Thailand
Travel Guide ->Language
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Thai
is a tone language of sino-tibetan origin. This means that differences
in tone make differences in meaning. The Thai language has five tones,
and if you mispronounce you do not simply say an incorrect word, you say
another word entirely! Many Thais, however, (not all, of course!) speak
some English and at least in the tourist areas of Thailand, like Bangkok,
Phuket, or Ko Samui you can manage easily even withouto knowing Thai (in
the more remote areas, like the Northeast, or the South, you might run
into problems.)
There are various systems of transliteration, especially for Thai consonants. In this guide, "Th" means that the sound is a soft "t", and "ph" means that the sound is a soft "p" (not "f"). The Thai script is also different! It is also always a good idea to ask the concierge of your hotel or somebody else to write down the names of your destinations in Thai script, and to take a business card of your hotel, and a good bilingual map with you. |
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