Linguist Rikker Dockum on the Royal Institute's Thai Language Oversight [S8.E33] (Classic ReCast)

Greg interviews old friend of the podcast Rikker Dockum, Thai language expert extraordinaire about the Thai Royal Society, an organization dedicated to overseeing, promoting and regulating the Thai language. Rikker begins by explaining that he actually wrote his undergraduate thesis on the Society more than 20 years ago, so he's a longstanding follower of their work. He notes that it originally modeled itself after the French Academy, which, among other things, develops French words for English equivalents. For instance, Greg brings up the issue of the word 'computer,' which is typically spoken in Thai as 'com-pu-TER,' even though the Institute has specified a true Thai word for the computer. Rikker goes through the etymology of the word, but Greg asks whether the work of the Institute is even necessary if people don't adopt the words they come up with. Rikker defends the use of public funds for work codifying 'official' Thai, noting that were it left to the private marketplace, the work would never get done. The old friends continue their conversation about the Institute, emphasizing the need for such an organization for a language like Thai, which is vital to the history and culture of Thailand, but plays little role outside the country. Very few languages in the world are so popularly dominant that their continued preservation is assured, and unfortunately, Thai language is not one of them. Don't forget that Patrons get the ad-free version of the show as well as swag and other perks. And we'll keep our Facebook, Twitter, and LINE accounts active so you can send us comments, questions, or whatever you want to share.

You can listen to Linguist Rikker Dockum on the Royal Institute's Thai Language Oversight [S8.E33] (Classic ReCast) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Linguist Rikker Dockum on the Royal Institute's Thai Language Oversight [S8.E33] (Classic ReCast) is an episode from The Bangkok Podcast | Life in Thailand's Buzzing Capital by Greg Jorgensen & Ed Knuth.

This episode is 50:39 long.

This episode was published on Feb 24, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Bangkok Podcast | Life in Thailand's Buzzing Capital when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.