[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/thai-script-wikipedia\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/thai-script-wikipedia\/","headline":"Thai script – Wikipedia","name":"Thai script – Wikipedia","description":"before-content-x4 Abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand after-content-x4 The Thai script (Thai:","datePublished":"2017-01-25","dateModified":"2017-01-25","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/author\/lordneo\/#Person","name":"lordneo","url":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/author\/lordneo\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9645c498c9701c88b89b8537773dd7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9645c498c9701c88b89b8537773dd7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Enzyklop\u00e4die","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/wiki4\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/download.jpg","url":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/wiki4\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/download.jpg","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/20\/Bangkok_National_Museum_-_2017-04-22_%28008%29.jpg\/150px-Bangkok_National_Museum_-_2017-04-22_%28008%29.jpg","url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/20\/Bangkok_National_Museum_-_2017-04-22_%28008%29.jpg\/150px-Bangkok_National_Museum_-_2017-04-22_%28008%29.jpg","height":"200","width":"150"},"url":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/thai-script-wikipedia\/","wordCount":22344,"articleBody":"     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});before-content-x4Abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand       (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});after-content-x4The Thai script (Thai: \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e01\u0e29\u0e23\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22, RTGS:\u00a0akson thai) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (Thai: \u0e1e\u0e22\u0e31\u0e0d\u0e0a\u0e19\u0e30, phayanchana), 16 vowel symbols (Thai: \u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30, sara) that combine into at least 32 vowel forms and four tone diacritics (Thai: \u0e27\u0e23\u0e23\u0e13\u0e22\u0e38\u0e01\u0e15\u0e4c or \u0e27\u0e23\u0e23\u0e13\u0e22\u0e38\u0e15, wannayuk or wannayut) to create characters mostly representing syllables.Although commonly referred to as the “Thai alphabet”, the script is in fact not a true alphabet but an abugida, a writing system in which the full characters represent consonants with diacritical marks for vowels; the absence of a vowel diacritic gives an implied ‘a’ or ‘o’. Consonants are written horizontally from left to right, and vowels following a consonant in speech are written above, below, to the left or to the right of it, or a combination of those.       (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});after-content-x4Table of ContentsHistory[edit]Orthography[edit]Punctuation[edit]Alphabet listing[edit]Consonants[edit]Alphabetic[edit]Phonetic[edit]Vowels[edit]Tone[edit]Central Thai[edit]Southern Thai[edit]Diacritics[edit]Numerals[edit]Other symbols[edit]Summary charts[edit]Sanskrit and Pali[edit]Plosives (varga\u1e25)[edit]Non-plosives (avarga\u1e25)[edit]Sibilants[edit]Voiced h[edit]Voiced lla[edit]Vowels[edit]Other non-Thai symbols[edit]Nikkhahit (anusv\u0101ra)[edit]Phinthu (vir\u0101ma)[edit]Yamakkan[edit]Visarga[edit]Unicode[edit]Keyboard layouts[edit]See also[edit]References[edit]External links[edit]History[edit]    The evolution of the Thai alphabetThe Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script (Thai: \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e01\u0e29\u0e23\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e21, akson khom), which is a southern Brahmic style of writing derived from the south Indian Pallava alphabet (Thai: \u0e1b\u0e31\u0e25\u0e25\u0e27\u0e30). According to tradition it was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great (Thai: \u0e1e\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e02\u0e38\u0e19\u0e23\u0e32\u0e21\u0e04\u0e33\u0e41\u0e2b\u0e07\u0e21\u0e2b\u0e32\u0e23\u0e32\u0e0a).[1] The earliest attestation of the Thai script is the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription dated to 1292, however some scholars question its authenticity.[2] The script was derived from a cursive form of the Old Khmer script of the time.[1] It modified and simplified some of the Old Khmer letters and introduced some new ones to accommodate Thai phonology. It also introduced tone marks. Thai is considered to be the first script in the world that invented tone markers to indicate distinctive tones, which are lacking in the Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic languages) and Indo-Aryan languages from which its script is derived. Although Chinese and other Sino-Tibetan languages have distinctive tones in their phonological system, no tone marker is found in their orthographies. Thus, tone markers are an innovation in the Thai language that later influenced other related Tai languages and some Tibeto-Burman languages on the Southeast Asian mainland.[2] Another addition was consonant clusters that were written horizontally and contiguously, rather than writing the second consonant below the first one.[2] Finally, the script wrote vowel marks on the main line, however this innovation fell out of use not long after.[1]Orthography[edit]There is a fairly complex relationship between spelling and sound.  There are various issues:       (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});after-content-x4For many consonant sounds, there are two different letters that both represent the same sound, but which cause a different tone to be associated. This stems from a major change (a tone split) that occurred historically in the phonology of the Thai language.  At the time the Thai script was created, the language had three tones and a full set of contrasts between voiced and unvoiced consonants at the beginning of a syllable (e.g. b d g l m n vs. p t k hl hm hn).  At a later time, the voicing distinction disappeared, but in the process, each of the three original tones split in two, with an originally voiced consonant (the modern “low” consonant signs) producing a lower-variant tone, and an originally unvoiced consonant (the modern “mid” and “high” consonant signs) producing a higher-variant tone.Thai borrowed a large number of words from Sanskrit and Pali, and the Thai alphabet was created so that the original spelling of these words could be preserved as much as possible.  This means that the Thai alphabet has a number of “duplicate” letters that represent separate sounds in Sanskrit and Pali (e.g. the breathy voiced sounds bh, dh, \u1e0dh, jh, gh and the retroflex sounds \u1e6d \u1e6dh \u1e0d \u1e0dh \u1e47) but which never represented distinct sounds in the Thai language.  