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[recentadultburnout]

Info for writer in Thai series fandom: Family Vocabulary (Thai&Loan words)

You may have noticed before that there are some variations in the family vocab, and the thing is, it can tell you if that family has Chinese roots. It doesn't really tell you much since there are a lot of us who have not used any even when it's 100% true that they have some Chinese ancestry, and even if they do use it, it's not going to mean anything big either, but here is a list of what is Thai and what is a Teochew loan word. To give you some examples.

There are also loan words from Hokkien, but they are used even fewer. As for loan words from other cultures, in my opinion, they are either so old that we didn't really register them as loan words or so new that they are not yet part of the Thai language, ya know. Also, this chapter is for family terms, and there aren't any other widely used terms for family that I can think of in the others.

The Thai nickname for Google is "ah gu," which is identical with a word for uncle from the mother side.

For step-parents, add the word liang(เลี้ยง) which means raise, nurture at the back. Oh, and sometimes it was mai-ใหม่-new instead, like, he is your new dad and your bio one is an old one. And for adoptive-something add buntham(บุญธรรม) which means adopted (child) at the back. Like, Porliang, Porbuntham, for example.

You could add the word "khun" in front of those common words for more politeness. I wouldn't recommend adding it to words for people of the same age and younger, though. It can create a weird tone you might not want.

There are a lot of words for "father," but there is one specific word that sometimes means sugar daddy. That word is ป๋า(pa).

I was going to talk about other words for sugar daddy, but I suddenly remember that one time I read a really weird placement "pa" in a sentence and blue screen for a bit. So let's talk about why using transliteration might not be the best choice sometimes. As you can see, this word for dad is a letter "p" and a letter "a" when transliterated into English. P and A. like ภา(pa)-Pat's sister. like ป่า(pa)-forest/also protagonise of 2moons. like ป้า(pa)-aunt. And many, many other words. I mean, there are, like, at least three letters that are frequently written with P when in English, and we have five tones that have no way to tell the difference when in English. So sometime, to avoid confusion, it might be best to just don't use unnecessary transliteration words.

Using both common words and loan words is very normal, and I don't mean just using the common ones when talking about your relatives to other people. If your father's side used the loan words but your mother's side used the common words, then you might use ta and yai for grandparents on your mother's side and ahgong and ahma for grandparents on your father's side. Use only some of the loan words for a certain person in your family, but using common words for all the others is a common practice too. I didn't fill in all the loan words for that very reason, many people(including me) can't even remember all the words, let alone use them.

Index

[annjo-wolfe]

The Abandoned Hotel

A story inspired by pictures of an abandoned hotel in Phuket my friend sent me and some Thai folklore. It takes place in an unnamed and non-specific rural village in Thailand.

If anyone is curious on some things in this story, feel free to ask me and I will explain to the best of my ability based on my research... Or research it yourself! There’s quite a bit of stuff about Thai culture and mythology that is so interesting and what you find may surprise you!

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Ya – Paternal Grandmother (ย่า)

Mae – Mom (แม่)

Por – Dad (พ่อ)

Pa – Aunt (ป้า)

Sawadee – Hello (สวัสดี)

 It was mid-afternoon when Ya chased us out of the kitchen. Pla and I had tried to taste dinner while it was busy cooking on the pot. Pla had the pot lid in his hand and I was peaking inside when she walked in and caught us.

“Pla! Geng! Keep your noses out of that pot!” She yelled. Giggling we ran from the kitchen, kicking our shoes out of the way as we ran out of the house. We would have to wash our feet before coming in again as Mae just swept the house this morning.

“Sawadee Pa,” I greeted. Pa was selling some snacks to a man on a moped, rocking Pui in her arms. Hearing Ya yelling from the house, she shook her head at us before turning back to the man.

Many cars and mopeds were driving on the road, coming home from work. Our Por would be home soon.

