Statement of the week: The Thai language is not pleasing to the ear
There are about 6.800 known languages around the world. Of these, 2.261 are based on a written system, the others exist only in spoken form. Some languages are nice to listen to, such as the French language. It sounds melodic and pleasant to the ears. How different it is with the Thai language.
When I am in Thailand I regularly listen to Thai TV, I do not understand it but I am interested in the tone and sounds. The same applies when we go to my girlfriend's home village in Isaan. I listen to the sounds that Thai people use to communicate. And one thing always strikes me: it's terrible. Not to hear. The Thai language sounds to me like a squeaky door or fingernails on a blackboard. Just ugly.
This statement requires some nuance. I am mainly talking about the Isan dialect. The normal Thai language is a bit better, but is still not really nice to listen to.
A good example is my girlfriend. When she speaks English she has a beautiful voice, it sounds sweet and feminine. A feast for my ears. However, when she is in Isaan and speaks the dialect, she sounds completely different. Especially shrill with a lot of high tones. I don't like it at all. And no matter how hard I try, the Thai/Isan language doesn't appeal to me in any way. Hence the statement of the week: 'The Thai language is not a feast for the ears'.
But maybe you don't agree and you think it sounds nice. Leave a comment and tell us your opinion.
About this blogger
-
Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and a lover of good music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
My motto: "Don't worry too much, others will do that for you."
Read the latest articles here
HealthJanuary 11 2025Study shows: More vitamin D keeps PSA lower in men
HealthJanuary 9 2025Can supplements reduce the harmful effects of particulate matter to some extent?
HealthJanuary 3 2025Why Walnuts Are Powerhouses For Your Health
HealthDecember 15 2024Strength training keeps your body younger at the cellular level
For the enthusiasts a column of mine dated October 4, 2013:
I generalize (is it allowed?), but I think Thai women have an unpleasantly high-pitched voice. I see a splash of a girl, I think: I would like to do something with that (is it allowed?), she opens her mouth and it seems as if someone is blowing too hard on his recorder. As my music teacher Laurens van Wingerden said at the teacher training college: You shouldn't blow on a recorder, but sing. I find that high voice of Thai women extremely lust-killing and that is perhaps a good thing to remain monogamous. There are also few Thai female singers who can charm me. A very few have a melodious voice, most scream-singing.
The reverse also applies Dick. Ladies with a deep bass voice from the heavy shag and liquor, are also lust-killing. In Thailand you have to be careful anyway because it can be a lady with an appendage.
Completely agree, Dick. 'Lust-killing' is also the description I use. And indeed, I know Thai ladies who speak fluent English and German and have a completely different voice. So it must be in the character of the language.
Dear gentlemen, I do not agree with the statement, but I must say it is personal.
Don't we know the saying "what a fish woman" ie in the Netherlands you sometimes see a woman who looks so lovely that her voice must sound like music, not so.
a fishwife is someone who talks a lot,
According to the Dikke van Dale, a fish wife is, I quote: "a quarreling, ordinary woman".
Well I think it's nice to hear, better than the French language that scratches my ears. And yes my wife is also from northeast Isaan.
It just depends on who is speaking. Some presenters can play a beautiful lilting Thai. Also, some ladies can sound very seductive. A tonal language with many vowels lends itself perfectly to being pronounced beautifully. You can do a lot with intonation and the Thais do that. In any case, it sounds considerably better than Dutch with its hard g and sounds that are swallowed. You can compare Thai with French or Italian, but it is also important for those languages who you hear.
I don't agree with the statement. I even assume that the Thai people might not like our voice=language either?. The Dutch very often stand out verbally, because they have a louder voice than, for example, the Belgians or English citizens. rebel
Idd in the Isaan, they know something about it! For example, my wife has an unbearable habit of calling to me from another room. In the meantime I ignore that and she already knows that I won't answer.
This is a custom in Isaan. For example, those women suddenly start 'calling' a whole conversation to the neighbor while they don't see her, who is then just sitting inside her house, the strange thing is that they just answer!
Well, habits from over there, surely? 555
What gets on my nerves is the constant repetition of "ka" "kap" "nakap" "naka"
Just listen to the news presented by two ladies! One says "ka" or "na ka" after every sentence and the other continues with "ka" "ka"
A “kaka phonie” !
There are also those who say good day with “Swadee Kaaaaaaaaa…”
or when they sell something they shout "seu kanom kaaaaaaaa...!"
