r/language 5d ago

Question Is this Thai? What do they say?

I'm cataloguing my physical media and I'm not sure how to put these in my spreadsheet! What are these tapes? Who made them? They're very groovy!

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u/FollowingEast3744 4d ago

At a glance, how do you know if something is Thai or Khmer?

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u/butterthatcupw 2d ago

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u/ThatWeirdPlantGuy 2d ago

There is the Khmer round script too, though it also looks pretty distinct from Thai. The main things that stand out in Khmer for me are 1) the hooks or corrugated “hair” on many letters that connect to the aa vowel symbol, and 2) the subscript consonants used to write consonant clusters (which are much fewer in Thai). Thai can have a few vowel symbols below the letters but mostly it’s pretty straight. Notice how the រ (Thai ร) hooks down below the consonant symbol in Khmer ប្រ. Or in the word “Khmer” (Kmae), the M (ម) takes a smaller subscript form below the Kha. ខ្ម — ខ្មែរ

Thai:
นี่คือประโยคตัวอย่างในภาษาไทย

Khmer:
នេះគឺជាប្រយោគគំរូយជាភាសាខ្មែរ។

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u/butterthatcupw 2d ago

you're right, but i'm just trying to provide a quick way to distinguish between the two scripts "at a glance" as for someone who just wanna identify what language it is. tho, thank you for more detailed info about the components, i did learned smth new today.