Help:IPA/Thai and Lao

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Thai and Lao on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Thai and Lao in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here. Some keys are built on consensus more strongly than others; if a large number of transcriptions already use this key, any substantive change to it should be discussed on the talk page first as it would affect a large number of articles.

Shortcuts

These charts illustrate International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols used for pronunciations of the Thai (Siamese), Southern Thai, Isan (Northeastern Thai), Phu Thai and Lao in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-th}}, {{IPA-lo}}, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Consonants
IPA	Central Thai	Southern Thai	Isan	Phu Thai	Lao	English approximation
b	บ	บ	บ	บ	ບ	abash
d	ฎ,ด	ฎ,ด	ฎ,ด	ฎ,ด	ດ	ado
f	ฝ,ฟ	ฝ,ฟ	ฝ,ฟ	ฝ,ฟ	ຝ,ຟ	food
h	ห,ฮ	ห,ฮ	ห,ฮ	ห,ฮ	ຫ,ຮ	head
j	ญ,ย,อย,หย	ญ,ย,อย,หย	ย,อย,หย	ย,อย,หย	ຢ	yak
k	ก	ก	ก	ก	ກ	scan
kʰ (x)^[1]	ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ	ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ	ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ	ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ	ຂ,ຄ	can
l	ล,ฬ,หล	ล,ฬ,หล	ล,ฬ,หล	ร,หร,ล,ฬ,หล	ລ,ຫຼ	law
m	ม,หม	ม,หม	ม,หม	ม,หม	ມ,ໝ	much
n	ณ,น,หน	ณ,น,หน	ณ,น,หน	ณ,น,หน	ນ,ໜ	not
ŋ	ง,หง	ง	ง,หง	ง,หง	ງ,ຫງ	bang
ɲ^[2]	—	—	ญ	ญ	ຍ,ຫຍ	canyon
p	ป	ป	ป	ป	ປ	span
pʰ	ผ,พ,ภ	ผ,พ,ภ	ผ,พ,ภ	ผ,พ,ภ	ຜ,ພ	pan
r^[3]	ร,หร	ร,หร	ร,หร	—	ຣ,ຫຼ ,ຫຣ	raw
s	ซ,ศ,ษ,ส	ซ,ศ,ษ,ส	ฉ,ช,ฌ ,ซ,ศ,ษ,ส	ฉ,ช,ฌ ,ซ,ศ,ษ,ส	ສ,ຊ	sue
t	ฏ,ต	ฏ,ต	ฏ,ต	ฏ,ต	ຕ	stable
tʰ	ฐ,ฑ,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ	ฐ,ฑ,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ	ฐ,ฑ,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ	ฐ,ฑ,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ	ຖ,ທ	table
tɕ	จ	จ	จ	จ	ຈ	question
tɕʰ^[4]	ฉ,ช,ฌ	ฉ,ช,ฌ	—	—	—	cheese
w	ว,หว	ว,หว	ว,หว	ว,หว	ວ,ຫວ	way
ʔ	อ, ะ	อ	อ, ะ	อ, ะ	ອ	the catch in uh'-oh

Tone^[5]
IPA	Description
aː = āː	mid [aː˧]
àː	low [aː˨˩] or [aː˩]
âː	falling [aː˥˩] (Thai), high falling [aː˥˧] (Lao)
a̭ː	low falling [aː˧˩] (Lao only)
áː	high [aː˦˥] or [aː˥]
ǎː	rising [aː˩˩˦] or [aː˩˦]

