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This answer might be overkill, but I've really enjoyed reading up on some of these topics, so I'll go ahead and pass this along.
Historically มนต์รัก /mon-rak/ is a "love incantation," a spell that would cause someone to fall in love with you. But it's long been used in the titles of Thai songs, which then led to its use in the titles of movie musicals, and from there to movies in general.
So if we don't worry too much about the literal translation, I think in songs we can translate it roughly as "love song," and in movie titles as "love story." That's one way of making it more readily translatable, at least.
For example, the song มนต์รักดอกคำใต้ /mon-rak dok-mai kham-tai/ was a hit starting in the late 50s/early 60s, I believe. We might loosely that title as "Love Song of the Sweet Acacia Flower."
When the musical "The Sound of Music" came out in 1965, its Thai title was มนต์รักเพลงสวรรค์ /mon-rak phleeng sawan/, or loosely "Divine Music Love Story."
If you read about the history of "เพลงลูกทุ่ง" /phleeng luuk-thung/ as a genre of music, it turns out that though the roots of ลูกทุ่ง /luuk-thung/ music certainly date decades earlier, the name was first used in 1964 as a play on words of "เพลงลูกกรุง" /phleeng luuk-krung/, which was a genre of popular music dating back to the 1930s, and the first genre of popular Thai music that used western instruments. It became associated with Bangkok and the emerging urban culture of the post-World War II period (hence the name เพลงลูกกรุง /phleng luuk-krung/). So when the name เพลงลูกทุ่ง /phleng luuk-thung/ was coined, not only was it a play on words, but it was an attempt to differentiate and define ลูกทุ่ง /luuk-thung/ as its own musical style, separate from the ลูกกรุง /luuk-krung/ movement.
When the film มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง /mon-rak luuk-thung/ was released in May 1970 (starring the biggest names in Thai cinema at the time--Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat), the ลูกทุ่ง /luuk-thung/ genre was in its heyday, and at the forefront of Thai popular music. The godfather of ลูกทุ่ง /luuk-thung/ music was Suraphon Sombatcharoen, who propelled the style to national success, and whose murder in 1968 at the age of 37, only fueled the popularity of his music.
No doubt the death of Mitr Chaibancha in October 1970, the star of มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง /mon-rak luuk-thung/, also helped fuel that film's success, as it was still in its original theatrical run when he was killed filming a stunt for the final film in his "Red Eagle" series (which also recently received a reboot, this time starring Ananda Everingham). In any case, มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง /mon-rak luuk-thung/ has become a cultural icon, and has led to not only numerous film and TV remakes, but many songs and film whose titles allude to it, including 2001's มนต์รักทรานซิสเตอร์ /mon-rak transistor/ "Transistor Love Story," as others have mentioned.
Just a few years later, with the political strife of the 1970s, เพลงลูกทุ่ง /phleeng luuk-thung/ ceded the the national limelight somewhat to the politically conscious เพลงเพื่อชีวิต /phleeng phuea chiiwit/ movement, which saw the birth of immortal Thai folk bands like Caravan and Carabao, though of course both genres remain wildly popular to this day, and pop music has continued to branch off in umpteen other directions. Nowadays there's a huge cultural divide between urban and rural Thai tastes, perhaps mirroring the obvious socioeconomic divide, so it's interesting to think back on a time when ลูกทุ่ง /luuk-thung/ was essentially synonymous with Thai popular music, and the film มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง /mon-rak luuk-thung/ and its soundtrack as an embodiment of that.
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In Topic: ญ And ฐ Change Form With Subscript Vowel
2011-04-18 01:46:25
Peppy, on 2011-04-15 16:23:52, said:
Richard W, on 2011-04-15 04:43:49, said:
In some older books (60's, for example), the combinations ปั ฝั ฟั have a gap in the consonant's tail to let the mai hanakat through.
I always thought that was because of the typographic techniques of the time--i.e. ป ฝ and ฟ were printed as บ ผ and พ, and then a little line was placed above them to extend the "tail", but sometimes it was a little off, causing the gap. This is actually quite common in books as recent as the mid-nineties...
I think typographic conveniences certainly factor in, but there is precedent on older handwriting conventions, too. Old handwritten Thai followed the Khmer style, where consonants followed by า were written as a single connected symbol. This also persisted in the early decades of Thai printing (mid-19th century). So when a character that has an ascending 'tail', ป ฝ or ฟ, was followed by า, it was written just like บ ผ or พ with connected า, and instead of the typical ascending tail, a การันต์-like symbol was written above the consonant.
Have a look at this example:
thai-sample.jpg 34.93K
5 downloadsThis is from a manuscript of a dictionary composed circa 1840s. The two words written here are (rendered in modern spelling) กำปั่น and กำเปาะ. The latter may look something like กำเบ์าะ, but this was just how the writing was at that time.
Notice how ไม้หันอากาศ was simply written intersecting with the ascending tail of the consonant.
This "detached tail" form was also used when the consonant had a superscript vowel (อิ อี อึ อื) because these were also written connected to the consonant.
thai-sample2.jpg 13.05K
5 downloadsThis reads กะปิ, shrimp paste.
And more:
thai-sample3.jpg 45.44K
6 downloadsกะเปา (= modern กระเป๋า; in the past, tone markings were not used as regularly)
กะปุก
กะโปก (pardon this less-than-genteel word; included for comparison)
Here's one where you can see both forms of ฟ in the same phrase:
thai-sample5.jpg 17.57K
6 downloadsฟาด
ฟาดฟัน
And a few more for good measure, with the definitions for context:
thai-sample4.jpg 122.01K
10 downloadsปืนไฟ
ปืนยา ปืนใหญ่
ปืนหลัก
ปูน
เปน
Now compare those with this compilation I made of words from the first printed dictionary, published nearly three decades later in 1873:
thai-sample6.jpg 21.64K
9 downloadsNotice how by this point the combined character with า is still used in the word บาง, but not in ปาก. The detached curly tail is still seen in เปิด, and a detached straight tail is seen in ปัน ปัญา ฟัน เป่า etc. In fact, any time there is a superscript of any kind the tail is detached. This would have been done because with old movable type you had to be line up actual little pieces of metal, so it was easier to create the superscripts separately from the baseline characters. (Though note the exception: เฟ็ด, in which for some reason the printer made ฟ็ together as a single piece of type, with a bent tail to accommodate it. This quirk is likely due to this being among the first Thai printing presses.)
So while it's possible the two phenomena (detached tails in old manuscripts and detached tails in older printing) are unrelated, I'd say the one in a way begat the other, in conjunction with the needs of early printing technology, and that towards the end it persisted primarily for reasons of typographic convenience.
In Topic: What Level Of Speaking And Writing Thai Are You At?
2011-04-14 15:51:43
desi, on 2011-04-14 06:59:00, said:
Would one of the mods please make this a sticky?
(or pinned = whatever it's called)
(or pinned = whatever it's called)
Great thread, great idea. Now pinned.
