This is a repost of one I made in the Asia Chat area.

I found out today that the "R" in English seems to be pronouced like an "L" in Thai.
Why is this important? I had a hell of time getting to the Rachada area yesterday. Ask for Ra-Cha-Da and get blank stares from the cabbies. Ask for Rama IX road, get blank stares.

After finally connecting with one cabbie, I found out he pronounced it La-Cha-Da-Pee-Sick

So ask for that if you want to go to that area. Ask for Lama IX road instead of Rama IX road. Ask for Natalee massage instead of Nataree.

One last example is the word farang, meaing foreigner. You will often hear Thai people pronounce this falang.

As in other asian languages as well, the "tone" of the word is waaaay more important than the pronuciation of the word. For example, the word for the skytrain Rod Fai Fa can also be said ODD Fai Fa and people will understand you if the tonation is correct. The thing about "R"s being pronounced as "L"s is a regional variation similar to orange being pronounced as AHHRANG or OR-RANG. The word Alright is pronounced as AAIT by some African Americans. In Spanish the proper word for 20 is Vente but you'll hear lazy people pronounce it as "Bente". Do you get my drift?

"R" is the proper way to say things. "L" is the slurring lazy way. Bangkokians born and raised speak proper Thai. Outsiders such as the Issanese who moved to BKK for work usually take the lowest jobs similar to illegal aliens from Mexico coming into USA. Thus, the Issanese take all the taxidriver jobs which is lowly paid and will pronounced their "village" slang which means putting an L where an R should be.

For example, Kop Khun Krup is lazily pronounced Kop Kuhn Kop or Klop.

I found that no two Thais pronounced the same way. It drove me crazy trying to learn a language that everyone spoke differently.

Tjseeker's post explains a lot. Now, imagine that the US was only the size of New York, but had all the different accents. It would drive you nuts trying to figure out how to pronounce "fork" from a Texan, Brooklynite and Dakotan (not to mention Bostonian).

I used to get a kick out of some Thai bar girls telling me that they liked my pal, Ricky. "Where Licky? I want Licky!"

It would explain a lot if it was true. My ex wife was the daughter of a lawyer and university educated-- still prononouced Rs as Ls . I also lived with a Thai girl for 2 years, born and raised in BKK, that had a degree in English from Chulalongkorn Univ in BKK-- same same - R was L or very nearly so. I have not found BKK residents to talk much differently from Isaan folk in that regard.

They can say R or pronounce R at the end of a word , but at the beginning or in the middle of a word it is pronounced mostly as L sound with a bit of a rolled R but very soft tongue. I tried to get my wife to pronounce R for years with no success. It became comical after a while. Thai has few if any consonants that require a hard tongue against the upper palate- lazy tongue language as my wife put it once.

What is interesting is that Thai people pronounce
"r" in many words like people from Boston. Both would pronounce "farm" like it was spelled "fam". So, the word for water is pronounced "nam" like Viet Nam, although it is spelled "Narm".

>>>lazy tongue language

Curious that you put it that way. I find my tongue gets tired trying to pronounce Thai the way it sounds in my Pimsleur lessons. Quite a few words that have pretty hard "breaks" in them (i.e. the Thai word for something - "a'rai"). But then I'm probably doing it all wrong anyhow. ;)

I didn't put it that way my Thai wife did. There are few if any Thai consonants that require a hard or stiff tongue against the upper palate . They use a softer tongue. Hence consonants like S , R and L etc give them problems as she explianed it to me.

Well, what I don't get is who the heck transliterated their alphabet? Listen to a Thai say "never mind" and you hear "My pen lie." So why the heck did they spell it "My pen rye?" If it sounds like an "R" you'd think they'd write it like an "R", eh?

Wombat
That's where the tongue comes in. Say Rai in English and you see you have to hold your tongue stiff -pressed close to upper palate. Now say it with your tongue relaxed in the middle of your mouth and you have the Thai pronounciation. They can say L and have an L sound as in ling-- monkey. Even that sound is softer than the English L however. Therefore L cannot be used as it has it's own sound.

There are I think 46 Thai consonants so there is no one to one translation.

Funnily at end of the word an L becomes an N. Hoten ,Footbon, etc Go figure.

TJseeker is in the KNOW. R is proper, it's what a lawyer would say at a meeting. L is what an ordinary Thai, probably with Isaan roots would say. From what I've learned anyhow.

Just like English -- no one speaks proper Thai- it has nothing to do with Isaan vs BKK. I have known many Univ educated Bangkok natives who pronounce R the same as Isaan natives. If they were speaking to the King or in Court it may be different. My ex father in law ( also BKK native) was a lawyer and used the L pronunciation. I never talked to him in court- maybe he changed his way of speaking.
I think we have beaten this dead horse more than enough. The bottom line is 95% of Thais anywhere pronounce a mixed R and L sound- more like L than R.