Thai script

Thai
Script type	Abugida
Creator	King Ramkhamhaeng the Great
Time period	1283–present
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Thai
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Pallava Khmer Thai
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Thai (352), ​Thai
Unicode
Unicode alias	Thai
Unicode range	U+0E00–U+0E7F

Thai script (Template:Lang-th, àksǒn thai), is used to write the Thai language and other, minority, languages in Thailand. It has forty-four consonants (Template:Lang-th, phayanchaná), fifteen vowel symbols (Template:Lang-th, sàrà) that combine into at least twenty-eight vowel forms, and four tone marks (Template:Lang-th, 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 symbols 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 (Template:Lang-th, tua lek thai), but the standard western Hindu-Arabic numerals (Template:Lang-th, tua lek hindu arabik) are also commonly used.

The Thai script is very similar to the old Lao script, but the modern Lao script is more concise and more phonetic.

History

Replica of the Ramkhamhaeng inscription, the oldest inscription using proto-Thai script

The Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script (Template:Lang-th, 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 (Template:Lang-th).

Orthography

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 (Template:Lang-th, chun la phâk or lûk nám), and major pauses by a period (Template:Lang-th, ma hàp phâk or chùt), but most often are marked by a blank space (Template:Lang-th, wák). A bird's eye ๏ (Template:Lang-th, ta kài, officially called ฟองมัน, fong man) formerly indicated paragraphs, but is now obsolete.

A khomut ๛ (Template:Lang-th) can be used to mark the end of a chapter or document.

Thai writing also uses quotation marks (Template:Lang-th, an-yá-prà-kàt) and parentheses (round brackets) (Template:Lang-th, 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:

• Thai สามารถ (spelled sǎamaarth but pronounced [sǎːmâːt] because the r is silent) "to be able" (Sanskrit समर्थ samartha)
• Thai จันทร์ (spelled chanthr but pronounced [tɕan] because the th and the r are silent) "moon" (Sanskrit चन्द्र candra)

Alphabet listing

Consonants

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 (Template:Lang-th, siang tam ), middle (Template:Lang-th, siang klang) and high (Template:Lang-th, 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 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.

Alphabetic

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)	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.

Phonetic

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, unaspirated
• unvoiced, aspirated
• voiced, unaspirated

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

In each cell below, the first line indicates International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the second indicates the Thai characters in initial position (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			Template:Bg-c|[m] ม				Template:Bg-c|[n] ณ,น						Template:Bg-c|[ŋ] ง
Plosive	Template:Bg-c|[p] ป	Template:Bg-c|[pʰ] ผ,พ,ภ	Template:Bg-c|[b] บ*		Template:Bg-c|[t] ฏ,ต	Template:Bg-c|[tʰ] ฐ,ฑ,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ	Template:Bg-c|[d] ฎ,ด*				Template:Bg-c|[k] ก	Template:Bg-c|[kʰ] ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ**		Template:Bg-c|[ʔ] อ***
Fricative				Template:Bg-c|[f] ฝ,ฟ	[s] ซ,ศ,ษ,ส									Template:Bg-c|[h] ห,ฮ
Affricate								[tɕ] จ	[tɕʰ] ฉ, ช, ฌ
Trill							[r] ร
Approximant										[j] ญ,ย			[w] ว
Lateral approximant							[l] ล,ฬ

^*At the end of a syllable บ and ด are devoiced, becoming pronounced as [p] and [t] respectively.

^** ฃ and ฅ are no longer used. Thus, modern Thai is said to have 42 consonants.

^*** Initial อ 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. 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		Template:Bg-c|[m] ม			Template:Bg-c|[n] ณ,ญ,น,ร,ล,ฬ				Template:Bg-c|[ŋ] ง
Plosive	Template:Bg-c|[p] บ,ป,พ,ฟ,ภ			Template:Bg-c|[t] จ,ช,ซ,ฎ,ฏ,ฐ,ฑ,ฒ, ด,ต,ท,ธ,ศ,ษ,ส				Template:Bg-c|[k] ก,ข,ค,ฆ		Template:Bg-c|[ʔ]*
Fricative
Affricate
Trill
Approximant							[j] ย		[w] ว
Lateral approximant

^* The glottal plosive appears at the end when no final follows a short vowel

Vowels

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 (indicated by a dash '–') and sometimes a final consonant as well (second dash). 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.

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 (kritna, not kruesana) ฤทธิ์ (rit, not ruet) กฤษดา (krisada, not kruetsada), for example. It is also used to spell อังกฤษ angrit English and ประเทศอังกฤษ Prathet angrit England.

The pronunciation below is indicated by the International Phonetic Alphabet 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. A dash represents the position of a consonant cluster. Vowels that only exist in closed syllables either have one dash and an explicit consonant or they have two dashes, the first one representing the initial consonant and the latter representing the final.

