Thai language

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Thai
ภาษาไทย phasa thai 
Pronunciation: IPA: pʰaːsaːtʰaj
Spoken in: Thailand
Total speakers: 60-65 million 
Ranking: 24
Language family: Tai-Kadai
 Kam-Tai
  Be-Tai
   Tai-Sek
    Tai
     Southwestern
      East Central
       Chiang Saeng
        Thai 
Official status
Official language of: Thailand
Regulated by: The Royal Institute
Language codes
ISO 639-1: th
ISO 639-2: tha
ISO 639-3: tha
Indic script
 This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

The Thai language (ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration: p̣hās̄ʹāthịy; IPA: [pʰaːsaːtʰaj]), is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. The Tai-Kadai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and some linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian, or Sino-Tibetan language families. It is a tonal and analytic language. The combination of tonality, a complex orthography, relational markers and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for those who do not already speak a related language.

Contents

[edit] Languages and dialects

Standard Thai, also known as Central Thai or Siamese, is the official language of Thailand, spoken by about 65 million people (1990) including speakers of Bangkok Thai (although the latter is sometimes considered as a separate dialect). Khorat Thai is spoken by about 400,000 (1984) in Nakhon Ratchasima; it occupies a linguistic position somewhere between Central Thai and Isan on a dialect continuum, and may be considered a variant or dialect of either.

In addition to Standard Thai, Thailand is home to other related Tai languages, including:

Statistics are from Ethnologue 2003-10-4.

Many of these languages are spoken by larger numbers outside of Thailand. Most speakers of dialects and minority languages speak Central Thai as well, since it is the language used in schools and universities all across the kingdom.

Standard Thai is composed of several distinct registers, forms for different social contexts:

  • Street Thai: informal, without polite terms of address, as used between close relatives and friends.(ภาษาพูด)
  • Elegant Thai: official and written version, includes respectful terms of address; used in simplified form in newspapers.(ภาษาเขียน)
  • Rhetorical Thai: used for public speaking.
  • Religious Thai (heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Pāli) used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks.
  • Royal Thai: (influenced by Khmer) used when addressing members of the royal family or describing their activities. (ราชาศัพท์)

Many Thais can speak at only the first and second levels, though they will understand the others.

[edit] Script

Main article: Thai alphabet

The Thai alphabet is derived from the Khmer alphabet (อักขระเขมร), which is modeled after the Brahmic script from the Indic family. Much like the Burmese adopted the Mon script (which also has Indic origins), the Thais adopted and modified Khmer script to create their own writing system. While the oldest known inscription in the Khmer language dates from 611 AD, inscriptions in Thai writing began to appear around 1292 AD. Notable features include:

  1. It is an abugida script, in which the implicit vowel is a short /a/ for consonants standing alone and a short /o/ if the initial consonant or cluster is followed by another consonant.
  2. Tone markers are placed above the initial consonant of a syllable or on the last consonant of an initial consonant cluster.
  3. Vowels associated with consonants are nonsequential: they can be located before, after, above or below their associated consonant, or in a combination of these positions.

The latter in particular causes problems for computer encoding and text rendering.

[edit] Transliteration

There is no universal standard for transliterating Thai into English. For example, the name of King Rama IX, the present monarch, is transliterated variously as Bhumibol, Phumiphon, or many other versions. Guide books, text books and dictionaries may each follow different systems. For this reason, most language courses recommend that learners master the Thai alphabet. In scholarly usage, French scholars tend to romanize Thai with a letter-for-letter transcription according to the original Sanskrit value of the characters. Anglophone scholars generally prefer either a simplified phonetic rendering or some variation on the International Phonetic Alphabet. This article uses a simplified IPA system which does not indicate tone or vowel length.

The Thai Royal Institute [1] publishes sets of rules for transliterating Thai words into the Roman alphabet and vice versa (the Royal Thai General System of Transcription), but these are far from universally applied.

The ISO published an international standard for the transliteration of Thai into Roman script in September 2003 (ISO 11940) [2].

From Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, there is an online tool available which romanizes Thai texts according to the Royal Institute system, see [3].

[edit] Grammar

From the perspective of linguistic typology, Thai can be considered to be an analytic language. The word order is Subject Verb Object, although the subject is often omitted. Thai pronominal system varies according to the sex and relative status of speaker and audience.