These are mostly or exclusively used in Sanskrit and Pali borrowings.The desire to preserve original Sanskrit and Pali spellings also produces a particularly large number of duplicate ways of spelling sounds at the end of a syllable (where Thai is strictly limited in the sounds that can occur but Sanskrit allowed all possibilities, especially once former final \/a\/ was deleted), as well as a number of silent letters. Moreover, many consonants from Sanskrit and Pali loanwords are generally silent. The spelling of the words resembles Sanskrit or Pali orthography:Thai \u0e2a\u0e32\u0e21\u0e32\u0e23\u0e16 (spelled s\u01ceamaarth but pronounced sa-mat [s\u01ce\u02d0m\u00e2\u02d0t] with a silent r and a plain t that is represented using an aspirated consonant) “to be able” (Sanskrit \u0938\u092e\u0930\u094d\u0925 samartha)Thai \u0e08\u0e31\u0e19\u0e17\u0e23\u0e4c (spelled chanthr but pronounced chan [t\u0255an] because the th and the r are silent) “moon” (Sanskrit \u091a\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930 chandra)Thai phonology dictates that all syllables must end in a vowel, an approximant, a nasal, or a voiceless plosive. Therefore, the letter written may not have the same pronunciation in the initial position as they do in the final position. See Alphabet listing below for more detail.Even though the high class letter ho hip \u0e2b is used to write the sound \/h\/, if the letter comes before a low class letter in a syllable, it will become the silent ho nam and turn the initial consonant into high class.[3] See Tones below for more detail.Thai letters do not have upper- and lower-case forms like Latin letters do. Spaces between words are not used, except in certain linguistically motivated cases.Punctuation[edit]Minor pauses in sentences may be marked by a comma (Thai: \u0e08\u0e38\u0e25\u0e20\u0e32\u0e04 or \u0e25\u0e39\u0e01\u0e19\u0e49\u0e33, chunlaphak or luk nam), and major pauses by a period (Thai: \u0e21\u0e2b\u0e31\u0e1e\u0e20\u0e32\u0e04 or \u0e08\u0e38\u0e14, mahap phak or chut), but most often are marked by a blank space (Thai: \u0e27\u0e23\u0e23\u0e04, wak). Thai writing also uses quotation marks (Thai: \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e0d\u0e1b\u0e23\u0e30\u0e01\u0e32\u0e28, anyaprakat) and parentheses (round brackets) (Thai: \u0e27\u0e07\u0e40\u0e25\u0e47\u0e1a, wong lep or Thai: \u0e19\u0e02\u0e25\u0e34\u0e02\u0e34\u0e15, nakha likhit), but not square brackets or braces.A paiyan noi \u0e2f (Thai: \u0e44\u0e1b\u0e22\u0e32\u0e25\u0e19\u0e49\u0e2d\u0e22) is used for abbreviation. A paiyan yai \u0e2f\u0e25\u0e2f (Thai: \u0e44\u0e1b\u0e22\u0e32\u0e25\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e48) is the same as “etc.” in English.Several obsolete characters indicated the beginning or ending of sections. A bird’s eye \u0e4f (Thai: \u0e15\u0e32\u0e44\u0e01\u0e48, ta kai, officially called \u0e1f\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e21\u0e31\u0e19, fong man) formerly indicated paragraphs. An angkhan kuu \u0e5a (Thai: \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e04\u0e31\u0e48\u0e19\u0e04\u0e39\u0e48) was formerly used to mark the end of a chapter. A kho mut \u0e5b (Thai: \u0e42\u0e04\u0e21\u0e39\u0e15\u0e23) was formerly used to mark the end of a document, but is now obsolete.Alphabet listing[edit]Thai (along with its sister system, Lao) lacks conjunct consonants and independent vowels, while both designs are common among Brahmic scripts (e.g., Burmese and Balinese).[4] In scripts with conjunct consonants, each consonant has two forms: base and conjoined. Consonant clusters are represented with the two styles of consonants. The two styles may form typographical ligatures, as in Devanagari. Independent vowels are used when a syllable starts with a vowel sign.Consonants[edit]There are 44 consonant letters representing 21 distinct consonant sounds. Duplicate consonants either correspond to sounds that existed in Old Thai at the time the alphabet was created but no longer exist (in particular, voiced obstruents such as b d g v z), or different Sanskrit and Pali consonants pronounced identically in Thai. There are in addition four consonant-vowel combination characters not included in the tally of 44.Consonants are divided into three classes \u2014 in alphabetical order these are middle (\u0e01\u0e25\u0e32\u0e07, klang), high (\u0e2a\u0e39\u0e07, sung), and low (\u0e15\u0e48\u0e33, tam) class \u2014 as shown in the table below. These class designations reflect phonetic qualities of the sounds to which the letters originally corresponded in Old Thai. In particular, “middle” sounds were voiceless unaspirated stops; “high” sounds, voiceless aspirated stops or voiceless fricatives; “low” sounds, voiced. Subsequent sound changes have obscured the phonetic nature of these classes.[nb 1] Today, the class of a consonant without a tone mark, along with the short or long length of the accompanying vowel, determine the base accent (\u0e1e\u0e37\u0e49\u0e19\u0e40\u0e2a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e07, phuen siang). Middle class consonants with a long vowel spell an additional four tones with one of four tone marks over the controlling consonant:  mai ek, mai tho, mai tri, and mai chattawa. High and low class consonants are limited to mai ek and mai tho, as shown in the Tone table. Differing interpretations of the two marks or their absence allow low class consonants to spell tones not allowed for the corresponding high class consonant. In the case of digraphs where a low class follows a higher class consonant, often the higher class rules apply, but the marker, if used, goes over the low class one; accordingly, \u0e2b \u0e19\u0e33 ho nam and \u0e2d \u0e19\u0e33 o nam may be considered to be digraphs as such, as explained below the Tone table.[nb 2]Notes^ Modern Thai sounds \/b\/ and \/d\/ were formerly \u2014 and sometimes still are \u2014 pronounced \/\u0294b\/ and \/\u0294d\/. For this reason, they were treated as voiceless unaspirated, and hence placed in the “middle” class; this was also the reason they were unaffected by the changes that devoiced most originally voiced stops.^ Only low class consonants may have a base accent determined by the syllable being both long and dead.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 \u0e02 is kho khai (\u0e02 \u0e44\u0e02\u0e48), in which kho is the sound it represents, and khai (\u0e44\u0e02\u0e48) is a word which starts with the same sound and means “egg”.Two of the consonants, \u0e03 (kho khuat) and \u0e05 (kho khon), are no longer used in written Thai, but still appear on many keyboards and in character sets. 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.[5] 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 \u0e02 and \u0e04), has the same pronunciation and the same consonant class as the preceding letter (somewhat like the European long s). This makes them redundant.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 official standards for romanisation are the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) defined by the Royal Thai Institute, and the almost identical ISO 11940-2 defined by the International Organization for Standardization, 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.Alphabetic[edit]SymbolNameRTGSIPAClassThaiRTGSMeaningInitialFinalInitialFinal\u0e01\u0e01 \u0e44\u0e01\u0e48ko kaichickenkk[k][k\u031a]mid\u0e02\u0e02 \u0e44\u0e02\u0e48kho khaieggkhk[k\u02b0][k\u031a]high\u0e03[a]\u0e03 \u0e02\u0e27\u0e14kho khuatbottle (obsolete)khk[k\u02b0][k\u031a]high\u0e04\u0e04 \u0e04\u0e27\u0e32\u0e22kho khwaibuffalokhk[k\u02b0][k\u031a]low\u0e05[b]\u0e05 \u0e04\u0e19kho khonperson (obsolete)khk[k\u02b0][k\u031a]low\u0e06\u0e06 \u0e23\u0e30\u0e06\u0e31\u0e07kho ra-khangbellkhk[k\u02b0][k\u031a]low\u0e07\u0e07 \u0e07\u0e39ngo ngusnakengng[\u014b][\u014b]low\u0e08\u0e08 \u0e08\u0e32\u0e19cho chanplatecht[t\u0255][t\u031a]mid\u0e09\u0e09 \u0e09\u0e34\u0e48\u0e07cho chingcymbalsch\u00a0\u2013[t\u0255\u02b0]\u2013high\u0e0a\u0e0a \u0e0a\u0e49\u0e32\u0e07cho changelephantcht[t\u0361\u0255\u02b0], [\u0283][t\u031a]low\u0e0b\u0e0b \u0e42\u0e0b\u0e48so sochainst[s][t\u031a]low\u0e0c\u0e0c \u0e40\u0e0c\u0e2dcho