Natural languages, communication, etc





Pronounce "Siam"?ÿÿÿ

Anyone care to tell me the various ways the name "Siam" can be
pronounced. After surveying half a dozen college students, I received
SI am.  One teacher insisted the name is pronounced as "Sam."

Comments?
 * RM 1.2 00153 *  Do radioactive cats have eighteen half-lives?

posted by admin in Uncategorized and have Comments (8)






8 Responses to “Pronounce "Siam"?ÿÿÿ”

  1. admin says:

    ed.ev…@kandy.com (ED EVANS) wrote:
    >Anyone care to tell me the various ways the name "Siam" can be
    >pronounced. After surveying half a dozen college students, I received
    >SI am.  One teacher insisted the name is pronounced as "Sam."

    Siam is pronounced Thailand.

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  2. admin says:

    Michael Quinlan (mi…@primenet.com) wrote:

    : ed.ev…@kandy.com (ED EVANS) wrote:

    : >Anyone care to tell me the various ways the name "Siam" can be
    : >pronounced. After surveying half a dozen college students, I received
    : >SI am.  One teacher insisted the name is pronounced as "Sam."

    : Siam is pronounced Thailand.

    I forget if "Siam" is a transliteration of a Thai word.  If it were it
    would be [sjam].  I would Anglicize it [sai 'yaem].

    : +——————————————–+
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    : +——————————————–+


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  3. admin says:

    ED EVANS (ed.ev…@kandy.com) wrote:

    : Anyone care to tell me the various ways the name "Siam" can be
    : pronounced. After surveying half a dozen college students, I received
    : SI am.  One teacher insisted the name is pronounced as "Sam."

    My Thai students pronounced it SI AM – with equal emphasis on both syllables.
    Meg Gam
    ESL Teacher
    NYC

  4. admin says:

    "Siam" is actually an English-like spelling for [sajam] (IPA j = y as in
    "yellow"). This English-like spelling has been borrowed into other
    languages, and reinterpreted, so that, for instance French has "Siam",
    pronounced [sjam].

    Likewise "Burma" (or Birma, Birmah, Burmah) is an English spelling for
    [bama] which is Burmese for the name of the country. Again, French has
    borrowed it from English, so that the French name [biRmani] (spelt
    "Birmanie") bears no relationship to the true pronunciation.

  5. admin says:

    In article <3uurle…@medici.trl.OZ.AU>,

    Jacques Guy <j…@newsserver.trl.oz.au> wrote:
    >"Siam" is actually an English-like spelling for [sajam] (IPA j = y as in
    >"yellow"). This English-like spelling has been borrowed into other
    >languages, and reinterpreted, so that, for instance French has "Siam",
    >pronounced [sjam].

    I had always believed that "Siam" is the Portuguese spelling of
    "Shan", and that the different European languages that adopted the
    word simply produced spelling pronunciations.  The Shan are a Tai
    people who could easily have been confused with the Thai.

    Coby

  6. admin says:

    Coby (Jacob) Lubliner <c…@euler.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:

    >Jacques Guy <j…@newsserver.trl.oz.au> wrote:
    >>"Siam" is actually an English-like spelling for [sajam] (IPA j = y as in
    >>"yellow"). This English-like spelling has been borrowed into other
    >>languages, and reinterpreted, so that, for instance French has "Siam",
    >>pronounced [sjam].

    >I had always believed that "Siam" is the Portuguese spelling of
    >"Shan", and that the different European languages that adopted the
    >word simply produced spelling pronunciations.  The Shan are a Tai
    >people who could easily have been confused with the Thai.

            I believe it was either the Ayuttaya or the Sukhotai period in
    which the name Siam came about.  In Thai, the name is written <syAm>,
    (let A= long a), and is pronounced in Bangkok Thai as [sajAm] or in fast
    speech [s@jAm].  The name is corroborated in Chinese texts in the name
    <xianluo> (note Cantonese pronunciation [si:m lO]), where the first
    character is a remnant of the use of Siam.

    >Coby

    -Patrick


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  7. admin says:

    In <3v5u5f$…@agate.berkeley.edu> patc…@uclink2.berkeley.edu writes:
    >…
    >    I believe it was either the Ayuttaya or the Sukhotai period in
    > which the name Siam came about.  In Thai, the name is written <syAm>,
    > (let A= long a), and is pronounced in Bangkok Thai as [sajAm] or in fast
    > speech [s@jAm].  The name is corroborated in Chinese texts in the name
    > <xianluo> (note Cantonese pronunciation [si:m lO]), where the first

                                               ^^^^

    > character is a remnant of the use of Siam.

    Note that the contemporary Cantonese pronounciation for the first syllable is
    [ts'i:m], where the initial is a dental voiceless affricate.

    Tak.

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  8. admin says:

    In article <8ADC1B3.06D3001B5F.uu…@kandy.com>, ed.ev…@kandy.com (ED EVANS) writes:

    |> Anyone care to tell me the various ways the name "Siam" can be
    |> pronounced. After surveying half a dozen college students, I received
    |> SI am.  One teacher insisted the name is pronounced as "Sam."

    Not sure about how to represent IPA in ASCII, but it’s something
    like sajaam (1st syllable short, low tone, 2nd syllable long,
    rising tone).


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