| Thai |
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|---|---|
| Type | Abugida |
| Languages | Thai |
| Creator | King Ramkhamhaeng the Great |
| Time period | 1283–present |
| Parent systems | |
| ISO 15924 | Thai, 352 |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| Unicode alias | Thai |
| Unicode range | U+0E00–U+0E7F |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols. | |
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Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย, àksǒn thai), is used to write the Thai language and other, minority, languages in Thailand. It has forty-four consonants (Thai: พยัญชนะ, phayanchaná), fifteen vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sàrà) that combine into at least twenty-eight vowel forms, and four tone marks (Thai: วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, wannayúk or wannayút).
Although commonly referred to as the "Thai alphabet", the character set is in fact not a true alphabet but an abugida, a writing system in which each consonant may invoke an inherent vowel sound, described as an implied 'a' or 'o'. Consonants are written horizontally from left to right, with vowels arranged above, below, to the left or to the right of the corresponding consonant or in a combination of those positions.
Thai has its own set of Thai numerals which are based on the Hindu Arabic numeral system (Thai: ตัวเลขไทย, tua lek thai), but the standard western Hindu-Arabic numerals (Thai: ตัวเลขฮินดูอารบิก, tua lek hindu arabik) are also commonly used.
Contents |
The Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script (Thai: อักขระเขมร, akkhara khamen), which is a southern Brahmic style of writing called Vatteluttu. Vatteluttu was also commonly referred to as the Pallava script by scholars of Southeast Asian studies such as George Coedes. According to tradition it was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great (Thai: พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช).
Thai letters do not have small and capital forms like the Roman alphabet. Space between words is not used, except in certain linguistically motivated cases.
Minor pauses in sentences may be marked by a comma (Thai: จุลภาค or ลูกน้ำ, chun la phâk or lûk nám), and major pauses by a period (Thai: มหัพภาค or จุด, ma hàp phâk or chùt), but most often are marked by a blank space (Thai: วรรค, wák). A bird's eye ๏ (Thai: ตาไก่, ta kài, officially called ฟองมัน, fong man) formerly indicated paragraphs, but is now obsolete.
A khomut ๛ (Thai: โคมูตร) can be used to mark the end of a chapter or document.
Thai writing also uses quotation marks (Thai: อัญประกาศ, an-yá-prà-kàt) and parentheses (round brackets) (Thai: วงเล็บ, wong lép), but not square brackets or braces. Moreover, many consonants from Sanskrit and Pali loanwords are generally silent. The spelling of the words resembles Sanskrit or Pali orthography:
There are 44 consonants representing 21 distinct consonant sounds. Duplicate consonants represent different Sanskrit and Pali consonants pronounced identically in Thai. The consonants are divided, as shown in the table below, into three classes — low (Thai: เสียงต่ำ, siang tam), middle (Thai: เสียงกลาง, siang klang) and high (Thai: เสียงสูง, siang sung) — which determine the tone of the following vowel. There are in addition four consonant-vowel combination characters not included in the tally of 44.
To aid learning, each consonant is traditionally associated with an acrophonic Thai word that either starts with the same sound, or features it prominently. For example, the name of the letter ข is kho khai (ข ไข่), in which kho is the sound it represents, and khai (ไข่) is a word which starts with the same sound and means "egg".
Two of the consonants, ฃ (kho khuat) and ฅ (kho khon), are no longer used in written Thai, but still appear on many keyboards and in character sets. Some say[1] that when the first Thai typewriter was developed by Edwin Hunter McFarland in 1892, there was simply no space for all characters, thus two had to be left out. Also, neither of these two letters correspond to a Sanskrit or Pali letter, and each of them, being a modified form of the letter that precedes it (compare ข and ค), has the same pronunciation and the same consonant class as the preceding letter (somewhat like the European long s). This makes them redundant. Set in 1890's Siam, a 2006 film titled in Thai: ฅนไฟบิน Flying Fire Person (in English: Dynamite Warrior), uses ฅ kho khon to spell ฅน Person. Compare entry for ฅ in table below, where person is spelled คน.
Equivalents for romanisation are shown in the table below. Many consonants are pronounced differently at the beginning and at the end of a syllable. The entries in columns initial and final indicate the pronunciation for that consonant in the corresponding positions in a syllable. Where the entry is '-', the consonant may not be used to close a syllable. Where a combination of consonants ends a written syllable, only the first is pronounced; possible closing consonant sounds are limited to 'k', 'm', 'n', 'ng', 'p' and 't'.
Although an official standard for romanisation is the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) defined by the Royal Thai Institute, many publications use different Romanisation systems. In daily practice, a bewildering variety of Romanisations are used, making it difficult to know how to pronounce a word, or to judge if two words (e.g. on a map and a street sign) are actually the same. For more precise information, an equivalent from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is given as well.