choetreech\u00a0\u2013[t\u0361\u0255\u02b0]\u2013low\u0e0d[c]\u0e0d \u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e34\u0e07yo yingwomanyn[j][n]low\u0e0e\u0e0e \u0e0a\u0e0e\u0e32do cha-daheaddressdt[d][t\u031a]mid\u0e0f\u0e0f \u0e1b\u0e0f\u0e31\u0e01to pa-takgoad, javelintt[t][t\u031a]mid\u0e10[d]\u0e10 \u0e10\u0e32\u0e19tho thanpedestaltht[t\u02b0][t\u031a]high\u0e11\u0e11 \u0e21\u0e13\u0e42\u0e11tho monthoMontho, character from Ramayanath or dt[t\u02b0] or [d][t\u031a]low\u0e12\u0e12 \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e40\u0e12\u0e48\u0e32tho phu-thaoeldertht[t\u02b0][t\u031a]low\u0e13\u0e13 \u0e40\u0e13\u0e23no nensamanerann[n][n]low\u0e14\u0e14 \u0e40\u0e14\u0e47\u0e01do dekchilddt[d][t\u031a]mid\u0e15\u0e15 \u0e40\u0e15\u0e48\u0e32to taoturtlett[t][t\u031a]mid\u0e16\u0e16 \u0e16\u0e38\u0e07tho thungsacktht[t\u02b0][t\u031a]high\u0e17\u0e17 \u0e17\u0e2b\u0e32\u0e23tho thahansoldiertht[t\u02b0][t\u031a]low\u0e18\u0e18 \u0e18\u0e07tho thongflagtht[t\u02b0][t\u031a]low\u0e19\u0e19 \u0e2b\u0e19\u0e39no numousenn[n][n]low\u0e1a\u0e1a \u0e43\u0e1a\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49bo baimaileafbp[b][p\u031a]mid\u0e1b\u0e1b \u0e1b\u0e25\u0e32po plafishpp[p][p\u031a]mid\u0e1c\u0e1c \u0e1c\u0e36\u0e49\u0e07pho phuengbeeph\u00a0\u2013[p\u02b0]\u2013high\u0e1d\u0e1d \u0e1d\u0e32fo falidf\u00a0\u2013[f]\u2013high\u0e1e\u0e1e \u0e1e\u0e32\u0e19pho phanphanphp[p\u02b0][p\u031a]low\u0e1f\u0e1f \u0e1f\u0e31\u0e19fo fantoothfp[f][p\u031a]low\u0e20\u0e20 \u0e2a\u0e33\u0e40\u0e20\u0e32pho sam-phaojunkphp[p\u02b0][p\u031a]low\u0e21\u0e21 \u0e21\u0e49\u0e32mo mahorsemm[m][m]low\u0e22\u0e22 \u0e22\u0e31\u0e01\u0e29\u0e4cyo yakgiant, yakshay\u2013 or n[e][j]\u2013 or [n]low\u0e23\u0e23 \u0e40\u0e23\u0e37\u0e2dro rueaboatrn[r][n]low\u0e25\u0e25 \u0e25\u0e34\u0e07lo lingmonkeyln[l][n]low\u0e27\u0e27 \u0e41\u0e2b\u0e27\u0e19wo waenringw\u2013[f][w]\u2013low\u0e28\u0e28 \u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e32so salapavilion, salast[s][t\u031a]high\u0e29\u0e29 \u0e24\u0e45\u0e29\u0e35so rue-sihermitst[s][t\u031a]high\u0e2a\u0e2a \u0e40\u0e2a\u0e37\u0e2dso sueatigerst[s][t\u031a]high\u0e2b\u0e2b \u0e2b\u0e35\u0e1aho hipchest, boxh\u2013[h]\u2013high\u0e2c\u0e2c \u0e08\u0e38\u0e2c\u0e32lo chu-lakiteln[l][n]low\u0e2d\u0e2d \u0e2d\u0e48\u0e32\u0e07o angbasin\u2013[g]\u00a0\u2013[\u0294]\u2013mid\u0e2e\u0e2e \u0e19\u0e01\u0e2e\u0e39\u0e01ho nok-hukowlh\u00a0\u2013[h]\u2013lowNotes^ \u0e03 kho khuat is obsolete and replaced by \u0e02 kho khai, which has identical phonetic values.^ \u0e05 kho khon is obsolete and replaced by \u0e04 kho khwai, which has identical phonetic values.^ The lower curves of the letter \u0e0d are removed when certain letters are written below them, such as \u0e0d + the mark phinthu (lower dot) = \u0e0d\u0e3a, etc.^ The lower curves of the letter \u0e10 are removed when certain letters are written below them, such as \u0e10 + the vowel mark \u0e38 = \u0e10\u0e38, etc.^ When \u0e22 ends a syllable, it is usually part of the vowel. For example, mai (\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e32\u0e22, [ma\u02d0j\u02e9\u02e5]), muai (\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e27\u0e22, [muaj\u02e9\u02e5]), roi (\u0e42\u0e23\u0e22, [ro\u02d0j\u02e7]), and thui (\u0e17\u0e38\u0e22, [t\u02b0uj\u02e7]). There are some cases in which \u0e22 ends a syllable and is not part of the vowel (but serves as an independent ending consonant). An example is phinyo (\u0e20\u0e34\u0e22\u0e42\u0e22, [p\u02b0\u0129n\u02e7.jo\u02d0\u02e7]).^ When \u0e27 ends a syllable, it is always part of the vowel. For example, hio (\u0e2b\u0e34\u0e27, [hiw\u02e9\u02e5]), kao (\u0e01\u0e32\u0e27, [ka\u02d0w\u02e7]), klua (\u0e01\u0e25\u0e31\u0e27, [klu\u02d0a\u02e7]), and reo (\u0e40\u0e23\u0e47\u0e27, [rew\u02e7]).^ \u0e2d 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\u00a0\u2014 see below). The same symbol is used as a vowel in non-initial position.Phonetic[edit]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:unvoiced, unaspiratedunvoiced, aspiratedvoiced, unaspiratedWhere English has only a distinction between the voiced, unaspirated \/b\/ and the unvoiced, aspirated \/p\u02b0\/, 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\/, \/t\u02b0\/, \/d\/ triplet. In the velar series there is a \/k\/, \/k\u02b0\/ pair and in the postalveolar series the \/t\u0255\/, \/t\u0255\u02b0\/ pair.In each cell below, the first line indicates International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA),[6] 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.Pronunciation of Thai characters in initial position\u00a0BilabialLabio-dentalAlveolarAlveolo-palatalPalatalVelarGlottalNasal\u00a0[m]\u0e21\u00a0\u00a0[n]\u0e13,\u0e19\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[\u014b]\u0e07\u00a0Plosive[p]\u0e1b[p\u02b0]\u0e1c,\u0e1e,\u0e20[b]\u0e1a\u00a0[t]\u0e0f,\u0e15[t\u02b0]\u0e10,\u0e11,\u0e12,\u0e16,\u0e17,\u0e18[d]\u0e0e,\u0e14\u00a0\u00a0[k]\u0e01[k\u02b0]\u0e02,\u0e03,\u0e04,\u0e05,\u0e06[a]\u00a0[\u0294]\u0e2d[b]Affricate\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[t\u0255]\u0e08[t\u0361\u0255\u02b0]\u0e09,\u0e0a,\u0e0c\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fricative\u00a0[f]\u0e1d,\u0e1f[s]\u0e0b,\u0e28,\u0e29,\u0e2a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[h]\u0e2b,\u0e2eTrill\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[r]\u0e23\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Approximant\u00a0[w]\u0e27\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[j]\u0e0d,\u0e22\u00a0\u00a0Lateralapproximant\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[l]\u0e25,\u0e2c\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Notes^ \u0e03 and \u0e05 are no longer used. Thus, modern Thai is said to have 42 consonants.^ Initial \u0e2d is silent and therefore considered as glottal plosive.Although the overall 44 Thai consonants provide 21 sounds in case of initials, the case for finals is different. Note how the consonant sounds in the table for initials collapse in the table for final sounds. At the end of a syllable, all plosives are unvoiced, unaspirated, and have no audible release. Initial affricates and fricatives become final plosives. The initial trill (\u0e23), approximant (\u0e0d), and lateral approximants (\u0e25,\u0e2c) are realized as a final nasal \/n\/.Only 8 ending consonant sounds, as well as no ending consonant sound, are available in Thai pronunciation. Among these consonants, excluding the disused \u0e03 and \u0e05, six (\u0e09 \u0e1c \u0e1d \u0e2b \u0e2d \u0e2e) cannot be used as a final. The remaining 36 are grouped as following.Pronunciation of Thai characters in final position\u00a0BilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalNasal[m]\u0e21[n]\u0e13,\u0e19,\u0e0d,\u0e23,\u0e25,\u0e2c\u00a0\u00a0[\u014b]\u0e07\u00a0Plosive[p\u031a]\u0e1a,\u0e1b,\u0e1e,\u0e1f,\u0e20[t\u031a]\u0e08,\u0e0a,\u0e0b,\u0e0c,\u0e0e,\u0e0f,\u0e10,\u0e11,\u0e12,\u0e14,\u0e15,\u0e16,\u0e17,\u0e18,\u0e28,\u0e29,\u0e2a[k\u031a]\u0e01,\u0e02,\u0e04,\u0e06[\u0294][a]Approximant\u00a0[w]\u0e27\u00a0[j]\u0e22\u00a0\u00a0Notes^ The glottal plosive appears at the end when no final follows a short vowel.Vowels[edit]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.SymbolNameCombinationsThaiRTGS\u0e30\u0e27\u0e34\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e23\u0e0a\u0e19\u0e35\u0e22\u0e4c, \u0e19\u0e21\u0e19\u0e32\u0e07Wisanchani(from Sanskrit