Editor;
Re: Double pricing not only in Thailand (PM Friday, 22 February 2013) – I noticed that someone picked up Aussie Bill on his use of farang. Had he studied the post he would have seen the word was used twice. Once with an “L” and again with an “R”. There is no Golden Rule with phonetics. If an educated Thai used an R then you should write as such. By the same token if a person from Loei used an L it would be bad manners to correct them. It seems this person is well versed in the Thai language. Perhaps he can explain why Sawadee is written in Thai Script as SwaSdee, Why Homeland is written Rkrha but pronounced as Rohk Raak. Why an R can change into an N, an L used at the end of a word becomes an N. I could fill a book with these changes but I suppose you know them all. I’ll go along with Andrew Biggs when he said forget the phonetics and speak it as you hear it. (Who is Andrew Biggs? Well you know everything.)
Bryan Patricks