Vowels
IPA	Thai^[6]	Lao	English approximation
Short vowels^[7]
a	◌ะ, ◌ั◌	◌ະ, ◌ັ◌	cut
e	เ◌ะ, เ◌็◌	ເ◌ະ, ເ◌ັ◌	mate
ɛ	แ◌ะ, แ◌็◌	ແ◌ະ, ແ◌ັ◌	bat
i	◌ิ, ◌ิ◌	◌ິ	happy
o	โ◌ะ, ◌◌	ໂ◌ະ, ◌ົ◌	boat
ɔ	เ◌าะ, ◌็อ◌	◌ໍ	off
u	◌ุ, ◌ุ◌	◌ຸ	shoot
ɯ	◌ึ, ◌ึ◌	◌ຶ	Somewhat like North American good. [u] said with unrounded lips
ɤ	เ◌อะ	ເ◌ິະ, ເ◌ິ◌	the
Long vowels
aː	◌า, ◌า◌	◌າ	bra
eː	เ◌, เ◌◌	ເ◌	play
ɛː	แ◌, แ◌◌	ແ◌	man
iː	◌ี, ◌ี◌	◌ີ	green
oː	โ◌, โ◌◌	ໂ◌	go
ɔː	◌อ, ◌อ◌	◌ໍ, ◌ອ	dog
uː	◌ู, ◌ู,	◌ູ	moon
ɯː	◌ือ, ◌ื◌	◌ື	Roughly like good
ɤː	เ◌อ, เ◌ิ◌	ເ◌ີ	fur
Diphthongs^[8]^[9]
iaʔ, iəʔ	เ◌ียะ	ເ◌ັຽະ	idea (shorter)
ia, iə	เ◌ีย, เ◌ีย◌	ເ◌ັຽ	idea
uaʔ, uəʔ	◌ัวะ	◌ົວະ	poor (shorter)
ua, uə	◌ัว, ◌ว◌	◌ົວ	poor (British English)
ɯaʔ, ɯəʔ	เ◌ือะ	ເ◌ຶອະ	pure (shorter)
ɯa, ɯə	เ◌ือ, เ◌ือ◌	ເ◌ຶອ	pure (British English)

Notes[edit]

^ Allophone in some dialects.
^ Not present in Central and Southern Thai.
^ Not present in Phu Thai.
^ Not present in Isan, Phu Thai and Lao.
^ In contrast to Pinyin romanization for Mandarin, Thai romanization uses diacritics in the same way as the IPA.
^ Diacritics are shown on a dotted circle "◌".
^ In Thai and Lao, the signs ◌ะ and ◌ະ are respectively used to indicate a glottal stop after the vowel.
^ More diphthongs occur in the pattern /Vw/ or /Vj/: /aj, aːj, aw, aːw, iw, uj, uːj, ew, eːw, ɛːw, ɤːj, oːj, ɔːj, iow, uɛj, ɯɛj/.
^ Each first element represents a Thai diphthong, with /a/ as the ending vowel (according to Tingsabadh, Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 24–28. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746.).

[1] Allophone in some dialects.

[2] Not present in Central and Southern Thai.

[3] Not present in Phu Thai.

[4] Not present in Isan, Phu Thai and Lao.

[5] In contrast to Pinyin romanization for Mandarin, Thai romanization uses diacritics in the same way as the IPA.

[6] Diacritics are shown on a dotted circle "◌".

[7] In Thai and Lao, the signs ◌ะ and ◌ະ are respectively used to indicate a glottal stop after the vowel.

[8] More diphthongs occur in the pattern /Vw/ or /Vj/: /aj, aːj, aw, aːw, iw, uj, uːj, ew, eːw, ɛːw, ɤːj, oːj, ɔːj, iow, uɛj, ɯɛj/.

[9] Each first element represents a Thai diphthong, with /a/ as the ending vowel (according to Tingsabadh, Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 24–28. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746.).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

v t e International Phonetic Alphabet keys
Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic Modern Standard Egyptian Hejazi Tunisian Armenian Assamese Asturian Australian languages Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Berber Breton Bulgarian Burmese Catalan Chinese Mandarin Cantonese Taiwanese Hokkien Corsican Czech Danish Dari Dutch English Old English Emilian-Romagnol Esperanto Estonian Extremaduran Fijian Finnish Franco-Provençal French Galician Georgian German Standard Alemannic Colognian Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Inuktitut Inupiaq Irish Italian dialects Japanese Kazakh Khmer Korean Kurdish Lao Latin Latvian Ligurian Lithuanian Lombard Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malaysian Malayalam Maltese Manx Māori Marshallese Mayan Mongolian Mirandese Nahuatl Navajo Neapolitan Norwegian Occitan Odia Persian Piedmontese Polish Portuguese Punjabi Quechua Romanian Romansh Russian Sanskrit Sardinian Scottish Gaelic Serbo-Croatian Shan Sicilian Slovak Slovene Spanish Swahili Swazi Swedish Tagalog Tai Lue Tajik Tamil Tatar Thai Northern Tibetan Tigrinya Turkish Turkmen Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Venetian Vietnamese Walloon Welsh West Frisian Xhosa Yiddish Zulu
Comparisons	IPA conventions for English English dialects Wikipedia pronunciation respelling Other English pronunciation respellings
Introductory guides	Symbols For English speakers Manual of Style: Pronunciation

Help:IPA/Thai and Lao

Notes[edit]

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Navigation

Interaction

Tools

Print/export

Languages