ศาลาชุมนุม

[David and Bui]

Friends,

We have updated http://www.thai-language.com/ref/irregular-words at the Reference tab by addition as Section 4. This sections catalogs words with "irregular pronunciation" arising from expanded consonant clusters where the normal first consonant in a cluster is replaced by a syllable.

The word ตรวจ is pronounced with a low tone because in the initial consonant cluster "ตร" the tone governed by the low-class consonant "ร" is modified by the mid-class consonant "ต" to produce an overall low tone word. The derivative word "ตำรวจ" also has a low tone, even though the word is now composed of two syllables. Other words affected by this exception are ประโยค, กิเลส, and กำเนิด.

These words constitute a category of "exception" because many other words do not follow this pattern. For example, some words require a "ห นำ" to convert the second syllable to a low tone. See ประหยัด and ประหลาด, for example.

For more information of consonant clusters, see http://www.thai-language.com/ref/double-consonants and http://www.thai-language.com/ref/cluster-tone .

If you have any other additions to this or the other category, please post them here and we will make the updates.

Thanks.

[daฟาน]

great work and very helpful - thanks!


I was wondering what you would say about the word ขี้เกียจ most people pronounce it like iet อิ-เอ็ด instead of iat เยียด

Is it just a common dialect or accent? Or should this be added as well?

[David and Bui]

You are making a good point: daฟาน. It is not clear to me where the line should be drawn between exceptions to rules and local or personal variations of speech. In addition some pronunciations are in a state of transition where formal pronunciation according to stated rules are giving way to a more informal pronunciation. ไหม/มั้ย and เขา/เค้า are good examples of pronunciation in transition.

[pensive]

I have a problem with หนังสือ being included in Section 2. I know its pronounciation doesn't follow the *general* rules, but there is an exception for words of two syllables with rising tone in both syllables. Another example is ก๋วยเตี๋ยว. These words are actually regular within this special rule.

[David and Bui]

Another word which perhaps belongs in http://www.thai-language.com/ref/irregular-words , section 2, along with ฉัน/ชี้น เขา/เค้า, is the word สัก/ซัก.

This dictionary shows the latter as being two separate words: http://www.thai-language.com/id/132042 (meaning 1b.) and http://www.thai-language.com/id/132945 (meaning 3).

I think that the second of these two is an "irregular pronunciation" of the first and should fall in section 2 of the irregular words.

What do you think?

[Eric67]

About the pronunciation of the word "snow" in the list:

Thai word หิมะ
Implied hiL maH
Actual heeR maH

Is heeR maH actually the way it's pronounced or is it sort of a practical joke?

I've always heard and said it as hiL maH and find it a bit strange Thais would change the pronunciation of a harmless word into something potentially offensive.

[David and Bui]

Who is it that you hang out with?

[Eric67]

I'm not quite sure what you mean.

According to your own list with irregular pronunciations หิมะ should be pronounced as หีมะ

I just find that a bit odd, that's all. I don't see what it has to do with who I hang out with.

[David and Bui]

You are absolutely correct. We will attempt to correct this error. Thank you for pointing this out to us.

[Nan]

Actually, from the rule หิมะ would be pronounced as hiL maH, but in spoken, we would pronounced it as hiM (or heeM) maH.