Tinglish
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Tinglish (also Thenglish or Thailish) is the imperfect form of English produced by native Thai speakers due to language interference from the first language. Differences from native English include incorrect pronunciation, wrong word choices, misspellings, and grammatical mistakes.
Some common examples are:
- same same (similar) and same same but different (seems similar but different in some ways);
- open/close the light (means "To turn on/off the light");
- I love you too much;
- I have ever been to London;
- wash the film (means "develop the film");
- I very like it (means "I really like it");
- I'm sad when my mother angries me meaning is angry with me;
- I used to go to Phuket or I go to Phuket already meaning I went to Phuket;
- take a bath referring to taking a shower;
- "Do you know how to eat this?" means "Have you eaten this before?";
- omission of pronouns and of the verb be;
- non-use or incorrect use of articles, declension and conjugation.
- addition of Thai final particles, e.g. I don't know na
Following is the list of Thai final particles and their implied meanings:
- la = to give suggestion (e.g. Why don't you ask her la?), to inform the listener of something (e.g. I'm going to bed la.), or to ask if the subject would do something that the subject of the previous sentence does (e.g. I'm going to have dinner now, how about you la?)
- na = to give suggestion (e.g. You must do your homework first na.), to inform the listener of something (e.g. I'll be right back na.), or to express opinion about something that the speaker think should have been done but have not yet been done (e.g. Why don't you ask her na?)
- ja = to add informality to the conversation (e.g. Hello ja.)
- krab (for male speaker only) = to make the conversation more polite/formal (e.g. Hello krab.)
- kha (for female speaker only) = same as krab (e.g. Hello kha.)
Particles can also be combined, as follows:
- la na, e.g. I have to go la na.
- na ja, e.g. Don't go too far na ja.
- la ja, e.g. Where have you been la ja?
- na krab/kha, e.g. Please excuse me na krab/kha.
Some less common particles:
- munk = to guess/estimate something (e.g. The shop already closed munk. / He's 25 years old munk.)
- leoy = totally (e.g. I don't understand leoy la.)
- laew = already (e.g. I have to go laew la.)
Tinglish pronunciation:
- shifts the stress to the last syllable of the word
- omits consonant clusters
- an initial r becomes an l
- final consonants are often omitted or converted according to the rules of Thai pronunciation: l and r become n, while s becomes t
- "sh" and "ch" sounds are hardly distinguishable, e.g. ship/chip, sheep/cheap, wish/witch
- "v" sound is almost always replaced by "w" sound, e.g. vow -> wow, ville -> will
- "g" and "z" sounds are usually devoiced, e.g. dog -> dock, zoo -> sue
- "th" sound is often replaced by "t" or "d" sound, e.g. thin -> tin, through -> true, then -> den