Tongue Thai’d Translations

If you have ever been in a Bangkok taxi, the chances are that you will have been driven by someone whose native dialect is Isan, or the dialect of the Northeast.

The word Isan is often used to refer to both the dialect and the region from which it emanates, but many Thais simply refer to the dialect as ‘Lao’ – a somewhat derogatory term, given the low esteem in which both Laos and Thailand’s Northeastern region are held in by the rest of the nation.

To call it ‘Lao’, however, is not to imply that it is a separate language. Both Thai and Lao are extremely closely related, and most Lao speakers, even those living in Laos, can understand Thai perfectly easily (the obverse is not always quite so true; while Laotians are exposed to Thai from the pervasive Thai media, not all Thais are quite so exposed to Lao).

Nor is it to imply that the dialect spoken in Isan is identical to that spoken in Laos. While in the past both Laos and Isan were ruled by the Lan Xang Kingdom and shared the same language, their subsequent political divergence means that the Isan dialect has become more closely influenced by Central Thai. Nonetheless, the fact remains that Isan is more closely related to the Lao language than it is to the language of central Thailand.

Moreover, speakers of the Isan dialect use the Thai alphabet in which to write their language, while Laotians use a Mon-derived script.

In order to asscertain whether someone is speaking in the Isan dialect, there are a few standard markers. The first you are likely to hear is the word bor (บ่) to negate a word, rather than the Thai mai (ไม่). You will often find bor used in newspaper headlines in standard Thai, when the headliner writers want to appear creative. Equally, bor is used as a question words, as in the phrase sabai dee bor? (‘how are you/are you well?’), which in Thai would be sabai dee mai?

Secondly, you will notice that Isan speakers almost universally pronounced the Thai letter ‘r’ as ‘l’, so that, for instance, rot (รถ), or ‘car’ in Thai becomes ‘lot’ in Isan. While this is by no means confined to the Isan region – it is very common for ‘r’s and ‘l’s to be interchanged throughout Thailand – it is particularly prevalent in the Northeast. In some instances, ‘r’ becomes not ‘l’ but ‘h’, so that nak rian (’school student’) in Thai becomes nak hian in the Northeastern dialect, a trait shared by the dialect of the Northern region.

Another letter pronounced differently in Isan is ‘ch’, which in the Northeastern dialect becaomes ’s’. Equally, there are certain consonant clusters that Isan speakers do not pronounce, so that, for instance, the Thai word for song, phleng (เพลง) becomes pheng.

While some aspects of Isan might appear simpler than Thai, tone-phobic language learners will be disheartened to learn that Isan has six tones, compared to the five of Central Thai. Moreover, words pronounced in one tone in Central Thai might be said in a completely different tone in the Isan dialect.

To confuse matters even more, talk of a single Isan dialect is perhaps misleading, as there are several different dialects spoken around the Northeastern region. Just ask a taxi driver, and you might well learn some. Meanwhile, an excellent little introduction can be found here.