Thai words of Chinese origin Part 2

Introduction

Han Chinese mainly Teochew people migrated into Thailand in large numbers and influenced the Thai language mainly in the furniture and Chinese restaurant vocabulary.

List

Miscellaneous

English	Character	Southern Min	Thai
Chair	交椅	Kau ii	Kau ii
Table	桌	Toh	Toh
Pail	桶	Thang	Thang
Cabinet	櫥	Tuu	Tuu
Signboard	牌	Paai	Paai
Already *	了	Liau	Lɛɛu
Line/Row *	條	Tiau	Thɛɛu
Wipe	拭	Chit	Chet
Dig/excavate	掘	Kut	Kut
Fertiliser	肥	Pui	Pui
Shop	行	Hang	Haang
Beautiful	媠	Sui	Suei
Bad luck	衰	Suei	Suei
Guest ^	客	Khek	Khɛɛk
Business failed ^	腫	Jeng	Jeng
Warm (water)	溫	Uun	Uun
Lottery	花	Huei	Huei

Food related

English	Character	Southern Min	Thai
Vegetarian	齋	Tsay	Tsay
Egg noodle	肉麵	Bah Mii	Bah Mii
Rice noodle	粿條	Kuei Tiau	Kuei Tiau
Meat dumpling	餃	Kiau	Kiau
Sticky rice meat dumpling	肉粽	Bah Tsang	Bah Tsang
Tofu	豆腐	Tau Hu	Tau Hu
Soya bean paste sauce	豆漿	Tau Tsio	Tau Tsiau
Soya sauce	豉油	Sii iu	Sii iu
Chrysanthemum tea	菊花	Kek Huei	Kek Huei
Abalone	鮑魚	Pau Heu	Hoi Pau Heu
Braised sauce	拍滷	Pak Lo	Pah Lou
Rice-based sauce	粿汁	Kuei Tsap	Kuei Tsap
Grass Jelly	草粿	Chau Kuei	Chau Kuei
Mixed vegetable dish	雜菜	Tsap Chai	Tsap Chaai
Stewed	燉	Tuun	Tuun

People designation

English	Character	Southern Min	Thai
Elder Brother	兄	Hiann	Hia
Elder Sister	姐	Tsi/Tse	Tse
Chinese boss	頭家	Tau Kay	Tau Kɛɛ

Vowel correspondence

Group marked with *

Some Thai words with “ɛɛu” vowel correspond with Southern Min “iau” vowel.

Group marked with ^

Southern Min vowel with “e” is pronounced as “ɛɛ” or “e” in Thai. Note that “ey” here is pronounced as English vowel “ay”.

Word origin

Noodles are not Tai in origin but Chinese in origin. Thai people's main staple is rice but the Chinese introduced noodles to Thailand.

The word for beautiful is 'ngaam' in both Northern Thai(Lanna) and Isaan Lao languages which have less influence from Chinese and Khmer.

The word for 'business went bust' is an informal slang word which means cooked dumpling that is swollen which is a metaphor for failed business.

Most shell fish (oyster, mussel, abalone) in Thai start with “Hoi” which is most probably a Chinese cognate for sea.

The chair here refers to the old type of chair where the leg is crossed. Kaau (交) means crossed.

Crossed chair

The mini-buses in Thailand are called Song Thaew because they have two (双) rows (條)of seats facing each other.

Song Thaew

East Asian origin, history, language, culture

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