Suvarnabhumi Airport Name

[marti]

How do you think they came up with "Suvarnabhumi" as the spelling for the name of the airport. Is this supposed to be English. It is incredible that they will have several signs with different spellings for the same road in Bangkok. Example: Ramintra & Ramindra. Apparently sign-makers get to work in the morning after an all night drunk and say, "The hell with it, this sounds good enough for me." :|

But posters it seems have a high level of stupidity (pass the smelling salts). It's a Thai word. It's written in Thai script. There is no letter-for-letter equivalent between Thai script and the script we use for most European languages, just as there isn't for Chinese or Japanese or Khmer or Lao for any European language

It's therefore a matter of personal preference how the transliteration is done. If you look closely you'll see even common old "Silom" is spelt as two words occasionally - "Si Lom"

[marti]

All that you say is true but why can't they coordinate sign making through a central agency. It is easy to say that this is just Thailand but perhaps this one a small reason that Thailand will never be anything above a second world country.

[fountainhall]

. . . perhaps this one a small reason that Thailand will never be anything above a second world country.

So coordinating street names is an essential for first world status? As kommentariat suggested, go to Osaka, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei or Daegu and I defy you not to find similar signage problems.

[Up2U]

There is an official system called RTGS but it has many flaws and other systems are better phonetically. For example, the airport name is actually easy to say in Thai but looking at the Roman transcription it is nearly impossible as it includes unpronounced consonants. There is no "v" sound in the Thai language (pronounced as a "w"). Notice how Thais say tee wee for T. V. and they will take wan to Bangkok (not a van).

[Smiles]

My favourite is "Melly Clitmat". I say it that way in Thailand, it slides off the tongue much easier.
Marti is here being his usual clit as well. What's so hard about Soo/wan/a/poo?

[Blueskytoday]

It should be named Bangkok intenational airport....no one really can pronounce it..
visitors I mean.....

[fountainhall]

There is an official system called RTGS but it has many flaws and other systems are better phonetically. For example, the airport name is actually easy to say in Thai but looking at the Roman transcription it is nearly impossible as it includes unpronounced consonants. There is no "v" sound in the Thai language (pronounced as a "w"). Notice how Thais say tee wee for T. V. and they will take wan to Bangkok (not a van).

Hong Kong International Airport is often named after the island on which it was built - Chek Lap Kok. Try saying that after a few beers!

Want to try some exotic official airport codes -

BOG тАУ Bogot├б Airport, Columbia
SEX тАУ Sembach Airport, Germany
PEE тАУ Perm Airport, Russia
KOK тАУ Kokkola/Pietarsaari Kruunupyy Airport, Finland
DIK тАУ Dickinson Airport, USA

[peeseua]

I just pronounce it "soo-warm-pee-poo". At least that was what I was told about the right way to pronounce it.

[Up2U]

http://www.thai-language.com/id/212424

Airport Suvarnbhumi

[Smiles]

I just pronounce it "soo-warm-pee-poo". At least that was what I was told about the right way to pronounce it.
Not sure where you got that one from. "Pee- poo" is just not present.

The Thai language link provided above by Up2u uses the pronunciation " ... soo-wa-na-phuum ... " which is pretty easy to get. Above in my own post I used " ... soo/wan/a/poo ... " which is essentially the same except minus the finishing "m" sound.
Many Thais I hear saying the name leave this "m" sound out (as far as I can hear) and just end the name with a "poo" or "puu" sound.

[marti]

. . . perhaps this one a small reason that Thailand will never be anything above a second world country.

So coordinating street names is an essential for first world status?
Not the only reason but indicative of the don't give a shit attitude for many things in Thailand Mr. Smarty Pants :AR!

[marti]

I say it that way in Thailand, it slides off the tongue much easier.
Many things slide from your tongue which originate in the asses of others.

[Up2U]

I just pronounce it "soo-warm-pee-poo". At least that was what I was told about the right way to pronounce it.
Not sure where you got that one from. "Pee- poo" is just not present.

The Thai language link provided above by Up2u uses the pronunciation " ... soo-wa-na-phuum ... " which is pretty easy to get. Above in my own post I used " ... soo/wan/a/poo ... " which is essentially the same except minus the finishing "m" sound.
Many Thais I hear saying the name leave this "m" sound out (as far as I can hear) and just end the name with a "poo" or "puu" sound.
The link is for formal Bangkok Thai. Colloquial Thai may very well drop the M or it is very subtle. I always used sanam bin for airport and the link uses a formal word which is new for me.