Each consonant is assigned to a "class" (low, middle, or high), which plays a role in determining the tone with which the syllable is pronounced. The class designations of the Thai letters are based on the phonetic qualities (i.e., presence or absence of voicing or aspiration) of the Indic letters to which they correspond.
| Symbol | Name | Royal Thai | IPA | Class | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thai | RTGS (meaning) | Initial | Final | Initial | Final | ||
| ก | ก ไก่ | ko kai (chicken) | k | k | [k] | [k̚] | mid |
| ข | ข ไข่ | kho khai (egg) | kh | k | [kʰ] | [k̚] | high |
| ฃ | ฃ ขวด | kho khuat (bottle) [obsolete] | kh | k | [kʰ] | [k̚] | high |
| ค | ค ควาย | kho khwai (water buffalo) | kh | k | [kʰ] | [k̚] | low |
| ฅ | ฅ คน | kho khon (person) [obsolete] | kh | k | [kʰ] | [k̚] | low |
| ฆ | ฆ ระฆัง | kho ra-khang (bell) | kh | k | [kʰ] | [k̚] | low |
| ง | ง งู | ngo ngu (snake) | ng | ng | [ŋ] | [ŋ] | low |
| จ | จ จาน | cho chan (plate) | ch | t | [tɕ] | [t̚] | mid |
| ฉ | ฉ ฉิ่ง | cho ching (cymbals) | ch | – | [tɕʰ] | – | high |
| ช | ช ช้าง | cho chang (elephant) | ch | t | [tɕʰ] | [t̚] | low |
| ซ | ซ โซ่ | so so (chain) | s | t | [s] | [t̚] | low |
| ฌ | ฌ เฌอ | cho choe (tree) | ch | – | [tɕʰ] | – | low |
| ญ | ญ หญิง | yo ying (woman) | y | n | [j] | [n] | low |
| ฎ | ฎ ชฎา | do cha-da (headdress) | d | t | [d] | [t̚] | mid |
| ฏ | ฏ ปฏัก | to pa-tak (goad, javelin) | t | t | [t̚] | [t] | mid |
| ฐ | ฐ ฐาน | tho than (pedestal) | th | t | [tʰ] | [t̚] | high |
| ฑ | ฑ มณโฑ | tho montho (Mandodari, character from Ramayana) | th | t | [tʰ] | [t̚] | low |
| ฒ | ฒ ผู้เฒ่า | tho phu-thao (elder) | th | t | [tʰ] | [t̚] | low |
| ณ | ณ เณร | no nen (samanera) | n | n | [n] | [n] | low |
| ด | ด เด็ก | do dek (child) | d | t | [d] | [t̚] | mid |
| ต | ต เต่า | to tao (turtle) | t | t | [t] | [t̚] | mid |
| ถ | ถ ถุง | tho thung (sack) | th | t | [tʰ] | [t̚] | high |
| ท | ท ทหาร | tho thahan (soldier) | th | t | [tʰ] | [t̚] | low |
| ธ | ธ ธง | tho thong (flag) | th | t | [tʰ] | [t̚] | low |
| น | น หนู | no nu (mouse) | n | n | [n] | [n] | low |
| บ | บ ใบไม้ | bo baimai (leaf) | b | p | [b] | [p̚] | mid |
| ป | ป ปลา | po pla (fish) | p | p | [p] | [p̚] | mid |
| ผ | ผ ผึ้ง | pho phueng (bee) | ph | – | [pʰ] | – | high |
| ฝ | ฝ ฝา | fo fa (lid) | f | – | [f] | – | high |
| พ | พ พาน | pho phan (tray) | ph | p | [pʰ] | [p̚] | low |
| ฟ | ฟ ฟัน | fo fan (teeth) | f | p | [f] | [p̚] | low |
| ภ | ภ สำเภา | pho sam-phao (sailboat) | ph | p | [pʰ] | [p̚] | low |
| ม | ม ม้า | mo ma (horse) | m | m | [m] | [m] | low |
| ย | ย ยักษ์ | yo yak (giant, yaksha) | y | y | [j] | [j] | low |
| ร | ร เรือ | ro ruea (boat) | r | n | [r] | [n] | low |
| ล | ล ลิง | lo ling (monkey) | l | n | [l] | [n] | low |
| ว | ว แหวน | wo waen (ring) | w | w | [w] | [w] | low |
| ศ | ศ ศาลา | so sala (pavilion Sala_(architecture)) | s | t | [s] | [t̚] | high |
| ษ | ษ ฤๅษี | so rue-si (hermit) | s | t | [s] | [t̚] | high |
| ส | ส เสือ | so suea (tiger) | s | t | [s] | [t̚] | high |
| ห | ห หีบ | ho hip (chest) | h | – | [h] | – | high |
| ฬ | ฬ จุฬา | lo chu-la (kite) | l | n | [l] | [n] | low |
| อ | อ อ่าง | o ang (basin) | * | – | [ʔ] | – | mid |
| ฮ | ฮ นกฮูก | ho nok-huk (owl) | h | – | [h] | – | low |
* อ is a special case in that at the beginning of a word it is used as a silent initial for syllables that start with a vowel (all vowels are written relative to a consonant — see below). The same symbol is used as a vowel in non-initial position.
