|> 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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>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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> 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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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

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.

: 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

: 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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Siam is pronounced Thailand.

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