Language spoken by Thai people
Thai
,
[a]
or
Central Thai
[b]
(historically
Siamese
;
[c]
[d]
Thai:
???????
), is a
Tai
language of the
Kra?Dai
language family
spoken by the
Central Thai
,
Mon
people in Central Thailand and the vast majority of
Thai Chinese
enclaves throughout the country. It is the sole
official language
of
Thailand
.
[2]
[3]
Thai is the most spoken of over 60
languages of Thailand
by both number of native and overall speakers. Over half of its vocabulary is derived from or borrowed from
Pali
,
Sanskrit
,
Mon
[4]
and
Old Khmer
. It is a
tonal
and
analytic language
. Thai has a complex
orthography
and system of
relational markers
. Spoken Thai, depending on standard
sociolinguistic
factors such as age, gender, class, spatial proximity, and the urban/rural divide, is partly
mutually intelligible
with
Lao
,
Isan
, and some fellow
Thai topolects
. These languages are written with slightly different scripts, but are linguistically similar and effectively form a
dialect continuum
.
[5]
Thai language is spoken by over 69 million people (2020.) Moreover, most Thais in the northern (Lanna) and the northeastern (Isan) parts of the country today are bilingual speakers of Central Thai and their respective regional dialects because (Central) Thai is the language of television, education, news reporting, and all forms of media.
[6]
A recent research found that the speakers of the
Northern Thai language
(also known as Phasa Mueang or Kham Mueang) have become so few, as most people in northern Thailand now invariably speak Standard Thai, so that they are now using mostly Central Thai words and only seasoning their speech with the "Kham Mueang" accent.
[7]
Standard Thai
is based on the
register
of the educated classes by Central Thai and Mon people in the area along
the ring surrounding the Metropolis
.
[8]
[9]
In addition to Central Thai, Thailand is home to other related
Tai languages
.
[
citation needed
]
Although most of linguists classify these dialects as related but distinct languages, native speakers often identify them as regional variants or dialects of the "same" Thai language, or as "different kinds of Thai".
[10]
As a
dominant language
in all aspects of society in Thailand, Thai initially saw gradual and later widespread adoption as a
second language
among the country's
minority ethnic groups
from the mid-late
Ayutthaya
period onward.
[11]
[12]
Ethnic minorities today are predominantly bilingual, speaking Thai alongside their native language or dialect.
Classification
[
edit
]
Standard Thai is classified as one of the Chiang Saen languages?others being
Tai Lanna
,
Southern Thai
and numerous smaller languages, which together with the Northwestern Tai and Lao-Phutai languages, form the
Southwestern
branch of
Tai languages
. The Tai languages are a branch of the
Kra?Dai language family
, which encompasses a large number of indigenous languages spoken in an arc from
Hainan
and
Guangxi
south through Laos and Northern Vietnam to the Cambodian border.
Standard Thai is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout Thailand. The standard is based on the dialect of the central Thai people, and it is written in the
Thai script
.
History
[
edit
]
Thai has undergone various historical sound changes. Some of the most significant changes occurred during the evolution from
Old Thai
to modern Thai. The Thai writing system has an eight-century history and many of these changes, especially in consonants and tones, are evidenced in the modern
orthography
.
Old Thai
[
edit
]
Old Thai had a three-way tone distinction on "live syllables" (those not ending in a stop), with no possible distinction on "dead syllables" (those ending in a stop, i.e. either
/p/,
/t/,
/k/
or the
glottal stop
that automatically closes syllables otherwise ending in a short vowel).
There was a two-way voiced vs. voiceless distinction among all
fricative
and
sonorant
consonants, and up to a four-way distinction among
stops
and
affricates
. The maximal four-way occurred in
labials
(
/p
p?
b
?b/
) and
dentals
(
/t
t?
d
?d/
); the three-way distinction among
velars
(
/k
k?
?/
) and
palatals
(
/t?
t??
d?/
), with the glottalized member of each set apparently missing.
The major change between old and modern Thai was due to voicing distinction losses and the concomitant
tone split
. This may have happened between about 1300 and 1600 CE, possibly occurring at different times in different parts of the
Thai-speaking
area. All voiced?voiceless pairs of consonants lost the voicing distinction:
- Plain voiced stops (
/b
d
?
d?/
) became voiceless aspirated stops (
/p?
t?
k?
t??/
).
