Wiktionary:About Isan

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

Spelling

Isan can be spelled in Thai as well as in Lao script, however in this Wiktionary only the Thai script is used.

/ɲ/ vs /j/

While in Thai both sounds merged to /j/, spelled with the letter ย (yɔɔ), the distiction is still preserved in Isan.

In order to solve the issue, /j/ is spelled อย (mid tone class), while /ɲ/ is spelled ย or หย (depending on the tone class). This reflects historical Thai spelling.

/r/ -> /l/ vs /h/

The spelling of ร is preserved when pronounced /l/, though an alternative phonetic spelling with ล can be given.
e.g. Thai รู้ (rúu) → Isan รู้ (lûu) – spelling unchanged

When /r/ became /h/ it is spelled as ฮ.
e.g. Thai รัก (rák) → Isan ฮัก (hák) – respelled

Tones

Tones are spelled etymologically, resulting in distinct tone rules for Isan. Respelling should only occur, if the tone in Isan has changed, not matching ethymology anymore.

Words shouldn't be respelled to match Thai tone rules, however an alternative spelling (marked as "Thai spelling") can be given, if borrowed into Thai language.

Romanization

In this Wiktionary, the Paiboon Romanization is used, see Isan Romanization.

In headword templates

The pronunciation is automatically generated in headword templates. This doesn't always work, in that case a "phon"-Tag is required.

* Marking of tone class prefixes with a dot below (Phinthu)
อย้าน {{tts-verb|phon=อฺย้าน}} => yâan

* Marking short vowels that can't carry a Mai Taikhu
เพิ่น {{tts-verb|phon=เพิ็่น}} => pə̄n

* Hyphenation of multisyllabic words
จั่งใด {{tts-pronoun|phon=จั่ง-ใด}} => jāng-dai

* Phonetic respelling of irregular spelled words
ประเทศ {{tts-noun|phon=ปะ-เทด}} => bpa-têet