visarjan\u012bya)\u25cc\u0e30; \u25cc\u0e31\u0e27\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e32\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30; \u0e41\u25cc\u0e30; \u0e42\u25cc\u0e30\u25cc\u0e31\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e2b\u0e31\u0e19\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e01\u0e32\u0e28, \u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e1c\u0e31\u0e14, \u0e2b\u0e32\u0e07\u0e01\u0e31\u0e07\u0e2b\u0e31\u0e19Mai han a-kat\u25cc\u0e31\u25cc; \u25cc\u0e31\u0e27; \u25cc\u0e31\u0e27\u0e30\u25cc\u0e47\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e44\u0e15\u0e48\u0e04\u0e39\u0e49, \u0e2a\u0e31\u0e0d\u0e0d\u0e30\u0e1b\u0e23\u0e30\u0e01\u0e32\u0e28Mai tai khu\u25cc\u0e47; \u25cc\u0e47\u0e2d\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e47\u25cc; \u0e41\u25cc\u0e47\u25cc\u0e32\u0e25\u0e32\u0e01\u0e02\u0e49\u0e32\u0e07Lak khang\u25cc\u0e32; \u25cc\u0e32\u25cc; \u25cc\u0e4d\u0e32; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e32; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e32\u0e30\u25cc\u0e34\u0e1e\u0e34\u0e19\u0e17\u0e38\u0e4c\u0e2d\u0e34, \u0e1e\u0e34\u0e19\u0e17\u0e38\u0e2d\u0e34Phinthu i\u25cc\u0e34; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e34\u25cc; \u25cc\u0e35; \u25cc\u0e35\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30; \u25cc\u0e37\u25cc; \u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30\u25cc\u030d\u0e1d\u0e19\u0e17\u0e2d\u0e07Fon thong[a]\u25cc\u0e35; \u25cc\u0e35\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30\u25cc\u030e\u0e1f\u0e31\u0e19\u0e2b\u0e19\u0e39, \u0e21\u0e39\u0e2a\u0e34\u0e01\u0e17\u0e31\u0e19\u0e15\u0e4cFan nu[a]\u25cc\u0e37\u25cc; \u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30\u25cc\u0e4d\u0e19\u0e34\u0e04\u0e2b\u0e34\u0e15, \u0e19\u0e24\u0e04\u0e2b\u0e34\u0e15, \u0e2b\u0e22\u0e32\u0e14\u0e19\u0e49\u0e33\u0e04\u0e49\u0e32\u0e07Nikkhahit\u25cc\u0e36; \u25cc\u0e36\u25cc; \u25cc\u0e4d\u0e32\u25cc\u0e38\u0e15\u0e35\u0e19\u0e40\u0e2b\u0e22\u0e35\u0e22\u0e14, \u0e25\u0e32\u0e01\u0e15\u0e35\u0e19Tin yiat\u25cc\u0e38; \u25cc\u0e38\u25cc\u25cc\u0e39\u0e15\u0e35\u0e19\u0e04\u0e39\u0e49Tin khu\u25cc\u0e39; \u25cc\u0e39\u25cc\u0e40\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e2b\u0e19\u0e49\u0e32Mai na\u0e40\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e47\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e32; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e32\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e34\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30; \u0e41\u25cc; \u0e41\u25cc\u25cc; \u0e41\u25cc\u0e47\u25cc; \u0e41\u25cc\u0e30\u0e42\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e42\u0e2dMai o\u0e42\u25cc; \u0e42\u25cc\u25cc; \u0e42\u25cc\u0e30\u0e43\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e21\u0e49\u0e27\u0e19Mai muan\u0e43\u25cc\u0e44\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e21\u0e25\u0e32\u0e22Mai malai\u0e44\u25cc\u0e2d\u0e15\u0e31\u0e27 \u0e2dTua o\u25cc\u0e2d; \u25cc\u0e47\u0e2d\u25cc; \u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d\u0e30; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30\u0e22\u0e15\u0e31\u0e27 \u0e22Tua yo\u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u25cc; \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30\u0e27\u0e15\u0e31\u0e27 \u0e27Tua wo\u25cc\u0e31\u0e27; \u25cc\u0e31\u0e27\u0e30\u0e24\u0e15\u0e31\u0e27 \u0e24Tua rue\u0e24\u0e24\u0e45\u0e15\u0e31\u0e27 \u0e24\u0e45Tua rue\u0e24\u0e45\u0e26\u0e15\u0e31\u0e27 \u0e26Tua lue\u0e26\u0e26\u0e45\u0e15\u0e31\u0e27 \u0e26\u0e45Tua lue\u0e26\u0e45Notes^ a b These symbols are always combined with phinthu i (\u25cc\u0e34).The inherent vowels are \/a\/ in open syllables (CV) and \/o\/ in closed syllables (CVC). For example, \u0e16\u0e19\u0e19 transcribes \/t\u02b0\u00e0n\u01d2n\/ “road”. There are a few exceptions in Pali loanwords, where the inherent vowel of an open syllable is \/o\/. The circumfix vowels, such as \u0e40\u2013\u0e32\u0e30 \/\u0254\u0294\/, encompass a preceding consonant with an inherent vowel. For example, \/p\u02b0\u0254\u0294\/ is written \u0e40\u0e1e\u0e32\u0e30, and \/t\u0255\u02b0ap\u02b0\u0254\u0294\/ “only” is written \u0e40\u0e09\u0e1e\u0e32\u0e30.The characters \u0e24 \u0e24\u0e45 (plus \u0e26 \u0e26\u0e45, which are obsolete) are usually considered as vowels, the first being a short vowel sound, and the latter, long. The letters are based on vocalic consonants used in Sanskrit, given the one-to-one letter correspondence of Thai to Sanskrit, although the last two letters are quite rare, as their equivalent Sanskrit sounds only occur in a few, ancient words and thus are functionally obsolete in Thai. The first symbol ‘\u0e24’ is common in many Sanskrit and Pali words and ‘\u0e24\u0e45’ less so, but does occur as the primary spelling for the Thai adaptation of Sanskrit ‘rishi’ and treu (Thai: \u0e15\u0e24\u0e45 \/tr\u026f\u02d0\/ or \/tri\u02d0\/), a very rare Khmer loan word for ‘fish’ only found in ancient poetry. As alphabetical entries, \u0e24 \u0e24\u0e45 follow \u0e23, and themselves can be read as a combination of consonant and vowel, equivalent to \u0e23\u0e36 (short), and \u0e23\u0e37\u0e2d (long) (and the obsolete pair as \u0e25\u0e36, \u0e25\u0e37\u0e2d), respectively. Moreover, \u0e24  can act as \u0e23\u0e34  as an integral part in many words mostly borrowed from Sanskrit such as \u0e01\u0e24\u0e29\u0e13\u0e30  (kritsana, not kruetsana), \u0e24\u0e17\u0e18\u0e34\u0e4c (rit, not ruet), and \u0e01\u0e24\u0e29\u0e14\u0e32 (kritsada, not kruetsada), for example. It is also used to spell \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e01\u0e24\u0e29 angkrit England\/English. The word \u0e24\u0e01\u0e29\u0e4c (roek) is a unique case where \u0e24 is pronounced like \u0e40\u0e23\u0e2d. In the past, prior to the turn of the twentieth century, it was common for writers to substitute these letters in native vocabulary that contained similar sounds as a shorthand that was acceptable in writing at the time. For example, the conjunction ‘or’ (Thai: \u0e2b\u0e23\u0e37\u0e2d \/r\u026f\u0301\/ reu, cf. Lao: \u0eab\u0ebc\u0eb6\/\u0eab\u0ea5\u0eb7 \/l\u0268\u0311\u02d0\/ lu) was often written Thai: \u0e24. This practice has become obsolete, but can still be seen in Thai literature.The pronunciation below is indicated by the International Phonetic Alphabet[6]  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 (\u0e23 \u0e2b\u0e31\u0e19) 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 \u25cc\u0e23\u0e23\u25cc. When used without a final consonant (\u25cc\u0e23\u0e23), \/n\/ is implied as the final consonant, giving [an].Short vowelsLong vowelsNameSymbolIPARTGSVariantsSimilar Sound (English RP pronunciation)NameSymbolIPARTGSVariantsSimilar Sound (English RP pronunciation)Simple vowels\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e30Sara a\u25cc\u0e30 \u25cc \u25cc\u0e31\u25ccaauu in “nut”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e32Sara a\u25cc\u0e32 \u25cc\u0e32\u25cca\u02d0aah, ar, aaa in “father”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e34Sara i\u25cc\u0e34 \u25cc\u0e34\u25cciiy in “greedy”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e35Sara i\u25cc\u0e35 \u25cc\u0e35\u25cci\u02d0iee, ii, yee in “see”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e36Sara ue\u25cc\u0e36 \u25cc\u0e36\u25cc\u026fueeu, u, uhCan be approximated by pronouncing the oo in “look” with unrounded lipsGerman: the \u00fc in M\u00fccke\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e37\u0e2dSara ue\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d \u25cc\u0e37\u25cc\u026f\u02d0ueeu, uCan be approximated