GPT-3 explains a Thai joke
ต่อไป ไอ เปลี่ยน ชื่อ เป็น ไอ
The joke
ต่อไป ไอ เปลี่ยน ชื่อ เป็น ไอ
dtaawL bpaiM aiM bpliianL cheuuF bpenM aiM
IPA: /tɔ̀ː˨˩ paj˧˩ ʔaj˧ plìːan˨˩ tɕʰɯ̂ː˥˩ pen˧ ʢ⁽¹⁾aj˧/
GPT-3’s two explanations
In the text below, italic text is prompt while bold text is GPT-3 output.
Initial prompt
A Thai joke is:
ต่อไป ไอ เปลี่ยน ชื่อ เป็น ไอ
It was translated by a professional as: “Next up! Oh, IHOP has changed its name to IHOB.”
Answer №1
The wordplay here is that in Thai, as the word “ไอ” can mean both “the letter I” and “cough”, the joke could have been rendered “Next up! Oh, IHOP has changed its name to IHOP (cough, cough).” But it’s really untranslatable and makes no mention of either IHOP or “IHOB”. Instead, it’s just a clever way of saying “the next thing on the agenda is something that’s not really important.”, or “the next thing on the agenda is a complete non-issue.”, or even “and now for something completely different.”
Gloss:
ต่อไป — dtaawL bpaiM = next
ไอ — ai M = the letter I
เปลี่ยน — bpliianL = to change ชื
่อ — cheuu = name
เป็น — bpenM = to be
ไอ — ai M = cough
Literal translation: “Next, the letter I changes to cough.” Evidently, the text is from a comedy sketch and it is difficult to translate the humor.
IPA: /tɔː˨˩.paj˧˩.ʔaj˧.plia̯n˨˩.t͡ɕʰɯː˥˩.pen˧.ʢ⁽¹⁾aj˧/
¹ here, ʢ is used to represent the sound of coughing or clearing one’s throat, which is not a phoneme in Thai or English and has no exact equivalent in the IPA.
Second prompt (much less help)
Welcome to the Thai Linguist’s Blog!
Article title: ไอ?
A Thai joke is:
<b>ต่อไป ไอ เปลี่ยน ชื่อ เป็น ไอ</b><br/>
dtaawL bpaiM aiM bpliianL cheuuF bpenM ʢaiM<br/>
IPA: /tɔ̀ː˨˩ paj˧˩ ʔaj˧ plìːan˨˩ tɕʰɯ̂ː˥˩ pen˧ ʢ<ref>Used as a cough</ref>aj˧/
It was localized (not translated) by a professional as: “Next up! Oh, IHOP has changed its name to IHOB.”
Huh? There’s no IHOP or IHOB in the original Thai text! The localizer made no error and the text is correct. What’s going on here?
Answer №2
The answer is that in Thai, the use of ไอ as a placeholder name is very common, especially in informal contexts. It’s often used in jokes and children’s stories, and can be translated as “oh” or “uh”.
This usage of ไอ is very common in spoken Thai, but you won’t see it much in written Thai. So if you see it in a Thai text, it’s probably meant to be informal or funny.
So, a literal translation of the Thai joke would be:
“Next up, [something] has changed its name to [something].”
Also, it’s worth noting that ไอ is the word for “cough”, so the joke is also a play on words. Alternate translation: “Next up, [someone] has changed their name to [cough].”
GLOSS:
ต่อไป — dtaaw-bpai — next up
ไอ — ʔai — placeholder
เปลี่ยน — bpliian — change
ชื่อ — cheuu — name
เป็น — bpen — be
ไอ — ʢai — cough
As you can see, this doesn’t make much sense in English. So the localizer did the best they could to convey the meaning of the original Thai text.
It’s a slangy way of speaking, and not something you would see in formal Thai, but it’s still perfectly correct Thai.
If you have any questions about the Thai language, leave a comment below or contact me at <non-existent link on parked domain «thailinguist·com» removed>.
