Polite v. vulgar: Part One – animals

In many languages, there are certain words that are used in everyday language, but which have politer versions for use in more formal settings. Bodily functions, of course, present many examples of this, as do body parts.

In Thai, this polite versus vulgar language is perhaps more encompassing than in English, and in the next few posts I want to address some of the areas in which it is used: with animals, for body parts and for bodily functions.

In part, the distinction in Thai is between formal written Thai and that spoken amongst ordinary people, but this division is far from being clear cut. The ‘formal’ version of a word might be more appropriate used in particular social settings (such as talking to a doctor or a teacher), while the ‘vulgar’ version might be used in written form when quoting speech or simply for a more informal effect.

The three animals to which the polite/vulgar distinction applies are the pig, the dog, and, somewhat surprisingly to westerners, the water monitor. The two former of these, of course, are considered dirty in many cultures, and the words for these animals are often insults. Interestingly, in Thai the common words for pig and dog are not considered particularly insulting, but they are merely considered too unrefined for formal usage.

In informal usage, ‘pig’ in Thai is moo (หมู), while the formal equivalent is sukon (สุกร), the latter word deriving from Sanskrit.  Similarly Sanskrit-derived is the formal word for dog, sunak (สุนัข), as opposed to the informal maa (หมา).

The case of the water monitor is somewhat different. For some reason, calling someone a water monitor, or hia (เหี้ย), in Thai, is considered a particularly grave insult. While the word may be used with a degree of affection among close, usually male, friends (it is sometimes prefixed in front of a name and used almost as a title, indicating a degree of toughness on the part of the person thus named), in general usage it should be avoided.

Formally, therefore, a water monitor is often described as a taguat (ตะกวด), but strictly speaking this is inaccurate, as the latter is in fact a Bengal monitor, as opposed to  the substantially larger water monitor. This distinction is, however, rarely observed. Another way of avoiding usage of the word hia is to speak of a tua ngern tua thong (ตัวเงินตัวทอง), or ‘silver and gold creature’ instead.

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