<p>Cantonese does contain a substrate from the Tai languages, which includes Thai and Zhuang as modern members, so that could be a source of similarities. However, the word for chicken (雞), and most other Cantonese vocabulary, can be traced to Chinese sources, so that's not it.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-09T18:44:28.333Z
" contains a substrate from the roman languages"?  Wikipedia: The vocabulary of Modern English is approximately a quarter Germanic (Old English, Scandinavian, Dutch, German) and two-thirds Italic or Romance (especially Latin, French, Spanish, Italian),
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-09T22:36:29.447Z
@user4452 Please look up what "substrate" means in linguistics. It does *not* mean they're related. It means that the population originally spoke that language, and then some new language took over, but the "substrate" had some effect on how the incoming language evolved (and/or became a source for loanwords). Britain had a Celtic substrate but was overtaken by Germanic languages. Southern China had a Tai-Kadai substrate but was overtaken by Chinese. I think the vowel-length distinction in Yue languages (which is totally weird! not like other topolects at all!) is attributed to this.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-03T04:40:34.660Z
2016-06-03T04:40:34.660Z
user102008
<p>A huge population of Northern Thai consists of Chinese and most of these Chinese come from Southern China Guangdong Province from an area/ city called 潮州 (Chao zhou /teochew). </p>

<p>Even today, most of these modern Thai Chinese can speak some Teochew although they may not understand Mandarin. </p>

<p>Due to mixing of cultures, some words could have translated to Thai. Pronunciation may be closer to Teochew than Mandarin. </p>

<p>I believe one of their kings was of Chinese descent as well. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-04T09:04:26.793Z
2016-06-04T09:04:26.793Z
Andrew Chok
<p>As for Cantonese and Hokkien dialects, I believe that the prolonged encountering between Southern Chinese and Tai speakers (Zhuang ,Thai, Lao etc.) made their phonetic repertoire more rich than the Mandarin dialect. Many words in Cantonese and Hokkien sound very much like Thai, for example Number 1 - 10 or the names of common objects such as chair (Gao Ee), table (Tou), guest (Khaek/khek).</p>

<p>Mandarin has fewer sounds because the Chinese writing system has no phonetic information. You cannot make new sound with it. Chinese language appears phonetically pure because loan words and names are “dubbed” with closest sounding Chinese characters. Chinese used to borrow many words and terminologies from Sanskrit through Buddhism. But its writing system does not allow any systematic orthography which is needed in order to incorporate new linguistic elements from an Indo-European language. Japanese has the same problem, and though it now have separate kana scripts, Japanese language still have very few sounds.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-09T16:41:08.467Z
2017-06-09T16:41:08.467Z
Man Methaya
<p>I found Thai tones and the sounds of Thai words are very close Cantonese, perhaps they both spoke Tai before the Qin Dynasty.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-19T00:39:06.620Z
2019-01-19T00:39:06.620Z
Wayne Ho
<p>actually there ARE similarities (im thai-chinese and i speak both mandarin &amp; thai + i do understand a bit cantonese too) 
While chinese is a sino-tibetan language and thai isnt theres still many words who are very similar to eachother , thai (in case of pronouncing is the most similar to chinese and besides that some words are also similar to hindi and a lot also to vietnamese , whenever i hear vietnamese i feel like im hearing a different type of thai) 
also both thai &amp; chinese are tonal languages such as lao and viet. 
the comment with a past king was right (several thailand kings were actually chinese) 
+ Thai people MIGRATED from SOUTH China 4000 years ago ,
so theres still a language in southern china thats very similar 
to the modern thai language. Thais originated from there and it stuck 
with them even though there were some changes since they moved south to the
now land that first was called SIAM and now thailand. 
u can get the info about the thai volks origins in some HISTORY books
about thailands people and where they actually came from. 
It was also mentioned in at least SOME documentations (history docu.)
that thais originally came from south china (btw a lot of the south chinese
ppl still look similar to thais) 
thats why some of the thai language has some similarities with chinese, even though cantonese is more similar to it instead of mandarin.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-21T16:53:20.090Z
2018-07-21T16:53:20.090Z
Lina Chichi
<p>Is there a similarity between Cantonese and Thai? I've noticed that some words such as the word for chicken is the same.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-04T11:52:52.993Z
I'm a Cantonese. Just thought of sharing this, Cantonese find listening to Thai is really funny because their choice of sound construction for characters are similar to us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n_yvfH1UjQ In the video, the 2 Hong Kong show hosts are laughing very hard simply about the pronunciation of colors in Thai. They all sounds like something indecent. (The Thai teacher in the middle just don't get it and sitting there being awkward) The comment section has listed out the funny words.
Daniel Cheung
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-04T12:15:51.137Z
他们哈哈大笑啊! :-) Interesting video.
Jack Maddington
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-13T05:21:48.783Z
It is an accident. The Thai word's etymology can be found here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%88 .
Rethliopuks
<cantonese>
Cantonese and Thai similarities
# Cantonese and Thai similarities

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-05-28)

Is there a similarity between Cantonese and Thai? I've noticed that some words such as the word for chicken is the same.

