The Naming of Provinces in Thai Teenagers' Spoken Language

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the naming of provinces in Thai teenagers' spoken language. The information of the naming of 76 provinces and Bangkok was obtained from questionnaires and interviews with 1,165 undergraduate students in regional universities. These students' birthplaces are in various provinces. The results show three ways for naming the provinces : using standard Thai language; using the provinces former names; and deleting syllables. For most of the 1-2 syllable province names, standard Thai language is used for naming the provinces. For 3-8 syllable province names, most of the names are shortened by deleting the syllables or standard Thai language. Using the cities 'former names is the least popular in naming the provinces. The findings of the study also reveal, based on 114 expressions in naming the provinces from 77 linguistic variables (province names) show that the linguistic characteristic which appears most in Thai teenagers' spoken language the pronunciation of 2 syllable words.