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lurkingteapot · 11 months

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Free Thai language learning resources

I’ve been learning Thai for the past 20 months. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive, what works for me doesn’t have to work for you, etc etc. That said: I’ve used most of these and found them useful, I thought you might, too. Have fun!

Youtube channels with free video lessons:

There are tons of wonderful teachers on youtube; this is by no means an exhaustive list. The three channels listed here are comprehensive, long-running, and updated regularly; if you have other favourites, please reblog and append!

Comprehensible Thai is a channel that teaches Thai in Thai, from zero, via the comprehensible input method. They have videos from total beginner through upper intermediate/lower advanced levels available.

Learn Thai with Mod – Mod runs a language school that offers good, structured group classes; she and her co-teachers often upload short videos about specific aspects of Thai. The channel has been around for a long time and they cover a lot of topics, including grammar points.

Thai Lessons by New (Learn Thai one Word one Sentence) – lots of good vocabulary and situational phrases

Other channels I like:

Advanced Thai with Kruu Momm -- one of my favourites, Momm’s a star. Not included in the upper list only because this is definitely more of an intermediate-advanced resource.

Thai with Grace -- I knew of Grace via her polyglot channel and travel vlogs before I realised she also teaches Thai. Fun stuff.

Kat talks Thai -- I believe Kat is more active on instagram (@kattalksthai), but these are still really neat.

Perth Nakhun’s Basic Thai playlist

Honourable mentions because they’re interesting and can be nice supplements (yes, the video titles on these channels tend to be clickbaity, the content is useful, though):

Stu Jay Raj: Stu is a polyglot based in Thailand. His channel is a bit of a mixed bag, but he has a very interesting approach to languages and sometimes does foreign accent reduction / accent analysis sessions on his channel (with consent and participation of those whose speech he dissects).

Thai Talk with Paddy: Paddy is an Australian who learned Thai when he was a volunteer in Thailand, he’s kept it up. Fun things about language learning and culture

Listening comprehension

I’m assuming many folks on here who are interested in Thai already watch some Thai shows (yes I’m stereotyping but also this is tumblr), which means you’re spending time listening to Thai.

If you’re not:

Netflix, Youtube, WeTV, and Viki all have several Thai shows with English subtitles available. The Youtube channel of Thai broadcasting giant GMMTV has English subtitles on nearly all of their uploaded series, some series are also subtitled in languages other than English. one31 is another huge channel; they have English subtitles on some series and some series also have subtitles in Thai. There’s tons more – find a rec list and a Thai show that sounds like you’d enjoy it, chances are you’ll be able to watch it for free, legally, on youtube. You can use the youtube controls (or the ones on netflix) to turn the speed down to 75% —this can make it a lot easier to catch what’s being said. 50% gets so draggy that I personally find it almost harder to understand, but ymmv—give it a shot!

https://lingopolo.org/thai/ has real-life recordings for listening practice; sign-up is required but it’s literally just an e-mail-address, user name and password. Using the site is free.

https://www.activethai.com/ has a section dedicated to learning the tones (under “Overview of Thai Tones”) including a self-test for listening that I found very useful.

Learning to read

I will always, always, ALWAYS recommend learning to read the Thai script. All available romanisations for Thai have drawbacks, and besides, you learned to read English with its “though through thorough tough thought”, you can damn well learn to read Thai. I promise it will help you improve your pronunciation (yes, really) and overall understanding of how the language works.

Learn-to-Read-Thai resources that seem comprehensive and like they should do everything in one:

Anki decks “Read Thai PHASE 1 - The Consonants“, “Read Thai PHASE 2 - Thai Vowels“, “Read Thai PHASE 3 - Consonant Classes” and “Read Thai PHASE 4 - Tone Rules” by Khruu Gaan (ครูกานต์). Anki is probably the most powerful spaced repetition software I have ever used. It’s free on all desktops and android. These decks have sound.

