ศาลาชุมนุม

[karnjanarat]

Hello all; Many times when I'm in Surin, and amongst the locals having a chat, I here the word a lot that sounds like "guitar" seamingly at the end of sentences. I've recently heard it used in Phnom Penh, but not as much. It is obviously Khmer, or Khmer/Thai, but I womder what it means. Thanks

[mangkorn]

I hear a lot of Isan people say "daa" (not sure of spelling) as an affirmative. Perhaps it is similar to จ๋า ?

Khun Nan?

[Nan]

คิดไม่ออกค่ะ คุณมังกร ไม่รู้ว่าคำอะไรแน่ ยิ่งถ้าเป็นภาษาเขมรจริงๆ นี่เลิกคุยเลย ไม่มีความรู้ทางภาษานี้ค่ะ

[mangkorn]

Well, I'm not sure if it's ภาษาเขมร

But even here in the capital, one hears Thai people say "daa" as a response all the time.

[Oevna]

Well, I'm not sure if it's ภาษาเขมร

But even here in the capital, one hears Thai people say "daa" as a response all the time.

Especially in Bangkok I hear people pronouncing จ somewhat like a ts- sound, which is probably what you're hearing when people pronounce จ๋า in this way. I think it is a fad among the younger people.

I don't know about that word that sounds like guitar, but I will ask my Cambodian friend tomorrow if I remember.

[JingJo Thames]

hello,

the only thing I can think of is that sometimes my Khmer friend would say "??" (ออกเสียง "ตา" เลยครับ) as a sort of intensifier or "of course" particle, especially in response to ?? ("เต") questions.

example:
A: "Is it good?" (?????????)
B: "Of course - it's delicious!" (????????).

as for a word like "guitar," I have no clue - my Khmer's not that good, I'm afraid.

hope that helps!

[JingJo Thames]

oops

guess Khmer unicode isn't supported here...?

[Oevna]

Hello all; Many times when I'm in Surin, and amongst the locals having a chat, I here the word a lot that sounds like "guitar" seamingly at the end of sentences. I've recently heard it used in Phnom Penh, but not as much. It is obviously Khmer, or Khmer/Thai, but I womder what it means. Thanks

I asked my Cambodian friends and they said that it is most likely the expression gia taa, which means "they say". They said that it is used in a context similar to the English expression "I heard it through the grapevine," or "... so they say," or "... so I hear."

I know the Khmer word taa ("to say" or "to tell") but I didn't put it together. There is a great variety of pronouns in Khmer, much like in Thai, and gia (meaning "they") is one that I had not heard of before.

They said that it can be used at the beginning of a sentence or at the end.

[r2d2]

... the word a lot that sounds like "guitar" ... that it is most likely the expression gia taa,

You know, u know, ... You know, that's new news, you know, I'm glad to tell this to you, you know.

How long the road is from (la) chitarra (it.), (la) guitarra (sp.) so that the i follows the g in the Khmer term, and this i is followed by an a? Both in Italian and in Spanish the letter in-between the initial consonants and the vowel i is, each, to indicate that the initial consonant is not changed phonetically but directly followed by the vowel i (or e in the remaining cases). Where the a derives from in the Khmer term? From the final a in the Spanish and the Italian term each? It is unlikely that the a in gia derives from the English term gui-tar as the single a occuring there is already consumed by the khmer "aa" in taa.

In (la) chitarra (it.), (la) guitarra (sp.) the doubling of ro ruea is done to indicate that the first a is short/hard.

[Oevna]

You know, u know, ... You know, that's new news, you know, I'm glad to tell this to you, you know.

How long the road is from (la) chitarra (it.), (la) guitarra (sp.) so that the i follows the g in the Khmer term, and this i is followed by an a? Both in Italian and in Spanish the letter in-between the initial consonants and the vowel i is, each, to indicate that the initial consonant is not changed phonetically but directly followed by the vowel i (or e in the remaining cases). Where the a derives from in the Khmer term? From the final a in the Spanish and the Italian term each? It is unlikely that the a in gia derives from the English term gui-tar as the single a occuring there is already consumed by the khmer "aa" in taa.

In (la) chitarra (it.), (la) guitarra (sp.) the doubling of ro ruea is done to indicate that the first a is short/hard.

My friend, I'm not sure I follow your train of thought today!

However, I can say that most likely the pronunciation of the vowel -ia in the Khmer word gia is due to the pronunciation of -า (sara aa) when following second register consonants (i.e. "o" consonants) such as go (which is the Khmer letter that corresponds to the Thai ค kho khwaai).

In such cases, -า is pronounced -ia instead of -aa. So, if gia were to be transliterated in Thai, it would be written คา and pronounced khaa in Thai. However, Khmer speakers in Surin would use something closer to the Khmer pronunciation.

This is the same reason that the Thai suffix ภาพ phaap is pronounced phiap in Khmer. An example of this is the Thai word สุขภาพ suk-kha-phaap, which has the cognate sok-kha-phiap in Khmer. The Thai ภ is equivalent to the Khmer letter pho, and being a second register consonant, also causes -า to be pronounced -ia.

I will confirm that this is the case with gia when I go home and I can look the word up in a Khmer dictionary.

EDIT -- Spelling corrections, clarifications and paragraphs.