[e]
- Voiced fricatives became voiceless.
- Voiceless sonorants became voiced.
However, in the process of these mergers, the former distinction of voice was transferred into a new set of tonal distinctions. In essence, every tone in Old Thai split into two new tones, with a lower-pitched tone corresponding to a syllable that formerly began with a voiced consonant, and a higher-pitched tone corresponding to a syllable that formerly began with a voiceless consonant (including glottalized stops). An additional complication is that formerly voiceless unaspirated stops/affricates (original
/p
t
k
t?
?b
?d/
) also caused original tone 1 to lower, but had no such effect on original tones 2 or 3.
The above consonant mergers and tone splits account for the complex relationship between spelling and sound in modern Thai. Modern "low"-class consonants were voiced in Old Thai, and the terminology "low" reflects the lower tone variants that resulted. Modern "mid"-class consonants were voiceless unaspirated stops or affricates in Old Thai?precisely the class that triggered lowering in original tone 1 but not tones 2 or 3. Modern "high"-class consonants were the remaining voiceless consonants in Old Thai (voiceless fricatives, voiceless sonorants, voiceless aspirated stops). The three most common tone "marks" (the lack of any tone mark, as well as the two marks termed
mai ek
and
mai tho
) represent the three tones of Old Thai, and the complex relationship between tone mark and actual tone is due to the various tonal changes since then. Since the tone split, the tones have changed in actual representation to the point that the former relationship between lower and higher tonal variants has been completely obscured. Furthermore, the six tones that resulted after the three tones of Old Thai were split have since merged into five in standard Thai, with the lower variant of former tone 2 merging with the higher variant of former tone 3, becoming the modern "falling" tone.
[f]
Early Old Thai
[
edit
]
Early Old Thai also apparently had velar fricatives
/x
?/
as distinct phonemes. These were represented by the now-obsolete letters ?
kho khuat
and ?
kho khon
, respectively. During the Old Thai period, these sounds merged into the corresponding stops
/k?
?/
, and as a result the use of these letters became unstable.
At some point in the history of Thai, a palatal nasal phoneme
/?/
also existed, inherited from
Proto-Tai
. A letter ?
yo ying
also exists, which is used to represent a palatal nasal in words borrowed from
Sanskrit
and
Pali
, and is currently pronounced
/j/
at the beginning of a syllable but
/n/
at the end of a syllable. Most native Thai words that are reconstructed as beginning with
/?/
are also pronounced
/j/
in modern Thai, but generally spelled with ?
yo yak
, which consistently represents
/j/
. This suggests that
/?/
>
/j/
in native words occurred in the pre-literary period. It is unclear whether Sanskrit and Pali words beginning with
/?/
were borrowed directly with a
/j/
, or whether a
/?/
was re-introduced, followed by a second change
/?/
>
/j/
.
Proto-Tai also had a glottalized palatal sound, reconstructed as
/?j/
in Li Fang-Kuei (1977
[
full citation needed
]
). Corresponding Thai words are generally spelled ??, which implies an Old Thai pronunciation of
/hj/
(or
/j?/
), but a few such words are spelled ??, which implies a pronunciation of
/?j/
and suggests that the glottalization may have persisted through to the early literary period.
Vowel developments
[
edit
]
The vowel system of modern Thai contains nine pure vowels and three centering diphthongs, each of which can occur short or long. According to Li (1977
[
full citation needed
]
), however, many Thai dialects have only one such short?long pair (
/a
aː/
), and in general it is difficult or impossible to find minimal short?long pairs in Thai that involve vowels other than
/a/
and where both members have frequent correspondences throughout the Tai languages. More specifically, he notes the following facts about Thai:
- In
open syllables
, only long vowels occur. (This assumes that all apparent cases of short open syllables are better described as ending in a glottal stop. This makes sense from the lack of tonal distinctions in such syllables, and the glottal stop is also reconstructible across the Tai languages.)
- In
closed syllables
, the long high vowels
/iː
?ː
uː/
are rare, and cases that do exist typically have diphthongs in other Tai languages.
- In closed syllables, both short and long mid
/e
eː
o
oː/
and low
/?
?ː
?
?ː/
do occur. However, generally, only words with short
/e
o/
and long
/?ː
?ː/
are reconstructible back to Proto-Tai.
- Both of the mid back unrounded vowels
/?
