How do you say that in Thai?
Being the fantastic linguist that I am I figured that I would share some of the linguistic aspects of the Thai language with you (there is sarcasm there).  Actually, after sharing some interesting words and phrases with Kristen she suggested that I blog about it.  I'll have to say some of these are quite funny but most of them are just interesting.  Then again, maybe they're just interesting if you're a linguistic dork like me.  Anyway, here goes.
First, here is a handful (of the many) words that Thai has borrowed from English.  I'm always surprised by which words are borrowed.
--  free, pack (a pack of something), style, fluke, foot (unit of measure), romantic, sexy, bacon
Additionally Thais have borrowed "dictionary" from English but have shortened it to "dict" and there are a lot of shops that sell the little hand-held translators that will speak the word for you to help you with the pronunciation -- this is a "talking dict"  I'll just leave it at that.
So, on to the actual Thai words:
English  --  followed by the literal Thai
to understand  --  to enter the heart
diarrhea --   to lose  your stomach
pregnant --  to have a stomach
jaundice  --  yellow body (or "yellow eyes")
thunder  --  the sky crying
hippopotamus  --  water elephant
starfish  --  sea star
honey  --  bee liquid
credit  --  faith money
savings  --  sleeping money
crosswalk --  zebra path
boogers  --  nose crap
snot  -- nose liquid
sad  --  lose your heart
diabetes  --  sweet urine
cavity (tooth)  --  tooth pimple
elevated train  --  fire vehicle in the sky
pedestrian bridge  --  floating bridge
sleepers (in your eye)  --  eye crap
leader  --  head face
ice  --  solid water
slang  -- market language
neighbor  --  house friend
interest  --  flower money
lustful  --  head of a snake
tear  --  eye liquid
sympathy  --  heart liquid
to feel inferior  --  small heart
to feel inferior  --  small face
And a few phrases:
to go to the bathroom (male) (colloquial)  --  to go shoot a rabbit
to go to the bathroom (female) (colloquial)  --  to go pick a flower
One of Kristen's favorite Thai dishes is:
"stir-fried vegetables together as friends"
Hope you all find it interesting (maybe not as interesting as I do but that's okay).
 
 
2 comments:
"Go shoot a rabbit" has already become an integral part of my vocabulary. Thank you, dear friend. Thank you.
Hey...nice header!
Do me (and Shawn) a favor and enable a site feed under the blogger dashboard...it's in the Settings.
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