The consonants can be organised by place and manner of articulation according to principles of the International Phonetic Association. Thai distinguishes among three voice/aspiration patterns for plosive consonants:
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),[2] the second indicates the Thai characters in initial position (several letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation). Note how the conventional alphabetic order shown in the table above follows roughly the table below, reading the coloured blocks from right to left and top to bottom.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | [m] ม |
[n] ณ,น |
[ŋ] ง |
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| Plosive | [p] ป |
[pʰ] ผ,พ,ภ |
[b] บ* |
[t] ฏ,ต |
[tʰ] ฐ,ฑ,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ |
[d] ฎ,ด* |
[k] ก |
[kʰ] ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ** |
[ʔ] อ*** |
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| Affricate | [tɕ] จ |
[tɕʰ] ฉ, ช, ฌ |
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| Fricative | [f] ฝ,ฟ |
[s] ซ,ศ,ษ,ส |
[h] ห,ฮ |
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| Trill | [r] ร |
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| Approximant | [j] ญ,ย |
[w] ว |
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| Lateral approximant |
[l] ล,ฬ |
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Although the overall 44 Thai consonants provide 21 sounds in case of initials, the case for finals is different. Only 8 ending sounds, as well as no ending sound, are available in Thai pronunciation. Among these consonants, excluding the disused ฃ and ฅ, seven (ฉ ฌ ผ ฝ ห อ ฮ) cannot be used as a final and the other 35 are grouped as following.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | [m] ม |
[n] ณ,ญ,น,ร,ล,ฬ |
[ŋ] ง |
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| Plosive | [p] บ,ป,พ,ฟ,ภ |
[t] จ,ช,ซ,ฎ,ฏ,ฐ,ฑ,ฒ, ด,ต,ท,ธ,ศ,ษ,ส |
[k] ก,ข,ค,ฆ |
[ʔ]* |
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| Affricate | ||||||||||
| Fricative | ||||||||||
| Trill | ||||||||||
| Approximant | [j] ย |
[w] ว |
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| Lateral approximant |
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Thai vowel sounds and diphthongs are written using a mixture of vowel symbols on a consonant base. Each vowel is shown in its correct position relative to a base consonant and sometimes a final consonant as well. Note that vowels can go above, below, left of or right of the consonant, or combinations of these places. If a vowel has parts before and after the initial consonant, and the syllable starts with a consonant cluster, the split will go around the whole cluster.
Twenty-one vowel symbol elements are traditionally named, which may appear alone or in combination to form compound symbols.
| Symbol | Name (Thai/RTGS) | Combinations | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ะ | วิสรรชนีย์ | Wisanchani (from Sanskrit visarjanīya) | ◌ะ; ◌ัวะ; เ◌ะ; เ◌อะ; เ◌าะ; เ◌ียะ; เ◌ือะ; แ◌ะ; โ◌ะ |
| ◌ั | ไม้หันอากาศ | Mai hanakat | ◌ั◌; ◌ัว; ◌ัวะ |
| ◌็ | ไม้ไต่คู้ | Mai tai khu | ◌็; ◌็อ◌; เ◌็◌; แ◌็◌ |