Memrise course “Read Thai: A Complete Guide to Reading Thai“

Other resources I used (In hindsight, I feel like I should’ve picked one resource to learn to read from and stuck with it; I think I was rushing and made things more complicated than need be for myself with my hodgepodge mix-and-match approach. But hey, I can read now.)

https://www.activethai.com/ – the site I started with. Teaches the consonants separated by class and with sound. The only reason this is no longer my top recommendation is that I ended up using this alongside a resource that helped me memorise what the words used to represent the letters actually mean because the site itself didn’t tell me, and I wanted that easy way to have 44 vocabulary words ready as soon as you’re done learning your consonants, and it gives you access to neat mnemonics such as ไก่จิกเด็กตาย(เฎ็กฏาย)บนปากโอ่ง.

The chart on Wikipedia’s English article on the Thai Script

the reference section of Thai-Language.com

In order to better learn to read Thai written in different fonts (modern and handwriting fonts can be tough at first), the Thai Script typographical styles overview on Thai-language.com was a huge help, as was throwing simple phrases things into gdocs and messing around to see how different fonts made them look. This chart from sanukmaak.com also helped.

Speaking and pronunciation

The hardest one for any new language for most folks. For me personally, finding someone who speaks the language and is willing to correct me was an absolute necessity, but I know that’s not always an option. If you’re going it on your own, make sure you check out the resources above for learning to hear the tones and those sounds and sound clusters not present in your own language correctly first.

Things to try on your own:

shadowing: Whenever someone on a show utters a sentence you think might be useful, or provide a useful pattern, or something just sounds cool, rewind and try to speak along as they say it, trying to make it sound as close to their pronunciation as you can.

try to record yourself and listen back -- yes, it’s cringe af but it will HELP.

memorising short sentences and phrases: tying back to the section above, there's a ton of youtube videos that is "phrases to use in [situation]" that are great for targeted learning if you're up for it

self talk (cautiously! don't want to cement bad pronunciation habits)

if you’re linguistically inclined: looking up descriptions on how to make a sound correctly sometimes helps, as does watching videos of folks who’ve successfully learned the language.

once you’ve learned to read: find sentences to read somewhere (twitter, a textbook, whatever) and read them into your phone’s dictation engine. See if the software understands you correctly. Adjust as needed until it does.

Websites and apps to find language partners or (paid) tutors

Like any other app where you ‘meet people’, please exercise caution on these.

italki (mainly for finding tutors and teachers, but you can find language partners on the forums)

Preply (web/app) (for finding tutors/teachers)

hellotalk (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners -- free to use basic features like messaging, voice rooms, etc; has annoying ads

tandem (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners -- free to use basic features, has ads

any other app or website that’ll let you meet people, like local facebook groups (yes really), instagram, etc

(note: Neither hellotalk nor tandem allow users to sign up without selecting a binary gender. it sucks. I’ve seen people who managed to circumvent this on Hellotalk by signing up via apple ID (? I think), but it’s hearsay and I have not managed to do so myself.)

Books (a book) that are (is) worth spending money on imo

Higbie & Thinsan: Thai Reference Grammar. The Structure of Spoken Thai. Orchid Press: Bangkok, 2002. Yes, it’s ancient in textbook terms. It’s not perfect, but it’s still the best reference grammar for Thai I’ve come across so far, and I use it frequently.

Random bits and bobs

Stu Jay Raj has two videos in particular that I, as a phonetics-and-phonology-loving person, loved and found extremely useful and wished I’d watched before I started to try and learn the script: Thai Vowels for Dummies in 5 Min v2 - A System Impossible to Forget and Thai Bites Extended Edition - Transliterating Thai using IPA. I realise these may be overwhelming and less helpful for people with no prior phonetics or phonology training, but they helped me so much it’d feel amiss not to include them.

