Thread: Do Thais Stutter?

No, it is not exclusive to English speakers. I am not sure if Asians do or not, but would be surprised if they dont.

^ That's wonderful news!

Funny that you should ask. Yes they do. The security guard at the gate to our neighborhood does and my wife said something about it to me this morning.

Last night I was asked the difference between a stutter and a stammer.

That wasn't an easy one to answer... Isn't a stammer a sort of nervous build up followed by an out burst of a word/sentence?

I think my gf has Thai tourettes, when driving she shouts "hoy lot nee" all the time

I've noticed Thais say 'mun' (มุม possible) instead of 'umm' when they're thinking what to say next. I did try asking a Thai about it, but as usual it was a waste of breath.

They stutter and lisps are commonplace. I had a thread on this topic a few months ago and few acknowledged a realization that an amazing number of Thais speak with a lisp. I suspect, having read the thread titled, "is learning your host language important," few will care and even fewer will ever know.

As an aside:

I spent far too many hours at an aluminum (aluminimum) distributor in Udon Thani while my house was being built. My lovely bride, in all her wisdom, convinced me to agree to bring her brother up from Pattaya to do all our windows/sliding doors. He did a great job, but I had to buy and ship all the glass and aluminum to Nong Khai. During my hours in that plant, I noticed a high, gutteral shriek about every 20 seconds.

After about the fifth visit, I realized it was a fairly good-looking, young lady worker belching out the nastiest hurl from the deepest part of her diaphram, seemingly not at will. Absolutely bizarre. Must have been some sort of mental problem, but continued and every time I visited, I thought what poor prospects the future held for her.

Why would Thais be any different than us?

as was briefly mentioned above Tex, maybe Tourettes syndrome was affecting her

as for Thai stutterers, I had a secretary that stuttered in Thai but not in English, so that was OK

Years ago, I had a gf who had emigrated from Ukraine. One night, our discussion turned to languages; specifically, what anamatopoeic words are used in her/mine languages to designate the sounds that various animals make. [Example: "Woof" vs. "Ruff"]

The sound a rabbit makes had me stumped. GF said that Russian uses the word "troos, troos"; I replied that I had never heard any anamatopoeic word for rabbit sounds in English or several Indian languages, nor could I remember rabbits making any sounds.

Next day we went to a large pet store, and headed to the section with all the caged rodentia.

Saw a young man cleaning up a cage, approached him, and asked: "Excuse me, but we are wondering what sound does a rabbit make."

He looked at us, and said: "Uyuk, uyuk, uyuk...", at which point I interrupted to say, "No, I think it is something like 'troos, troos' ".

He continued: "...uyuk, I don't think they make a sound."

At this point, several things became clear:
1. He had a stutter
2. I had interrupted him before he could go past the stutter
3. He thought we were total dickheads for coming in to make fun of him.
4. There was no way he was going to believe that we really had come in to ask about rabbit sounds, and that we had no idea he had a stutter.


To this day, whenever I enter a pet store I remember the hurt look on his face.

Originally Posted by Spin

I think my gf has Thai tourettes, when driving she shouts "hoy lot nee" all the time

I don't know if it is possible for entire nation to have Tourettes, but I have noticed too many Koreans who get livid and start screaming at the drop of a hat.

I remember from my teaching days that Thai children when asked would say that a dog goes "Hong Hong!".

I said, "It doesn't though does it, a dog goes 'Woof woof', but they insisted it was 'hong hong' - how can they be right, they who spell 'R' when they say 'L'???

Thay also informed me that a pig goes 'Oot oot' and that a cat goes 'Mao mao' which I guess was at least close regarding the latter.

a cat goes 'Mao mao'

It goes 'mee-ao, mee-ao'. 'mao' means cat.

Ask them about the sound of a rooster.

Originally Posted by zipcode

I don't know if it is possible for entire nation to have Tourettes, but I have noticed too many Koreans who get livid and start screaming at the drop of a hat.

It must be the reek of garlic in the lift. It's enough to drive anyone to cursing uncontrollably.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

I've noticed Thais say 'mun' (มุม possible) instead of 'umm' when they're thinking what to say next. I did try asking a Thai about it, but as usual it was a waste of breath.

มุม is actually moom (moo!m) Mun could be มัน (mah!n) or มน (mah!n)
or มำ (mah!n) .

Drunken conversations with thai people has yeilded little further information.

THX Mark

Originally Posted by Frankenstein

a cat goes 'Mao mao'

It goes 'mee-ao, mee-ao'. 'mao' means cat.

Ask them about the sound of a rooster.

Actally a cat goes 'maaow' and is also called 'maaow' or แทว.

THX Mark

Originally Posted by Katana

มุม is actually moom

Nope. It's Mum (but with a vowel sound that we can't write).

I meant to write มุน, but I didn't check it (which again, uses that odd vowel sound - somewhere between mun & mon).