| า | ลากข้าง | Lak khang | ◌า; ◌า◌; ◌ำ; เ◌า; เ◌าะ |
| ◌ิ | พินทุอิ | Phinthu i | ◌ิ; เ◌ิ◌; ◌ี; ◌ี◌; เ◌ีย; เ◌ียะ; ◌ื◌; ◌ือ; เ◌ือ; เ◌ือะ |
| ◌̍ | ฝนทอง | Fon thong[1] | ◌ี; ◌ี◌; เ◌ีย; เ◌ียะ |
| ◌̎ | ฟันหนู | Fan nu[2] | ◌ื◌; ◌ือ; เ◌ือ; เ◌ือะ |
| ◌ํ | นิคหิต | Nikkhahit[3] | ◌ึ; ◌ึ◌ |
| ◌ุ | ตีนเหยียด | Tin yiat | ◌ุ; ◌ุ◌ |
| ◌ู | ตีนคู้ | Tin khu | ◌ู; ◌ู◌ |
| เ | ไม้หน้า | Mai na | เ◌; เ◌◌; เ◌็◌; เ◌อ; เ◌อ◌; เ◌อะ; เ◌า; เ◌าะ; เ◌ิ◌; เ◌ีย; เ◌ีย◌; เ◌ียะ; เ◌ือ; เ◌ือ◌; เ◌ือะ; แ◌; แ◌◌; แ◌็◌; แ◌ะ |
| โ | ไม้โอ | Mai o | โ◌; โ◌◌; โ◌ะ |
| ใ | ไม้ม้วน | Mai muan | ใ◌ |
| ไ | ไม้มลาย | Mai malai | ไ◌ |
| อ | ตัว อ | Tua o | ◌อ; ◌็อ◌; ◌ือ; เ◌อ; เ◌อ◌; เ◌อะ; เ◌ือ; เ◌ือะ |
| ย | ตัว ย | Tua yo | เ◌ีย; เ◌ีย◌; เ◌ียะ |
| ว | ตัว ว | Tua wo | ◌ัว; ◌ัวะ |
| ฤ | ตัว ฤ | Tua rue | ฤ |
| ฤๅ | ตัว ฤๅ | Tua rue | ฤๅ |
| ฦ | ตัว ฦ | Tua lue | ฦ |
| ฦๅ | ตัว ฦๅ | Tua lue | ฦๅ |
The inherent vowels are /a/ in open syllables (CV) and /o/ in closed syllables (CVC). For example, ถนน transcribes /tʰànǒn/ "road". There are a few exceptions in Pali loanwords, where the inherent vowel of an open syllable is /o/. The circumfix vowels, such as เ–าะ /ɔʔ/, encompass a preceding consonant with an inherent vowel. For example, /pʰɔʔ/ is written เพาะ, and /tɕʰapʰɔʔ/ "only" is written เฉพาะ.
Typographic ligature characters ฤ ฤๅ (plus ฦ ฦๅ, which are obsolete) are usually considered as vowels, the first being a short vowel sound, and the latter, long. As alphabetical entries, ฤ ฤๅ follow ร, and themselves can be read as a combination of consonant and vowel, equivalent to รึ (short), and รือ, (long) (and the obsolete pair as ลึ, ลือ) respectively. Moreover, ฤ can act as ริ as an integral part in many words mostly borrowed from Sanskrit such as กฤษณะ (kritsana, not kruetsana) ฤทธิ์ (rit, not ruet) กฤษดา (kritsada, not kruetsada), for example. It is also used to spell อังกฤษ angkrit English and ประเทศอังกฤษ Prathet angkrit England.
The pronunciation below is indicated by the International Phonetic Alphabet[2] and the Romanisation according to the Royal Thai Institute as well as several variant Romanisations often encountered. A very approximate equivalent is given for various regions of English speakers and surrounding areas. Dotted circles represent the positions of consonants or consonant clusters. The first one represents the initial consonant and the latter (if it exists) represents the final.
Ro han (ร หัน) is not usually considered a vowel and is not included in the following table. It represents the sara a /a/ vowel in certain Sanskrit loanwords and appears as ◌รร◌. When used without a final consonant (◌รร), /n/ is implied as the final consonant, giving [an].
| Short vowels | Long vowels | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Symbol | IPA | RTGS | Variants | Similar Sound (English RP pronunciation) |
Name | Symbol | IPA | RTGS | Variants | Similar Sound (English RP pronunciation) |
|||
| Simple vowels | ||||||||||||||
| สระอะ | Sara a | ◌ะ ◌ ◌ั◌ |
a | a | u | u in "nut" | สระอา | Sara a | ◌า ◌า◌ |
aː | a | ah, ar, aa | a in "father" | |
| สระอิ | Sara i | ◌ิ ◌ิ◌ |
i | i | y in "greedy" | สระอี | Sara i | ◌ี ◌ี◌ |
