How Many Words In The Thai Language?

[easybullet3]

I wanted to know how many words are in the Thai Language.

I found one answer from "Elizabeth Stewart" (a novelist consultant and editor). She says:

• "Ninety-two percent or approximately 60 million people in Thailand speak Thai. There are 2,864 Thai words. Words are pronounced differently according to regions and have five tones: mid, low, falling, high and rising". (July 2010) - http://www.answerbag.../q_view/2258151

There is also discussion online:

http://www.thai-lang...ocabulary/t5918

(but there is no definitive answer)

Is Elizabeth Stewart correct that there are only 2,864 words?

I know that words can be compounded together..

Can anyone add to this discussion?

[mikenyork]

My most official dictionary has something like 22,000 words (this is an estimate based on the number of words per page and the number of pages). But this doesn't include about 7,500 religious terms in another dictionary. And there are dictionaries for many different fields and professions (medical, accounting, etc.). One of the difficulties of Thai is the lack of a truly comprehensive dictionary (either Thai-Thai or Thai-English). There's a Thai-language.com site the owner of which has built the data base that runs the site's dictionary. He would have a much better estimate. As for the different pronunciations in the different parts of Thailand--I would say most words take a different tone in Issan than in central dialect Thai. And there are many more than just the four major dialects--my significant other speaks something called Phu Thai. I lived in Phetchabun for a while where a different dialect of Lao from Issan Lao is spoken, call Lao Lom. And the Tai family of languages is the most widely spoken language family in SE Asia, with different dialects spoken in parts of Burma, North Vietnam, Laos and southern China (in addition to Thailand, of course)

[DavidHouston]

From the Lexitron website: http://lexitron.nectec.or.th/2009_1/index_en.php?q=common_manager/aboutlex#introduction

______________________________________________________________

องค์ประกอบของการพัฒนา

1. ฐานข้อมูลพจนานุกรม

1.1 อังกฤษ-ไทย (79,000 คำ) ประกอบด้วย คำศัพท์ภาษาอังกฤษ คำแปลภาษาไทย คำอ่าน คำหลัก

คำค้นหา คำพ้องและคำตรงข้ามความหมายภาษาไทย คำพ้องและคำตรงข้ามความหมายภาษาอังกฤษ และตัวอย่างประโยคภาษาอังกฤษที่อ้างอิงจากคลังข้อความขนาดใหญ่ (Corpus-Based Sentence)

1.2 ไทย-อังกฤษ (51,000 คำ) ประกอบด้วย คำศัพท์ภาษาไทย คำแปลภาษาอังกฤษ คำพ้อง ความหมายภาษาไทย คำตรงข้ามความหมายภาษาไทย คำนิยามศัพท์ คำลักษณนาม และตัวอย่างประโยค

Developmental elements [of the Lexitron dictionary]:

1. Dictionary database

1.1 English-Thai (79,000 words) composed of English vocabulary words, Thai translation, keywords, search words, synonyms and antonyms, Thai meanings; homonyms and antonyms, English definitions and English sample sentences (Corpus-Based Sentences)

1.2 Thai-English (51,000 words) composed of Thai vocabulary words, English translations, homonyms, definitions in Thai, words with the opposite meaning of the Thai definition (antonyms), words with the same meaning, classifiers, and sample sentences.

_________________________________________

[Richard W]

2864 looks like the number of possible different monosyllables in Central Thai. I'll have to do some factorisation before I expand on it - I'm sure I can find some monosyllabic words not included in that count.

[weary]

Richard, if you find this a personal question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know what your estimated IQ is. I suspect over 150; correct?

[Richard W]

2864 looks like the number of possible different monosyllables in Central Thai. I'll have to do some factorisation before I expand on it - I'm sure I can find some monosyllabic words not included in that count.

