Dialect differences: implications and application to the teaching of pronunciation

Abstract

Based on the distinction between tone systems, it can be said that there are at least three sub-dialects of the southern dialect in Surat Thanee. The geographical distribution of the three tone systems can be plotted on maps. Narrow band spectrograms support the analysis of the phonetic shape of the tones. The starting points and the contours of the Surat Thanee tones seem to be the reverse of the standard Thai tones, For example, the low rising tone in Standard Thai correspond to the high falling tone in the Surat Thanee dialect. Two sub- dialects of the Surat Thanee dialect have six phonological tones and one has seven phonological tones whereas Standard Thai has only five. Phonologically speaking, the consonant and vowel systems of the Surat. Thanee dialect are similar to the ones in Standard Thai, The ma.in difference is that the Surat Thanee dialect has only seven short vowels (leamyuo) whereas Standard Thai has nine (lesamyuoo). Phonetically speaking, the Surat Thanee sounds are much more different from the Standard Thai sounds than those of the North and Northeastern Thai dialects. The phonetic realization of the tones, some consonants (the palatography can help in this area), vowel height, vowel length and rhythm, all combine to make it easy for people to recognize 'somebody from the South', This study represents an effort of value to Thai dialectologists and to instructors of the Thai language whose students are Southern Thai native-speakers who may have difficulties with Standard Thai pronunciation. With a knowledge of Standard Thai phonetics and the phonetics of other Thai dialects, teaching Standard Thai pronunciation to non-Standard Thai speakers could be better directed toward the actual problems.