Royal Thai General System of Transcription

The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai language words in the Latin alphabet, published by the Royal Institute of Thailand. It is used in road signs and government publications, and is the closest thing to a standard of transcription for Thai, though its use by even the government is inconsistent.^{[citation needed]}

Features

Prominent features of the Royal Thai General System include:

• uses only unmodified letters from the Latin alphabet; no diacritics
• spells all vowels and diphthongs using only vowel letters: ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩
  • single letters ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩ are simple vowels with the same value as in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
  • digraphs with trailing ⟨e⟩ are simple vowels, ⟨ae⟩, ⟨oe⟩, ⟨ue⟩ sound like /ɛ, ɤ, ɯ/ respectively (and are perhaps chosen for their similarity to IPA ligatures: /æ, œ, ɯ/)
  • digraphs with trailing ⟨a⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩ are diphthongs, indicated by /a, j, w/ respectively in IPA
• uses consonants as in IPA, except:
  • digraphs with ⟨h⟩ (⟨ph⟩, ⟨th⟩, ⟨kh⟩) are aspirated /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/ consonants, to distinguish them from the separate unaspirated ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨k⟩
  • uses ⟨ng⟩ for /ŋ/, as in English
  • uses ⟨ch⟩ for /tɕʰ/ and /tɕ/, with some similarity to English
  • uses ⟨y⟩ for /j/, as in English.

Transcription of consonants in final position is according to pronunciation, not Thai orthography. Vowels are transcribed in sequence as pronounced, not as in the Thai orthography.

Criticism

The Royal Thai General System has been criticized as inadequate for learners of Thai, particularly because of the following shortcomings:

• it does not record tones
• it does not differentiate between short and long vowels
• the notation ⟨ch⟩ does not differentiate between IPA /tɕ/ and IPA /tɕʰ/ (see table below)
• the notation ⟨o⟩ does not differentiate between IPA /ɔ/ and IPA /o/ (see table below)

	Phoneme 1				Phoneme 2
RTGS	Thai	IPA	Description	English	Thai	IPA	Description	English
ch	จ	tɕ	alveo-palatal affricate	as ⟨ty⟩ in "let you"	ฉ, ช, ฌ	tɕʰ	aspirated alveo- palatal affricate	as ⟨ch⟩ in "check"
o	โ–ะ, –	o	close-mid back short rounded	like ⟨oa⟩ in "boat"	เ–าะ	ɔ	open-mid back short rounded	like ⟨aw⟩ in "raw", but shorter
	โ–	oː	close-mid back long rounded	like ⟨oa⟩ in "moan"	–อ	ɔː	open-mid back long rounded	like ⟨aw⟩ in "raw"

Transcription table

For consonants, the transcription is different depending on the location in the syllable. In the section on vowels a dash ("–") indicates the relative position of the initial consonant belonging to the vowel.

Consonants		Vowels
Letter Initial position Final position ก k k ข kh k ฃ kh k ค kh k ฅ kh k ฆ kh k ง ng ng จ ch t ฉ ch - ช ch t ซ s t ฌ ch - ญ y n ฎ d t ฏ t t ฐ th t ฑ th t ฒ th t ณ n n ด d t ต t t ถ th t ท th t ธ th t น n n บ b p ป p p ผ ph - ฝ f - พ ph p ฟ f p ภ ph p ม m m ย y - ร r n ฤ rue, ri, roe - ฤๅ rue - ล l n ฦ lue - ฦๅ lue - ว w - ศ s t ษ s t ส s t ห h - ฬ l n ฮ h -		Letter Romanisation –ะ, –ั, รร (with final), –า a รร (without final) an –ำ am –ิ, –ี i –ึ, –ื ue –ุ, –ู u เ–ะ, เ–็, เ– e แ–ะ, แ– ae โ–ะ, –, โ–, เ–าะ, –อ o เ–อะ, เ–ิ, เ–อ oe เ–ียะ, เ–ีย ia เ–ือะ, เ–ือ uea –ัวะ, –ัว, –ว– ua ใ–, ไ–, –ัย, ไ–ย, –าย ai เ–า, –าว ao –ุย ui โ–ย, –อย oi เ–ย oei เ–ือย ueai –วย uai –ิว io เ–็ว, เ–ว eo แ–็ว, แ–ว aeo เ–ียว iao

See also

• ISO 11940

References

• PDF file setting out the system (Thai language)
• Report on the Current Status of United Nations Romanization Systems for Geographical Names: Thai
• "ประกาศสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง หลักเกณฑ์การถอดอักษรไทยเป็นอักษรโรมันแบบถ่ายเสียง" (in Thai). Royal Gazette 116 (37 ง): 11. 1999-05-11. http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2542/D/037/11.PDF. 

External links

• Discussion of romanisation (Microsoft Word document)
• Downloadable Windows-based transcription tool
• ALA-LC: PDF guide to romanization
• Thai-language.com: online transcriptions Thai-English and English-Thai