[edit] Adjectives

Adjectives follow the noun. A duplicated adjective is used to mean "very" (with the first occurrence at a higher pitch) or "rather" (with both at the same pitch), e.g. คนอ้วนๆ (khon uan uan, IPA: [kʰon uan uan]) "a very/rather fat person." (Higbie 187-188)

Comparatives take the form "A X กว่า B" (kwa, IPA: [kwaː]), A is more X than B. The superlative is expressed as "A X ที่สุด" (thisut, IPA: [tʰiːsut]), A is most X.

[edit] Verbs

Verbs do not inflect (i.e. do not change with person, tense, voice, mood or number) nor are there any participles. Duplication conveys the idea of doing the verb intensively. The passive voice is indicated by the insertion of ถูก (thuk, IPA: [tʰuːk])) before the verb. For example:

  • เขาถูกตี IPA: [kʰǎw tʰuːk tiː], He is hit.

Tense is conveyed by tense markers before or after the verb: กำลัง (kamlang, IPA: [kamlaŋ]) before the verb for ongoing action (like English -ing form) or อยู่ (yu, IPA: [juː]) after the verb for the present; For example:

  • เขากำลังวิ่ง IPA: [kʰǎw kamlaŋ wiŋ], or
  • เขาวิ่งอยู่ IPA: [kʰǎw wiŋ juː], He is running.

Future can be indicated by จะ (cha, IPA: [tɕaʔ]) before the verb. For example:

  • เขาจะวิ่ง IPA: [kʰǎw tɕaʔ wiŋ], He will run, He is going to run

Past can be indicated by ได้ (dai, IPA: [daːj]) before the verb (or by a time expression). However, แล้ว (laew, IPA: [lɛːw]) is more often used to indicate the past tense by being placed behind the verb. Or, both ได้ and แล้ว are put together to form the past tense expression, i.e. Subject + ได้ + Verb + แล้ว. For example:

  • เขาได้กิน IPA: [kʰǎw daːj kin], He ate
  • เขากินแล้ว IPA: [kʰǎw kin lɛːw], He (already) ate or He's already eaten
  • เขาได้กินแล้ว IPA: [kʰǎw daːj kin lɛːw], He (already) ate or He's already eaten

[edit] Adverbs

There is no morphological distinction between adverbs and adjectives. Many words can be used in either function. Intensity can be expressed by a duplicated word. Adverbs usually follow the verb.

[edit] Nouns

Nouns are uninflected and have no gender; there are no plural forms or articles. Plurals are expressed by adding "nouns of multitude" (ลักษณนาม) or classifiers in the form of noun-number-classifier, e.g. "teacher five person" for "five teachers".

While in English, such classifiers are usually absent ("four chairs") or optional ("two bottles of beer" or "two beers"), a classifier is almost always used in Thai (hence "chair four item" and "beer two bottle").

[edit] Pronouns

Subject pronouns are often omitted, while nicknames are often used where English would use a pronoun. There are specialised pronouns in the royal and sacred Thai languages. The following are appropriate for conversational use:

word RTGS IPA meaning
ผม phom [pʰǒm] I/me (masculine; formal)
ดิฉัน dichan [dìːtɕʰán]) I/me (feminine; formal)
ฉัน chan [tɕʰǎn] I/me (masculine or feminine; informal)
คุณ khun [kʰun] you (polite)
เธอ thoe [tʰɤː] you (informal),she (informal)
เรา rao [raw] we, I/me(casual)
เขา khao [kʰǎw] he/she
มัน man [man] it
พวกเขา phuak-khao [pʰûak kʰǎw] they
พี่ phi [pʰîː] older brother, sister, cousin (also often used loosely for older non-relatives)
น้อง nong [nɔ́ːŋ] younger brother, sister, cousin (also often used loosely for younger non-relatives)

พวก phuak [pʰûak] can be used as a prefix to make other words plural e.g. phuak-phom พวกผม (we, masculine)

[edit] Particles

The particles are often untranslatable words added to the end of a sentence to indicate respect, a request, encouragement or other moods (similar to the use of intonation in English), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in written Thai. The most common particles indicating respect are ครับ (khrap, IPA [kʰrap] with a high tone) for a man, and ค่ะ (kha, IPA [kʰa]with a falling tone) for a woman; these can also be used to indicate an affirmative.