Resources I recommend AGAINST using when starting out

drops/hello words -- seems like their Thai courses have been created using machine translation that wasn’t sufficiently proofread. They will assign you nouns in places of the corresponding verb or false cognates, and that’s within the first 10 or so lessons. Might be useful once the level where a learner can tell “ah, yeah, that’s … not right” has been reached? idk.

transcription as generated by google translate: BURN IT WITH FIRE. it’s a transliteration, i.e. 1-to-1 representation of 1 Thai letter = 1 Latin letter (extended), it’s not phonemic, it’s not going to help ANYONE (and those who can make sense of it presumably already read Thai and would be better off with just Thai script). Just. Stop.

Google translate as a dictionary: still shitty but not AS bad as the transcription function. Still, for the love of all that you hold dear, please, save yourself the pain and confusion and just use thai2english or thai-language.com instead.

---

And that’s that from me, friends. Yeeting this into the void before I second-guess myself more. Please append additional resources!

Edited to fix a couple of typos and errors on 2023-06-15

#thai language #learning thai #ภาษาไทย #เรียนภาษาไทย #Thai from English #language learning #language resource #language learning resource #idk what the hell else to tag this #free education #don't get me started on 'creative' 'free-form' 'by-ear' romanisations; we'll be here all day #my nonsense

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kinnbig · 1 year

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I somehow never realised Perth’s name wasn’t actually Perth and now my mind is sort of blown. I get confused at how Thai names work anyway so I shouldn’t be surprised, but 🤯

fjckskc I mean Perth is his name, in the same way that Apo’s name is Apo and Nodt’s name is Nodt, but they’re just not their legal names.

and I can try and explain it! (or Perth explains it rlly well in this video lol)

basically! in Thailand, in most situations people are referred to by their used name (also called a nickname or a play name) rather than by their legal first name.

used names, like first names, are often given at birth, but unlike first names they’re not recorded on legal documentation such as birth certificates. last names are often long and aren’t used very often - it’s not uncommon for good friends to not know each other’s last names.

in general western naming convention, you would probably refer to someone by just their first name, or as ‘first name + last name’. someone might have a nickname that they prefer to their legal first name, and in these cases you might refer to them as ‘nickname + last name’.

but the convention for Thai names is to refer to people most of the time with either their used name, or as

‘used name + first name’

(with some exceptions, such as legal/business situations and in the credits of TV/movies).

sometimes you might also see someone’s ‘full name’ written or said as

‘used name + first name + last name’

eg mydramalist writes Mile Phakphum Romsaithong and Nodt Nutthasid Panyangarm.

but generally, you’d say/write either just someone’s used name, or ‘used name + first name’ in most contexts.

if you were talking about Apo Nattawin, for example - Nattawin is his first name, and Apo is his used name (his last name is Wattanagitiphat). because of TV crediting convention, he is credited as Nattawin Wattanagitiphat in the KinnPorsche credits - but he refers to himself as Apo Nattawin, and that is the name others use for him in most situations.

some more quick (random) examples from the KinnPorsche cast -

Tong Thanayut - ‘full name’ Tong Thanayut Thakoonauttaya, credited as Thanayut Thakoonauttaya - but referred to as Tong or Tong Thanayut

Barcode Tinnasit - ‘full name’ Barcode Tinnasit Isarapongporn, credited as Tinnasit Isarapongporn - but referred to as Barcode or Barcode Tinnasit

there are exceptions, obviously - although it’s more common to introduce yourself as ‘used name + first name’, Bible often introduces himself as Wichapas Sumettikul, then adds “or Bible” as an addendum (possibly because he had a more western upbringing) - but he still tends to be referred to as Bible Wichapas in most contexts.

Perth Nakhun is just one big exception lmao. Nakhun isn’t his first name or his last name - it’s a shortened version of Nakhuntanagarn, his mother’s last name. Perth Nakhun is more of a Thai stage name - by ‘typical’ conventions he would be referred to as Perth Stewart lol (and I have actually seen him referred to this way a few times in articles). interestingly (to me, at least), his ‘full name’ seems to be considered to be Perth Nakhun Screaigh, with Nakhun treated as his legal first name. so he gets credited as Nakhun Screaigh - even though Nakhun is not actually his first name. the TV credits follow the typical convention (Perth Nakhun Screaigh -> Nakhun Screaigh) rather than actually crediting with ‘first name + last name’. idk if this was Perth’s choice or just what happened but it’s interesting!

