Tinglish

Not to be confused with Tanglish or Tenglish, interlanguages of English with Tamil and Telugu, respectively.

Tinglish is even widespread on official signs in Thailand.

Tinglish (US and Thailand ) or Thaiglish (UK) (also Thenglish, Thailish or Thainglish) is the imperfect form of English produced by native Thai speakers due to language interference from the first language . Differences from 'native' English include different pronunciation, unusual word choices, and grammatical anomalies, as well as innovative vocabulary items .

Characteristics and examples

Characteristics and examples (direct translation) include :

• omission of pronouns and of the verb be;
• use of present tense + "already" instead of past tense
• non-use or incorrect use of articles, declension and conjugation.
• addition of Thai final particles, e.g. I don't know na
• Frequent confusion between any and every.
• General misunderstanding of conditional constructions
• pronunciation of silent letters in a word
• Inability to speak consecutive consonants. E.g. "Sprite" pronounced "Sa-pa-rite"
• use of double negatives

Examples of words and phrases

Examples (direct translation) include:

• same same (similar, as usual) and same same but different (seems similar but different in some ways);
• I li' you welly welly mutt (I like you very much)
• My frien' you (You are my friend)
• My friend you (your friend -- this construction is mostly correct in Thai)
• My name <name> (My name is <name>)
• Him boxing you (He will punch you)
• Up to you (It's your decision) [this is also perfectly good British English]
• open/close the light (means "To turn on/off the light");
• no have ... (means "there is no ..." or "I do not have a ...");
• I send you to airport (means "I will take you to the airport");
• I love you too much; (indicating confusion between "too" and "very")
• I'm not pretty sure (means "I don't know");
• This trousers are fit (means "this trousers are a little too small to wear");
• I have ever been to London; I always go to London
• I'm interesting in football (means "I am interested in watching/playing football");
• wash the film (means "develop the film");
• I very like it (means "I really like it");
• I'm sad when my mother angry me (means is angry with me);
• I used to go Phuket (means "I have been to Phuket before");
• take a bath referring to taking a shower;
• Are you spicy? (means "Does your food taste spicy?")
• Are you boring? ­— Do you feel bored?
• "Do you know how to eat this?" referring to food with taste that may be unfamiliar, or food requiring special eating method (such as wrapping it in lettuce) that may not be known to the listener;
• I play internet (I go on/use the internet);
• Check bill (means I want to get a check in a restaurant);
• "This is suck!" means "This sucks!";
• "I very enjoy!" means "I'm enjoying myself/I enjoyed myself";
• Linkkey (erroneous pronunciation of Linksys)

Particles

The words of Thai prefix particles and their implied meanings:

• khun (literally mister, miss, or mrs.) or k. = mister or miss (e.g. Khun Somchai will have a meeting on Friday.)

Following is the list of Thai final particles and their implied meanings:

• la = to give suggestion (e.g. Why don't you ask her la?), to inform the listener of something (e.g. I'm going to bed la.), or to ask if the subject would do something that the subject of the previous sentence does (e.g. I'm going to have dinner now, how about you la?)
• na = to give a suggestion (e.g. You must do your homework first na.), to inform the listener of something (e.g. I'll be right back na.), or to soften a statement about something that the speaker thinks should have been done but have not yet been done (e.g. Why don't you ask her na?)
• cha/ja = to add informality to the conversation (e.g. Hello ja.)
• khrap/krab (or, alternatively, krub) (for male speaker only) = add at end of sentence to make the conversation polite/formal; also as confirmation (Yes!) (e.g. Hello krab.)
• kha (or ka) (for female speaker only) = same as krab (e.g. Hello kha.)

Some less common particles:

• mang/mung = a qualifier indicating uncertainty, sometimes translated as "maybe" (e.g. The shop already closed, mung. / I think he's 25 years old, mung.)
• loei/leoy = totally or immediately (e.g. I don't understand leoy la. / See you there leoy na)
• laeo/laew = already or done (e.g. I have to go laew la.)
• na = to give suggestion (it's likely to be used with someone who's close to you and of equal status, such as your close friend, considered very rude otherwise) (e.g. I don't know at all na, why don't you come with me na?)

Pronunciation

As some sounds in English just simply don't exist in Thai language, this affects the way native Thai speakers pronounce English words :

• shifts the stress to the last syllable of the word
• omits consonant clusters
• final consonants are often omitted or converted according to the rules of Thai pronunciation: l and r become n, while s becomes t
• "sh" and "ch" sounds can be indistinguishable as the Thai language does not have the "sh" sound, e.g. ship/chip, sheep/cheap
• "v" sound is almost always replaced by "w" sound, e.g. vow -> wow, ville -> will
• "g" and "z" sounds are usually devoiced, e.g. dog -> dock, zoo -> sue
• "th" sound is often replaced by "t" or "d" sound, e.g. thin -> tin, through -> true, then -> den
• ambiguity between the short "e", as in "bled", and a long "a", as in "blade"
• "e(vowel) " such as cherry is pronounced shireri, error is pronounced err-rer

In Thai, consonants generally cannot be blended together (exceptions to this rule are /r/, /l/ and /w/.) A short "a" (ah) sound is automatically added between any other two consonants.

• start - sahtat
• stupid - sahtupid
• sleep - sahleep
• speak - sahpeak
• snore - sahnore
• swim - sahwim
• stay - sahtay
• school - sahkoon
• album - alabum
• schedule - sahketdual
• in trend- in train

External links

• Tinglish Without Toil An article that takes a look at some of the roots of Tinglish
• French Fried Funny photos of Tinglish signs and menus from Thailand
• Too many 'magical' Thai spelling mistakes