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Chapter · Thailand · Language

A language with five tones

Tones, script, politeness

The same syllable said five ways means five things, a text is written without spaces between words, and the politeness of a sentence depends on the speaker’s sex. This chapter explains how Thai works, with the scholarship and the institutions that describe it.

Context first

A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.

  • The place
  • The era
  • The people
To speak Thai is to choose your placeNo Thai sentence is neutral: it places the speaker against the listener. No proper names, no « I », a ladder of formulas, a tariff of gifts, and a final word saying whether a man or a woman is speaking.8 min

The lessons in this chapter

  1. 1Five tones, or how to ask for cottonFive tones, and the pitch of the voice counts as a letter. A French bishop explained it in 1854 with a musical stave, and with a diamond that turns into a duck's head. Few sounds, but twelve words for head.9 min
  2. 2The alphabet that is a dictionaryA script out of India, no spaces between words, learnt as whole series of syllables. Recited in full, the Thai alphabet makes a thick volume: that is how the reader knows where a word begins.9 min
  3. 3Bangkok's real name, and what is inside itBangkok is the name of a village of wild olives, kept by sailors. The city itself is Krung Thep, short for the longest place name in the world. In the middle of that name is Ayutthaya, and Ayutthaya means impregnable.9 min

How these lessons are written

Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.

The rhythm

A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.

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