# Thailand pronunciation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2020, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541 "2020-08-07T23:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2020, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/41 "2020-08-09T06:01:23Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > > [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > > > Looking for a GQ fact check on Dinesh D’Souza’s claim that “most of the English-speaking world” pronounces Thailand “thigh-land” rather than “tie-land”. > > Uh, no. D’Souza is a liar. I know that, I just wanted to make sure he didn’t accidentally say something accurate - the stopped clock cliche. ---
**Author:** ![Pancake\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@Pancake\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pancake_Robot)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/42 "2020-08-09T18:49:05Z")
Even the rednecks on the coastal plain in Texas know it’s TIE-Land. Never heard it otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/43 "2020-08-10T13:05:24Z")
> [@Leftwix](#): > > 30 years ago we smoked Thai stick. Only if someone was clearly joking would they ever call it thigh stick Before the DEA raided and took down the website Overgrow, I was known as Thai-Guy there. Nobody ever called me Thigh-Guy. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/44 "2020-08-10T17:50:49Z")
So the bottom line is that some Indian folks pronounce many (all?) T’s with a smidgen of h-like aspiration afterwards. Just like some (mostly elderly) Americans pronounce words such as “which” with a gentle h-like aspiration in front of the w sound. And this somehow got morphed by the audience, not the speaker, into “Thigh-land” being the common pronunciation. Sounds like TwitFace has turned into one hell of a game of Telephone. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/45 "2020-08-10T18:41:35Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > And this somehow got morphed by the audience, not the speaker, into “Thigh-land” being the common pronunciation. Who do you mean by ‘the speaker’? Because D’souza, did, in fact, claim that ‘thigh-land’ was the most common pronunciation: > [@Dinesh D'souza on Twitter](#): > > In England, Australia and India it is pronounced “Thighland” and guess who invented the English language? Yes, he eventually walked it back to the less inaccurate claim that it’s the common pronunciation _in the subcontinent_, but, even there, it’s more accurate to say that they would pronounce Thailand and Thigh-land the same way, and Trump didn’t pronounce it in the way they’d be pronounced there, so that’s irrelevant! It’s possible D’Sousa improperly extrapolated from knowing that Thai and thigh start with the same sound in subcontinental accents, but if that were the case, a) one would assume he would know that sound is not θ, and b) why the hell would he extrapolate from Indian and Pakistani accents to English and Australian ones? So ‘pulled it out of his ass, not expecting to be called on it’ is rather the more likely case. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/46 "2020-08-10T18:57:52Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > So the bottom line is that some Indian folks pronounce many (all?) T’s with a smidgen of h-like aspiration afterwards. Yes, but Americans pronounce the initial /t/ sound in “tie” and “Thai” with an aspiration. Compare “tie” /tɑɪ/ [tʰɑɪ] with “sty” /stɑɪ/ [st˭ɑɪ]. The former is aspirated, the latter is not. However, in English, the aspiration is not phonemic; that is, not used to distinguish words. The phonemic transcription in slashes does not note it, while the phonetic transcription in brackets does. I don’t know if it’s the same aspiration used in India. In many languages the difference between aspirated and unaspirated consonants is important (that is, phonemic). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/47 "2020-08-10T19:28:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > So the bottom line is that some Indian folks pronounce many (all?) T’s with a smidgen of h-like aspiration afterwards. To be precise, they pronounce English’s /θ/ phoneme, spelled as _th_ in words like _thing_ (but not as in _this_) as an aspirated (not “lightly aspirated”) unvoiced labiodental plosive [t̪ʰ]. Many Indians assume that the _Th_ that begins “Thailand” is meant to be this same phoneme. It’s not because they pronounce all _T_s that way. It’s because they don’t know that it’s meant to represent a different sound even though it’s spelled the same. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/48 "2020-08-10T19:38:05Z")
[quote=“Pleonast, post:46, topic:917541, full:true”] > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I don’t know if it’s the same aspiration used in India. In many languages the difference between aspirated and unaspirated consonants is important (that is, phonemic). Aspiration is fundamentally phonemic in many standardized Indo-Aryan (“North Indian”) languages like Hindi-Urdu and Bengali. Standard Bengali has these distinct phonemic plosives and affricates— /k/ /kʰ/ /g/ /gʰ/ /t͡ʃ/ /t͡ʃʰ/ /d͡ʒ/ /d͡ʒʰ/ /ʈ/ /ʈʰ/ /ɖ/ /ɖʰ/ /t̪/ /t̪ʰ/ /d̪/ /d̪ʰ/ /p/ /pʰ/ /b/ /bʰ/ ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/49 "2020-08-10T19:48:38Z")
Indian languages took the word “Thailand” from English, so Indians are pronouncing it the way they think it’s supposed to be pronounced in English. The traditional name of the country is based on “Siam.” For example, the Bengali name for Thailand is শ্যামদেশ ⟨shyamdesh⟩ [ʃæmd̪eʃ] ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/50 "2020-08-10T21:31:11Z")
Thanks all. It’s really interesting to delve into something we all use every day that many of us (or at least all of me) know so little about the nitty gritty details. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/51 "2020-08-10T22:31:24Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Sounds like TwitFace has turned into one hell of a game of Telephone. More correctly pronounced ‘Thalaphone’ here and in most parts of the English-speaking world, plus the inner planets. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/52 "2020-08-11T04:26:17Z")
There are a lot of Indians running around Bangkok, and as best I can recall, I’ve never heard one say “Thigh-land.” ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/53 "2020-08-12T11:31:51Z")
The Irish (or at least Dubliners) say thigh-land. But they are strange with ‘th’. The sentence “I spent three days in Thailand” would come out “I spent tree days in thigh-land”. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/54 "2020-08-12T13:12:49Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > For example, the Bengali name for Thailand is শ্যামদেশ ⟨shyamdesh⟩ [ʃæmd̪eʃ] That’s the first bengali word, I’ve ever seen on SDMB. Cool @Acsenray ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/55 "2020-08-12T19:49:09Z")
It’s amazing the lengths to which conservatives will go to make it sound like something Trump did is absolutely, perfectly fine, even… sophisticated! Cosmopolitan! Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/56 "2020-08-12T20:45:51Z")
FWIW, in Season 4, Episode 20 of USA’s reality series _Chrisley Knows Best_, Chase Chrisley pronounces “Thailand” on camera as “Thigh-land”. This sets up a one-liner where father Todd Chrisley makes fun of Chase’s pronunciation. This originally aired Oct 4, 2016 and airs in repeats frequently. I just happened to catch a rerun of this episode last night, and remembered this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/57 "2020-08-12T20:58:15Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > It’s amazing the lengths to which conservatives will go to make it sound like something Trump did is absolutely, perfectly fine, even… sophisticated! Cosmopolitan! Defending the indefensible is hard work. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/58 "2020-08-13T12:22:47Z")
[Moderating] Although this thread was ultimately prompted by something Trump said, it is not about Trump. It is about the factual matter of the pronunciation of a word in various parts of the world. Leave the Trump-bashing (or Trump-supporter-bashing) to the political forums. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/59 "2020-08-13T12:26:17Z")
I think “most” is a gross exaggeration, but it is not a rare mistake by any means. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541/60 "2020-08-16T04:26:16Z")
On the contrary, it is a rare mistake. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thailand-pronunciation/917541.md?page=4)