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OK, I searched on the Internet and found that online dictionaries give the following pronunciation of Thailand as /ˈtaɪ.lænd/.

Cambridge English Dictionary says

noun /ˈtaɪ.lænd/

Oxford Dictionaries says:

Pronunciation: /ˈtʌɪland/

However, based on the audio excerpts, I feel that Thailand should be pronounced as /ˈθaɪ.lænd/.

I managed to record myself pronouncing "Thailand" as:

  1. /ˈtaɪ.lænd/ (you can hear the audio file here )

  2. /ˈθaɪ.lænd/ (you can hear the audio file here )

I think some dictionaries do not have the correct pronunciation.

So, should "Thailand" be pronounced as /ˈtaɪ.lænd/ or /ˈθaɪ.lænd/?

Extra info: Now listen to this video and hear the difference between thigh /θʌɪ/ and tie /tʌɪ/. See at 0:46 on YouTube

Mari-Lou A
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Tom
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  • #2 is closer to the way I pronounce it (and have since about 5th grade). It's as if it's spelled "tie-land" rather than "thigh-land". – Hot Licks Aug 16 '15 at 01:19
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    I don't understand why you are questioning their pronunciation: First, they all agree that it's a /t/ but then you say "based on the sound they pronounce"? Are you just saying that because "Thailand" starts with a TH you think it should be /θ/ ? – Hellion Aug 16 '15 at 01:19
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    Also I have never heard anybody ever say "thigh-land", it is always "tie-land". (Including my sister-in-law, who is from Thailand.) – Hellion Aug 16 '15 at 01:20
  • You've got these two sounds mixed up. The file you name "Thailand T.wma" uses /θ/, the one you name "Thailand Th.wma" uses /t/. And the recordings at your two dictionary links use /t/. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 01:21
  • Yes, I was about to say the two may be mixed up. I thought the theta in IPA was the "th" sound (I've never studied it), but the first recording is saying "thigh-land" and the second (sort of) "tie-land". – Hot Licks Aug 16 '15 at 01:23
  • @StoneyB, I have just checked the files, there is no mixed-up here. – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 01:33
  • I just checked again. The first recording is saying "thigh-land", the second is saying "tie-land". – Hot Licks Aug 16 '15 at 01:38
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    You've got them labeled backward. The sound usually spelled ‹th›, as in thin or thing, is IPA /θ/, the voiceless interdental fricative. And the sound usually spelled ‹t›, as in tin or tie, is IPA /t/, the voiceless alveolar stop. /t/ is the sound used in English Thailand, the sound represented as /t/ and pronounced as /t/ in the dictionaries to which you link. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 01:38
  • @StoneyB, the /θ/ in /ˈθaɪ.lænd/ is the same as /θ/ in thing /θɪŋ/ – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 01:40
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    If we pronounced it as /ˈθaɪ.lænd/ it would be the same thing; but although we spell it that way, we don't pronounce it that way, we pronounce it as /ˈtaɪ.lænd/ – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 01:41
  • "Thailand T.wma" file is /ˈtaɪ.lænd/ & "Thailand Th.wma" file is /ˈθaɪ.lænd/ – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 01:43
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    No, they're not. You've got them backwards. --May I ask what your native tongue is? I suspect you are confusing aspirate /t/ with fricative /θ/. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 01:45
  • /θ/ & /t/ are not the same. Ex /ˈθiː.sɪs/ thesis and /tiː/ tea – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 01:46
  • I speak Vietnamese – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 01:46
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    That's right. But the file which you name "Thailand Th.wma" uses /t/, not /θ/. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 01:47
  • So, I am pronouncing incorrectly? – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 01:48
  • You are pronouncing both correctly. You are labeling them incorrectly. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 01:49
  • I'm recalling that (many years ago) I observed Vietnamese people essentially mixing up the "t" and "th" sounds. This likely happens when you focus on the wrong aspects of the sound when trying to duplicate it, since you don't know which aspects of an individual sound are the distinctive ones that differentiate it from similar sounds (and likely your ears aren't "tuned" to detect the critical differences). – Hot Licks Aug 16 '15 at 01:58
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    /θ/ is the sound which does not exist in your language: a continuant. Put your tongue between your teeth and breathe out--you may continue the sound as long as your breath holds out. /t/ is a stop, a single burst of sound. You have two versions in your language, which you spell ‹t› and ‹th›. We use both, in different contexts, but we hear them as a single sound: /t/. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 01:58
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is based on a misunderstanding. – Mari-Lou A Aug 16 '15 at 04:41
  • @StoneyB "You have two versions in your language, which you spell ‹t› and ‹th›. We use both, in different contexts, but we hear them as a single sound: /t/." what do you mean? DO you mean /t/ & /θ/ sounds the same or you do not distinguish /t/ & /θ/? – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 04:53
