ศาลาชุมนุม

[Naga]

I noticed this years ago when I first stated learning Thai. Very often the recorded dialogue in beginning Thai books has the speaker using the pronunciate of ไหม as เม. To this day I'm still wondering "Why"? Why is that so common.

[David and Bui]

There is the neologism in the spoken language of "ชิมิ" for "ใช่ไหม".

See, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0WmnvHjWdI

[Naga]

As I listen to close caption Thai music videos I seeing more and more of these differences.

ไหม pronounced as เหม or เม
ไม่ pronounced as เม่
ใน pronounced as นี

The reason I'm listening to video is because my listening skill suck and I really need the practice, but these 'deviations' make it difficult.

I wondering if there is a list of these (what I could call) pronunciations that deviate from the pronunciation of the word as it is spelled. How common is this?

Example. first stanza:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBP2PlqiOws

[Tgeezer]

If you understand does it matter how it is said?

[Richard Wordingham]

If you understand does it matter how it is said?

It matters if you try to use the pronunciation of one word as a guide to the pronunciation of another.