iː | i | ee, ii, y | ee in "see" | ||
| สระอึ | Sara ue | ◌ึ ◌ึ◌ |
ɯ | ue | eu, u, uh | u in French "du" (short) | สระอือ | Sara ue | ◌ือ ◌ื◌ |
ɯː | ue | eu, u | u in French "dur" (long) | |
| สระอุ | Sara u | ◌ุ ◌ุ◌ |
u | u | oo | oo in "look" | สระอู | Sara u | ◌ู ◌ู◌ |
uː | u | oo, uu | oo in "too" | |
| สระเอะ | Sara e | เ◌ะ เ◌็◌ |
e | e | e in "neck" | สระเอ | Sara e | เ◌ เ◌◌ |
eː | e | ay, a, ae, ai, ei | a in "lame" | ||
| สระแอะ | Sara ae | แ◌ะ แ◌็◌ |
ɛ | ae | aeh, a | a in "at" | สระแอ | Sara ae | แ◌ แ◌◌ |
ɛː | ae | a | a in "ham" | |
| สระโอะ | Sara o | โ◌ะ ◌◌ |
o | o | oa in "boat" | สระโอ | Sara o | โ◌ โ◌◌ |
oː | o | or, oh, ô | o in "go" | ||
| สระเอาะ | Sara o | เ◌าะ ◌็อ◌ |
ɔ | o | o, aw | o in "not" | สระออ | Sara o | ◌อ ◌อ◌ ◌◌[4] ◌็[5] |
ɔː | o | or, aw | aw in "saw" | |
| สระเออะ | Sara oe | เ◌อะ | ɤʔ | oe | eu | e in "the" | สระเออ | Sara oe | เ◌อ เ◌ิ◌ เ◌อ◌[6] |
ɤː | oe | er, eu, ur | u in "burn" | |
| Diphthongs | ||||||||||||||
| สระเอียะ | Sara ia | เ◌ียะ | iaʔ | ia | iah, ear, ie | ea in "ear" with glottal stop | สระเอีย | Sara ia | เ◌ีย เ◌ีย◌ |
iːa | ia | ear, ere, ie | ea in "ear" | |
| สระเอือะ | Sara uea | เ◌ือะ | ɯaʔ | uea | eua, ua | ure in "pure" | สระเอือ | Sara uea | เ◌ือ เ◌ือ◌ |
ɯːa | uea | eua, ua, ue | ure in "pure" | |
| สระอัวะ | Sara ua | ◌ัวะ | uaʔ | ua | ewe in "sewer" | สระอัว | Sara ua | ◌ัว ◌ว◌ |
u:a | ua | uar | ewe in "newer" | ||
| Phonetic diphthongs[7] | ||||||||||||||
| สระอิ + ว | Sara i + wo waen | ◌ิว | iu; iw | io | ew | ew in "new" | ||||||||
| สระเอะ + ว | Sara e + wo waen | เ◌็ว | eu; ew | eo | eu, ew | สระเอ + ว | Sara e + wo waen | เ◌ว | eːu; eːw | eo | eu, ew | ai + ow in "rainbow" | ||
| สระแอ + ว | Sara ae + wo waen | แ◌ว | ɛːu; ɛːw | aeo | aew, eo | a in "ham" + ow in "low" | ||||||||
| สระเอา | Sara ao[8] | เ◌า | au; aw | ao | aw, au, ow | ow in "cow" | สระอา + ว | Sara a + wo waen | ◌าว | aːu | ao | au | ow in "now" | |
| สระเอีย + ว | Sara ia + wo waen | เ◌ียว | iau; iaw | iao | eaw, iew, iow | io in "trio" | ||||||||
| สระอะ + ย | Sara a + yo yak | ◌ัย | ai; aj | ai | ay | i in "hi" | สระอา + ย | Sara a + yo yak | ◌าย | aːi; aːj | ai | aai, aay, ay | ye in "bye" | |
| สระไอ | Sara ai[9] | ใ◌, ไ◌ ไ◌ย[3] |
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| สระเอาะ + ย | Sara o + yo yak | ◌็อย | ɔi; ɔj | oi | oy | สระออ + ย | Sara o + yo yak | ◌อย | ɔːi; ɔːj | oi | oy | oy in "boy" | ||
| สระโอ + ย | Sara o + yo yak | โ◌ย | oːi; oːj | oi | oy | |||||||||
| สระอุ + ย | Sara u + yo yak | ◌ุย | ui; uj | ui | uy | |||||||||
| สระเออ + ย | Sara oe + yo yak | เ◌ย | ɤːi; ɤːj | oei | oey | u in "burn" + y in "boy" | ||||||||
| สระอัว + ย | Sara ua + yo yak | ◌วย | uai; uaj | uai | uay | uoy in "buoy" | ||||||||
| สระเอือ + ย | Sara uea + yo yak | เ◌ือย | ɯai; ɯaj | ueai | uai | |||||||||
| Extra vowels[10] | ||||||||||||||
| สระอำ | Sara am | ◌ำ | am | am | um | um in "sum" | ||||||||
| ฤ | Rue | ฤ | rɯ ri |
rue | ru, ri | rew in "grew", ry in "angry" | ฤๅ | Rue | ฤๅ | rɯː | rue | ruu | ||
| ฦ | Lue | ฦ | lɯ | lue | lu, li | lew in "blew" | ฦๅ | Lue | ฦๅ | lɯː | lue | lu | ||
Diacritics are used with the Thai alphabet to indicate modifications of the values of the letters.