(Jeff Satur is also a stage name - though unlike with Perth, it seems to be considered his ‘full name’ and is also what is used in his TV credits)

anyway that got kind of long (and very colourful! I love colour coding!) but I hope it was somewhat helpful 🥰

#hehehe colours #perth’s video on this is rlly good btw highly recommend #also i wrote this and then the stupid new post editor crashed and i had to write it all again from scratch so. pls be niceys to me #ask #darcey.txt #kinnporsche #linguistics posting #perth nakhun #thai langblr #thai language #darcey.lang

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27vampyresinhermind · 8 months

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Dear Thai language,

How is anybody supposed to say ‘No’ to you when your word for ‘please’ is the cutest fucking sound a human can make???????

Even worse, when the person saying it has the biggest brownest babiest cowest eyes on the planet?????

#only friends #only friends Ray #thai language #khaotung #firstkhao #raysand #sandray

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scarefox · 2 months

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#lol #thai language

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thisautistic · 2 months

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thinking about vegaspete again. re the context of thai. thinking how the word for pet 'สัตว์เลี้ยง' (sat lyang) has the root syllable 'สัตว์' (sat) which means animal. and how 'สัตว์' is also one of the worst things you can call a person.

not any real concrete thoughts yet that can be turned into words but they sure are being THUNK

#vegaspete #kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #thai language

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happypotato48 · 9 days

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So i kinda did a poor job when i only described what wandee said as "spicy" in my post so let me elaborate.

At beginning of the trailer wandee got called จืด jeut* its mean tasteless, bland, dull. so he basically got called boring/uninteresting/unfuckable.

He says "I'm going to be zabb tonight" in the nightclub scene after he got rejected and again at the end of the trailer when he asks yak "i'm indeed zabb, right?" แซ่บ zabb* is a isan loan word meaning both testy and spicy so technically the sub also corrected when they use testy. but i feel like that also didn't give the word it full context. anywoo zabb also been use in the modern context as a slang noun word for sex, to zabb with someone is to have a spicy testy good sex 😉

#wandee goodday #thai bl #thai language

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absolutebl · 8 months

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Hello! In the latest EP of I Feel You Linger in the Air, Yai addresses Jom as Por Jom. Jom seems surprised but I have no understanding of what Por means so it's significance is lost on me. Perhaps you can help shed some light? Also, how was Yai addressing Jom before?

Por/phor honorific in Thai - I Feel You Linger in the Air

I'm glad you asked it so I don't have to.

I have not encountered it before in BL.

Any of the the Thai language spies still out there wanna weigh in?

I did some poking around - but I could be way off base. Still this what I discovered:

Por is a paternal honorific, luang por is used for respected monks.

So I am assuming this use is relatively old fashioned (the reason we don't hear it often in our normal BL) and either one step more intimate or, more likely, one step more respectful than no honorific. Possibly scholarly?

I'm thinking all this has to do with Jom's demonstration of education. Yai has figured out that one of the reasons Jom doesn't belong and cannot fit in with the servants is that he is more educated than a peasant, which adds up to him being originally from a high status and wealthy family, especially speaking English and having travelled (he has a non-Chang Mai accent).

There is very little Thai middle class at the beginning of the 1920s since trade is being dominated/dictated by the West, or Chinese merchant operations, and Siam is a monarchy. So for a nationalize Thai citizen it's either military, landed gentry with trade operations (like Yai), military, or... none of the above. This changes, especially in the south, throughout this decade (as it did in other parts of the world). So there is a rising bourgeoisie going on in the background but it's not that obvious in Chang Mai at this time.

