Objectives

1. To create awareness among project managers of Thai-specific issues which may arise during the process of localising a product into Thai.
2. To allow project managers to be proactive rather than reactive in their approach to dealing with Thai localization issues.
• As a consequence, project managers would then be able to provide more information to clients at earlier point in the localization cycle.
• Information contained herein can be used to convince clients of capability with regard to Thai localization.
3. To create an understanding among project managers and clients of why Thai localization may take longer and be fraught with greater difficulties than localization for other less commonly localised languages.
4. This document is to be used as the basis for creating an internal training manual for project managers.

Scope

1. This document does not examine all the issues involved in Thai localization. It focuses on the issues that are likely to be specific to Thai (and the Mon-Khmer languages).
2. This document assumes the reader is familiar with the localization process and the terminology associated with it. However, a glossary is also provided and it covers both the common and lesser-used terms that appear in this document. Terms for which a glossary entry is provided are underlined and hyperlinked.
3. Translation, DTP, Web site and other issues are covered.
4. All kinds of localised products are looked at, including manuals, software, text strings (prompts, HMI interfaces), and websites.
5. The document is necessarily incomplete and subject to improvements and updates. Since much of the information is based on experience and anecdotal evidence, no guarantee can be made for its accuracy. (see Disclaimer)

Definitions

Definitions are not provided in the strict sense of the word, but a glossary of common terms that may cause confusion is. The explanations provided in the glossary are intended to convey clearly the meaning of a term in the context of localization rather than being precise definitions.

References

As the contents of this document are primarily based on the author's experience in the industry, there is little material to refer to. Part of the reason for writing this document was that the author was unable to find any documentation concerning the subject matter.

The following websites proved to be a useful source of information.

1. [centre for computational linguistics, Bangkok].
2. [DTP glossary].

All rights reserved. This version written by Conor Bracken. Last updated: October 1, 1998.

Introduction

Thai, a single-byte language with a unique script, contains 44 consonants (a few are considered obsolete), 33 vowels, 4 tone marks (there are 5 tones), and 5 other symbols with a diacritical or punctuation function. There are Thai numerals but roman numerals are increasingly common, especially in technical publications. English words are used liberally in Thai (more so than for say, Japanese), but English words can also be transliterated to Thai script. Phonetic transliterations are not standardised and may not be able to reflect a sound that closely resembles the normal English pronunciation of a word.

Thai is part of a group of languages with a similar script known as the Mon-Khmer languages. The other languages (Burmese, Lao, Khmer, and ethnic variations) are very rarely localised, so in practice Thai localization faces unique issues. Unfortunately, there is an impression in the localization industry that only the double-byte languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and perhaps Arabic are particularly difficult, and that Thai is like an "ordinary" single-byte language except for some problems with getting the line breaks right. However, companies such as Microsoft agree that Thai is perhaps the most troublesome language to localise into, and this document will perhaps shed some light as to why.

Issues that could be problematic for Thai localization regardless of project type or platform/application are listed in section 1. More specific issues are given in the other sections but there is considerable overlapping of content and cross-references between the sections.

This is a first draft. If you think there are errors or omissions, or have any queries or comments, please leave a message on the message boards.

1. General (regardless of platform or type of project)
2. Platforms and applications
3. Web site localization
4. Text strings (software, prompts, dialog boxes, human-machine interfaces)
5. Cultural issues
6. Font choices (with samples)
7. Resource issues
8. Project Management issues