Thai is a tonal language, and the script gives full information on the tones. Tones are realised in the vowels, but indicated in the script by a combination of the class of the initial consonant (high, mid or low), vowel length (long or short), closing consonant (plosive or sonorant) and, if present, one of four tone marks. The names and signs of the tone marks are derived from the numbers one, two, three and four in an Indic language. The rules for denoting tones are shown in the following chart:
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"None", that is, no tone marker, is used with the base accent (พื้นเสียง, pheun siang). Mai tri and mai chattawa are only used with mid-class consonants.
Two consonant characters (not diacritics) are used to modify the tone:
Exceptions where words are spelled with one tone but pronounced with another often occur in informal conversation (notably the pronouns ฉัน chan and เขา khao, which are both pronounced with a high tone rather than the rising tone indicated by the script). Generally, when such words are recited or read in public, they are pronounced as spelled.
Other diacritics are used to indicate short vowels and silent consonants:
| Symbol | Name | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thai | RTGS | ||
| –็ | ไม้ไต่คู้ | mai taikhu | shortens vowel |
| –์ | ทัณฑฆาต, การันต์ | thanthakhat, karan | indicates silent letter |
Fan nu means "rat teeth" and is thought as being placed in combination with short sara i and fong man to form other characters.
| Symbol | Name | Use | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thai | RTGS | ||
| –" | ฟันหนู | fan nu | combined with short sara i (–ิ) to make long sara ue (–ื) |
| combined with fong man (๏) to make ong mun fan nu ( ๏") | |||
| Symbol | Name | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thai | RTGS | ||
| ฯ | ไปยาลน้อย | pai-yan noi | marks formal phrase shortened by convention |
| ฯลฯ | ไปยาลใหญ่ | pai-yan yai | et cetera |
| ๆ | ไม้ยมก | mai ya-mok | preceding word or phrase is reduplicated |
| ๏ | ฟองมัน, ตาไก่ | fong man, ta kai | previously marked beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or stanza (obsolete);[4] now only marks beginning of a stanza in a poem; now also used as bullet point[5] |
| ๏" | องมันฟันหนู, ฟันหนูฟองมัน, ฝนทองฟองมัน | ong mun fan nu, fan nu fong man, fon tong fong man | previously marked beginning of a chapter (obsolete) |
| ๐" | ฟองดัน | fong dan | |
| ฯ | อังคั่นเดี่ยว, คั่นเดี่ยว, ขั้นเดี่ยว | angkhan diao, khan diao, khan diao | previously marked end of a sentence or stanza (obsolete)[4] |
| ๚ | อังคั่นคู่, คั่นคู่, ขั้นคู่ | angkhan khu, khan khu, khan khu | marks end of stanza; marks end of chapter [4] or long section[5] |
| ฯะ | อังคั่นวิสรรชนีย์ | angkhan wisanchani | marks end of a stanza in a poem[5] |
| ๚ะ | |||
| ๛ | โคมูตร | khomut | marks end of a chapter or document;[5] marks end of a story[4] |
| ๚ะ๛ | อังคั่นวิสรรชนีย์โคมูตร | angkhan wisanchani khomut | marks the very end of a written work |
| ฿ | บาท | bat | baht |
Pai-yan noi and angkhan diao share the same character. Sara a (–ะ) used in combination with other characters is called wisanchani.
Some of the characters can mark the beginning or end of a sentence, chapter, or episode of a story or of a stanza in a poem. These have changed use over time and are becoming uncommon.
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The Thai script (like all Indic scripts) uses a number of modifications to write Sanskrit and related languages (in particular, Pali). Pali is very closely related to Sanskrit and is the liturgical language of Thai Buddhism. In Thailand, Pali is written and studied using a slightly modified Thai script. The main difference is that each consonant is followed by an implied short a (อะ), not the 'o', or 'ə' of Thai: this short a is never omitted in pronunciation, and if the vowel is not to be pronounced, then a specific symbol must be used, the pinthu อฺ (a solid dot under the consonant). This means that sara a (อะ) is never used when writing Pali, because it is always implied. For example, namo is written นะโม in Thai, but in Pali it is written as นโม, because the อะ is redundant. The Sanskrit word 'mantra' is written มนตร์ in Thai (and therefore pronounced mon), but is written มนฺตฺร in Sanskrit (and therefore pronounced mantra). When writing Pali, only 33 consonants and 12 vowels are used.
This is an example of a Pali text written using the Thai Sanskrit orthography: อรหํ สมฺมาสมฺพุทฺโธ ภควา [arahaṃ sammāsambuddho bhagavā]. Written in modern Thai orthography, this becomes อะระหัง สัมมาสัมพุทโธ ภะคะวา arahang sammasamphuttho phakhawa.