What this means to Yai is that Jom's family either got wiped out or politically entirely disenfranchised possibly as part of the 1912 attempted coups (or even WWI)? This would be mystifying for Yai because Jom doesn't act like he comes from a military family at all. So his background and status is very confusing for Yai, but Yai does know one thing...

Jom is NOT lower class by the standards of Yai's temporal worldview and existence.

For a young man to be educated and yet entirely alone is very dangerous and suspicious. Also, let's be clear, Jom doesn't look or act like a laborer. He red flags "cultured" all over the place.

Yai is paternalistic and caring towards Jom out the gate because Yai has a big ol'crush but also because he recognizes "his own" is trying to survive while isolated and scared. Yai wants to rescue Jom.

Some Historical Context for I Feel You Linger In The Air

I love history and so here's some quick info that any Thai watcher would likely know, but you might not... ready?

Remember:

Burma (Myanmar) to the west is occupied by the British.

The French hold Vietnam to the east.

Everyone is bickering over what would become Cambodia & Laos.

China occasionally gets involved from the North (also, lots of immigrants from China at this time accounting for a large percentage of the merchant/middle class)

Eventually, Japan would invade during WWII.

In part, The Kingdom of Siam was kept a "neutral" party because none of the surrounding colonial powers wanted to risk offending any of the other players in the area.

Siam re-negotiated sovereignty in 1920 (from USA) and 1925 (France & Britain). But during the time of this show (mid to late 1920s) it was back to it's customary type-rope balancing act of extreme diplomacy with the allied western colonial powers that surrounded it. Recognizing that Thailand was never colonized, it's boarders were constantly nibbled at and it was "ambassador-occupied" off and on by Westerners whose military backing and exploitive business concerns simply outmatched the monarchy, especially in the technology department (as well as by reputation on the global stage at the time).

In other words, the farang in this show (James & Robert) are bound to be both the baddies and the power players of the narrative.

The king of Siam at the time (Vajiravudh AKA Rama VI) was initially somewhat popular but also regarded as overly extravagant since Siam was hit by a major postwar recession in 1919. It should be noted that King Vajiravudh had no son because he was most likely gay (which at the time did not much concern Siamese popular opinion, EXCEPT THAT it undermined the stability of the monarchy).

He "died suddenly" in 1925 (age 44) with the monarchy weakened and succession handed off to his younger brother.

In 1932 a small circle of the rising bourgeoisie (all of whom had studied in Europe, mostly Paris), supported by some military, seized power from the monarchy in a practically nonviolent Siamese Revolution installing a constitutional monarchy.

Siam would then go through: dictatorship, WWII, Japanese invasion, Allied occupation, democratic elections, military junta, the Indochina wars, communist insurgency, more democracy and popularization movements, multiple coups, more junta, more monarchy, eventually leading us to the somewhat chaotic insanity of Thai politics we have today. (Which is, frankly, a mix of monarchy, junta, democracy, egocentric popularism, and bribery.)

(source)

#P'ABL gets crazy academic for a moment #a brief history of Thai politics since WWI #Thai BL #I feel You linker in the air #it's a great fucking show but everything makes more sense if you have historical context #thai honorifics #thai language #thai linguistics

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i-read-in-five-languages · 3 months

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Thai language resources

I’ve been studying Thai (ภาษาไทย) since last October. I had already studied a bit back in January 2022 but I ended up stopping.

This list contains all resources I used until now.

Last updated: Jan, 26th 2024

Apps:

Read Thai (only for IOS ): it’s possible to learn the alphabet (consonants + vowels), tones, clusters and special cases. It also has flashcards.

Write it! Thai (both for Android and IOS ): learn how to write Thai consonants and vowels.

Thai-English dictionary (for IOS): well it’s a dictionary haha

Websites:

Thai2English: this website shows the translation and the transliteration of the words (with tone marks!).

Survival Thai: a MOOC course by Chulalongkorn University.