?ː/
are rare, and words with such sounds generally cannot be reconstructed back to Proto-Tai.
Furthermore, the vowel that corresponds to short Thai
/a/
has a different and often higher quality in many of the Tai languages compared with the vowel corresponding to Thai
/aː/
.
This leads Li to posit the following:
- Proto-Tai had a system of nine pure vowels with no length distinction, and possessing approximately the same qualities as in modern Thai: high
/i
?
u/
, mid
/e
?
o/
, low
/?
a
?/
.
- All Proto-Tai vowels were lengthened in open syllables, and low vowels were also lengthened in closed syllables.
- Modern Thai largely preserved the original lengths and qualities, but lowered
/?/
to
/a/
, which became short
/a/
in closed syllables and created a phonemic length distinction
/a
aː/
. Eventually, length in all other vowels became phonemic as well and a new
/?/
(both short and long) was introduced, through a combination of borrowing and sound change. Li believes that the development of long
/iː
?ː
uː/
from diphthongs, and the lowering of
/?/
to
/a/
to create a length distinction
/a
aː/
, had occurred by the time of Proto-Southwestern-Tai, but the other missing modern Thai vowels had not yet developed.
Not all researchers agree with Li. Pittayaporn (2009
[
full citation needed
]
), for example, reconstructs a similar system for Proto-Southwestern-Tai, but believes that there was also a mid back unrounded vowel
/?/
(which he describes as
/?/
), occurring only before final velar
/k
ŋ/
. He also seems to believe that the Proto-Southwestern-Tai vowel length distinctions can be reconstructed back to similar distinctions in Proto-Tai.
Phonology
[
edit
]
Consonants
[
edit
]
Initials
[
edit
]
Standard Thai distinguishes three
voice-onset times
among plosive and affricate consonants:
Where English makes a distinction between voiced
/b/
and unvoiced aspirated
/p?/
, Thai distinguishes a third sound ? the unvoiced, unaspirated
/p/
that occurs in English only as an allophone of
/p?/
, for example after an
/s/
as in the sound of the
p
in "spin". There is similarly a laminal denti-alveolar
[
citation needed
]
/d/
,
/t/
,
/t?/
triplet in Thai. In the velar series there is a
/k/
,
/k?/
pair and in the postalveolar series a
/t?/
,
/t??/
pair, but the language lacks the corresponding voiced sounds
/?/
and
/d?/
. (In loanwords from English, English
/?/
and
/d??/
are borrowed as the tenuis stops
/k/
and
/t?/
.)
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). The letter ?, one of the two
h
letters, is also used to help write certain tones (described below).
|
Labial
|
Dental
/
Alveolar
|
(
Alveolo-
)
Palatal
|
Velar
|
Glottal
|
Nasal
|
/
m
/
?
|
/
n
/
?, ?
|
|
/
ŋ
/
?
|
|
Plosive
/
Affricate
|
voiced
|
/
b
/
?
|
/
d
/
?, ?
|
|
|
|
tenuis
|
/
p
/
?
|
/
t
/
?, ?
|
/
t?
/
?
|
/
k
/
?
|
/
?
/
?
[g]
|
aspirated
|
/
p?
/
?, ?, ?
|
/
t?
/
?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
|
/
t??
/
?, ?, ?
|
/
k?
/
?, ?, ?, ?, ?
[h]
|
|
Fricative
|
/
f
/
?, ?
|
/
s
/
?, ?, ?, ?
|
|
|
/
h
/
?, ?
|
Approximant
|
/
w
/
?
|
/
l
/
?, ?
|
/
j
/
?, ?
|
|
|
Rhotic
/
Liquid
|
|
/
r
/
?
|
|
|
|
Finals
[
edit
]
Although the overall 44 Thai consonant letters provide 21 sounds in case of initials, the case for finals is different. For finals, only eight sounds, as well as no sound, called
m?tr?
(
?????
) are used. To demonstrate, at the end of a syllable, ? (
/b/
) and ? (
/d/
) are devoiced, becoming pronounced as
/p/
and
/t/
respectively. Additionally, all plosive sounds (besides the
glottal stop
/?/) are
unreleased
. Hence, final
/p/
,
/t/
, and
/k/
sounds are pronounced as
[p?]
,
[t?]
, and
[k?]
respectively.