In Thailand, Sanskrit is read out using the Thai values for all the consonants (so ค is read as kha and not [ga]), which makes Thai spoken Sanskrit incomprehensible to sanskritists not trained in Thailand. The Sanskrit values are used in transliteration (without the diacritics), but these values are never actually used when Sanskrit is read out loud in Thailand. The vowels used in Thai are identical to Sanskrit, with the exception of ฤ, ฤๅ, ฦ, and ฦๅ, which are read using their Thai values, not their Sanskrit values. Sanskrit and Pali are not tonal languages, but in Thailand, the Thai tones are used when reading these languages out loud.
In the tables in this section, the Thai value (transliterated according to the Royal Thai system) of each letter is listed first, followed by the IAST value of each letter in square brackets. Remember that in Thailand, the IAST values are never used in pronunciation, but only sometimes in transcriptions (with the diacritics omitted). This disjoint between transcription and spoken value explains the romanisation for Sanskrit names in Thailand that many foreigners find confusing. For example, สุวรรณภูมิ is romanised as Suvarnabhumi, but pronounced su-wan-na-pum. ศรีนครินทร์ is romanised as Srinagarindra but pronounced si-nakha-rin.
Plosives (also called stops) are listed in their traditional Sanskrit order, which corresponds to Thai alphabetical order from ก to ม with three exceptions: in Thai, high-class ข is followed by two obsolete characters with no Sanskrit equivalent, high-class ฃ and low-class ฅ; low-class ช is followed by sibilant ซ (low-class equivalent of high-class sibilant ส that follows ศ and ษ.) The table gives the Thai value first, and then the IAST value in square brackets.
| class | unaspirated unvoiced |
aspirated | voiced | aspirated voiced |
nasal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| velar | ก kà [ka] | ข khà [kha] | ค khá [ga] | ฆ khá [gha] | ง ngá [ṅa] |
| palatal | จ cà [ca] | ฉ chà [cha] | ช chá [ja] | ฌ chá [jha] | ญ yá [ña] |
| retroflex | ฏ tà [ṭa] | ฐ thà [ṭha] | ฑ thá [ḍa] | ฒ thá [ḍha] | ณ ná [ṇa] |
| dental | ต tà [ta] | ถ thà [tha] | ท thá [da] | ธ thá [dha] | น ná [na] |
| labial | ป pà [pa] | ผ phà [pha] | พ phá [ba] | ภ phá [bha] | ม má [ma] |
| tone class | M | H | L | L | L |
While letters are listed here according to their class in Sanskrit, Thai has lost the distinction between many of the consonants. So, while there is a clear distinction between ช and ฌ in Sanskrit, in Thai these two consonants are pronounced identically (including tone). Likewise, the Thai phonemes do not differentiate between the retroflex and dental classes, because Thai has no retroflex consonants. The equivalents of all the retroflex consonants are pronounced identically to their dental counterparts: thus ฏ is pronounced like ต, and ฐ is pronounced like ถ, and so forth.
The Sanskrit unaspirated unvoiced plosives are pronounced as unaspirated unvoiced, while the Sanskrit aspirated, voiced, and aspirated voiced plosives are pronounced as aspirated unvoiced. None of the Sanskrit plosives are pronounced as the Thai voiced plosives.
Semivowels and liquids (กี่งสระ king sara branch vowels") come in Thai alphabetical order after ม, the last of the plosives. The term อวรรค awak means "without a break"; that is, without a plosive.
| series | symbol | value | related vowels |
|---|---|---|---|
| palatal | ย | yá [ya] | อิ and อี |
| retroflex | ร | rá [ra] | ฤ and ฤๅ |
| dental | ล | lá [la] | ฦ and ฦๅ |
| labial | ว | wá [va] | อุ and อู |
เสียดแทรก, pronounced เสียดแซก (siat saek), meaning inserted sound(s), follow the semi-vowel ว in alphabetical order.
| series | symbol | value |
|---|---|---|
| palatal | ศ | sà [śa] |
| retroflex | ษ | sà [ṣa] |
| dental | ส | sà [sa] |
Like Sanskrit, Thai has no voiced siblant (so no 'z' or 'zh'). In modern Thai, the distinction between the three high-class consonants has been lost and all three are pronounced 'sà'; however, foreign words with an sh-sound may still be transcribed as if the Sanskrit values still hold (e.g., ang-grit อังกฤษ for English instead of อังกฤส).
