ภาษาไทย

Introduction

This section is intended as a reference and aid to help recognize and determine the transcription of certain Thai words in the lexicon. There are many exceptions and rules that are not mentioned. The pronunciation of a consonant often differs depending on whether it stands at the beginning of a word or syllable, or at the end. In our reference list this is indicated by putting the pronunciation at the beginning of a syllable, followed by the pronunciation of the consonant at the end of a syllable. Sometimes consonants are written just once but pronounced twice. Some vowels are pronounced but not written. This mainly applies to the vowels o and a and are called ‘silent vowels’.

Thai is a tonal language and there are five tones namely high, low, middle, falling and rising. The meaning of a word changes according to its tone. These details are lost when transcribing into Latin script. So seemingly similar words in Latin script are different when read in Thai script. Consonants belong to a certain class of tone. The word-tone will be determined by this class and the changes to it are influenced by the vowels and consonants following it, or by ‘tone marks’.  In the section ‘tone rules’ the expression a ‘living sound’ refers to a sound that has either an open syllable ending on a long vowel or vowel combination (e.g. phaa, pai) or a closed syllable which end sound is nasal and reverberates (e.g. phaan, ping). With a ‘dead sound’ we refer to a sound that has a closed syllable ending with an occlusive and does not reverberate (e.g. phat) or a sound that has an open syllable ending on a short vowel that does not reverberate, possibly with a glottal stop (e.g. dja). See also comparative language list. 回

Consonants

 

Thai names of the Consonant Alphabet :

 

 

See also Photographic Alphabet and Alphabet Postage Stamps. 回

 

Vowels

Names of the 21 graphemes (marks or signs) used to create phonemes (vowel sounds or vowel-consonant combinations) in the Thai Alphabet :

 

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Numerals

๑ ..... 1 ๒ ..... 2 ๓ ..... 3 ๔ ..... 4 ๕ ..... 5

๖ ..... 6 ๗ ..... 7 ๘ ..... 8 ๙ ..... 9 ๐ ..... 0

Names of the Thai numerals and pronunciation of Thai numbers :

 

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Peculiarities

รร ..... an (double consonant), am (when รรม)

ฤ ..... reu (re), ri (comb. vowel/cons.)

ฤา ..... reuh (reua)

ฦ ..... leu (le) (comb. vowel/cons.)

ฦา ..... leuh

อ็ ..... mai tai ku (ไม้ไต่คู้, short o or shortens any sound)

อ์ ..... mai tan takaat, kahran (ไม้ทัณฑฆาต,การันต์, silences or changes final sound)

ฯ ..... pai yaan noi (ไปยาลน้อย, used with abbreviations, ฯลฯ = etc.)

ๆ ..... mai yamok, yamok (ไม้ยมก, ยมก, used for repetition)

ทร ..... s-sound (combination of consonants)

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Tones (marks and rules)

    Tone marks:

อ่ ..... mai ek  (ไม้เอก)

อ้ ..... mai toh (ไม้โท)

อ๊ ..... mai trih (ไม้ตรี)

อ๋ ..... mai chatawah (ไม้จัตวา)

Tone rules:

High tone class	Midtone class	Low tone class
อักษรสูง (๑๑)	อักษรกลาง (๙)	อักษรต่ำ (๒๔) คู่/เดี่ยว
ข (ฃ) ฉ ฐ ถ ผ ฝ ศ ษ ส ห	ก จ ฎ ฏ ด ต บ ป อ	ค (ฅ) ฆ ช ซ ฌ ฑ ฒ ท ธ พ ฟ ภ ฮ ง ญ น ย ณ ร ล ว ม ฬ
mnemonic:	mnemonic:	mnemonics:
ฃวดของฉันใส่ถุงผ้าฝากให้เศรษฐี	ไก่จิกเด็กตายเฎ็กฏายบนปากโอ่ง	See note below*
living sound = rising tone dead sound = low ton	living sound = mid tone dead sound = low tone	living sound = mid tone dead sound (short vowel) = high tone dead sound (long vowel) = falling tone
อ่ = low tone อ้ = falling tone	อ่ = low tone อ้ = falling tone อ๊ = high tone อ๋ = rising tone	อ่ = falling tone อ้ = high tone

*Note: Low tone class consonants (fig.) can be divided into two groups, separating consonants that have an equivalent sounding consonant in either the high or mid tone class, from those that don't.

The first group of 14 consonants, with 7 different sounds, is referred to as akson tam khoo (อักษรต่ำคู่), i.e. ‘associated low consonants’, the second group of 10 consonants is referred to as akson tam diaw (อักษรต่ำเดี่ยว), i.e. ‘single low consonants’.

Hence, there are two mnemonics for the low tone class consonants, one for each group, i.e. พ่อค้าฟันทองซื้อช้างฮ่อ for the associated low consonants. This mnemonic does however not mention ฅ, ฆ, ฌ, ฑ, ฒ, ธ and ภ, as these are consonants with a similar sound as those already used in the sentence.

Yet, there is also another —though incomplete— mnemonic, that is sometimes used and that includes all letters apart from ฑ [and sometimes ท], i.e. เพชฌฆาตเฒ่าใช้โซ่ใหญ่ฟาดธงรูปนกฮูกล้มครืนในงานภาณยักษ์[ที่วัดโมฬีโลก] .

For the second group of 10 single low consonants, the mnemonic is งูใหญ่นอนอยู่ ณ ริมวัดโมฬีโลก . It may, however, be sufficient to learn just the consonants of the high tone and midtone classes (fig.), as all the remaining consonants automatically belong to the low tone class. 回

    Tongue twisters:

Following famous Thai tongue twisters show the importance of the tones and the ability to be able to read and write Thai as both the tone, meaning and correct pronunciation (i.e. long or short vowel, aspirated or non-aspirated consonant, etc.) of the words become immediately clear from their spelling.

Mai mai mai mai mai? (ไม้ใหม่ไม่ไหม้ไหม) ‘New wood doesn't burn?’ or ‘Doesn't new wood burn?’

Tones and rules are:

ไม้ : ม Low tone class + อ้ (ไม้โท) = High

ใหม่ : ห High tone class + อ่ (ไม้เอก) = Low

ไม่ : ม Low tone class + อ่ (ไม้เอก) = Falling

ไหม้ : ห High tone class + อ้ (ไม้โท) = Falling

ไหม : ห High tone class + Living Sound = Rising

Alternatively: Mai mai mai mai, chai mai? (ไม้ใหม่ไม่ไหม้ใช่ไหม) ‘New wood doesn't burn, does it?’ or ‘Does the new wood not burn?’

Tones and rules are:

ไม้ : ม Low tone class + อ้ (ไม้โท) = High

ใหม่ : ห High tone class + อ่ (ไม้เอก) = Low

ไม่ : ม Low tone class + อ่ (ไม้เอก) = Falling

ไหม้ : ห High tone class + อ้ (ไม้โท) = Falling

ใช่ : ช Low tone class + อ่ (ไม้เอก) = Falling

ไหม : ห High tone class + Living Sound = Rising

 

Khrai khaai khai gai/kai? (ใครขายไข่ไก่) ‘Who sells chicken eggs?’

Tones and rules are:

ใคร : ค Low tone class + Living Sound = Middle

ขาย : ห High tone class + Living Sound = Rising

ไข่ : ข High tone class + อ่ (ไม้เอก) = Low

ไก่ : ก Midtone class + อ่ (ไม้เอก) = Low

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