Other common particles are:

word RTGS IPA meaning
จ๊ะ cha [tɕaʔ] indicating a request
จ้ะ, จ้า or จ๋า cha [tɕaː] indicating emphasis
ละ or ล่ะ la [laʔ] indicating emphasis
สิ si [siʔ] indicating emphasis or an imperative
นะ na [naʔ] softening; indicating a request

[edit] Phonology

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for a pronunciation key.

[edit] Tones

There are five phonemic tones: middle, low, high, rising and falling. The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA.

Tone Thai Phonemic Phonetic English
high น้า /náː/ [naː˧˥] aunt/uncle(younger than your parents)
mid นา /nāː/ [naː˥˧] a paddy
low หน่า /nàː/ [naː˧˩] (a nickname)
rising หนา /nǎː/ [naː˨˩˧] thick
falling หน้า /nâː/ [naː˥˩] face

Tones are indicated in the written script by a combination of the class of the initial consonant (high, mid or low), vowel length (long or short), closing consonant (unvoiced/plosive or voiced/sonorant) and sometimes one of four tone marks. The tonal rules are shown in the following chart:

tone of syllable initial consonant
Mark Thai RTGS syllable composition high class mid class low class
(เปล่า) (none) long vowel or vowel plus sonorant rising mid mid
(เปล่า) (none) long vowel plus plosive low low falling
(เปล่า) (none) short vowel at end or plus plosive low low high
–่ ไม้เอก mai ek any low low falling
–้ ไม้โท mai tho any falling falling high
–๊ ไม้ตรี mai tri any high high high
–๋ ไม้จัตวา mai chattawa any rising rising rising

The letters ห (high class) and sometimes อ (mid class) are used as silent letters before another consonant to produce the correct tone. In polysyllabic words, an initial high class consonant with an implicit vowel renders the following syllable also high class.

There are a few exceptions to this system, notably the pronouns chan and khao, which are both pronounced with a high tone rather than the rising tone indicated by the script (in an informal conversation; generally when these words are recited or read in public, they are pronounced in rising tone).

[edit] Consonants

Thai distinguishes among three voice/aspiration patterns for plosive consonants:

  • unvoiced, unaspirated
  • unvoiced, aspirated
  • voiced, unaspirated

Where English has only a distinction between the voiced, unaspirated /b/ and the unvoiced, aspirated /p/, Thai distinguishes a third sound which is neither voiced nor aspirated, which occurs in English only as an allophone of /p/, approximately the sound of the p in "spin." There is similarly an alveolar /t/, /tʰ/, /d/ triplet. In the velar series there is a /k/, /kʰ/ pair and in the postalveolar series the /tɕ/, /tɕʰ/ pair.

In each cell below, the first line indicates International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the second indicates the Thai characters in initial position (more letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation).

  Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive [ p ]
ป		 [ pʰ ]
ผ,พ,ภ		 [ b ]
บ		   [ t ]
ฏ,ต		 [ tʰ ]
ฐ,ฑ*,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ		 [ d ]
ฎ,ฑ*,ด		     [ k ]
ก		 [ kʰ ]
ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ		   [ ʔ ]
อ**
Nasal   [ m ]
ม		     [ n ]
ณ,น		       [ ŋ ]
ง		  
Fricative   [ f ]
ฝ,ฟ		 [ s ]
ซ,ศ,ษ,ส		         [ h ]
ห,ฮ
Affricate       [ tɕ ]
จ		 [ tɕʰ ]
ฉ, ช, ฌ		      
Trill       [ r ]
ร		        
Approximant         [ j ]
ญ,ย		   [ w ]
ว		  
Lateral
approximant		       [ l ]
ล,ฬ		        
* ฑ can be pronounced as [tʰ] or [d] depended on Thai words.
** The glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent อ before a vowel.

[edit] Vowels

The basic vowels of the Thai language, from front to back and close to open, are given in the following table. The top entry in every cell is the symbol from the International phonetic alphabet, the second entry gives the spelling in the Thai alphabet, where a dash (–) indicates the position of the initial consonant after which the vowel is pronounced. A second dash indicates that a final consonant must follow.

