One of the first things to learn in any language is how to greet hello in that language. And before we cover anything from nouns, verbs or tenses, we must first
know the basic greetings in Ahom.
This is also important because the Pathsaku and Moran Tai Research Institute have spread completely wrong information and invented meaningless phrases like khruptang, rong boi boi, etc and it is upto us to counter their misinformation and teach Tai language correctly.
So, hello in Ahom is - màu sung khāa and pay attention to the tonal markings
m]! su[q xa@
(màu sung khāa)
- Hello
The word màu sung means to prosper and can be broken further into màu meaning new and sung meaning to be tall - so màu sung meaning may you "be new and be high" or may progress and prosperity be with you - quite the greeting don't you think?
And if you are wondering about the khāa in the end, that just makes the sentence polite like khâ/khráp (ค่ะ/ครับ) in Thai. It is a modern borrowing from Shan, which itself borrowed it from Thai
To say thank you in Ahom, you use khāwp tsau khāa
xopq@ c] xa@
(khāwp tsau khāa)
- Thank you
Here khāwp means thanks and tsau means heart so it's literally like saying “dil se shukriya” “i thank you from my heart.” In Thai, you just simply say khàwp khun khâ/khráp (ขอบคุณค่ะ/ครับ) or literally just thank you. If you want to stress the level of your gratitude you can say -
xopq@ c] et]$ et]$ xa@
(khāwp tsau tê tê khāa)
- Thank you so much
There is another way of saying thank you in Tai, which is
[inq# cUM# xa@
(ngín tsóm khāa)
- I am grateful
The word ngín means to feel and tsóm means joy or appreciate meaning the speaker is really appreciating the listener for his actions and thanking him for that. And yet another way to say thank you, would be.
cUM# yw$ na@
(tsóm yâo nāa)
- Thank you so much
Although the sentence literally just means "I appreciate it so much" it is used commonly as a thank you greeting. Same goes for "tsóm yâo" and "tsóm yâo khāa."
If you are just speaking in English to a Tai person then you can say "thank you khaa", "welcome khaa", "okay khaa" etc. The word khāa just Tai-fies it your English and makes it polite .
We are reproducing a short conversation, which we believe will be beneficial for you even if don't understand everything, cause we will eventually look at grammar structure in detail very soon.
cEw@ m]# ka@ s[q
(tsēr máu kāa sang)
- What is your name?
If you have seen other Ahom youtube videos on the internet they completely mispronounce this tsēr word (meaning name) as “chu” or “su” which is completely incorrect and in fact a completely different word altogether.
The pronounciation of vowels is very important and we assume you have good knowledge of the Ahom script by now. And if you don't then you can head over to the alphabet lesson and start from beginning.
cEw@ xa@ c,j# xmq# xa@
(tsēr khāa tsáai khám khāa)
- My name is Tsai Kham
Here khāa is the end is the polite particle and khāa in the end is the polite first person pronoun which we use instead of kao whenever speaking with someone senior or in formal setting.
cEw@ [,M# na!
(tsēr ngáam nàa)
- It's a beautiful name
Here, nàa particle just emphasizes how beautiful the name is. You can reply with thank you and bid goodbye to the person with either hôp kan khāa or máwn máwn khāa
hUpq$ knq xa@
(hôp kan khāa)
- See you again
monq# monq# xa@
(máwn máwn khāa)
- Bye bye
So when to use, hôp kan khāa and máwn máwn khāa? The answer depends on how specific you want to be. hôp means to meet and kan means each other, so it's like see ya! but máwn máwn khāa is more literally like bye bye. Eventually it's just upto you to use whichever greeting you like.
Or you can just say sawàtdee khâ/khráp (สวัสดีค่ะ/ครับ) for both hello and goodbye.
Some Motivation
Honestly, for a basic introduction post it might seem like a lot to you especially with the casual thai in-between but it is important to learn one language with the help of another language. And if you can learn Thai I think you can easily learn Ahom in just a month. So make sure to also keep on learning Thai. And we wish you best of luck in your journey to learning Ahom.
k,M! dI xa@
(kàam dee khāa)
- Good luck
xtq# c] nM nM xa@
(khát tsau nam nam khāa)
- Try your best
So that was all for the basic introduction lesson. If you want to actually venture in some serious learning, then head out to nouns lesson after this, and then move gradually to the other lessons.