[peeseua]

Calling it "Swamp-poo" works fine for me, I guess.

[fountainhall]

Not the only reason but indicative of the don't give a shit attitude for many things in Thailand Mr. Smarty Pants :AR!

So you agree that the governments in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore also don't give a shit! Or because they are more advanced countries, they are excused their sometimes strange renderings of street names and so they don't count, is that it?

I completely fail to understand the rationale behind the view that lack of coordination on how street names are spelled in a totally foreign language is indicative of anything other than its being near the foot of a huge list of priorities!

[Surfcrest]

All that you say is true but why can't they coordinate sign making through a central agency. It is easy to say that this is just Thailand but perhaps this one a small reason that Thailand will never be anything above a second world country.
I've always been under the impression that urban planning was more of a Municipal jurisdiction in Thailand, than Federal.

I think you raise a good point though, as the world modernizes through globalization. No doubt Thailand is probably sensitive about their sovereignty in the world and by the uniqueness that makes it Thailand, but the rest of the world is indeed heading towards more "standardization" with addressing thanks to barcoding and Google Maps to an extent. The postal administrations of the world have had to barcode addresses in their effort to modernize their processes and private business has added to that layer of information as shipping expands internationally to more and more destinations. It simply makes sense to have a standard translation for both barcode recognition technology and processing technology. Not that anyone is telling Thailand or any other country in the world, for that matter to change their street signs or translations, but sooner or later the pressure from technology will lead to some changes. The day will come, if it hasn't already, where it will be important for Thai businesses to have their customers or their suppliers find them every time which should only escalate standardization.

Surfcrest

[Smiles]

Calling it "Swamp-poo" works fine for me, I guess.
Getting closer! Actually, get rid of the first 'p' and put an 'a' in it's place (i.e. "Swama-poo") and you're very close, especially when you say it fast.

[fountainhall]

The pronunciation of Suvarnabhumi was a real mouthful for passengers when the airport first opened. From considerable experience it remains so today for quite a few airline pilots, first officers and pursers. You'd think at least the airlines would make sure they could make at least a decent attempt. Qatar has four daily flights in and out. Coming in two weeks ago the captain had to have three goes before he got it vaguely correct.

As for addresses, westerners understandably would prefer that everyone adopt their easy to understand system based loosely on house number, street, area, city, zip code, country - i.e. from the very specific to the very general. It's logical - to us. But what about Japan and Korea where the system of addresses is the direct opposite. It goes from the very general to the very specific. When writing in English, they make some concessions and reverse the order. Yet it's still far from easy to find an address when most streets have no names and you are confronted with this -

WWF Japan
Nihonseimei Akabanebashi Bldg.
3-1-14 Shiba
Minato-ku
Tokyo 105-0014
Japan

If this was an address for an apartment rather than a large company and you don't know how to interpret the 3-1-14, you'd wander around in circles for hours trying to find it.

And what about signage? So the Thais get their road translations slightly mixed up sometimes. In other Asian countries, official signs are often literal translations in far from perfect English. Even official forms can't always get the English right, as in Japan's Customs Declaration. Anyone want to start a "fight"?

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l597/fountainhall/CustomsDeclarationFightNumber.jpg (http://s1125.photobucket.com/user/fountainhall/media/CustomsDeclarationFightNumber.jpg.html)

[scottish-guy]

"AIRPORT" works well for me

[MiniMee]

"AIRPORT" works well for me

But you could easily end up at Don Muang. Have you been to Thailand since Suvarnabhumi opened nearly 9 years ago?

[attachment=0:1vdo8fjy]cunt-examination.jpg[/attachment:1vdo8fjy]

[Surfcrest]

As for addresses, westerners understandably would prefer that everyone adopt their easy to understand system based loosely on house number, street, area, city, zip code, country - i.e. from the very specific to the very general. It's logical - to us. But what about Japan and Korea where the system of addresses is the direct opposite. It goes from the very general to the very specific. When writing in English, they make some concessions and reverse the order. Yet it's still far from easy to find an address when most streets have no names and you are confronted with this -

When it comes to addresses, they can come in multiple forms, can be characters, shapes...because the barcode language is symbology for character recognition. Information mapped to GPS coordinates. The problem would be variations of the same information or places with more than one name commonly used. A common spelling would be incorporated into the tombstone data and the other variations would then fade away with modernization. Krung Thep and Bangkok come to mind as an example.