by pronouncing the oo in RP “goose” with unrounded lips\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e38Sara u\u25cc\u0e38 \u25cc\u0e38\u25ccuuoooo in “shoot”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e39Sara u\u25cc\u0e39 \u25cc\u0e39\u25ccu\u02d0uoo, uuoo in “too”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e30Sara e\u0e40\u25cc\u0e30 \u0e40\u25cc\u0e47\u25ccee\u00a0e in “neck”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2dSara e\u0e40\u25cc \u0e40\u25cc\u25cce\u02d0eay, a, ae, ai, eia in “lame”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e41\u0e2d\u0e30Sara ae\u0e41\u25cc\u0e30 \u0e41\u25cc\u0e47\u25cc\u025baeaeh, aa in “at”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e41\u0e2dSara ae\u0e41\u25cc \u0e41\u25cc\u25cc\u025b\u02d0aeaa in “ham”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e42\u0e2d\u0e30Sara o\u0e42\u25cc\u0e30 \u25cc\u25ccoo\u00a0oa in “boat”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e42\u0e2dSara o\u0e42\u25cc \u0e42\u25cc\u25cco\u02d0oor, oh, \u00f4o in “go”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e30Sara o\u0e40\u25cc\u0e32\u0e30 \u25cc\u0e47\u0e2d\u25cc\u0254oawo in “not”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e2dSara o\u25cc\u0e2d \u25cc\u0e2d\u25cc\u25cc\u25cc[a]\u25cc\u0e47[b]\u0254\u02d0oor, awaw in “saw”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e2d\u0e30Sara oe\u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d\u0e30\u0264\u0294oeeue in “the”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e2dSara oe\u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d \u0e40\u25cc\u0e34\u25cc \u0e40\u25cc\u0e2d\u25cc[c]\u0264\u02d0 \u0264oeer, eu, uru in “burn”Diphthongs\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30Sara ia\u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30i\u0259\u032f\u0294iaiah, ear, ieea in “ear” with glottal stop\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e35\u0e22Sara ia\u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22 \u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u25cci\u02d0\u0259\u032fiaear, ere, ieear in “ear”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30Sara uea\u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30\u026f\u0259\u032f\u0294ueaeua, uaure in “pure”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e37\u0e2dSara uea\u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d \u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u25cc\u026f\u02d0\u0259\u032fueaeua, ua, ueure in “pure”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e27\u0e30Sara ua\u25cc\u0e31\u0e27\u0e30u\u0259\u032f\u0294ua\u00a0ewe in “sewer”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e27Sara ua\u25cc\u0e31\u0e27 \u25cc\u0e27\u25ccu\u02d0\u0259\u032fuauarewe in “newer”Phonetic diphthongs[d]\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e34 + \u0e27Sara i + wo waen\u25cc\u0e34\u0e27iu; iwioiu, ewew in “few”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e30 + \u0e27Sara e + wo waen\u0e40\u25cc\u0e47\u0e27eu; eweoeu, ew\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d + \u0e27Sara e + wo waen\u0e40\u25cc\u0e27e\u02d0u; e\u02d0weoeu, ewai + ow in “rainbow”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e41\u0e2d + \u0e27Sara ae + wo waen\u0e41\u25cc\u0e27\u025b\u02d0u; \u025b\u02d0waeoaew, eoa in “ham” + ow in “low”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e32Sara ao\u0e40\u25cc\u0e32au; awaoaw, au, owow in “cow”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e32 + \u0e27Sara a + wo waen\u25cc\u0e32\u0e27a\u02d0waoauow in “now”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e35\u0e22 + \u0e27Sara ia + wo waen\u0e40\u25cc\u0e35\u0e22\u0e27iau; i\u0259\u032fwiaoeaw, iew, iowio in “trio”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e30 + \u0e22Sara a + yo yak\u25cc\u0e31\u0e22ai; ajaiayi in “hi”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e32 + \u0e22Sara a + yo yak\u25cc\u0e32\u0e22a\u02d0i; a\u02d0jaiaai, aay, ayye in “bye”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e44\u0e2dSara ai\u0e43\u25cc,[f] \u0e44\u25cc\u0e44\u25cc\u0e22[g]\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e30 + \u0e22Sara o + yo yak\u25cc\u0e47\u0e2d\u0e22\u0254i; \u0254joioy\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e2d + \u0e22Sara o + yo yak\u25cc\u0e2d\u0e22\u0254\u02d0i; \u0254\u02d0joioyoy in “boy”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e42\u0e2d + \u0e22Sara o + yo yak\u0e42\u25cc\u0e22o\u02d0i; o\u02d0joioy\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e38 + \u0e22Sara u + yo yak\u25cc\u0e38\u0e22ui; ujuiuy\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e2d + \u0e22Sara oe + yo yak\u0e40\u25cc\u0e22\u0264\u02d0i; \u0264\u02d0joeioeyu in “burn” + y in “boy”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e27 + \u0e22Sara ua + yo yak\u25cc\u0e27\u0e22uai; u\u0259\u032fjuaiuayuoy in “buoy”\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e37\u0e2d + \u0e22Sara uea + yo yak\u0e40\u25cc\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e22\u026fai; \u026f\u0259\u032fjueaiuaiExtra vowels\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e33Sara am\u0e33amamumum in “sum”\u0e24Rue\u0e24r\u026f ri r\u0264\u02d0rue, ri, roeru, rirew in “grew”, ry in “angry”\u0e24\u0e45Rue\u0e24\u0e45r\u026f\u02d0rueruu\u0e26Lue\u0e26l\u026fluelu, lilew in “blew”\u0e26\u0e45Lue\u0e26\u0e45l\u026f\u02d0luelu^ Only with \u0e23 (ro ruea) as final consonant, appearing as \u25cc\u0e23 [\u0254\u02d0n].^ Only with the word \u0e01\u0e47 [k\u0254\u0302\u02d0].^ Used only in certain words.^ Traditionally, these sets of diphthongs and triphthongs are regarded as combinations of regular vowels or diphthongs with wo waen (\u0e27, \/w\/) or yo yak (\u0e22, \/j\/) as the final consonant, and are not counted among the thirty-two vowels.^ Mai malai (\u0e44\u25cc) is used for the [ai] vowel in most words, while mai muan (\u0e43\u25cc) is only used in twenty specific words.^ \u0e44\u25cc\u0e22 is found in \u0e44\u0e17\u0e22 Thai and in Pali loanwords which contain -eyya. The \u0e22 is redundant, but may be pronounced in a compound word when joined by sam\u0101sa.Tone[edit]Central Thai[edit]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, i.e., dead or live) and, if present, one of four tone marks, whose names derive from the names of the digits 1\u20134 borrowed from Pali or Sanskrit. The rules for denoting tones are shown in the following chart:  Tone type top to bottom: high, rising, mid, falling, low. Initial consonant class left to right: low (blue), middle (green), high (red). Syllable type: live (empty circle), dead (full circle), dead short (narrow ellipse), dead long (wide ellipse).SymbolNameSyllable composition and initial consonant classThaiRTGSVowel and finalLowMidHigh(\u0e44\u0e21\u0e48\u0e21\u0e35)(none)livelong vowel or vowel plus sonorantmidmidrising(\u0e44\u0e21\u0e48\u0e21\u0e35)(none)dead shortshort vowel at end or plus plosivehighlowlow(\u0e44\u0e21\u0e48\u0e21\u0e35)(none)dead longlong vowel plus plosivefallinglowlow\u00a0\u0e48\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e01mai ekanyfallinglowlow\u00a0\u0e49\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e42\u0e17mai thoanyhighfallingfalling\u00a0\u0e4a\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e15\u0e23\u0e35mai triany–high–\u00a0\u0e4b\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e08\u0e31\u0e15\u0e27\u0e32mai chattawaany–rising–    Flowchart for determining the tone of a Thai syllable. Click to enlarge“None”, that is, no tone marker, is used with the base accent (\u0e1e\u0e37\u0e49\u0e19\u0e40\u0e2a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e07, phuen siang). Mai tri and mai chattawa are only used with mid-class consonants.Two consonant characters (not diacritics) are used to modify the tone:\u0e2b \u0e19\u0e33 ho nam, leading ho. A silent, high-class \u0e2b “leads” low-class nasal stops (\u0e07, \u0e0d, \u0e19 and \u0e21) and non-plosives (\u0e27, \u0e22, \u0e23 and \u0e25), which have no corresponding high-class phonetic match, into the tone properties of a high-class consonant. In polysyllabic words, an initial mid- or high-class consonant with an implicit vowel similarly “leads” these same low-class consonants into the higher class tone rules, with the tone marker borne by the low-class consonant.