the most important part of the body and when you’re in Thailand you should never pat the head of an adult or a child. The feet have a lowly significance and you should never show the soles of your feet or put them on a table. It is considered disrespectful.

A Fancy snack
Eating insects is normal in Thailand, after all they are very nutritious and a lot better for you than salt-laden crisps or fatty cakes. A favourite Thai snack are cockroaches which are deep-fried and served in paper bags like chips.

Eating Out
Many Thai people live off street food. Eating out is very cheap and many Thai householders don’t have enough room in the apartments for cooking appliances. So, eating out is the norm.

A short history on the Thai language

Thai belongs to the Tai language family, which also includes Lao (spoken in Laos), Shan (spoken in Burma) and Zhuang (spoken in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi).

It is believed that spoken Thai originated in the area around Vietnam and China. Its development was influenced by Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer – over half of all Thai words are borrowed from these languages.

The written language derives from a south Indian script which was brought to mainland South-East Asia in the 4th or 5th century. The first Thai alphabet was introduced by King Ramkamhaeng in 1923.

There are many Thai dialects but the one spoken in and around Bangkok – called Central Thai – is regarded as the standard language and used by the government, schools and the media.

Which countries have Thai as a national language?

Thai is the official language of Thailand.

How many people speak Thai as their first language?

It is estimated that around 60 million people speak Thai. Outside Thailand, the biggest Thai-speaking community (of approximately 80,000 people) is in Los Angeles, in the United States.

Did you know…

• Thai is a tonal language, like Chinese, Lao and Vietnamese. There are five tones used in Thai speech – mid, low, high, falling and rising.
• The Thai alphabet has 44 consonants and 15 vowels, but many letters are hardly used and arguably redundant. There are four different ways to write ‘s’ and six different ways to write ‘t’. Back in the 1940s, the government tried to reduce the number of letters in the alphabet, but it wasn’t a popular move.
• There are four major dialects in Thailand, spoken in the southern, northern, north-eastern and central parts of the country. The Central Thai dialect is widely understood in all regions.
• Thai and Lao are mutually intelligible – Thai television programmes are broadcast in neighbouring Laos.

The Thai economy

Thailand has an export-dependent economy, with low unemployment and a well-developed infrastructure. It has the second largest economy in South-East Asia, after Indonesia.

The country’s exports, which account for 60% of its GDP, include rice (Thailand is the largest exporter of rice in the world), fish, textiles, rubber, automobiles and electric appliances.

Although Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, its tourist industry accounts for only around 7% of the country’s GDP.