Surfcrest

[scottish-guy]

"AIRPORT" works well for me

But you could easily end up at Don Muang. Have you been to Thailand since Suvarnabhumi opened nearly 9 years ago?

You're becoming a parody of yourself - it used to be only 4 years you accused me of not having been in Thailand.

Maybe next month you'll be accusing me of NEVER having set foot in the country

Frankly, you're a bit of a :o)

Krung Thep and Bangkok come to mind as an example.No-one uses "Krung Thep" unless they're (a) anyone speaking Thai or (b) pretentious ex-pats and pretentious tourists not speaking Thai. Listen to the Thais. If they're speaking Thai they say "Krung Thep" and if speaking English they say "Bangkok" (TG flight announcements, for example). Just as educated French people say "Paree" when speaking French and "Paris" when speaking English, so any educated person uses the correct pronunciation of placenames when otherwise speaking the language of the place, or the pronunciation of their own language. Even government campaigns to eradicate the past don't work that well - witness Saigon vs. Ho Chi Minh City

[christianpfc]

There are several systems of Romanization. Many place names come from Pali or Sanskrit, which make them difficult even to the uneducated Thai to spell correctly. There are letters that are written but not pronounced (like the terminal i in Suvarnabhumi).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvarnabhumi_Airport

Suvarnabhumi Airport (Thai: р╕Чр╣Ир╕▓р╕нр╕▓р╕Бр╕� ��р╕ир╕вр╕▓р╕Щр╕кр╕╕р� �зр╕гр╕гр╕Ур╕ар╕╣р╕бр� �┤; rtgs: Suwannaphum; pronounced [s├╣.w─Бn.n├б.p╩░┼л╦Рm] (Thai pronunciation); from Sanskrit, рд╕реБрд╡рд░реНрдгрднре� �рдорд┐, "Golden Land"), (IATA: BKK, ICAO: VTBS), also known as (New) Bangkok International Airport, is one of two international airports serving Bangkok, Thailand. The other is Don Mueang International Airport.[2][3]

The name Suvarnabhumi was chosen by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and refers to the golden kingdom, hypothesised to have been located somewhere in Southeast Asia.


If you look closely you'll see even common old "Silom" is spelt as two words occasionally - "Si Lom" That makes sense, as silom is two words in Thai means "wind mill".

I once read somewhere (I think on stickman) "So you wanna boom-boom?"-airport.

For Victory Monument, there are traffic signs who say "Anusawari" and others say "Chai Samoraphum", both are parts of the full Thai name р╕нр╕Щр╕╕р╕кр╕▓р╕зр╕� �р╕╡р╕вр╣Мр╕Кр╕▒р╕вр╕ кр╕бр╕гр╕ар╕╣р╕бр╕┤, Anusawari Chai Samoraphum (the same phum/bhumi as in the airport).

For anyone interested in the intricacies of Thai place names, I touched this subject here:
http://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2015/0 ... akorn.html (http://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2015/05/names-of-towns-in-thailand-buri-nakorn.html)

[Smiles]

=))
I am Smiles, and ~ in this election year ~ I approve of this message. Photochopped or not photochopped.
And as well, the Thai Boys in Brown have always been extremely adept at taking fetal hearts into custody.

[francois]

How do you think they came up with "Suvarnabhumi" as the spelling for the name of the airport.

The name was chosen by HM The King. It means The Golden Land.


Official name
Suvarnabhumi Airport. The name Suvarnabhumi was chosen by HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej which means "The Golden Land", specifically referring to the continental Indochina. "Golden Peninsula"or "Golden Land" is a traditional name for the Thailand-Cambodia-Laos-Burma region

How is it pronounced
"su-wan-na-poom"

Why it is spelled the way it is, is another matter.

I was on the first commercial passenger plane to arrive at Suvarnabhrumi which was a surprise since we were scheduled to land at Don Muang. The passengers were greeted by a host of airline employees and escorted to Immigration.

[Surfcrest]

Krung Thep and Bangkok come to mind as an example.No-one uses "Krung Thep" unless they're (a) anyone speaking Thai or (b) pretentious ex-pats and pretentious tourists not speaking Thai. Listen to the Thais. If they're speaking Thai they say "Krung Thep" and if speaking English they say "Bangkok" (TG flight announcements, for example)
...and that is precisely my point. When I first started coming here in the early nineties "Krung Tep" was used much more than it is today...both in English and in Thai. There were a lot less English speakers and a lot less people in Thailand referring to it as Bangkok twenty some years ago vs today. Pretentious wasn't even a known word in Thailand until you arrived.

Surfcrest