ศาลาชุมนุม

[Aulok]

Hello. There are some measure units like เมตร กิโลเมตร, which are official units
Are there any folk measure units in Thai such as the distance between the tips of the middle fingers with two arms fully stretched? Or between the tips of the thumb and the middle finger when they are stretched? There should be a half dozen of them. I guess นิ้ว is one example, which is also used as an official unit.

[Rick Bradford]

I've been dealing with just this issue with a local builder who is yet to go metric.

He prefers the 'ศอก' (cubit, 50 centimeters, distance from elbow to hand). This is equivalent to 2 คืบ (handspans of 25cm each). This seems to be also equivalent to 24 นิ้ว, so not quite our 'inch'

Then there are the bigger measurements of วา, เส้น, โยชน์

The full story:
1 ศอก ......มีค่าเท่ากับ

24 นิ้ว
2 คืบ
50 เซนติเมตร
0.5 เมตร

ในทางกลับกัน
1 วา = 4 ศอก
1 เส้น = 80 ศอก
1 โยชน์ = 32,000 ศอก

[Aulok]

Thank you Rick Bradford! These are very interesting words indeed.

Oh yes. Do Thai people say "Slap him two palms", "Kick him two feet", "Bite him two mouthfuls"? The last word is a body part.

[kairi_key]

Thank you Rick Bradford! These are very interesting words indeed.

Oh yes. Do Thai people say "Slap him two palms", "Kick him two feet", "Bite him two mouthfuls"? The last word is a body part.

No, I don't think we do...

but it reminds me of the saying "ตบสองฉาด" tho(ขอบคุณคุณNanที่มาบอกค่ะ)

[Nan]

For the full list, you can see from this document;

service.nso.go.th/nso/data/data07/07files/unit.doc

[Aulok]

For the full list, you can see from this document;

service.nso.go.th/nso/data/data07/07files/unit.doc

Thank you Khun Nan! But these are official units. Rick Bradford has provided very good examples of folk measure units.

The second question I would like to consult with you is if Thai has some quantitative words for actions, like: (just out of my imagination )
"Slap him two palms" meanig "slap him twice with the hand",
"Kick him a foot" meaning "kick him once with the foot",
"Bite him two mouths/mouthfuls" meaning "bite him twice with the mouth".
"Look at him three eyes" meanig "look at him three times (thrice)".
"Cut him 5 knives" meaning "cut him 5 times with a knife"
(I am sorry to present so much violence here! Then what about "kiss him 2 mouths" meaning "kiss him twice")

[Rick Bradford]

One more that has emerged is the 'hun'. I'm not sure of the spelling, it sounded like หุน -- it's apparently a Chinese term.

It is used in measuring the thickness of steel, such as เส้นเหล็ก. Used to tie concrete piles together, it comes in 4, 3, and 2 'hun'. It works out that a 'hun' is about 3 millimeters, but this is not exact, as lower-quality steel seems to have a smaller size for a 'hun'.

[Aulok]

One more that has emerged is the 'hun'. I'm not sure of the spelling, it sounded like หุน -- it's apparently a Chinese term.

It is used in measuring the thickness of steel, such as เส้นเหล็ก. Used to tie concrete piles together, it comes in 4, 3, and 2 'hun'. It works out that a 'hun' is about 3 millimeters, but this is not exact, as lower-quality steel seems to have a smaller size for a 'hun'.

Thanks. Yes this is a Chinese loan word (via the Hokkien dialect, aka Min Nan dialect), equal to 3.33 cm. Most of Chinese in Thailand were from Hokkien (i.e. Fujian) province in China. The word is "fen" in Mandarin, the standard pronunciation. Fujian "H" equals to Mandarin "F".

[simonbournemouth]

According to this web page:

http://www.phukethydro.com/smf/index.php?topic=21.0

1 หุน = 1/8 Inch.

[Aulok]

According to this web page:

http://www.phukethydro.com/smf/index.php?topic=21.0

1 หุน = 1/8 Inch.

Yes. In the last post I meant to say 3.33 mm!

1 inch = 2.54 cm
1/8 inch=2.54/8=0.3175 cm=3.175 mm