DEFINITION FOR KHUNYING

Dear Dr English,
The board members of the organisation I'm working in consist of both Thais and foreigners, among them there is a "Khunying... ''. I find it difficult to define "Khun ying" to our foreign staff. Could you please kindly advise an English word for the Thai word "Khun Ying"?

Patama Nanakin

In English, the title is used as "Khunying", the same as in the case of "Mom Rajawong" which I answered a few months ago. The following sentence is taken from the February 10, 2005 issue of The Nation newspaper as an example;
Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana yesterday defended forensics expert Khunying Porthip Rojanasunand against a senior policeman's remarks that her team's work in collecting information about dead tsunami victims did not meet international standard.

In your situation you may give a general explanation of the title to your foreign staff, that Khunying is a title bestowed on a married woman by the King in two categories; the first one is as recognition of her outstanding humanitarian or social work or involvement. The second one is as the wife of a very high-ranking government officer. This explanation should be sufficient to give them an idea what the title means. There is no need to go into the exact details of the title.

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A CASUAL SPELLING

Dear Dr English,
I would like to know how to use shortened kinds of words like 'lovin'? Why and when to use them? Could you please explain and give me some examples.
Thank you

Kamonnaree Chotinantakul

I presume you mean the omission of the final letter in some words. Basically, it is a way of spelling in which the words are spelled the way they are spoken. This kind of spelling usually occurs in song lyrics. In everyday speech, words are often linked together. To facilitate this more easily, end sounds are often omitted and in their place the beginning sound of the next word is spoken, as in "a cup a' tea". Here we have not only the omission of the final "f" in "of" but we have a change of sound from "o" to "a" as well, to make the linking of the sounds smoother. Occasionally, beginning sounds are also omitted, as in "leave 'em", where the "th" of "them" is omitted - a very popular occurrence in speech.

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