\u0e2d \u0e19\u0e33 o nam, leading o. In four words only, a silent, mid-class \u0e2d “leads” low-class \u0e22 into mid-class tone rules: \u0e2d\u0e22\u0e48\u0e32 (ya, don’t) \u0e2d\u0e22\u0e32\u0e01 (yak, desire) \u0e2d\u0e22\u0e48\u0e32\u0e07 (yang, kind, sort, type) \u0e2d\u0e22\u0e39\u0e48 (yu, stay). Note all four have long-vowel, low-tone siang ek; \u0e2d\u0e22\u0e32\u0e01, a dead syllable, needs no tone marker, but the three live syllables all take mai ek.Low consonantHigh consonantIPA\u0e07\u0e2b\u0e07[\u014b]\u0e0d\u0e2b\u0e0d[j]\u0e19\u0e2b\u0e19[n]\u0e21\u0e2b\u0e21[m]\u0e22\u0e2b\u0e22[j]\u0e23\u0e2b\u0e23[r]\u0e25\u0e2b\u0e25[l]\u0e27\u0e2b\u0e27[w]Low consonantMiddle consonantIPA\u0e22\u0e2d\u0e22[j]In some dialects where words are spelled with one tone but pronounced with another often occur in informal conversation (notably the pronouns \u0e09\u0e31\u0e19 chan and \u0e40\u0e02\u0e32 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.Southern Thai[edit]Spoken Southern Thai can have up to seven tones.[7] When Southern Thai is written in Thai script, there are different rules for indicating spoken tone.TonesNakhon Si Thammarat accent rulesIPAFirst toneAn initial consonant class “high” with long sound, and an initial consonant class “low” after the word.[\u02e6\u02e5\u02e7]An initial consonant class “high” with short sound, and an initial consonant class “low”with [k\u031a], [t\u031a], [p\u031a] finals after the word.[\u02e8\u02e6]Second toneAn initial consonant class “high” both short long sound,and an initial consonant class “low” after the word.[\u02e6]Third toneAn initial consonant class “middle” long sound.[\u02e7\u02e6\u02e7]An initial consonant class “middle” short sound with [k\u031a], [t\u031a], [p\u031a] finals.[\u02e7\u02e6]Fourth toneAn initial consonant class “middle” both short long sound.[\u02e7]Fifth toneAn initial consonant class “low” with head word.[\u02e8\u02e7\u02e8]Sixth toneAn initial consonant class “low” long sound.[\u02e8\u02e6]Seventh toneAn initial consonant class “low” short sound.[\u02e8\u02e9]Diacritics[edit]Other diacritics are used to indicate short vowels and silent letters:Mai taikhu means “stick that climbs and squats”. It is a miniature Thai numeral 8 \u0e58. Mai taikhu is often used with sara e (\u0e40) and sara ae (\u0e41) in closed syllables.Thanthakhat means “capital punishment”.SymbolNameMeaningThaiRTGS\u00a0\u25cc\u0e47\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e44\u0e15\u0e48\u0e04\u0e39\u0e49mai taikhushortens vowel\u00a0\u25cc\u0e4c\u0e17\u0e31\u0e13\u0e11\u0e06\u0e32\u0e15 or \u0e01\u0e32\u0e23\u0e31\u0e19\u0e15\u0e4cthanthakhat or karanindicates silent letterFan nu means “rat teeth” and is thought as being placed in combination with short sara i and fong man to form other characters.SymbolNameUseThaiRTGS\u00a0“\u0e1f\u0e31\u0e19\u0e2b\u0e19\u0e39fan nucombined with short sara i (\u25cc\u0e34) to make long sara ue (\u25cc\u0e37)combined with fong man (\u0e4f) to make fong man fan nu (\u0e4f“)Numerals[edit]For numerals, mostly the standard Hindu-Arabic numerals (Thai: \u0e40\u0e25\u0e02\u0e2e\u0e34\u0e19\u0e14\u0e39\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e23\u0e1a\u0e34\u0e01, lek hindu arabik) are used, but Thai also has its own set of Thai numerals that are based on the Hindu-Arabic numeral system (Thai: \u0e40\u0e25\u0e02\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22, lek thai), which are mostly limited to government documents, election posters, license plates of military vehicles, and special entry prices for Thai nationals.Hindu-Arabic0123456789Thai\u0e50\u0e51\u0e52\u0e53\u0e54\u0e55\u0e56\u0e57\u0e58\u0e59Other symbols[edit]SymbolNameMeaningThaiRTGS\u0e2f\u0e44\u0e1b\u0e22\u0e32\u0e25\u0e19\u0e49\u0e2d\u0e22pai-yan noimarks formal phrase shortened by convention (abbreviation)\u0e2f\u0e25\u0e2f\u0e44\u0e1b\u0e22\u0e32\u0e25\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e48pai-yan yaiet cetera\u0e46\u0e44\u0e21\u0e49\u0e22\u0e21\u0e01mai ya-mokpreceding word or phrase is reduplicated\u0e4f\u0e1f\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e21\u0e31\u0e19, \u0e15\u0e32\u0e44\u0e01\u0e48fong man, ta kaipreviously marked beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or stanza (obsolete);[8] now only marks beginning of a stanza in a poem; now also used as bullet point[9]\u0e4f“\u0e1f\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e21\u0e31\u0e19\u0e1f\u0e31\u0e19\u0e2b\u0e19\u0e39, \u0e1f\u0e31\u0e19\u0e2b\u0e19\u0e39\u0e1f\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e21\u0e31\u0e19, \u0e1d\u0e19\u0e17\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e1f\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e21\u0e31\u0e19fong man fan nu, fan nu fong man, fon tong fong manpreviously marked beginning of a chapter (obsolete)\u0e50“\u0e1f\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e14\u0e31\u0e19fong dan\u0e2f\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e04\u0e31\u0e48\u0e19\u0e40\u0e14\u0e35\u0e48\u0e22\u0e27, \u0e04\u0e31\u0e48\u0e19\u0e40\u0e14\u0e35\u0e48\u0e22\u0e27, \u0e02\u0e31\u0e49\u0e19\u0e40\u0e14\u0e35\u0e48\u0e22\u0e27angkhan diao, khan diao, khan diaopreviously marked end of a sentence or stanza (obsolete)[8]\u0e5a\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e04\u0e31\u0e48\u0e19\u0e04\u0e39\u0e48, \u0e04\u0e31\u0e48\u0e19\u0e04\u0e39\u0e48, \u0e02\u0e31\u0e49\u0e19\u0e04\u0e39\u0e48angkhan khu, khan khu, khan khumarks end of stanza; marks end of chapter[8]  or long section[9]\u0e2f\u0e30\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e04\u0e31\u0e48\u0e19\u0e27\u0e34\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e23\u0e0a\u0e19\u0e35\u0e22\u0e4cangkhan wisanchanimarks end of a stanza in a poem[9]\u0e5a\u0e30\u0e5b\u0e42\u0e04\u0e21\u0e39\u0e15\u0e23, \u0e2a\u0e39\u0e15\u0e23\u0e19\u0e32\u0e23\u0e32\u0e22\u0e13\u0e4ckhomut, sutnaraimarks end of a chapter or document;[9] marks end of a story[8]\u0e5a\u0e30\u0e5b\u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e04\u0e31\u0e48\u0e19\u0e27\u0e34\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e23\u0e0a\u0e19\u0e35\u0e22\u0e4c\u0e42\u0e04\u0e21\u0e39\u0e15\u0e23angkhan wisanchani khomutmarks the very end of a written work\u0e3f\u0e1a\u0e32\u0e17batbaht (the currency of Thailand)Pai-yan noi and angkhan diao share the same character. Sara a (\u2013\u0e30) 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.Summary charts[edit]Alphabet chart\u0e01\u0e02\u0e03\u0e04\u0e05\u0e06\u0e07\u0e08\u0e09\u0e0a\u0e0b\u0e0c\u0e0d\u0e0e\u0e0f\u0e10\u0e11\u0e12\u0e13\u0e14\u0e15\u0e16\u0e17\u0e18\u0e19\u0e1a\u0e1b\u0e1c\u0e1d\u0e1e\u0e1f\u0e20\u0e21\u0e22\u0e23\u0e25\u0e27\u0e28\u0e29\u0e2a\u0e2b\u0e2c\u0e2d\u0e2eColour