Re: pa.tipatti

> (ii) Yes, Alan was a brilliant guy. (if he have been
> reborn as a deva, he should be able to observe us from
> the deva-loka. Is it not true that some devas can see our
> manussa-loka?)

Dear Tadao,

Yes indeed!  And I am sure he would do anything he can to help us
understand and study the dhamma!  At the very least he would anumodana
in what we do and accumulate more kusala and panna, I would like to
think!

> (iii) It's very interesting that now Thai is deviating its
> preference to mono-syllabicity. (Eventually,
> the phonological/tonal nature of Thai may
> change quite a lot.)

It's funny you should mention this problem, which our King often
refers to in his public addresses, such as on his birthday, the new
year, and such occasions.  He would stress the major nationwide
problems as well as bring up interesting situation as well as simple
anecdotes to illustrate his points, even stories of animals he rescued
and then kept as pets.  But quite a few times these last years he
would mention the decline of the language such as the tones of some of
the higher pitches are rising, causing the first high tone (normally
represented by the sign 'mai tohh') to sound very much like the second
high tone above (normally represented by the sign 'mai trii').  He
also spoke about the unclear pronunciation of the trilled r, which
became less and less pronounced, especially with youngsters educated
abroad, where the r is different.  Given the reverence that
the Thai people have for him, there have been some results,
especially among Thai language teachers, and nowadays the TV and radio
reporters are selected specifically for good pronunciation as well.
  Still, in general the trend is not very promising. 

> (iv) When you prononce such loanwords as "pikachu' or
> 'karaoke', do you place a "glottal stop' after the word
> final vowel. For instance, when you pronounce,
> 'sati' (mindfulness), a glottal stop follows the vowel
> /i/. You can feel the stop as a kind of choking
> sensation in your throat (at the glottis). Do you have
> the same kind of choking sensation (=prsense of a glottal
> stop) when you prononunce the above Japanese words.
> Or can you prolong the word final vowels as 'pikachuuuuuu' or
> 'karaokeeeee'? (If you can prolong these vowels,
> then, there is no presence of the glottal stop at the
> word final position. And such a pronunciation is
> totally a kind of new phonological phenomenon in Thai
> (as far as I can see).
> tadao

I don't think I've seen 'pikachu' in BKK, Tadao, what is it?  To me it
doesn't even sound Japanese, strangely enough! 

Thai, as you probably remember, prefer a softer sound, even the
Japanese loan words haven't changed that yet, glottal stops and
choking sensations are not for us, not yet anyway!  Even the 'karaoke'
is dragged out just a little, for example where it might sound like a
little 'karaoke!' it would turn into 'karaokeh' at most, I think. 
Thai and French, though so dissimilar in other ways, is quite alike in
the fluidity of the sounds, whereas the glottal and other 'rougher'
characteristics are more like the German to my mind, don't you find? 
Some of the sibilants are appearing at the end of loanwords but I
wonder if the Thai will ever evolve so far as to adopt the glottal
stops, even without betel nuts!

But none of us can really predict the future, can we, so given the
right conditions anything can happen, we know.

Amara