Symbol	Name	IPA	Royal	Variants	Similar Sound
–	implied a	aʔ	a	u	u in "nut"
– –	implied o	o	o		oa in "boat"
–ร	tua ro *	ɔːn	on	orn	aun in "faun"; same as -อน
–รร	ro han *	ɑn	an	un	un in tun; same as -ัน
–รร–	ro han *	ɑ	a	u	u in "nut"; same as -ั-
–รรม	ro han with mo ma as closing consonant *	ɑm	am	um	um in "hum"; same as -ำ
–ว–	sara ua *	ua	ua	uar	ewe in "newer"
–วย	sara ua with yo yak as closing consonant	uɛj	uai	uay	uoy in "buoy"
–อ	sara o	ɔː	o	or, aw	aw in "saw"
–็อ–	sara o with mai taikhu	ɔ	o	o, aw	o in "not"
–อย	sara o with yo yak as closing consonant	ɔːj	oi	oy	oy in "boy"
–ะ	sara a	aʔ	a	u	u in "nut"
–ั –	sara a in mai han-akat form	a	a	u	u in "nut"
–ัย	sara a with yo yak as closing consonant	ɑj	ai		i in "hi"
–ัว	sara ua	ua	ua		ewe in "newer"
–ัวะ	sara ua	uaʔ	ua		ewe in "sewer"
–า	sara a	aː	a	ah, ar, aa	a in "father"
–าย	sara a with yo yak as closing consonant	aːj	ai	aai, aay, ay	ye in "bye"
–าว	sara a with wo waen as closing consonant	aːw	ao	au	ow in "now"
–ำ	sara am	ɑm	am	um	um in "sum"
–ิ	sara i	i	i		y in "greedy"
–ิว	sara i with wo waen as closing consonant	iw	io	ew	ew in "new"
–ี	sara i	iː	i	ee, ii, y	ee in "see"
–ึ	sara ue	ɯ	ue	eu, u, uh	u in French "du" (short)
–ื	sara ue	ɯː	ue	eu, u	u in French "dur" (long)
–ุ	sara u	u	u	oo	oo in "look"
–ู	sara u	uː	u	oo, uu	oo in "too"
เ–	sara e	eː	e	ay, a, ae, ai, ei	a in "lame"
เ–็ –	sara e with mai taikhu	e	e		e in "neck"
เ–ะ	sara e	eʔ	e	eh	e in "neck"
เ–ย	sara oe with yo yak as closing consonant	ɤːj	oei	oey	u in "burn" + y in "boy"
เ–อ	sara oe	ɤː	oe	er, eu, ur	u in "burn"
เ–อะ	sara oe	ɤʔ	oe	eu	e in "the"
เ–ิ –	sara oe	ɤ	oe	eu, u	e in "the"
เ–ว	sara e with wo waen as closing consonant	eːw	eo	eu, ew	ai + ow in "rainbow"
เ–า	sara ao	aw	ao	aw, au, ow	ow in "cow"
เ–าะ	sara o	ɔʔ	o	orh, oh, or	o in "not"
เ–ีย	sara ia	iːa	ia	ear, ere, ie	ea in "ear"
เ–ียะ	sara ia	iaʔ	ia	iah, ear, ie	ea in "ear" with glottal stop
เ–ียว	sara ia with wo waen as closing consonant	io	iao	eaw, iew, iow	io in "trio"
เ–ือ	sara uea	ɯːa	uea	eua, ua, ue	ure in "pure"
เ–ือะ	sara uea	ɯaʔ	uea	eua, ua	ure in "pure"
แ–	sara ae	ɛː	ae	a	a in "ham"
แ–ะ	sara ae	ɛʔ	ae	aeh, a	a in "at"
แ–็ –	sara ae with mai taikhu	ɛ	ae	aeh, a	a in "at"
แ–ว	sara ae with wo waen as closing consonant	ɛːw	aeo	aew, eo	a in "ham" + ow in "low"
โ–	sara o	oː	o	or, oh, ô	o in "go"
โ–ะ	sara o	oʔ	o	oh	o in "poke"
ใ–	sara ai mai muan **	ɑj	ai	ay, y	i in "I"
ไ–	sara ai mai malai	ɑj	ai	ay, y	i in "I"
ฤ	ro rue (short) *	rɯ	rue	ru, ri	rew in "grew"
ฤๅ	ro rue (long) *	rɯː	rue	ruu
ฦ	lo lue (short) *	lɯ	lue	lu, li	lew in "blew"
ฦๅ	lo lue (long) *	lɯː	lue	lu

* These are semi-vowels or diphthongs written with consonant symbols.

** Only 20 Thai words use sara ai mai muan (ใ). Other words use one of the /ɑj/ variants.

Diacritics

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:

Symbol Name Syllable composition and initial consonant class Thai RTGS Vowel and final Low Mid High (ไม่มี) (none) long vowel or vowel plus sonorant mid mid rising (ไม่มี) (none) long vowel plus plosive falling low low (ไม่มี) (none) short vowel at end or plus plosive high low low  –่ ไม้เอก mai ek any falling low low  –้ ไม้โท mai tho any high falling falling  –๊ ไม้ตรี mai tri any - high -  –๋ ไม้จัตวา mai chattawa any - rising -

The five levels: high tone, rising tone, normal tone, falling tone, low tone. Empty circle: live syllable, full circle: dead syllable. Narrow ellipse: short vowel, wide ellipse: long vowel. Blue: low, green: middle, red: high initial consonant.