Happy Learning
- Learn Ahom Team
We thank @birmanicus for providing all audio in this lessons as well as other lessons. So please make sure to follow him on instagram
This is also important because the Pathsaku and Moran Tai Research Institute have spread completely wrong information and invented meaningless phrases like khruptang, rong boi boi, etc and it is upto us to counter their misinformation and teach Tai language correctly.
So, hello in Ahom is - màu sung khāa and pay attention to the tonal markings
m]! su[q xa@(màu sung khāa)
- Hello
The word màu sung means to prosper and can be broken further into màu meaning new and sung meaning to be tall - so màu sung meaning may you "be new and be high" or may progress and prosperity be with you - quite the greeting don't you think?
And if you are wondering about the khāa in the end, that just makes the sentence polite like khâ/khráp (ค่ะ/ครับ) in Thai. It is a modern borrowing from Shan, which itself borrowed it from Thai
To say thank you in Ahom, you use khāwp tsau khāa
xopq@ c] xa@(khāwp tsau khāa)
- Thank you
Here khāwp means thanks and tsau means heart so it's literally like saying “dil se shukriya” “i thank you from my heart.” In Thai, you just simply say khàwp khun khâ/khráp (ขอบคุณค่ะ/ครับ) or literally just thank you. If you want to stress the level of your gratitude you can say -
xopq@ c] et]$ et]$ xa@(khāwp tsau tê tê khāa)
- Thank you so much
There is another way of saying thank you in Tai, which is
[inq# cUM# xa@(ngín tsóm khāa)
- I am grateful
The word ngín means to feel and tsóm means joy or appreciate meaning the speaker is really appreciating the listener for his actions and thanking him for that. And yet another way to say thank you, would be.
cUM# yw$ na@(tsóm yâo nāa)
- Thank you so much
Although the sentence literally just means "I appreciate it so much" it is used commonly as a thank you greeting. Same goes for "tsóm yâo" and "tsóm yâo khāa."
If you are just speaking in English to a Tai person then you can say "thank you khaa", "welcome khaa", "okay khaa" etc. The word khāa just Tai-fies it your English and makes it polite .
We are reproducing a short conversation, which we believe will be beneficial for you even if don't understand everything, cause we will eventually look at grammar structure in detail very soon.
cEw@ m]# ka@ s[q(tsēr máu kāa sang)
- What is your name?
If you have seen other Ahom youtube videos on the internet they completely mispronounce this tsēr word (meaning name) as “chu” or “su” which is completely incorrect and in fact a completely different word altogether.
The pronounciation of vowels is very important and we assume you have good knowledge of the Ahom script by now. And if you don't then you can head over to the alphabet lesson and start from beginning.
cEw@ xa@ c,j# xmq# xa@(tsēr khāa tsáai khám khāa)
- My name is Tsai Kham
Here khāa is the end is the polite particle and khāa in the end is the polite first person pronoun which we use instead of kao whenever speaking with someone senior or in formal setting.
cEw@ [,M# na!(tsēr ngáam nàa)
- It's a beautiful name
Here, nàa particle just emphasizes how beautiful the name is. You can reply with thank you and bid goodbye to the person with either hôp kan khāa or máwn máwn khāa
hUpq$ knq xa@(hôp kan khāa)
- See you again
monq# monq# xa@(máwn máwn khāa)
- Bye bye
So when to use, hôp kan khāa and máwn máwn khāa? The answer depends on how specific you want to be. hôp means to meet and kan means each other, so it's like see ya! but máwn máwn khāa is more literally like bye bye. Eventually it's just upto you to use whichever greeting you like.
Or you can just say sawàtdee khâ/khráp (สวัสดีค่ะ/ครับ) for both hello and goodbye.
Some Motivation
Honestly, for a basic introduction post it might seem like a lot to you especially with the casual thai in-between but it is important to learn one language with the help of another language. And if you can learn Thai I think you can easily learn Ahom in just a month. So make sure to also keep on learning Thai. And we wish you best of luck in your journey to learning Ahom.
k,M! dI xa@(kàam dee khāa)
- Good luck
xtq# c] nM nM xa@(khát tsau nam nam khāa)
- Try your best
So that was all for the basic introduction lesson. If you want to actually venture in some serious learning, then head out to nouns lesson after this, and then move gradually to the other lessons.
Happy Learning
- Learn Ahom Team
We thank @birmanicus for providing all audio in this lessons as well as other lessons. So please make sure to follow him on instagram