  • @Mari-Lou A, I do not have a misunderstanding. Ok, now look at this video and hear the difference between thigh /θʌɪ/ & tie /tʌɪ/. See at 0:46 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQyUi4QvC0. 
    Do you see the difference?
     – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 05:13
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    I know the difference between /θ/ and /t/ sounds. But I think you are under the impression that words that contain the letters th are always pronounced /θ/, this is not true. There are three possible pronunciations: /θ/ e.g. thin; /t/ e.g thyme and /ð/ e.g. mother – Mari-Lou A Aug 16 '15 at 06:09
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    Please support your theory that there are some dictionaries that provide the *incorrect pronunciation of Thailand. Don't confuse spelling with pronunciation, which is where I think your confusion lies. In all the dictionaries I looked up, the pronunciation of Thailand is /ˈtʌɪland/, [tahy-land, -luh nd], /ˈtaɪˌlænd/, and (tī′lănd′, -lənd), – Mari-Lou A Aug 16 '15 at 06:15
  • @Mary-, I never had any mixed-up like that. /θʌɪ/ & tie /tʌɪ/ are so similar. That is why I am asking about. I always use dictionary to check for the pronunciation – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 06:32
  • Anh besides, many words in dictionary does not have correct IPA. Different dictionary may have different IPA. That is why I asked the question – Tom Aug 16 '15 at 06:34
  • You continue to insist that your two recordings are not effectively reversed. But everyone is telling you they are. I'd suggest you find someone who speaks English fairly well and have them listen to what you're saying. – Hot Licks Aug 16 '15 at 11:44
  • @user105551 To a native English speaker /θ/ and /t/ are very different. What we don't distinguish is /t/ and /tʰ/, which I read are different phonemes in Vietnamese. – curiousdannii Aug 16 '15 at 12:54
  • @StoneyB They’re not backwards as such—he’s just pronouncing English /t/ as a Vietnamese /t/ (i.e., a dental, unaspirated [t̪], rather than the normal English alveolar, aspirated [t͇ʰ]), and /th/ as a Vietnamese /tʰ/ (i.e., a dental, aspirated stop [t̪ʰ], rather than the normal English interdental fricative [θ]). So no, he’s not pronouncing either ‘correctly’. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 16 '15 at 18:13
  • @user105551 You are misunderstanding IPA. In the file Thailand T, you are pronouncing more or less [ˈt̪aɪlæːnd], and in the file Thailand Th, you are pronouncing more or less [ˈt̪ʰaɪlæːnd]. You do not say the sound [θ] in either file at all. The two sounds you pronounce in your files, [t̪] and [t̪ʰ], are indeed very similar. They are different phonemes in Vietnamese, but not in English. English always uses [tʰ] at the beginning of a stressed syllable (as in Thailand) and [t ~ ɾ] in other environments, but they are the same sound. [θ] is a completely different and unrelated sound. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 16 '15 at 18:21
  • Both [t] and [tʰ] are plosives/stops: the tongue stops the air completely from coming out of your mouth, just like with [p] and [k]. [θ] is a different matter: it’s an unvoiced fricative, just like [f] and [s], which is the only unvoiced fricatives Vietnamese has. The air does not stop at all: it keeps flowing between your tongue and your upper teeth. In fact, to you as a Vietnamese speaker, [f] and [θ] probably sound almost exactly the same. So if you say [θaɪlænd], it should sound very, very similar to [faɪlænd] to you. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 16 '15 at 18:25
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Are you sure? My ear's no longer up to discriminating between dental and alveolar /t/, but OP's "Thailand T" has four readings which to my ear get progressively longer spirant quality. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 18:38
  • @StoneyB I hear them very clearly as completely unaspirated (with so little VOT that they almost become voiced) dental or even interdental stops. Now that I listen again, I do hear a slight amount of spirantisation on the last one, but it sounds distinctly voiced to me—like [t̪͡ð] or something. But the plosivity is by far the more salient feature to my ear. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 16 '15 at 19:50
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Hokey-dokey. Guess I'm getting old. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 16 '15 at 20:00
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    @Janus, I am very happy with your explanation. I did not know that /t/ in English should be pronounced similarly as /th/ in Vietnamese. Vietnamese has a very clear /t/ sound and seem English do not have that clear /t/ but rather they pronounce like /th/. Besides, when I pronounce /θ/, I did actually put my tongue between my upper and lower teeth, but seem I did aspirate a lot and that somehow made my /θ/ sound like /th/. So, putting the tongue between upper and lower teeth is not the key element in producing /θ/, we must do not aspirate when making /θ/ – Tom Aug 17 '15 at 04:52
  • @JanusBahsJacquet you should post an answer. – Mari-Lou A Aug 17 '15 at 12:36
  • @Janus, I am very happy if you could post an answer cos it can help Vietnamese speaker a lot – Tom Aug 17 '15 at 12:45

1 Answers1

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To avoid any ambiguity I'd use the first pronunciation (the one with the t sound) because almost every single dictionary (including Jones pronouncing dictionary) says it's t in the transcription

HUIta
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