Isan Language - Nouns

Nouns

Nouns are not marked for plurals, gender nor are they declined for cases, and do not require an indefinite nor definite article. Plurals are often indicated with the use of classifiers, words to mark the special classes that nouns belong to. For instance, หมา (mǎː, ma) 'dog' has the classifier โต (to, toː) which, as its meaning 'body' implies, includes all things with legs, such as people, animals, tables and chairs. 'Three dogs' would be rendered as หมา ๓ โต (ma sam to, mǎː sǎːm toː), literally 'dog three classifier'.

Verbs are easily made into nouns by adding the prefixes ความ (khwam/kʰwaːm) and การ (kan/kːan) before verbs that express abstract actions and verbs that express physical actions, respectively. Adjectives and adverbs, which can function as complete predicates, only use ความ.

• แข่งม้า (khaengma/kʰɛ̀ːŋ.máː) to horserace (v.) nominalises into การแข่งม้า (kan khaengma/kːan kʰɛ̀ːŋ.máː) horseracing (n.)
• เจ็บ (jep/tɕèp) to hurt (others) (.v) nominalises into ความเจ็บ (khwam jep/kʰwaːm tɕèp) hurt (caused by others) (n.)
• ดี (di, diː) good nominalises into ความดี (khwam di, kʰwaːm diː) goodness (n.)

Pronouns Pronouns are often dropped in informal contexts, and are often replaced with nicknames or kinship terms, depending on the relation of the speaker to the person to whom is being spoken. Pronouns can also change depending on the register of speech, with many of the more formal pronouns borrowed from formal Thai speech registers. The more formal the language, the more likely that pronouns will not be dropped and that formal pronouns would be used. Pronouns can be pluralised by adding พวก (phuak, pʰuak) in front of the pronoun, e.g., พวกข่อย (phuak khoy/pʰuak kʰɔːj) is the same as เฮา (hao) or พวกเฮา (phuak hao/pʰuak haw). Age and status is important in determining usage. Younger boys and girls names are often prefixed with บัก (bak, bak) and อี (i, iː) respectively. Older males and females use อ้าย (ai, aːj) and เอี้อย (euay, ɯːaj) respectively instead. People who are much older may be politely addressed as aunt, uncle, mother, father, or even grandmother or grandfather depending on their age. Isan age-based name prefixes are often identical to or similar to vulgar, disparaging age-based name prefixes in Central Thai and should be avoided outside of Lao/Isan speaking regions in Thailand.