สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Vol. 30 No. 2 Apr.-Jun. 2005 458 µ— «‡¢’ ¬π°— ∫‡ ’ ¬ßÕà “π Abstract Written Script and Pronunciation Nitaya Kanchanawan Associate Fellow of the Academy of Arts, The Royal Institute, Thailand Two or more different languages may use similar or different sets of symbols for writing purposes. The same symbol set may be modified to suit a particular language in question. The crucial point is that each language contains it’s own pronunciation. Thus, the same linguistic symbol set may not represent the same sounds for two different languages. This can be seen in the case of Roman script used in transcribing English, French, German, etc. and in the case of the Thai and Cambodian scripts which came from the same origin. Thus, using different sets of written symbol for the same language may cause some problems in pronunciation. In the early days of foreign language borrowing the use of Thai script for foreign words was ç sound oriented é since the original scripts and their pronunciation were not available to the general public. Later on when the written forms were available, the Thai script was used directly, adding tone marks to make them more like Thai words. At present the tone mark is omitted since the original sounds can be heard. The language user has more freedom to adapt the tone according to the context. It is possible to see where the syllable tone for each word has varied through time. Regarding the use of Roman script for Thai words, there are four different ways to transcribe: transcription (adaptation of the International Phonetic Alphabet), Romanization, Anglicization and the Rama VI system in which the Pali and Sanskrit written forms are retained. Thus, using the Thai script to represent foreign words, no matter which rules are used, all the systems are only an approximation of the original sound, and the user must learn and understand the purpose of the system. The language user should accept the fact that no system will ever be equal to the original sound. In the case of borrowed words, however, the sound may be adapted to the borrower’s system. Thus, over time borrowed words may come to be considered no longer as foreign words, but rather as part of the vocabulary of the borrowing language. Key words : Roman script, Thai script, phonetic symbol, International Phonetic Alphabet, transcription, Romanization, Anglicization, Rama VI system