Etymology of Phuket

The name Phuket (of which the ph sound is an aspirated p) is apparently derived from the word bukit in Malay which means mountain or hill, as this is what the island appears like from a distance. Before that its old name was Ta-lang, derived from the old Malay "Telong" which means "Cape". The northern district of the province, which was the location of the old capital, still uses this name.

Phuket Pronunciation

Phuket (IPA: [p^hu:ket]; formerly known as Tha-Laang or Talang) is one of the southern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are (from north clockwise) Phang Nga and Krabi, but as Phuket is an island there are no land boundaries. The island is served by Phuket International Airport, located in the north of the island.

As you know, Thailand is a land of smiles. The Thai people are easy to approach and will be all smiling when you try to speak to them in Thai and that will add to your pleasure during your stay in Thailand.

To prevent you from pronouncing with the wrong tone and unintentionally cause misunderstanding to the listeners, here we will use four numbers to represent four tones: 1 = low tone, 2 = falling tone, 3 = high tone and 4 = rising tone. The mid-level tone syllable will be unmarked.
Listed below are some useful Thai words and phrases for travel in Thailand, with their romanized spellings, tonal marks and their meanings.

(Note : Thais use the word 'khrap' (for men) and 'kha' (for women) to end the sentence or phrase spoken to show politeness. For example, when you want to say 'hello' in Thai, if you are a man, you say 'sawatdi khrap' and if a woman, 'sawatdi kha'.

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