  Front Back
unrounded unrounded rounded
short long short long short long
Close [ i ]
-ิ		 [ iː ]
-ี		 [ ɯ ]
-ึ		 [ ɯː ]
-ื		 [ u ]
-ุ		 [ uː ]
-ู
Close-mid [ e ]
เ-ะ		 [ eː ]
เ-		 [ ɤ ]
เ-อะ		 [ ɤː ]
เ-อ		 [ o ]
โ-ะ		 [ oː ]
โ-
Open-mid [ ɛ ]
แ-ะ		 [ ɛː ]
แ-		     [ ɔ ]
เ-าะ		 [ ɔː ]
-อ
Open [ a ]
-ะ, -ั		 [ aː ]
-า		        

The vowels each exist in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming unrelated words in Thai, but usually transliterated the same: เขา (khao) means he or she, while ขาว (khao) means white.

The long-short pairs are as follows:

Long Short
Thai IPA Explanation Thai IPA Explanation
–า aː a in "father" –ะ a u in "nut"
–ี iː ee in "see" –ิ i y in "greedy"
–ู uː ue in "blue" –ุ u oo in "look"
เ– eː a in "lame" เ–ะ e e in "set"
แ– ɛː a in "ham" แ–ะ ɛ a in "at"
–ื ɯː u in French "dur" (long) –ึ ɯ u in French "du" (short)
เ–อ ɤː u in "burn" (long) เ–อะ ɤ u in "burn" (short)
โ– oː ow in "bowl" โ–ะ o oa in "boat"
–อ ɔː aw in "raw" เ–าะ ɔ o in "for"

The basic vowels can be combined into diphthongs as follows:

Long Short
Thai IPA Explanation Thai IPA Explanation
–าย aːj eye in "eye" ไ–, ใ–, ไ–ย aj I in "I"
–าว aːw ao in "Lao" เ–า aw ow in "cow"
เ–ีย iːa ea in "ear" (long) เ–ียะ ia ea in "ear"
– – – –ิว iw ew in "new" (short)
–ัว uːa ewe in "newer" –ัวะ ua ure in "pure" (short)
–ูย uːj ooee in "cooee!" –ุย uj uey in "bluey"
เ–ว eːw a in "lame" + o in "poke" เ–็ว ew e in "set" + o in "poke"
แ–ว ɛːw a in "ham" + o in "poke" – – –
เ–ือ ɯːa u in French "dur" + a in "father" – – –
เ–ย ɤːj u in "burn" + y in "yes" – – –
–อย ɔːj oy in "boy" (long) – – –
โ–ย oːj oe in "Chloe" – – –

Additionally, there are three triphthongs, all of which are long:

Long
Thai IPA Explanation
เ–ียว iow ee + aow
–วย uɛj oo + I in "I"
เ–ือย ɯɛj u in French "dur" + I in "I"

For a guide to written vowels, see the Thai alphabet page.

[edit] Vocabulary

Other than compound words and words of foreign origin, most words are monosyllabic. Historically, words have most often been borrowed from Sanskrit and Pāli; Buddhist terminology is particularly indebted to these. Old Khmer has also contributed its share, especially in regard to royal court terminology. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the English language has had the greatest influence. Also, many Teochew Chinese words are used, some replacing existing Thai words.

Thailand also uses the distinctive Thai six hour clock in addition to the 24 hour clock.

[edit] References

  • Higbie, James and Thinsan, Snea. Thai Reference Grammar: The Structure of Spoken Thai. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2003. ISBN 974-8304-96-5.
  • Segaller, Denis. Thai Without Tears: A Guide to Simple Thai Speaking. Bangkok: BMD Book Mags, 1999. ISBN 974-87115-2-8.
  • Smyth, David. Thai: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-22614-7.
  • Nanthana Ronnakiat, Dr. (นันทนา รณเกียรติ, ดร.) Phonetics in Principle and Practical. (สัทศาสตร์ภาคทฤษฎีและภาคปฏิบัติ) Bangkok: Thammasat University, 2005. ISBN 974-571-929-3.

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Thai language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wiktionary
Thai language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
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