Pla and I ran past other children from our school, Pla stopped to wave at someone before I told him to hurry up. He rushed off past me while I waited, kicking dust onto my black school skirt. Yelling after him, I caught up and pushed him before calling over my shoulder, “I found something the other day that I want to show you!”

We ran to the edge of the village, Pla noticed Dam, a dog we often saw walking around, and slowed to greet him. Dam yapped happily and stopped to roll on his back so Pla could rub his belly. I waited, sighing before giving in and joining him.

“If we don’t hurry up, we won’t be able to see it before we need to go home for dinner,” I warned after a few minutes, trying to convince him to follow me again.

“What do you want to show me anyway? You’re probably trying to trick me, is that it?” he said annoyed.

Looking around suspiciously, I motioned for him to come closer so I could whisper it into his ear. He brought his ear close and I whispered, “I walked all the way down this dirt road and found an abandoned hotel at the end.”

Pulling away I looked at his face excitedly, he looked at me with mirrored excitement, and I continued, “I asked Fah about it and she said her Por told her not to go anywhere near it… Because it was haunted!”

Pla pulled away and giggled at me. “There’s no such thing!” he said.

“Well, Fah told me,” I said haughtily, “that she heard that a pregnant woman drowned a pool nearby, and now haunts the hotel, killing anyone she finds as revenge!”

Pla shrieked with glee, and I joined him, grabbing his hand, and pulling him down the road, “Well come on then.”

 We reached the hotel just as the monks began their evening chanting. It was old and falling apart, with stained walls and brown roof tiles. Walking around, I saw many plants creeping up the walls through cracked floors, and leaves and rubble everywhere. Pla gasped as we walked up the stairs with no railing, and I noticed some of the wall had exposed brick and none of the door frames has any doors. Even some of the walls were left half built, as if the hotel were abandoned before being finished.

“Geng! Come look over here!” Pla called me from down a long hall and around a corner. He leaned over a square pit in the floor, you could see the lower floors from here and at the bottom was a small pool filled with dirty water.

“What do you think this was?” he asked me. Squinting my eyes, I turned to him and answered, “I think this would’ve been a lift.”

I saw the sun was getting lower and pulled on his dusty school shirt, “I think we should go home soon; it’s getting late.”

He looked at me and cheekily shook his head, before running down the hall towards the stairs.

“Pla!” I yelled as I ran after him through the entrance we came from and around the back of the hotel. Following him, I saw a large courtyard with cracked pavement and a crumbling pavilion. Pla ran across the courtyard, and through what would’ve been the hotel gardens, finally slowing down once he reached a pool, green with algae and filled with leaves. He turned back to me and smirked.

“Can’t catch me Geng,” were his last words before he dived into the muddy water. I made it to the edge of the pool when he resurfaced, laughing hysterically at him when I saw his leafy hair. He carelessly shrugged and swam happily in pool.

“This is why you’re named Pla! Swimming around like a fish,” I teased. “Ya and Mae will be mad at you for ruining your school clothes.” He ignored me.

Huffing at that, I decided I wanted to scare him a little. “You know that’s the pool where the woman drowned!”

He stuck his tongue at me continued swimming. Sighing I looked around saw that it was almost dark and dinner would be ready soon.

“Geng!” He yelled fearfully. I turned and saw him disappear underwater.

“Pla!” I responded as I ran to the pool edge and jumped in after him. When my eyes adjusted to the murky water, I saw Pla with something long and pale wrapped around his foot, dragging him deeper. I quickly swam after him, following him deeper and deeper until the water was coal black. I kept swimming, not knowing which way was up or down, quickly losing my breath.

Eventually I saw a light below me. Desperate I clawed my way to it and broke to the surface, violently coughing. I looked around and saw I was back at the pool’s surface and it was dark.

“Pla!” I called fearfully, twisting around to see him.

“Geng!” I heard echoing from far away in the woods. I ran after the sound with only the light of the full moon to help me.

