Bangkok won’t be renamed ‘Krung Thep Maha Nakhon’

No, English speakers and others using the Roman alphabet aren’t going to have to start calling the Thai capital by its local name, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, and drop the more familiar “Bangkok”.

That’s the message from Thailand’s Royal Society, which is responsible for academic and linguistic standards, after a seemingly innocuous change in punctuation in official guidance sparked a flurry of speculation that the city’s name was being changed.