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Including sections on cultural differences, protocol and etiquette as well as a menu decoder, this phrasebook includes a two-way dictionary, a pronunciation guide and essential words and phrases featuring real conversations and colloquialisms.

　　Thailand is the Land of Smiles. A grin shows companionship. A laugh shows forgiveness. But what if you need a second-class train ticket from Bangkok to Chiang Mai Keep smiling - this phrasebook will show you the way.

　　Myths about Thai

　　When people talk about the Thai language they are really referring to a Central Thai dialect that has succeeded in becoming the standard official language for the whole country. For this reason Thai is only spoken as a first language in the central provinces of the nation. As Thai is the official language of education, government and media it’s basically understood from North to South although recent estimates suggest that less than half the population of Thailand speak and understand Thai fluently.

　　Thailand

　　A country of southeast Asia on the Gulf of Thailand (formerly the Gulf of Siam), an arm of the South China Sea. Various Thai kingdoms were founded from the 13th century on, frequently coming into conflict with neighboring Burmese and Cambodian powers. Siam remained an absolute monarchy until 1932, when the king was compelled to accept a constitution, and the country was renamed Thailand in 1939. Thailand was occupied by the Japanese in World War II, and most of its numerous postwar governments were controlled by the military. Bangkok is the capital and the largest city. Population: 65,400,000.

　　Thai Language

　　Thai language, formerly Siamese, member of the Tai or Thai subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages). The official language of Thailand, Thai is spoken by approximately 50 million people in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Yunnan province of China. It has several dialects. Although most of the words are monosyllables, a number of them are polysyllabic. Because there is no inflection, word order is important for showing grammatical relationships. The Thai language is also tonal, and the tones serve to distinguish meanings of words otherwise pronounced alike. There are five tones: high, middle, low, rising, and falling. Over the centuries Thai has borrowed many words from Chinese, Khmer, Pali, Sanskrit, and, more recently, from European languages such as French and English. The Thai language has its own alphabet, which ultimately goes back to a script of S India and which was adopted in the 13th cent. A.D. Thai is written from left to right.