Of the consonant letters, excluding the disused ? and ?, six (? ? ? ? ? ?) cannot be used as a final and the other 36 are grouped as following.
|
Labial
|
Alveolar
|
Palatal
|
Velar
|
Glottal
|
Nasal
|
/
m
/
?
|
/
n
/
?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
|
|
/
ŋ
/
?
|
|
Plosive
|
/
p
/
?, ?, ?, ?, ?
|
/
t
/
?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?,
?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
|
|
/
k
/
?, ?, ?, ?
|
/
?
/
[i]
|
Approximant
|
/
w
/
?
|
|
/
j
/
?
|
|
|
Clusters
[
edit
]
In Thai, each syllable in a word is articulated independently, so consonants from adjacent syllables (i.e. heterosyllabic) show no sign of articulation as a cluster. Thai has specific
phonotactical patterns
that describe its syllable structure, including tautosyllabic
consonant clusters
, and vowel sequences. In core Thai words (i.e. excluding loanwords), only clusters of two consonants occur, of which there are 11 combinations:
- /kr/
(??),
/kl/
(??),
/kw/
(??)
- /k?r/
(??, ??),
/k?l/
(??, ??),
/k?w/
(??, ??)
- /pr/
(??),
/pl/
(??)
- /p?r/
(??),
/p?l/
(??, ??)
- /tr/
(??)
The number of clusters increases in loanwords such as
/t?r/
(??) in
??????
(
/??n.t?r?ː/
, from Sanskrit
indr?
) or
/fr/
(??) in
???
(
/fr?ː/
, from English
free
); however, these usually only occur in initial position, with either
/r/
,
/l/
, or
/w/
as the second consonant sound and not more than two sounds at a time.
Vowels
[
edit
]
The vowel nuclei of the Thai language are given in the following table. The top entry in every cell is the symbol from the
International Phonetic Alphabet
, the second entry gives the spelling in the
Thai script
, where a dash (?) indicates the position of the initial consonant after which the vowel is pronounced. A second dash indicates that a final consonant follows.
Each vowel quality occurs in
long-short pairs
: these are distinct
phonemes
forming distinct words in Thai.
[13]
The long-short pairs are as follows:
Long
|
Short
|
Thai
|
IPA
|
Example
|
Thai
|
IPA
|
Example
|
??
|
/aː/
|
???
|
/f?ːn/
|
'to slice'
|
??
|
/a/
|
???
|
/f?n/
|
'to dream'
|
??
|
/iː/
|
????
|
/kriːt/
|
'to cut'
|
??
|
/i/
|
????
|
/krit/
|
'
kris
'
|
??
|
/uː/
|
???
|
/suːt/
|
'to inhale'
|
??
|
/u/
|
???
|
/sut/
|
'rearmost'
|
??
|
/eː/
|
???
|
/??ːn/
|
'to recline'
|
???
|
/e/
|
????
|
/??n/
|
'tendon, ligament'
|
??
|
/?ː/
|
???
|
/p???ː/
|
'to be defeated'
|
???
|
/?/
|
???
|
/p????/
|
'goat'
|
??-
|
/?ː/
|
?????
|
/k?l??ːn/
|
'wave'
|
??
|
/?/
|
????
|
/k???n/
|
'to go up'
|
???
|
/?ː/
|
????
|
/d??ːn/
|
'to walk'
|
????
|
/?/
|
????
|
/ŋ??n/
|
'silver'
|
??
|
/oː/
|
????
|
/k?oːn/
|
'to fell'
|
???
|
/o/
|
???
|
/k?on/
|
'thick (soup)'
|
??
|
/?ː/
|
????
|
/kl??ːŋ/
|
'drum'
|
????
|
/?/
|
?????
|
/kl??ŋ/
|
'box'
|
There are also opening and closing
diphthongs
in Thai, which
Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993)
analyze as
/Vj/
and
/Vw/
. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:
Long
|
Short
|
Thai script
|
IPA
|
Thai script
|
IPA
|
???
|
/aːj/
|
??
*
, ??
*
, ???, -??
|
/aj/
|
???
|
/aːw/
|
???
