There is also disappearance of polite request when translation is being done from Thai to English language. Polite requests intonation should be the main focus. However, the English question contours are not reproduced at all. Such a pattern has an inherent increasing tone. ‘question words’ are used to denote questions in Thai. Since Thai is primarily a monosyllabic language, its pitch contour fluctuates sharply. Intonation patterns in English and Thai are completely unique from each other. Besides, meanings can be altered owing to stressed syllables. Attitudinal meaning can be conveyed when syllables are stressed. Examples include shop’ping, cof’fee, and but’ter. The worst affected words are polysyllabic in nature. The tendency to stress the final syllable is the most common language mistake among the Thai speakers. When it comes to the English language, groups of syllables are used. Hence, each syllable is given equal timing and weight. The language also experiences a staccato effect that emanates from the following:
Consonant clusters and final consonants are problematic to articulate. The syllables of words towards the end are stressed in Thai language. This implies that the nearest Thai equivalents are used to pronounce English language. This pronunciation error usually results due to the fact that the Thai phonological system is compelled to fit in each English word. Most of the English language pattern in Thai contains the ‘Thai’ accent. Hence, long and short vowels are clearly differentiated.
Besides, the length of the vowel is crucial. When it comes to Thai language, it is quite cumbersome to generate /θ/, /δ/, /v/, /z/, /∫/, and /з/ (Swan & Smith, 2001). This is a major difference when English is compared to Thai. There are more fricatives in English language. The aspirated voiceless stops such as /p h/, /t h/, and /k h/ in the Thai language are not mere allophones of /p/, /t/, and /k/. For instance, there are 21 vowel phonemes and 21 consonant phonemes in Thai language (Enfield, 2008). English and Thai languages are different in terms of their phonological systems.
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