Books:

Mini Thai Dictionary (Thai-English / English-Thai)

Thai Picture Dictionary

Reading and Writing in Thai: A Workbook for Self Study

Read Thai in 10 Days by Arthit Juyaso

You can download them in this link

Youtube:

I get Thais channel: i love his videos and explanations.

Let's Learn Thai channel: another great channel , also she has a whole video about "learn thai with kinnporsche" haha

สู้ๆ :)

#langblr #languages #languages study #study community #langblog #thai language #learning thai #thai langblog #learning languages

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red-hibiscus · 1 month

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A bit on my linguistic research on LGBT Thai speech

Back in university I took a field documentation course w/ Thai as the target language. My final project was of course LGBT and Thai. The native speaker we researched off of (a linguistics phd candidate) was a gay man himself. So he was able to give me some extra info I wouldn't have been able to find on my own.

He told me that the [x] sound (voiceless velar fricative) can be heard in the northern thai dialect.... or it could be perceived as the speaker being lgbt. [s] is thought to also be pronounced as more dental (closer to tip of teeth).

Also told me that [paŋ] (pronounced bang) is sort of a newer word for trans men. And of course I can't really find info on it just like it was hell finding info on lgbt linguistics in general (worse if it's in a language you don't speak).

Thai does have gendered pronouns and endings. It has a gender neutral pronoun, but it's not really suited for daily use. So yea it can be difficult for nonbinary people. However the native speaker also emphasized that a lot of the time you can kind of get away with avoiding gendered stuff since Thai is a pro-drop language. Plus as I'm sure thai drama enjoyers noticed, people often use their name or title as a pronoun.

The pronoun [lɔ̀n], if used in a certain way, can be interpreted as being from the lgbt community. It’s originally a feminine 3rd person singular pronoun. However now it’s also being used as a 2nd person singular pronoun. The latter is almost exclusively used by LGBT people, especially transgender people. Though gay people may also use it too. So if used in that way, listeners might assume that the speaker is LGBT.

Thats all I have for now. Thai speakers please add things or correct me!! I don't speak Thai myself aside from things I picked up during that class. I took the class a while ago so memory is a bit hazy on some things. A lot of the info I got is from research articles given to me from the speaker, or things he told me during our 1-on-1 meeting. Not that I think he's giving me bad info at all, the man is literally born and raised in Thailand, was in thailand at the time of my research. Just that there's limited info available for me (plus he's not trans himself, just a lovely ally). That and sociolinguistics is not his specialty.

p.s. if any thai speakers (or anyone) wants to talk about lgbt linguistics with me please do

p.p.s teach me thai please and thank you

#honestly that native speaker was the real mvp waking up at 4am to listen to people butcher his language #plus since he is a linguist himself he knew when we were going in the right or wrong direction and would just sit there and laugh #he's friends with my old internship leader and she said that apparently my project was among his favorites so i guess i did something right #lgbt #gay #linguistics #sociolinguistics #thai #bl series #thai bl #thai drama #asian lgbtq dramas #asianlgbtqdramas #lgbtq #transgender #thai language

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lurkingteapot · 8 months

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The poem Khun Yai recites to Jom at the end of ep 4 is from นิราศภูเขาทอง Golden Mountain Niraat, which has been called the best niraat ever written, by สุนทรภู่ Sunthorn Phu (or Phra Sunthonwohan, as Jom calls him respectfully), THE niraat poet.

ไม่เมาเหล้าแล้วแต่เรายังเมารัก สุดจะหักห้ามจิตคิดไฉน ถึงเมาเหล้าเช้าสายก็หายไป แต่เมาใจนี้ประจำทุกค่ำคืนฯ

translated in the show as

Not a drop of liquor to interfere, drunk on love's celestial bliss I've tried to resist this sweet intoxication no matter how drunk I am, sobriety comes with the morning light Drunk on love, my heart undone every night.

From what I gather, niraat are a type of lyrical poetry that deal with topics of journeying/travelling and separation from loved ones.

