Talk:Isan

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This article follows the plan of Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countries; it doesn't have to, but I found it useful. Future developments may want to refer to that project for guidance. Markalexander100 06:37, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I clicked through to the Talk page to say that this article is brilliant! --AStanhope 14:52, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pakama

Why do Thai people call men's traditional wrap-around clothing pakama? This is the same as the Old Japanese form of the word for the same sort of men's wrap-around clothing; in modern Japanese, the word is pronounced as hakama (はかま、袴). Very weird! Ebizur (talk) 23:38, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Nobody seems to know. (Thai: ผ้าขาวม้า) is made up of three syllables that individually mean cloth, white and horse. A correct orthographic rendition would be PHA-KHAO-MA, but the middle syllable is always elided to KHA- (Thai: ขะ). Nobody associates it with 'white' or 'horse', and transcribing it as pakama or pakamah comes closer to how it sounds. Perhaps it is related to Old Japanese, though /pha/ meaning 'cloth' makes sense in a Thai context, if not the other two syllables. Maybe it approximates the Japanese sound. But that begs the question of why the middle syllable is spelled one way and pronounced another. It's pure speculation. Another thing, it is NOT the men's traditional wrap-around clothing, but a loincloth used for bathing without a bathroom; or a turban, or a dozen or so other handy uses. They are so handy that many Isan men have one knotted about their waist wherever they go. On the other hand, the traditional wrap-around that you only see as a costume these days is PHANUNG (Thai: ผ้านุ่ง).

(Thai: ผ้านุ่ง) the panung, an article of dress for both Thai men and women of ...a century ago, taking the form of a piece of cloth wrapped once around the body and tied in a knot called ชายพก [chai-pok, fringe tied] in the vicinity of the navel. If the ends of the cloth are left dangling, this mode of dress is called นุ่งผ้าลอยชาย [panung-loy-chai, 'loy' meaning float]. As a rule the ends of the cloth are brought bottom edge, and the resulting roll brought out between the legs to the small of the back, where it is stuck behind the belt. So Sethaputra, New Model English Thai dictionary.

Pawyilee (talk) 17:43, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] computer literacy

Does anyone have a source for the bit about most children being "well adept" in the use of word-processing etc? I'd be surprised if schools in the wilds of Chaiyaphum are particularly well-equipped with computers, and I'd be even more surprised if IT is so well-taught that most of the children are that successful. HenryFlower 09:49, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, I don't know about "well adept", but I DO know you can log onto the Internet in the wilds of Chaiyaphum as long as you're in range of a TH GPRS cell phone tower. Cell phones in the 2,000 baht range can link a computer to the 'net at 375 Baht for 6,000 minutes. The post office has a 5,000 baht desktop phone/modem that functions like a cell phone, and gives a land-line quality connection that's better than cell phones; it can be equipped with a 2,000 baht antenna for better coverage in fringe areas. But, with GPRS antennas sprouting like mushrooms, there aren't many fringe areas left! Most, if not all, schools, even at the primary level, have computer labs, so children with the motivation can easily become adept. Check out the webboard for the school in my village [1] And here's one from Chaiyaphum: [2]
Here is a list of schools that have their own web sites, that is so long it takes forever to download! Pawyilee (talk) 16:05, 16 April 2008 (UTC)