Suddenly a bird flew past by head. Dodging, I turned to see it wasn’t a bird but a man wearing a cloth around his waist and rice baskets for wings. Screaming in terror I ran blindly ahead into something tall and hard.

Glancing up I saw tall, skinny human-like thing with a pencil-thin neck and pinhole mouth, yet it had a painfully huge belly. It groaned hungrily, dipping its skeletal hand to grab me. I howled and spun around, running to curl under small bush next to a banana tree. I sagged under the bush, trying to catch my breath when I felt I hand my shoulder. Squeaking, I slowly turned to find a pale green woman with bright red lips, hovering above the ground. My body shook, and I stared unblinkingly at her as I whimpered.

She smiled serenely, her hand holding lazily onto the tree while the other was raised, pointing towards a gap in the trees between us. After a few moments of staring at her, I cautiously looked in the direction she was pointing before snapping back to her. I heard a distant scream echoing all around me and twisted around to hear its source.

“Pla?” I cried. I felt the woman’s hand on my shoulder again and turned to her. She raised her hand once more and pointed. I pointed in that direction as well and asked, “Pla?”

She nodded before fading. Wasting no time, I raced towards the gap in the trees, tearing over bushes and logs trying to remain quiet to avoid the attention of the flying man and the tall thing.

I found the hotel again and called Pla’s name.

“Geng!” I heard from inside, so I raced in and up the stairs. There I saw a drenched pregnant woman in a shredded dress, holding Pla from a roofed balcony on the third floor. Her eyes were sunken, and her neck bent at a horrible angle. Pla was grappling for a foothold while clawing at her arm but the water on her arm meant he couldn’t grab a hold. She stared at him, piercingly and evilly as she brought him farther over the edge.

“Wait!” I cried running up the final staircase. I was behind her now and she turned her vengeful gaze to me. I struggled with something to say, something to distract her from Pla. Anything. She turned from me, focusing on Pla again and sending him over.

“You didn’t drown!” I yelled. I figured it might gain some reaction from her. She snapped to me again, her eyes still evil yet they held some curiosity. Pla’s eyes stared at me as well, pleading, and scared.

“You didn’t drown, did you?” I asked, my voice cracking with the effort to sound calm, yet failing miserably.

“You fell… from this balcony and died,” I said. Looking at her, I was afraid, but I still held her attention, so I continued, inching closer to her.

“But then… why would people say you drowned?” I asked. This seemed to upset her because she gave a raging screech and went to throw Pla. I leapt to grab a hold of her and wrestled to get her away from the edge as she clawed at me, making deep gashed down my arm. Pla was crying, flailing as he held tight to her arm.

Just then a skeletal hand grabbed her by the back of her dress, pulling all of us from the edge. Turning, I gasped at the skinny, big-bellied thing from earlier. Its face was somehow gushing water from its mouth and eyes as it leaned over the pregnant woman. She, in absolute terror, broke free from its grasp and flung herself off the balcony. I peaked over the edge and saw she had disappeared.

I turned to thank the ghost, only to scream in terror as it held Pla by his arms, bringing his shoulder, where he was from our scuffle, closer to its ravenous mouth. Hungering, ready to feast. With a furious cry I leapt, kicking it in its neck and watched as it dropped Pla and tumbled over. Grabbing Pla by the arm, I ran down the stairs and out of the hotel to the pool.

“Deep breath, Pla!” I cried, as I dived into the pool, taking him with me. We swam for a while; I was almost out of breath when we burst from the pool’s surface. Pulling ourselves from the pool, I saw the soft light of the coming sunrise and heard the distant sound of the monk’s morning chant as I laid on my back and caught my breath.

Pla cried from his place next to me, and I gave him my biggest and sorriest hug as I cried with him, both in shock and gladness. After our hiccupping ceased, we picked ourselves off the ground and walked towards the road back to the village, giving a wide berth to the abandoned hotel.

As we walked down the road Pla said to me, “Ya and Mae will definitely be angry at us, won’t they?”