Welcome!
I started this channel because I’m learning Isaan and I wanted some interesting videos to watch with accurate subtitles to read. Most of the time if you see subtitles available for Isaan videos they are auto-generated Thai subtitles. We have edited our subtitles to fix the shortcomings of auto subs: we put spaces between sentences, we make sure all the words appear, and we make sure they appear when they are said. You will notice that we use Isaan consonants too, for example, we write เฮา instead of เรา.
When it comes to writing Isaan, tones are a bit controversial. To explain this better, “Have you eaten yet?” in English is กินข้าวหรือยัง in Thai
a) Isaan speakers normally say it like this กิ่นเข่าแล่วบอ
b) But write it like this กินข้าวแล้วบ่อ
Because most intermediate Isaan learners speak Thai, there was a great temptation for us to use method a) to make their lives easier. In fact, that’s what we started out doing. [Notice: all titles beginning with “…” are still type a). We are still in the process of converting these to type b)] But I was harshly reminded that most online dictionaries and reading tools fail to recognize cognates when their tones are changed. 80 to 90% of Isaan words are cognates with Thai, and over half of these cognates have different tones.
The other main reason not to use a) is native speakers will often get confused and tell you that you misspelled words. And if you ever find subtitles written by native speakers for native speakers, they will be in method b). Of course there are some learning materials that use method a), but that’s not what native speakers normally use.
All of that was just to explain why we use method b). But now you may be wondering how you know what the tone is when reading. Well, there several dialects of Isaan, so there is a lot of variation. Several “conversion tables” exist, but none of them are perfect. These conversions tables could each be replaced by a set of twenty something rules, some of which I’ll demonstrate shortly. But I have done some investigating on my own, going through the conversion tables, conversing a lot with natives and watching these videos/reading the subtitles, and now feel that there are only four critical tone conversion rules. By that I mean, if a Thai cognate has any of these four types of syllables, then change them per the rule. If not, just pronounce them like Thai. Here are the four rules:
Change ข้าว to ข่าว
Change ว่าย to วาย
Change น้ำ to น่ำ
Change มื้อ to มื่อ
(The first rule means “change any high consonant, long vowel, live syllable with a falling tone to a low tone”. In other words, these are just model syllable types that can be substituted out.)
As part of your studies and tone training, I recommend you read the subtitles out loud, and use the four rules above where applicable. You can read them in our free reading tool (link below).
One last note. My primary goal was to make myself some Comprehensible Input in Isaan. While grammar, vocabulary, and cultural insights are included as a bonus, the focus is more on making the language accessible and enjoyable through engaging content.
I know that many language learners are curious about these topics, so I hope these videos serve as both an educational tool and an interesting way to immerse yourself in Isaan. If you have any topics you’d like to see covered, suggestions, or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Language Crush: You can download the transcript and audio, use my reading tool with subtitles and a pop-up dictionary, all for free as you watch the video at Language Crush.
https://languagecrush.com/reading/course/1997
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#shorts #leo #pushpa2 #salaar