ไหม

See also: ไหม้

Thai

Etymology 1

From Proto-Southwestern Tai *ʰmajᴬ (“thread”), from Proto-Tai *ʰmajᴬ (“thread”), from Old Chinese 徽 (OC *hmɯl, “fine; glorious”).[1] Cognate with Lao ໄໝ (mai), Tai Dam ꪼꪢ, Lü ᦺᦖ (ṁay), Shan မႆ (mǎy).

Pronunciation

Orthographic		ไหม ai h m
Phonemic		ไหฺม ai h ̥ m
Romanization	Paiboon	mǎi
	Royal Institute	mai
(standard) IPA^(key)		/maj˩˩˦/

Noun

ไหม • (mǎi)

silkworm.
thread.
silk.

Pronunciation

Orthographic		ไหม ai h m
Phonemic		ไหฺม ai h ̥ m
Romanization	Paiboon	mǎi
	Royal Institute	mai
(standard) IPA^(key)		/maj˩˩˦/

Noun

ไหม • (mǎi)

(law) fine: monetary penalty.

Verb

ไหม • (mǎi)

(law) to fine: to impose a monetary penalty.

Etymology 3

From contraction of หรือ (rʉ̌ʉ, “or”) +‎ ไม่ (mâi, “not”). Compare Southern Thai ม่าย.

Alternative forms

มั้ย (mái)

Pronunciation

Orthographic		ไหม ai h m
Phonemic		ไหฺม ai h ̥ m	ไม้ ai m ˆ
Romanization	Paiboon	mǎi	mái
	Royal Institute	mai	mai
(standard) IPA^(key)		/maj˩˩˦/	/maj˦˥/

Particle

ไหม • (mǎi)

or not?
- คุณเป็นนักท่องเที่ยวใช่ไหม
  kun bpen nák-tɔ̂ng-tîao châi mǎi
  You're a tourist, is that right?

References

Pittayaporn, Pittayawat (2014), “Layers of Chinese Loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai as Evidence for the Dating of the Spread of Southwestern Tai”, in MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities, volume 20 (special issue), Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University, ISSN 0859-9920, pages 47–68.

[1] Pittayaporn, Pittayawat (2014), “Layers of Chinese Loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai as Evidence for the Dating of the Spread of Southwestern Tai”, in MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities, volume 20 (special issue), Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University, ISSN 0859-9920, pages 47–68.