codesColourClassGreenMediumPinkHighBluePaired low class; has its high class counterpartPurpleSingle low class; turns into high class if preceded by \u0e2bEnding sounds\u0e01\u0e02\u0e03\u0e04\u0e05\u0e06\/k\/\u0e08\u0e09\u0e0a\u0e0b\u0e0c\u0e0e\u0e0f\u0e10\u0e11\u0e12\u0e14\u0e15\u0e16\u0e17\u0e18\u0e28\u0e29\u0e2a\/t\/\u0e1a\u0e1b\u0e1c\u0e1d\u0e1e\u0e1f\u0e20\/p\/\u0e07\/\u014b\/\u0e0d\u0e13\u0e19 \u0e23\u0e25\/n\/\u0e21\/m\/\/\u0294\/\u0e22\/j\/\u0e27\/w\/colour codesred: deadgreen: aliveIf the syllable contains no ending consonants, it is considered alive if the vowel is long and dead if it is short.Vowels-\u0e34,-\u0e35-\u0e36,-\u0e37-\u0e38,-\u0e39\u0e40-\u0e40-\u0e2d\u0e42-*\u0e42- > \u0e42-, —\u0e41-\u0e30,\u0e32-\u0e2d*-\u0e2d > \u0e40-\u0e32\u0e30, -\u0e47\u0e2dDiphthongs\u0e40-\u0e35\u0e22\u0e40-\u0e37\u0e2d-\u0e31\u0e27-\u0e33\u0e43-\u0e44-\u0e40-\u0e32\u0e24\u0e24\u0e45\u0e26\u0e26\u0e32colour codespink: long vowel, shortened by add “\u0e30”(no ending consonant) or “-\u0e47”(with ending consonant)green: long vowel, has a special form when shortenedVowel chartpositionfrontcentralbackdurationshortlongshortlongshortlonghigh-\u0e34 \/i\/-\u0e35 \/i\u02d0\/-\u0e36 \/\u026f\/-\u0e37\u0e2d,-\u0e37 \/\u026f\u02d0\/-\u0e38 \/u\/-\u0e39 \/u\u02d0\/mid\u0e40-\u0e30,\u0e40-\u0e47 \/e\/\u0e40- \/e\u02d0\/\u0e40-\u0e2d\u0e30 \/\u0264\u0294\/\u0e40-\u0e2d,\u0e40-\u0e34 \/\u0264\u02d0\/\u0e42-\u0e30,– \/o\/\u0e42- \/o\u02d0\/low\u0e41-\u0e30,\u0e41-\u0e47 \/\u025b\/\u0e41- \/\u025b\u02d0\/-\u0e30,-\u0e31 \/a\/-\u0e32 \/a\u02d0\/\u0e40-\u0e32\u0e30,-\u0e47\u0e2d \/\u0254\/-\u0e2d \/\u0254\u02d0\/vowel+\/\u0259\/\u0e40-\u0e35\u0e22\u0e30 \/i\u0259\/\u0e40-\u0e35\u0e22 \/i\u02d0\u0259\/\u0e40-\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e30 \/\u026f\u0259\/\u0e40-\u0e37\u0e2d \/\u026f\u02d0\u0259\/-\u0e31\u0e27\u0e30 \/u\u0259\/-\u0e31\u0e27 \/u\u02d0\u0259\/\/a\/+vowel\u0e44- \u0e43- \/aj\/-\u0e32\u0e22 \/a\u02d0j\/-\u0e33 \/am\/-\u0e32\u0e21 \/a\u02d0m\/\u0e40-\u0e32 \/aw\/-\u0e32\u0e27 \/a\u02d0w\/Tone chartclassendingnone-\u0e48-\u0e49-\u0e4a-\u0e4bmiddeadlow–fallhigh–midalivemidlowfallhighrisehighdeadlow–fallhighaliveriselowfalllowdead (short vowel)highfall–lowdead (long vowel)fall–highlowalivemidfallhighSanskrit and Pali[edit]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 (\u0e2d\u0e30), not the ‘o’, or ‘\u0259’ 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 \u0e2d\u0e3a (a solid dot under the consonant). This means that sara a (\u0e2d\u0e30) is never used when writing Pali, because it is always implied. For example, namo is written \u0e19\u0e30\u0e42\u0e21 in Thai, but in Pali it is written as \u0e19\u0e42\u0e21, because the \u0e2d\u0e30 is redundant. The Sanskrit word ‘mantra’ is written \u0e21\u0e19\u0e15\u0e23\u0e4c in Thai (and therefore pronounced mon), but is written \u0e21\u0e19\u0e3a\u0e15\u0e3a\u0e23 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: \u0e2d\u0e23\u0e2b\u0e4d \u0e2a\u0e21\u0e3a\u0e21\u0e32\u0e2a\u0e21\u0e3a\u0e1e\u0e38\u0e17\u0e3a\u0e42\u0e18 \u0e20\u0e04\u0e27\u0e32 [araha\u1e43 samm\u0101sambuddho bhagav\u0101]. Written in modern Thai orthography, this becomes \u0e2d\u0e30\u0e23\u0e30\u0e2b\u0e31\u0e07 \u0e2a\u0e31\u0e21\u0e21\u0e32\u0e2a\u0e31\u0e21\u0e1e\u0e38\u0e17\u0e42\u0e18 \u0e20\u0e30\u0e04\u0e30\u0e27\u0e32 arahang sammasamphuttho phakhawa.In Thailand, Sanskrit is read out using the Thai values for all the consonants (so \u0e04 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 \u0e24, \u0e24\u0e45, \u0e26, and \u0e26\u0e45, 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, \u0e2a\u0e38\u0e27\u0e23\u0e23\u0e13\u0e20\u0e39\u0e21\u0e34 is romanised as Suvarnabhumi, but pronounced su-wan-na-phum. \u0e28\u0e23\u0e35\u0e19\u0e04\u0e23\u0e34\u0e19\u0e17\u0e23\u0e4c is romanised as Srinagarindra but pronounced si-nakha-rin.Plosives (varga\u1e25)[edit]Plosives (also called stops) are listed in their traditional Sanskrit order, which corresponds to Thai alphabetical order from \u0e01 to \u0e21 with three exceptions: in Thai, high-class \u0e02 is followed by two obsolete characters with no Sanskrit equivalent, high-class \u0e03 and low-class \u0e05; low-class \u0e0a is followed by sibilant \u0e0b (low-class equivalent of high-class sibilant \u0e2a that follows \u0e28 and \u0e29.)   The table gives the Thai value first, and then the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration) value in square brackets.classSanskrit unvoicedSanskrit voicedThai unvoicedThai voicedUnaspiratedAspiratedAspiratedUnaspiratedAspiratedNasalThaiSanskritThaiSanskritThaiSanskritThaiSanskritThaiSanskritvelar\u0e01 k\u00e0\u0915[ka]\/k\/\u0e02 kh\u00e0\u0916[kha]\/k\u02b0\/\u0e04 kh\u00e1\u0917[ga]\/g\/\u0e06 kh\u00e1\u0918[gha]\/g\u02b1\/\u0e07 ng\u00e1\u0919[\u1e45a]\/\u014b\/palatal\u0e08 c\u00e0\u091a[ca]\/c\/, \/t\u0361\u0255\/\u0e09 ch\u00e0\u091b[cha]\/c\u02b0\/, \/t\u0361\u0255\u02b0\/\u0e0a ch\u00e1\u091c[ja]\/\u025f\/, \/d\u0361\u0291\/\u0e0c ch\u00e1\u091d[jha]\/\u025f\u02b1\/, \/d\u0361\u0291\u02b1\/\u0e0d y\u00e1\u091e[\u00f1a]\/\u0272\/retroflex\u0e0f t\u00e0\u091f[\u1e6da]\/\u0288\/\u0e10 th\u00e0\u0920[\u1e6dha]\/\u0288\u02b0\/\u0e11 th\u00e1\u0921[\u1e0da]\/\u0256\/\u0e12 th\u00e1\u0922[\u1e0dha]\/\u0256\u02b1\/\u0e13 n\u00e1\u0923[\u1e47a]\/\u0273\/dental\u0e15 t\u00e0\u0924[ta]\/t\/\u0e16 th\u00e0\u0925[tha]\/t\u02b0\/\u0e17 th\u00e1\u0926[da]\/d\/\u0e18 th\u00e1\u0927[dha]\/d\u02b1\/\u0e19 n\u00e1\u0928[na]\/n\/labial\u0e1b p\u00e0\u092a[pa]\/p\/\u0e1c ph\u00e0\u092b[pha]\/p\u02b0\/\u0e1e ph\u00e1\u092c[ba]\/b\/\u0e20 ph\u00e1\u092d[bha]\/b\u02b1\/\u0e21 m\u00e1\u092e[ma]\/m\/tone classMidHighLowLowLowNone of the Sanskrit plosives are pronounced as the Thai voiced plosives, so these are not represented in the table. 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 \u0e0a and \u0e0c 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 \u0e0f is pronounced like \u0e15, \u0e10 is pronounced like \u0e16, \u0e11 is pronounced like \u0e17, \u0e12 is pronounced like \u0e18, and \u0e13 is pronounced like \u0e19.The Sanskrit unaspirated unvoiced plosives are pronounced as unaspirated unvoiced, whereas Sanskrit aspirated voiced plosives are pronounced as aspirated unvoiced.Non-plosives (avarga\u1e25)[edit]Semivowels (\u0e01\u0e36\u0e48\u0e07\u0e2a\u0e23\u0e30 kueng sara) and liquids come in Thai alphabetical order after \u0e21, the last of the plosives. The term \u0e2d\u0e27\u0e23\u0e23\u0e04 awak means “without a break”; that is, without a plosive.seriessymbolvaluerelated vowelsThaiSanskritpalatal\u0e22y\u00e1\u092f [ya] \/j\/\u0e2d\u0e34 and \u0e2d\u0e35retroflex\u0e23r\u00e1\u0930 [ra]\/\u027d\/\u0e24 and \u0e24\u0e45dental\u0e25l\u00e1\u0932 [la]\/l\/\u0e26 and \u0e26\u0e45labial\u0e27w\u00e1\u0935 [va]\/\u028b\/\u0e2d\u0e38 and \u0e2d\u0e39Sibilants[edit]Inserted sounds (\u0e40\u0e2a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e14\u0e41\u0e17\u0e23\u0e01 siat saek) follow the semi-vowel \u0e27 in alphabetical order.seriessymbolvalueThaiSanskritpalatal\u0e28s\u00e0\u0936 [\u015ba]\/\u0255\/retroflex\u0e29s\u00e0\u0937 [\u1e63a]\/\u0282\/dental\u0e2as\u00e0\u0938 [sa]\/s\/Like Sanskrit, Thai has no voiced sibilant (so no ‘z’ or ‘zh’). In modern Thai, the distinction between the three high-class consonants has been lost and all three are pronounced ‘s\u00e0’; however, foreign words with a sh-sound may still be transcribed as if the Sanskrit values still hold (e.g., ang-grit \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e01\u0e24\u0e29 for English instead of \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e01\u0e24\u0e2a).