**Tags:** cantonese

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm a Cantonese. Just thought of sharing this, Cantonese find listening to Thai is really funny because their choice of sound construction for characters are similar to us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n_yvfH1UjQ In the video, the 2 Hong Kong show hosts are laughing very hard simply about the pronunciation of colors in Thai. They all sounds like something indecent. (The Thai teacher in the middle just don't get it and sitting there being awkward) The comment section has listed out the funny words.  
> **username_0**: 他们哈哈大笑啊! :-) Interesting video.  
> **username_2**: It is an accident. The Thai word's etymology can be found here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%88 .  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-06-03. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Cantonese does contain a substrate from the Tai languages, which includes Thai and Zhuang as modern members, so that could be a source of similarities. However, the word for chicken (雞), and most other Cantonese vocabulary, can be traced to Chinese sources, so that's not it.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: " contains a substrate from the roman languages"?  Wikipedia: The vocabulary of Modern English is approximately a quarter Germanic (Old English, Scandinavian, Dutch, German) and two-thirds Italic or Romance (especially Latin, French, Spanish, Italian),  
> **username_5**: @user4452 Please look up what "substrate" means in linguistics. It does *not* mean they're related. It means that the population originally spoke that language, and then some new language took over, but the "substrate" had some effect on how the incoming language evolved (and/or became a source for loanwords). Britain had a Celtic substrate but was overtaken by Germanic languages. Southern China had a Tai-Kadai substrate but was overtaken by Chinese. I think the vowel-length distinction in Yue languages (which is totally weird! not like other topolects at all!) is attributed to this.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2016-06-04. Score: 2

A huge population of Northern Thai consists of Chinese and most of these Chinese come from Southern China Guangdong Province from an area/ city called 潮州 (Chao zhou /teochew).

Even today, most of these modern Thai Chinese can speak some Teochew although they may not understand Mandarin.

Due to mixing of cultures, some words could have translated to Thai. Pronunciation may be closer to Teochew than Mandarin.

I believe one of their kings was of Chinese descent as well.


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### Answer by username_7 on 2017-06-09. Score: 1

As for Cantonese and Hokkien dialects, I believe that the prolonged encountering between Southern Chinese and Tai speakers (Zhuang ,Thai, Lao etc.) made their phonetic repertoire more rich than the Mandarin dialect. Many words in Cantonese and Hokkien sound very much like Thai, for example Number 1 - 10 or the names of common objects such as chair (Gao Ee), table (Tou), guest (Khaek/khek).

Mandarin has fewer sounds because the Chinese writing system has no phonetic information. You cannot make new sound with it. Chinese language appears phonetically pure because loan words and names are “dubbed” with closest sounding Chinese characters. Chinese used to borrow many words and terminologies from Sanskrit through Buddhism. But its writing system does not allow any systematic orthography which is needed in order to incorporate new linguistic elements from an Indo-European language. Japanese has the same problem, and though it now have separate kana scripts, Japanese language still have very few sounds.


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### Answer by username_8 on 2019-01-19. Score: 1

I found Thai tones and the sounds of Thai words are very close Cantonese, perhaps they both spoke Tai before the Qin Dynasty.


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### Answer by username_9 on 2018-07-21. Score: 0

actually there ARE similarities (im thai-chinese and i speak both mandarin & thai + i do understand a bit cantonese too)
While chinese is a sino-tibetan language and thai isnt theres still many words who are very similar to eachother , thai (in case of pronouncing is the most similar to chinese and besides that some words are also similar to hindi and a lot also to vietnamese , whenever i hear vietnamese i feel like im hearing a different type of thai)
also both thai & chinese are tonal languages such as lao and viet.
the comment with a past king was right (several thailand kings were actually chinese)
+ Thai people MIGRATED from SOUTH China 4000 years ago ,
so theres still a language in southern china thats very similar
to the modern thai language. Thais originated from there and it stuck
with them even though there were some changes since they moved south to the
now land that first was called SIAM and now thailand.
u can get the info about the thai volks origins in some HISTORY books
about thailands people and where they actually came from.
It was also mentioned in at least SOME documentations (history docu.)
that thais originally came from south china (btw a lot of the south chinese
ppl still look similar to thais)
thats why some of the thai language has some similarities with chinese, even though cantonese is more similar to it instead of mandarin.


---

