The Thai language has extraordinarily rich, varied, and multi-leveled vocabularies for sexual anatomy, behaviors, identities, and attitudes. The authors of this in-depth study deal directly with the language of sex in Thailand in all its raw, sometimes humorous, and often derogatory immediacy. The registers of spoken Thai (phasa phut), the language of the marketplace (phasa talat), official discourse (phasa ratchakan), literary usages (phasa khian), and technical and academic vocabularies (phasa wichakan) are all covered.

Much more than a vocabulary list, this book engages the...