Is there a tendency for speakers of Thai to add a /t/ sound to the end of words?

Question

I've noticed this when doing reading and speaking activities with them, it's only with certain words though, does anyone know why this is?

Answer 1

Yes. This is mainly because of the strict prounciation rules in the Thai Language. For example, the equivalent of the letter 's' in the Thai alphabet is pronounced as 's' when it occurs at the beginning and middle of a word, but is pronounced as 't' when it occurs at the end of a word ('sam' is pronounced as 'sam', 'issan' is pronounced as 'issan', but 'grass', 'mass', and 'Christmas' are pronounced as 'grat', 'mat', and 'Chrismat'). While this particular rule is strictly followed by Thais when pronouncing Thai words, it poses a problem when Thais pronounce English words ending in 's'. They tend to apply the same Thai pronounciation rules even when English words are involved. That's why English words ending with 's' are pronounced by Thais as ending in 't'.

The Thai Language also have special pronounciation rules for the Thai-equivalent of some English letters such as 'r' (generally silent or not pronounced in Thai, like the words 'kilometer' and 'Sri Lanka' pronounced as 'kilomet' and 'Si Lanka'), letter 'l' (generally pronounced as 'n' when occuring at the end of a word, like 'Mongkol' and 'Chalermpol' pronounced as 'Mongkon' and 'Chalermpon'), letter 'v' (generally pronounced as 'w', like 'Phavadee' and 'Violet' pronounced as 'Phawadee' and 'Why-o-let').

Answer 2

I hear more of /tch/ /tsh/ sound than anything else, think fitch when trying to say fish.  I think it is because the Thai language has a lot of sounds like that.

Answer 3

Yes. This is because there are only three stop sounds that are acceptable in spoken Thai: /t/, /k/ and /p/. Any other endings to a syllable must be a nasal (/m/ or /n/) or a vowel/semi-vowel.

Each Thai letter has an initial sound and a final sound. For example, /g/ sounds will change to /k/; the sounds /j/, /ch/, /s/ and /d/ will change to a /t/; sounds /r/ and /l/ change to /n/; and /b/ and /f/ change to a /p/.

This is why "central" is pronounced /sen-tran/ and "age" can come out sounding like /ate/. It also depends on the speaker, and their level of English, and where and from whom they are exposed to it.