Sometimes I only understand "kaaaaaa" , what precedes not because hardly spoken !
Thai is not so beautiful, indeed, KAP !
Straffer, in Antwerp's Chinatown, one street wide, with a few Thai shops and cafe-restaurants in that area: we walk quietly while my Thai companion suddenly starts a conversation with someone across the street. Couldn't immediately see who, it was fairly busy. There was gesticulation, all the tones of the scale were heard, that scrawny then bass and baritone and suddenly soprano, etc. Yet no one to be seen. When the conversation turned out to be over and we continued walking, I asked who did you just talk to? Turned out to be a Thai acquaintance on the 2nd floor across the street, sitting at her window. Also from… Isaan! And what it was about, first thought they are having a fight or it's a money issue, no, it was about…. food 😉
I always feel sorry for people who find Frans beautiful and melodic.
Which French?
Paris, Northern France, Southern France, Corsica, Swiss French?
Oh, I just don't like all those kinds of French, certainly not melodic, or whatever.
I think Dutch is very beautiful.
Or The Queen's English, and I can even appreciate Australian.
And with some mental elasticity I can appreciate cockney english well, if I've taken a dose of Young's Bitter
American "English" I despise, sober, tipsy or fairly covered in oil.
Suomi, that's a beautiful language, and no, not Eesti.
Do I like Thai?
I mean the language!
More beautiful than Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Isan, or embroidering, Lao?
Actually, I like that language better than Thai
But as always, with any language, the music is in the speaker.
If a language is not spoken but screeched, then no language is beautiful.
What I abhor is the fad, driven by the soap opera hats, to turn the K from Kap, Ka, and now also Kapom into Chap, Cha, and Chapom.
And what's more, to use this ch sound inappropriately and inappropriately in sentences.
Awful!
In addition, of course, Thai, and to a lesser extent Isan, have a tendency to swallow half words, which does not make it easy if you want to understand the language.
Do I understand Thai or Isan?
I pretend to be crazy, "phom phut Thai mai-dai" .
And then I hear something.
In short, Thai and Isan, if played at normal volume, are quite nice.
But at maximum volume, uttered by a high voice, or a low voice, horrible.
Also applies to other languages
Dear Hans, may I assume that you do not speak French?
That's what I think of most Dutch people, it's just awful how they try to cluck French, that has nothing to do with the French language anymore. Coincidentally, I now speak French, as well as Dutch, German and English. Also have some knowledge of Italian.
French and Italian are for many (including me) the most beautiful languages in the world.
On the other hand, Thai is a true phonetic disaster.
Comment removed.
Moderator's note: The statement is about the Thai language, so your response should also be about that.
Dear Roland, May I assume that you do not speak the Thai language? ………
What do you want to achieve with this statement? There are plenty of ladies who have a pleasant voice to listen to.
Where do we compare it?
The loud obnoxious English voice?
Or closer to home Frisian? Is this so pleasant to listen to? The gnawing and the ladies of the market?
In each language there are several nuances. One speaks to it and the other abhors it. Applies just like the appearance.
And a softest one that is pleasant with a lot of tattoos doesn't make the whole thing more pleasant either.
However, the ladies who work at the market do indeed have a less (generally) pleasant voice.
The ladies who work at a bank have a friendlier voice.
The question is, what are you looking for here if you don't like the taskbar. In the previous statements, matters regarding cultural differences, etc. were also discussed.
I wonder why so many men are crazy about their Thai love.
So a new statement. What are you looking for in Thailand?
1) love
2) rest, culture
3) the food and drink
etc.
I think the language is OK, but I find that very low “uh” that occasionally comes in between very ugly. Can't really explain how that sounds. As if someone is choking and the voice suddenly drops 40 tones. Sounds a bit like “clunk” with a very low u… It gives me the shivers.
Concepts that contain a certain personal experiential value, such as “beautiful” and “ugly” have an eminently subjective value.
My own subjective experience is also that I do not find Thai as a spoken language very attractive.
But at the same time I am well aware that this personal feeling is mainly caused by the fact that I know far too little of the language to be able to make a somewhat more objective judgment about it.
So once again it is only about a personal inability to understand (in this case the language use of) “the” Thai sufficiently well to be able to frame my value judgment more broadly.
