A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ADDRESSING WORDS IN INDONESIAN AND THAI

Arkom Buyala

Abstract

Addressing words in Indonesian and Thai are words used to address someone to talk. The two languages have differences and similiraties. This study describes: (1) the forms of addressing words in Indonesian and Thai; (2) similarities and differences of addressing words in Indonesian and Thai; and, (3) the using of addressing words in Indonesian and Thai. The method used in this study is a comparative descriptive qualitative. The result of this study shows that the using of addressing words in Indonesian is written in capital letter, both in dialogue sentence and narrative or descriptive sentence. The using of addressing words in Thai depends on the relationship between the addresser and addressee. It also relates with the social status and age. The similarities of the two languages are in the form of the first personal pronoun, the second personal pronoun in plural form, and the third personal pronoun. The differences of them are in the form of the second personal pronoun, the second personal pronoun in singular, and gender kind.

 

Keywords: addressing words, Indonesian, Thai