2864 = 16 times 179, and 179 is prime. As there are 21 initial consonant sounds (k, kh, ng, j, ch, d, t, th, s, n, b, p, ph, f, m, y, r, l, w. h, glottal stop) and at least 11 initial clusters (kw, khw, kr, kl, khl, khr, tr, pr, pl, phr, phl), the number appears to be misquoted.

A number of different calculations are possible. All hinge on calculating the number of rhymes (syllable less initial consonant(s)).

Calculation A:

Long live closed - 12 times 3 times 5 (12 vowels = [L]ae, ee, ii, aa, [L]oe, [L]ue, [L]or, oo, uu, ia, uea, ua), 3 consonants m, n, ng, 5 tones) = 180 rhymes

Short live closed - 9 times 3 times 5 (9 short vowels= ae, e, i, a, oe, ue, or, o, u, 3 consonants as before, 5 tones) = 135 rhymes.

Simple long live open - 12 times 5 (first set of 12 long vowels, 5 tones) = 60

Diphthong in /w/ and /y/ - 19 times 5 (19 vowels = ai, aai, oei, [L]oei, ooi, [L]ori, ui, uei, ueai, uai, ao, aao, io, eo, eeo, oeu, [L]oeu, [L]aeo, iao, 5 tones) = 95

Grand total live rhymes = 470

Long dead closed - 12 times 3 times 3 (12 long vowels as above, 3 consonants k, p, t, 3 tones L H F) = 108 rhymes

Short dead closed - 9 times 3 times 2 (9 short vowels as above, 3 consonants k, p, t, 2 tones L H) = 54 rhymes

Short dead open - 10 times 2 (9 short vowels + ia - DENIES S[uea] and S[ua]) = 20

Grand total dead rhymes = 182

Total number = 32 times (470 plus 182) = 20,864. (So 2864 could be a garbled remembrance of 20,864.)

I'm not happy about the denial of uea.

Calculation B:

Grand total live rhymes = 470 as before.

Long closed dead = 12 times 3 times 3 (12 long vowels, 3 consonants k, t, p, 3 tones L, H, F) = 108

Short closed dead = 9 times 3 times 3 (9 long vowels, 3 consonants, 3 tones L, H, F) = 81

Short open dead = 12 times 3 (9 short vowels, ia, uea, ua, 3 tones L, H, F) = 36

EITHER

9 short open vowels in unstressed syllables times 1 (tone = M) = 9

OR

9 short open vowels with rising tone = 9

Grand total dead rhymes = 234

Total number = 41 times (470 + 234) = 28864. (So 2864 could be a garbled remembrance of 28,864.)

Now, where do I dredge up another 9 initial clusters? Answer - the RID!

thr as in ทรุม (There are some good examples in polysyllabic words.)

sr as in ศฤงค์

fl as in แฟลต

fr as in ฟรี

br as in บริดจ์

dr as in ดฤตี (Has anyone an accepted example from a monosyllable? When I unsealed my copy of the RID back in England I found that bits were missing - and the duplicates were of no use to me!)

bl as in บล็อก (RID 1982 according to Thai-Language.com)

jr as in จรวจ

chr as in ชรัว

[kriswillems]

2864 looks like the number of possible different monosyllables in Central Thai. I'll have to do some factorisation before I expand on it - I'm sure I can find some monosyllabic words not included in that count.

Like you showed in your last calculations, there are much more monosyllabic words in Thai.

You can search the IPA field in the sealang Thai dictionary using unix regular expression.

.. gives 914 matches

... gives 9600 matches

And probably there are also a huge number of monosyllabic words in the .... group.

[horsewell]

Dr. Wit’s Library Edition (Thai-English, English-Thai and Thai-Thai Dictionary)

1.English-Thai More 4,000,000 entries.


2.Thai-English More 855,000 entries.


3.Thai-Thai More 855,000 entries.

Have to remember that many words in Thai that compound smaller words have slightly different meanings, or completely different meanings than the words themself. I would say that compound words are different words.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/dr.-wits-library-edition-thai/id313155850?mt=8

[Hardie]

I counted 2865...