why can't Thais pronounce the letter "V"?

Question

They will say "win"cent instead of "vin"cent

Answer 1

I can pronounce the letter "V" but that's because I've been speaking English since I was 3.

In Thai, our alphabet lacks the letter "V" but we have "W" (waw-waen). Likewise, we lack letters to represent the sounds for "X," "Sh," and "Th". You can test this by asking a Thai person to say, "Excuse the valet, he should park over there."

ADDENDUM: Isaac (Answerer 1), your answer is so wrong. Then explain why the Tibetan greet each other by sticking out their tongues. There is no taboo in Thai against sticking out one's tongue, other than as a teasing gesture borrowed from the West.

The answer is simple linguistics. If a language lacks a certain batch of sounds, people never grow accustomed to pronouncing them and it becomes difficult to learn later in life (for most folks, anyway).

Anglophones, try rolling your R's and shifting tones and inflections to your pronunciation of vowels (though in Thai, the tone is nominally attributed to the consonant). Then try to wrap your tongue around the 32 vowels and dipthongs we use.

Answer 2

Because saying the letter V requires more showing of the tongue. Asians culture insists on not showing it.