| symbol | value |
|---|---|
| ห | hà [ha] |
ห, a high-class consonant, comes next in alphabetical order, but its low-class equivalent, ฮ, follows similar-appearing อ as the last letter of the Thai alphabet. Like modern Hindi, the voicing has disappeared, and the letter is now pronounced like English 'h'. Like Sanskrit, this letter may only be used to start a syllable, but may not end it. (A popular beer is romanized as Singha, but in Thai is สิงห์, with a mai karan on the ห; correct pronunciation is "sing", but foreigners to Thailand typically say "sing-ha".)
| symbol | value |
|---|---|
| อะ | a [a] |
| อา | a [ā] |
| อิ | i [i] |
| อี | i [ī] |
| อุ | u [u] |
| อู | u [ū] |
| เอ | e [e] |
| โอ | o [o] |
| ฤ | ru [ṛ] |
| ฤๅ | ru [ṝ] |
| ฦ | lu [ḷ] |
| ฦๅ | lu [ḹ] |
All consonants have an inherent 'a' sound, and therefore there is no need to use the ะ symbol when writing Sanskrit. The Thai vowels อื, ไอ, ใอ, and so forth, are not used in Sanskrit. The zero consonant, อ, is unique to the Indic alphabets descended from Khmer. When it occurs in Sanskrit, it is always the zero consonant and never the vowel o [ɔː]. Its use in Sanskrit is therefore to write vowels that cannot be otherwise written alone: e.g., อา or อี. When อ is written on its own, then it is a carrier for the implied vowel, a [a] (equivalent to อะ in Thai).
The vowels อำ and อึ occur in Sanskrit, but only as the combination of the pure vowels sara a อา or sara i อิ with nikhahit อํ.
There are a number of additional symbols only used to write Sanskrit or Pali, and not used in writing Thai.
| Symbol | IAST |
|---|---|
| อํ | ṃ |
In Sanskrit, the anusvāra indicates that the preceding vowel be nasalised. In Thai this is written as an open circle above the consonant. Nasalisation does not occur in Thai, therefore, a nasal consonant is always substituted: e.g. ตํ taṃ, is pronounced as ตัง tang by Thai sanskritists. If nikhahit occurs before a consonant, then Thai uses a nasal consonant of the same class: e.g. สํสฺกฺฤตา [saṃskṛta] is read as สันสกฤตา san-si-ki-ta (The ส following the nikhahit is a dental class consonant, therefore the dental class nasal consonant น is used). For this reason, it has been suggested that in Thai, nikhahit should be listed as a consonant.[4] Nikhahit นิคหิต occurs as part of the Thai vowels sara am อำ and sara ue อึ.
อฺ
Because the Thai script is an abugida, a symbol (equivalent to virāma in devanagari) needs to be added to indicate that the implied vowel is not to be pronounced. This is the pinthu, which is a solid dot below the consonant.
อ๎
Yamakkan is an obsolete symbol used to mark the beginning of consonant clusters: e.g. พ๎ราห๎มณ phramana [brāhmaṇa]. Without the yamakkan, this word would be pronounced pharahamana [barāhamaṇa] instead. This is a feature unique to the Thai script (other Indic scripts use a combination of ligatures, conjuncts or virāma to convey the same information). The symbol is obsolete because pinthu may be used to achieve the same effect: พฺราหฺมณ.
The means of recording visarga (final voiceless 'h') in Thai has been lost.
Thai script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
The Unicode block for Thai is U+0E00–U+0E7F. It is a verbatim copy of the older TIS-620 character set which encodes the vowels เ, แ, โ, ใ and ไ before the consonants they follow, and thus Thai, Lao, and Tai Viet are the only Brahmic scripts in Unicode that use visual order instead of logical order. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:
| Thai[1] Unicode.org chart (PDF) |
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| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+0E0x | ก | ข | ฃ | ค | ฅ | ฆ | ง | จ | ฉ | ช | ซ | ฌ | ญ | ฎ | ฏ | |
| U+0E1x | ฐ | ฑ | ฒ | ณ | ด | ต | ถ | ท | ธ | น | บ | ป | ผ | ฝ | พ | ฟ |
| U+0E2x | ภ | ม | ย | ร | ฤ | ล | ฦ | ว | ศ | ษ | ส | ห | ฬ | อ | ฮ | ฯ |
| U+0E3x | ะ | ั | า | ำ | ิ | ี | ึ | ื | ุ | ู | ฺ | ฿ | ||||
| U+0E4x | เ | แ | โ | ใ | ไ | ๅ | ๆ | ็ | ่ | ้ | ๊ | ๋ | ์ | ํ | ๎ | ๏ |
| U+0E5x | ๐ | ๑ | ๒ | ๓ | ๔ | ๕ | ๖ | ๗ | ๘ | ๙ | ๚ | ๛ | ||||
| U+0E6x | ||||||||||||||||
| U+0E7x | ||||||||||||||||
Notes
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