I'm not a literary scholar and still speak and read only very little Thai, so take this definition with a huge grain of salt, but I have a feeling that, in localisation terms, boy was basically quoting a Shakespearean sonnet at Jom. He's down bad.

And Jom gets the reference and lets Khun Yai know. I'm guessing that if he was trying to not appear cultured, he failed again.

#I feel you linger in the air #ifylita #หอมกลิ่นความรัก #i feel you linger in the air ep 4 #ifylita ep 4 #niraat #ifylita meta #poetry #meta #language meta #of sorts #thai language #my nonsense

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telomeke · 2 months

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สวัสดี/sawatdi/sawasdee

Today I learned that the formal Thai greeting we know so well – สวัสดี (sawatdi/sawasdee) – is not even a hundred years old! 👀

From Wikipedia:

The word sawatdi was coined in the mid-1930s by Phraya Upakit Silapasan of Chulalongkorn University. Derived from the Sanskrit svasti (स्वस्ति meaning 'well-being'), it had previously been used in Thai only as a formulaic opening to inscriptions. The strongly nationalist government of Plaek Phibunsongkhram in the early–1940s promoted its use in the government bureaucracy as well as the wider populace as part of a wider set of cultural edicts to modernise Thailand.

Before this, apparently Thai people "greeted each other informally with an inquiry or observation about their health or welfare", according to thai-language.com.

Languages are amazing! 😍

#thai language #sawatdi #sawasdee #สวัสดี

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wontune · 2 months

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♡ ⠀ ⠀ book ⠀ ⠀ : ⠀ ⠀ lockscreenㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ( ator )

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coricomile · 1 month

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I've watched so many Thai BLs over the past couple of years and love so many of the relationships presented both in ~real world situations where being LGBT+ is part of the main plot and where there's the traditional Korean BL bubble of "No homophobia here never:) but also we don't kiss with tongue".

And I do love me a good Japanese or Korean BL (I'm getting ready to start Kisaki for Ai Di specifically, but I'm not too well versed in Taiwanese BL YET. Give me time) but something I find so interesting about the Thai BLs is the pronouns.

All Asian languages I've seen (forgive me if I over-generalized a specific language, I'm just speaking towards the BL focused view I've seen) have older/younger/same age pronouns, and it also usually is divided by gender. I.e: A younger girl in Korea refers to older girls as unnie, but younger boys would call her noona, etc. And all the Chinese pronouns make my head hurt because there are SO MANY.

What's nice about Thai is you have Phi and Nong and 900 affectionate terms (nu being little mouse is my favorite and sorry Jeff you are the tiniest, cutest mouse and Alan should call you that) and the word for boyfriend and girlfriend is the same. Mumble mumble we aren't talking about hubby and wifey.

But also, Hia.

Idk, maybe it's because I came into the sphere with Until We Meet Again, which made me adore Team and Win and become besotted with Between Us and the whole "call me Hia Win" scene and Prem's adorable whiny ~HiiiiaaAA every time, but it's such an interesting linguistic thing outside of the immediate "call me something only the most intimate people in my life are allowed to call me" because it's directly based on heritage.

Same with Nuea and Lian in Cutie Pie. Lian is only called Hia and I feel like for him specifically with his role of trying to become the family ~provider it brings up his family in a way that "others" him, even if he's proud of it and Nuea doesn't get it the same way he doesn't understand a lot of places Lian is coming from.

Anyway, TL;DR: I really would like to know how Hia became a thing and what the relationship change between Phi and Hia would be, if any. Why a specific pronoun for people with Chinese heritage? How does one begin referring to someone that way, or it is a "I gave you the password" situation? How far from direct immigration for your family from China/Chinese provinces does Hia and other references stop being present, or is it always part of how you're referenced?

@absolutebl You've had some lovely posts about language. If you've already made a post or know a user that's made a post I'd love to be referred 💙

#thai bl #language #between us #winteam #liankuea #et al #bl series #thai language #pls and thank you

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