"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:

• ห นำ ho nam, leading ho. A silent, high-class ห "leads" low-class nasal consonants (ง, ญ, น and ม) and non-plosives (ว, ย, ร and ล), 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.

• อ นำ o nam, leading o. In four words only, a silent, mid-class อ "leads" low-class ย into mid-class tone rules: อย่า (ya, don't) อยาก (yak, desire) อย่าง (yang, kind, sort, type) อยู่ (yu, stay). Note all four have long-vowel, low-tone siang ek, but อยาก, a dead syllable, needs no tone marker, but the three live syllables all take mai ek.

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:

• Mai taikhu means "stick that climbs and squats". It is a miniature Thai numeral 8 ๘. Mai taikhu is often used with sara e (เ) and sara ae (แ) in closed syllables.
• Thanthakhat means "killing as punishment"; karan means "canceled". Compare Virama.

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 ( ๏")

Other symbols

Symbol	Name		Meaning
	Thai	RTGS
ฯ	ไปยาลน้อย	pai-yan noi	preceding word is abbreviated
ฯลฯ	ไปยาลใหญ่	pai-yan yai	et cetera
ๆ	ไม้ยมก	mai ya-mok	preceding word or phrase is repeated
๏	ฟองมัน, ตาไก่	fong man, ta kai	previously marked beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or stanza (obsolete); now only marks beginning of a stanza in a poem; now also used as bullet point
๏"	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)
๚	อังคั่นคู่, คั่นคู่, ขั้นคู่	angkhan khu, khan khu, khan khu	marks end of stanza; marks end of chapter or long section
ฯะ	อังคั่นวิสรรชนีย์	angkhan wisanchani	marks end of a stanza in a poem
๚ะ
๛	โคมูตร	khomut	marks end of a chapter or document; marks end of a story
๚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.

Sanskrit and Pali

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 (วรรค vargaḥ)

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.

Non-plosives (อวรรค avargaḥ)

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

Sibilants (เสียดแทรก)

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).

ศ ศาลา (so sala) leads words, as in its example word, ศาลา. The digraph ศรี (Indic sri) is regularly pronounced สี (si), as in Sisaket Province, Thai: ศรีสะเกษ.

ษ ฤๅษี (so rue-si) may only lead syllables within a word, as in its example, ฤๅษี, or to end a syllable as in ศรีสะเกษ Sisaket and อังกฤษ Anggrit English.

ส เสือ (so suea) spells native Thai words that require a high-class /s/, as well as naturalized Pali/Sanskrit words, such as สารท (สาท) in Thetsakan Sat: เทศกาลสารท (เทด-สะ-กาน-สาท), formerly ศารท (สาท).

ซ โซ่ (so so), which follows the similar-appearing ช in Thai alphabetical order, spells words requiring a low-class /s/, as does ทร + vowel.

ทร, as in the heading of this section, เสียดแทรก (pronounced เสียดแซก siat saek), when accompanied by a vowel (implicit in ทรง (ซง song an element in forming words used with royalty; a semivowel in ทรวง (ซวง suang chest, heart); or explicit in ทราย (ซาย sigh sand). Exceptions to ทร + vowel = /s/ are the prefix โทร- (equivalent to tele- far, pronounced โทระ to-ra), and phonetic re-spellings of English tr- (as แตร (trae) meaning trumpet, with the latter respelled phonetically as ทรัมเพ็ท.) ทร is otherwise pronounced as two syllables ทอระ-, as in ทรมาน (ทอระมาน to-ra-man to torment).

Voiced h (มีหนักมีลม)

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".)

Vowels (สระ)

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.

Other symbols

There are a number of additional symbols only used to write Sanskrit or Pali, and not used in writing Thai.

Nikhahit นิคหิตฺ (anusvāra)

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. Nikhahit นิคหิต occurs as part of the Thai vowels sara am อำ and sara ue อึ.

Pinthu พินทุ (virāma)

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.

Yamakkan ยามักการ

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.

Visarga

The means of recording visarga (final voiceless 'h') in Thai has been lost.

Unicode

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][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

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 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also

• Thai language
• Thai language: Script: Transliteration
  • Royal Thai General System of Transcription
  • ISO 11940
• Thai numerals
• Thailand

External links

• Comparing Thai script with Devanagari, Khmer, Burmese, and Tai Tham
• Omniglot - Thai
• Thai Alphabet Soundboard
• Thai consonants
• Thai vowels
• Transliterations for Thai Vowels, Thai Consonants
• Phonetic Organization of the Thai Consonants, by Richard Wordingham
• Virtual Thai Keyboard Freeware for the Windows operating system