\u0e28 \u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e32 (so sala) leads words, as in its example word, \u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e32. The digraph \u0e28\u0e23\u0e35 (Indic sri) is regularly pronounced \u0e2a\u0e35 (si), as in Sisaket Province, Thai: \u0e28\u0e23\u0e35\u0e2a\u0e30\u0e40\u0e01\u0e29.\u0e29 \u0e24\u0e45\u0e29\u0e35 (so rue-si) may only lead syllables within a word, as in its example, \u0e24\u0e45\u0e29\u0e35, or to end a syllable as in \u0e28\u0e23\u0e35\u0e2a\u0e30\u0e40\u0e01\u0e29 Sisaket and \u0e2d\u0e31\u0e07\u0e01\u0e24\u0e29 Angkrit English.\u0e2a \u0e40\u0e2a\u0e37\u0e2d (so suea) spells native Thai words that require a high-class \/s\/, as well as naturalized Pali\/Sanskrit words, such as \u0e2a\u0e32\u0e23\u0e17 (\u0e2a\u0e32\u0e17) in Thetsakan Sat: \u0e40\u0e17\u0e28\u0e01\u0e32\u0e25\u0e2a\u0e32\u0e23\u0e17 (\u0e40\u0e17\u0e14-\u0e2a\u0e30-\u0e01\u0e32\u0e19-\u0e2a\u0e32\u0e17), formerly \u0e28\u0e32\u0e23\u0e17 (\u0e2a\u0e32\u0e17).\u0e0b \u0e42\u0e0b\u0e48 (so so), which follows the similar-appearing \u0e0a in Thai alphabetical order, spells words requiring a low-class \/s\/, as does \u0e17\u0e23 + vowel.\u0e17\u0e23, as in the heading of this section, \u0e40\u0e2a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e14\u0e41\u0e17\u0e23\u0e01  (pronounced \u0e40\u0e2a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e14\u0e41\u0e0b\u0e01 siat saek), when accompanied by a vowel (implicit in \u0e17\u0e23\u0e07 (\u0e0b\u0e07 song an element in forming words used with royalty); a semivowel in \u0e17\u0e23\u0e27\u0e07 (\u0e0b\u0e27\u0e07 suang chest, heart); or explicit in \u0e17\u0e23\u0e32\u0e22 (\u0e0b\u0e32\u0e22 sai sand). Exceptions to \u0e17\u0e23 + vowel = \/s\/ are the prefix \u0e42\u0e17\u0e23- (equivalent to tele- far, pronounced \u0e42\u0e17\u0e23\u0e30 to-ra), and phonetic re-spellings of English tr- (as in the phonetic respelling of trumpet: \u0e17\u0e23\u0e31\u0e21\u0e40\u0e1e\u0e47\u0e17.) \u0e17\u0e23 is otherwise pronounced as two syllables \u0e17\u0e2d\u0e23\u0e30-, as in \u0e17\u0e23\u0e21\u0e32\u0e19 (\u0e17\u0e2d\u0e23\u0e30\u0e21\u0e32\u0e19 to-ra-man to torment).Voiced h[edit]symbolvalueThaiSanskrit\u0e2bh\u00e0\u0939 [ha]\/\u0266\/\u0e2b, a high-class consonant, comes next in alphabetical order, but its low-class equivalent, \u0e2e, follows similar-appearing \u0e2d 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 \u0e2a\u0e34\u0e07\u0e2b\u0e4c, with a karan on the \u0e2b; correct pronunciation is “sing”, but foreigners to Thailand typically say “sing-ha”.)Voiced lla[edit]symbolvalueThaiSanskrit\u0e2cll\u00e1\u0933[\u1e37a]\/\u026d\/This represents the retroflex liquid of Pali and Vedic Sanskrit, which does not exist in Classical Sanskrit.Vowels[edit]symbolvalue\u0e2d\u0e30a [a]\u0e2d\u0e32a [\u0101]\u0e2d\u0e34i [i]\u0e2d\u0e35i [\u012b]\u0e2d\u0e38u [u]\u0e2d\u0e39u [\u016b]\u0e40\u0e2de [e]\u0e42\u0e2do [o]\u0e24ru [\u1e5b]\u0e24\u0e45ru [\u1e5d]\u0e26lu [\u1e37]\u0e26\u0e45lu [\u1e39]All consonants have an inherent ‘a’ sound, and therefore there is no need to use the \u0e30 symbol when writing Sanskrit. The Thai vowels \u0e2d\u0e37, \u0e44\u0e2d, \u0e43\u0e2d, and so forth, are not used in Sanskrit. The zero consonant, \u0e2d, 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 [\u0254\u02d0]. Its use in Sanskrit is therefore to write vowels that cannot be otherwise written alone: e.g., \u0e2d\u0e32 or \u0e2d\u0e35. When \u0e2d is written on its own, then it is a carrier for the implied vowel, a [a] (equivalent to \u0e2d\u0e30 in Thai).The vowel sign \u0e2d\u0e33 occurs in Sanskrit, but only as the combination of the pure vowels sara a \u0e2d\u0e32 with nikkhahit \u0e2d\u0e4d.Other non-Thai symbols[edit]There are a number of additional symbols only used to write Sanskrit or Pali, and not used in writing Thai.Nikkhahit (anusv\u0101ra)[edit]In Sanskrit, the anusv\u0101ra indicates a certain kind of nasal sound. In Thai this is written as an open circle above the consonant, known as nikkhahit (\u0e19\u0e34\u0e04\u0e2b\u0e34\u0e15), from Pali niggah\u012bta. Nasalisation does not occur in Thai, therefore, a nasal stop is always substituted: e.g. \u0e15\u0e4d ta\u1e43, is pronounced as \u0e15\u0e31\u0e07 tang by Thai Sanskritists. If nikkhahit occurs before a consonant, then Thai uses a nasal stop of the same class: e.g. \u0e2a\u0e4d\u0e2a\u0e3a\u0e01\u0e3a\u0e24\u0e15\u0e32 [sa\u1e43sk\u1e5bta] is read as \u0e2a\u0e31\u0e19\u0e2a\u0e01\u0e24\u0e15\u0e32 san-sa-krit-ta (The \u0e2a following the nikkhahit is a dental-class consonant, therefore the dental-class nasal stop \u0e19 is used). For this reason, it has been suggested that in Thai, nikkhahit should be listed as a consonant.[8] Also, traditional Pali grammars describe nikkhahit as a consonant.  Nikkhahit \u0e19\u0e34\u0e04\u0e2b\u0e34\u0e15 occurs as part of the Thai vowels sara am \u0e2d\u0e33 and sara ue \u0e2d\u0e36.Phinthu (vir\u0101ma)[edit]\u0e2d\u0e3aBecause the Thai script is an abugida, a symbol (equivalent to vir\u0101ma in devanagari) needs to be added to indicate that the implied vowel is not to be pronounced. This is the phinthu, which is a solid dot (also called ‘Bindu’ in Sanskrit) below the consonant.Yamakkan[edit]\u0e2d\u0e4eYamakkan (\u0e22\u0e32\u0e21\u0e31\u0e01\u0e01\u0e32\u0e23) is an obsolete symbol used to mark the beginning of consonant clusters: e.g. \u0e1e\u0e4e\u0e23\u0e32\u0e2b\u0e4e\u0e21\u0e13 phramana [br\u0101hma\u1e47a]. Without the yamakkan, this word would be pronounced pharahamana [bar\u0101hama\u1e47a] instead. This is a feature unique to the Thai script (other Indic scripts use a combination of ligatures, conjuncts or vir\u0101ma to convey the same information). The symbol is obsolete because pinthu may be used to achieve the same effect: \u0e1e\u0e3a\u0e23\u0e32\u0e2b\u0e3a\u0e21\u0e13.Visarga[edit]The means of recording visarga (final voiceless ‘h’) in Thai has reportedly been lost, although the character \u25cc\u0e30 which is used to transcribe a short \/a\/ or to add a glottal stop after a vowel is the closest equivalent and can be seen used as a visarga in some Thai-script Sanskrit text.Unicode[edit]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\u2013U+0E7F.It is a verbatim copy of the older TIS-620 character set which encodes the vowels \u0e40, \u0e41, \u0e42, \u0e43 and \u0e44 before the consonants they follow, and thus Thai, Lao, Tai Viet and New Tai Lue are the only Brahmic scripts in Unicode that use visual order instead of logical order.Thai[1][2]Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)\u00a00123456789ABCDEFU+0E0x\u0e01\u0e02\u0e03\u0e04\u0e05\u0e06\u0e07\u0e08\u0e09\u0e0a\u0e0b\u0e0c\u0e0d\u0e0e\u0e0fU+0E1x\u0e10\u0e11\u0e12\u0e13\u0e14\u0e15\u0e16\u0e17\u0e18\u0e19\u0e1a\u0e1b\u0e1c\u0e1d\u0e1e\u0e1fU+0E2x\u0e20\u0e21\u0e22\u0e23\u0e24\u0e25\u0e26\u0e27\u0e28\u0e29\u0e2a\u0e2b\u0e2c\u0e2d\u0e2e\u0e2fU+0E3x\u0e30\u0e31\u0e32\u0e33\u0e34\u0e35\u0e36\u0e37\u0e38\u0e39\u0e3a\u0e3fU+0E4x\u0e40\u0e41\u0e42\u0e43\u0e44\u0e45\u0e46\u0e47\u0e48\u0e49\u0e4a\u0e4b\u0e4c\u0e4d\u0e4e\u0e4fU+0E5x\u0e50\u0e51\u0e52\u0e53\u0e54\u0e55\u0e56\u0e57\u0e58\u0e59\u0e5a\u0e5bU+0E6xU+0E7xNotes1.^ As of Unicode version 15.02.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code pointsKeyboard layouts[edit]Thai characters can be typed using the Kedmanee layout and the Pattachote layout.See also[edit]References[edit]External links[edit]Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thai text.     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