COMPARISON OF MANDARIN CHINESE WORDS AND STANDARD THAI LANGUAGE WORDS WITH SIMILAR PRONUNCIATIONS

Abstract

This academic article aims to compare Mandarin Chinese words and standard Thai language words with similar pronunciations. Data used in analyzing were Chinese Mandarin and Thai language words from Chinese text book in the Basic Chinese 1 Course and Thai text book in the Basic Thai Language 1 Course. The writer used the proportion of syllable criteria of Wilaisak Kingkham in choosing words with similar pronunciations and the concept of Phraya Uppakit Sinlapasan to compare Mandarin Chinese words and standard Thai language words with similar pronunciations. Phraya Uppakit Sinlapasan had categorized the words into 7 parts of speech, namely: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. This study has found that there are a lot of words with similar pronunciations in Mandarin Chinese and standard Thai language. These pronunciation similarities will make it easier to memorize Chinese vocabularies which will benefit Thai learners in learning Chinese words.