Som Tom = ???

[kokopelli]

Perhaps those of you who are familiar with Thai can answer this.

 

Not far from my home in USA there is a house, on a rural road, with a large sign at driveway entrance which features a large flower surrounded by Thai and English characters including a date of 1968.

The English words are Som Tom and I assume the Thai script means the same.

 

I believe the owners chose Som Tom as the name of their estate but what does it mean?

[Bob]

Heck, "somtom" or  "somtam (with the "tam" sounding like "tom") is how most Thais would spell in English the infamous "somtam" salad, famous all over Thailand but essentially one of the basic food groups in Isaan.  I'd guess that's the simple answer as to why the owners chose that name.

 

In Thai, it's spelled "สมตำ" and refers only to the infamous Thai pounded salad made with green (not so ripe) papaya.

[kokopelli]

Thanks Bob; Next time I will try to read the Thai script.. 55555

[ChristianPFC]

A picture would help (for the Thai script).

[llz]

The thai script on the sign should have an accent ( -้ ) on the first letter, making the sound falling instead of rising : so it should write ส้มตำ

 

Not willing to be pedantic but mastering the tones correctly is a must when learning thai language

[kokopelli]

Next time will try to bring a camera and take a pic.

[Bob]

Whoops....sorry for missing the "mai toh" (tone mark) over the first letter.  Didn't notice it before.

 

Yes, it's wise to pay attention to the tones (and tone marks) although very often even Thais don't pronounce them very well until near the end of a sentence.