The Thai equivalents for words like "chicken" and "egg", or "dog" and "back", or "nine", "knee", "rice" and "beard" all sound identical to me, despite Thai being perfectly distinguish each other thanks to their much more highly developed sense of tones (and perhaps voice timbres, etc.).
Moreover, I think I understand that Thai, completely different from us, make little use of metacommunicative messages, which makes it even more important to have a correct understanding of the content of the message.
Which I (and with me undoubtedly many non-Thai speakers) absolutely cannot do for the reasons mentioned above.
And that is why Thai may indeed seem like a cacophony to many.
But, again, that's mainly up to us (misunderstanding).
Unknown is indeed unloved.
Kito
Thais, on the other hand, make much more use of metacommunicative messages, in word choice, tones, end words and body language. The Dutch are on average more straightforward. Thais are more subtle, conceal their message more.
Kito, in Dutch we also have many words that are obvious to us, but difficult for a foreigner (eg a Thai). Just think of apple or apple. Branch or task. Band or job. Bath or benefit. And then our spelling. Is it written with one or two a's, with a d, t, or dt? You can see very often on this blog that a large part of the writers cannot handle that.
I've heard it said that our language is easy because you pronounce it as it is. But a German who thinks the same way will soon chatter in a strange kind of Dutch. This is much less common in Asia. It is written exactly as it should be pronounced.
And if the voice is used normally, Thai is a beautiful language. I don't like Chinese much anymore. But that's my opinion.
I myself have an annoyingly unpleasant high-pitched voice, it does happen that people address me over the phone as 'ma'am'. And I know a Thai lady who has such a low voice that she is often mistaken for a kathoey, and she really isn't, I'm sure. I also think that Thais on average have a higher voice than the Dutch, although the range from high to low is the same. Thai sometimes sounds very shrill, but sometimes also very melodic. I just think it has less to do with the language and more with the shape of the vocal cords, so shorter. Let me measure. And I also think that if you can follow what a Thai has to say, and you pay attention to the content, you don't pay much attention to that higher voice, it is much less noticeable.
It is indeed phonetically a scourge for the ears, unheard of.
By that I mean the Thai spoken by the majority of Thais.
They scream and howl freely, rather loud (very loud) than quiet and controlled.
I have already heard that there are several forms of Thai and I must admit that the language spoken on Thai PBS (TV) for example already sounds a lot more "civilized".
I don't understand a word of it myself, and I don't feel like investing time and energy in a local language like Thai. I too (and the majority of Thailand visitors) learned English because it pays off, it is a world language and you can use it anywhere in the world. I think the Thais should also make an effort and learn English, especially as they want to continue as a tourist country and do everything they can to attract the farangs. Give a little, take a little…
Generalizing (should I?), I think it's fun to listen to and I know many female Thai artists who I think sing really well, a matter of taste of course.
I think it's a nice hearing when my teerak speaks to me in Dutch with her high-pitched voice.
I only partially agree. It's true that there are Thais who have a terrible voice. A former colleague of mine, with whom I was often on the road for a long time, also had such a voice. But we always had a lot of fun. My girlfriend has a beautiful voice when we are alone with each other, but she can also have this voice. Fortunately not so bad. But to generalize now that Thai is “not pleasing to the ear”, I would not say now.
Languages that can really bother me are American English and the übermächtige Deutsch and even these are exceptions. I love British English, just like Brazilian Portuguese, the Dutch spoken on TV (with normal programs that is, is also wonderful to hear.
However, when I'm in the south of the country, where I come from, and I see a woman who looks nice, but speaks Kerkrade dialects, I'm also quite turned off. Such drivel…terrible. I love japanese but can't watch japanese porn (which is crying to run away from).
Here's another nice link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=611969062199066
Dear Jack, I totally agree with you. That facebook video also shows it nicely. I am very good at German myself, and indeed…. Because I know that language so well, I was not completely aware anymore. Also, if you are aware of someone's language, then the nuances are not too bad! Is Thai a no-brainer? I quickly asked a few Thai. They think Dutch is a hard language. And they are afraid of a shouting German.
Now I am not familiar with the Thai language at all, but from my profession (lyricist) certainly interested in language and languages. As a result of this blog, I searched for some YouTube videos in which the Thai language is spoken. And no, I don't like it. But on the other hand, I know that many foreigners also find Dutch a torture for the ear. Especially our G (growl) and K.
Unknown makes unloved. That probably explains your aversion to the Thai language.