Thai conversations with transliterations

Mike:	hē Méng thêsàkān wān āngkhān nâ mī chûe nâsǒnchāi mâk	เฮ เม้ง เทศกาลวันอังคารหน้า มีชื่อน่าสนใจมาก	Hey, Meng, the festival next Tuesday has an interesting name.
Meng:	pēn wān wâichâo wān nùeng khǒng khūn chīn	เป็นวันไหว้เจ้าวันหนี่งของคนจีน	It’s one of several Chinese offering days.
Mike:	châi phāsā āngkrìt chái wâ Chinese Hungry Ghost Day	ใช่ ภาษาอังกฤษใช้ว่า Chinese Hungry Ghost Day	Yeah, in English it’s called “Chinese Hungry Ghost Day”.
Meng:	ngán rǒe … chīng chīng dûai sì	งั้นเหรอ .. จริงๆ ด้วยสิ	Is that so? … It really is!
Mike:	phǐ ní khūe khrāi khūn rú mǎi	ผีนี้คือใคร คุณรู้ไหม	Who are the ghosts? Do you know?
Meng:	khūe wīnyān mâimī yât thêo rêrôn pāi mâimī thîyù	คือวิญญานที่ไม่มีญาติ เที่ยวเร่ร่อนไป ไม่มีที่อยู่	They are spirits that don’t have relatives; they wander around because they don’t have a place to stay.
Mike:	laeo thammai phi phuak ni jueng maimi yat lae maimi thiyu la	แล้วทำไมผีพวกนี้จึงไม่มีญาติ และไม่มีที่อยู่ล่ะ	And why don’t they have any relatives or a place to stay?
Meng:	chûea kān wâ yât phî nóng mâidâi thām phíthī fǎng hâi thùktông	เชื่อกันว่าญาติพี่น้องไม่ได้ทำ พิธีฝังให้ถูกต้อง	It’s believed that their relatives didn’t conduct a proper burial ceremony for them.
Mike:	âo rûeang nó sāmkhān ná	อ้าว เรื่องนี้สำคัญนะ	Well, that’s very important!
Meng:	rǔe lûklǎn mâidâi sênwâi lōei	หรือลูกหลานไม่ได้ เซ่นไหว้เลย	Or, their descendants didn’t perform any offerings for them.
Mike:	láeo thāmmāi jūeng phôphěn nāi wān nán lâ	แล้วทำไมจึงพบเห็น ในวันนั้นล่ะ	And why do we see them on that day?
Meng:	ǒ chûea kān wâ thúk wānthî 15 dūean 7 wīnyān dâi râp ànúyât hâi khôen mā bōn lók ní	อ๋อ ชาวจีนเชื่อกันว่า ทุก วันที่ 15 เดือน 7 วิญญาน ได้รับอนุญาตให้ขึ้นมาบน โลกนี้	Ah, the Chinese believe that on every fifteenth day of the seventh month, the spirits are allowed to come up to this world.
Mike:	ô khlái khlái kàp wān hālōwīn	อ้อ คล้ายๆ กับวันฮาโลวีน	I see, this is similar to Halloween.
Meng:	lûklǎn jūeng sênwâi dûai āhǎn mâkmāi hâi kòn klàp pāi ìk lôk nùeng	ลูกหลานจึงเซ่นไหว้ด้วย อาหารมากมายก่อนกลับไป อีกโลกหนึ่ง	Then the living will offer them a feast before they return to the other world.
Mike:	rûeang khǒng thêtsàkān nâsǒnchāi chīng chīng	เรื่องของเทศกาลน่าสนใจจริงๆ	Each festival is really fascinating!

Festival vocabulary watch:

1. a festival = ……       2. Chinese Hungry Ghost Day = ……

3. an offering day = ……          4. a ghost = ……

5. a spirit = ……          6. a relative = ……

7. to wander = ……     8. a burial ceremony = ……

9. this world = ……     10. to offer (in this festival) = ……

Answer keys:

1. thêsàkān       2. wānsàt chīn   3. wān wâichâo            4. wīnyān          5. phǐ

6. yât / yât phî nóng      7. rêrôn            8. phíthī fǎng     9. lók ní            10. sênwâi

This lesson was prepared by Acharn Sunee Siidao, Educational Specialist.

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Welcome back to a new adaptation of Phût Phāsǎ Thāi after our transitional Songkran break. As per the valued suggestions of our readers, the transliterations now follow the Royal Institute's system (http://www.royin.go.th/th/profile/index.php), which includes tone markers. In terms of content, the column will continue to provide you with everyday language on specific topics.

๑ singhakhom ๒๕๔๙ ( 1 August 2006)

Phût phāsǎ Thai

Besides paying respect to ancestors, burning paper is a part of offerings in most traditional Chinese festivals. — APICHART JINAKUL

Chinese Hungry Ghost Day / wānsàt chīn
Each year Chinese descendants celebrate eight traditional holidays - a few major ones such as New Year's Day and Tomb Sweeping Day, and a few minor ones such as the Moon Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival (B?-ch?ng Offering Day).
A week from today is the time when ethnic Chinese will celebrate Chinese Hungry Ghost Day, the fifth offering of the year, which falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month on the Chinese calendar. As the festival's name suggests, the day is dedicated to ghosts with relatives or spirits that roam.
Besides special food prepared for that day, worshippers present offerings to revered gods and goddesses and to their ancestors. The special food for the festival is khànǒm khèng and khànǒm thīan. The first one is usually made of sweetened glutinous rice flour steamed in banana leaf cups. The latter one is made of the same ingredients but wrapped in banana leaves in the shape of pyramids. Typically, the tiny pyramids are filled with spicy soy paste.