*
|
/aw/
|
????
|
/ia/
|
?????
|
/ia?/
|
?
|
?
|
???
|
/iw/
|
???
|
/ua/
|
????
|
/ua?/
|
???
|
/uːj/
|
???
|
/uj/
|
???
|
/eːw/
|
????
|
/ew/
|
???
|
/?ːw/
|
?
|
?
|
????
|
/?a/
|
?????
|
/?a?/
|
???
|
/?ːj/
|
?
|
?
|
???
|
/?ːj/
|
?
|
?
|
???
|
/oːj/
|
?
|
?
|
Additionally, there are three
triphthongs
. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:
Thai script
|
IPA
|
?????*
|
/iaw/
|
???*
|
/uaj/
|
?????*
|
/?aj/
|
Tones
[
edit
]
The five phonemic tones of Standard Thai pronounced with the syllable '/naː/':
There are five phonemic
tones
: mid, falling, high, rising, and low-rising, sometimes referred to in older reference works as
rectus, gravis, circumflexus, altus,
and
demissus,
respectively.
[14]
The table shows an example of both the
phonemic
tones and their
phonetic
realization, in the
IPA
. Moren &
Zsiga
(2006)
[15]
and Zsiga & Nitisaroj (2007)
[16]
provide phonetic and phonological analyses of Thai tone realization.
Notes:
- Five-level tone value: Mid-level [33], Low-falling [21], High-falling [41], High-rising [45], Low-rising [24]. Traditionally, the high tone was recorded as either [44] or [45]. This remains true for the older generation, but the high tone is changing to [334] among youngsters.
[17]
[18]
- For the diachronic changes of tone value, please see Pittayaporn (2007).
[19]
- The full complement of tones exists only in so-called "live syllables", those that end in a long vowel or a
sonorant
(
/m/,
/n/,
/ŋ/,
/j/,
/w/
).
- For "dead syllables", those that end in a plosive (
/p/,
/t/,
/k/
) or in a short vowel, only three tonal distinctions are possible: low, high, and falling. Because syllables analyzed as ending in a short vowel may have a final
glottal stop
(especially in slower speech), all "dead syllables" are phonetically
checked
, and have the reduced tonal inventory characteristic of checked syllables.
Unchecked syllables
[
edit
]
Tone
|
Thai
|
Example
|
Phonemic
|
Phonetic
|
Gloss
|
Mid-level
|
?????
|
??
|
/k??ː/
|
[k?aː??]
|
'stick'
|
Low-falling
|
???
|
???
|
/k?aː/
|
[k?aː??]
or
[k?aː?]
|
'
galangal
'
|
High-falling
|
??
|
???
|
/k?aː/
|
[k?aː??]
|
'value'
|
High-rising
|
???
|
???
|
/k?aː/
|
[k?aː??]
or
[k?aː?]
|
'to trade'
|
Low-rising
|
?????
|
??
|
/k??ː/
|
[k?aː???]
or
[k?aː??]
|
'leg'
|
Checked syllables
[
edit
]
Tone
|
Thai
|
Example
|
Phonemic
|
Phonetic
|
Gloss
|
Low-falling (short vowel)
|
???
|
????
|
/mak/
|
[mak???]
|
'marinate'
|
Low-falling (long vowel)
|
???
|
????
|
/maːk/
|
[maːk???]
|
'
areca
nut, areca palm,
betel
, fruit'
|
High-rising
|
???
|
???
|
/mak/
|
[mak???]
|
'habitually, likely to'
|
High-falling
|
??
|
???
|
/maːk/
|
[maːk???]
|
'a lot, abundance, many'
|
In some English
loanwords
, closed syllables with a long vowel ending in an obstruent sound have a high tone, and closed syllables with a short vowel ending in an obstruent sound have a falling tone.
Tone
|
Thai
|
Example
|
Phonemic
|
Phonetic
|
Gloss
|
High-rising
|
???
|
?????
|
/maːk/
|
[maːk???]
|
'Marc, Mark'
|
High-rising
|
???
|
?????
|
/t??aːt/
|
[t??aːt???]
|
'charge'
|
High-falling
|
??
|
??????
|
/meːk.?ap/
|
[meːk???.?ap??]
|
'make-up'
|
High-falling
|
??
|
???????
|
/r??k.ket/
|
[r?k???.ket???]
|
'racket'
|
Grammar
[
edit
]
From the perspective of
linguistic typology
, Thai can be considered to be an
analytic language
. The
word order
is
subject?verb?object
,
[20]
although the subject is often
omitted
. Additionally, Thai is an isolating language lacking any form of inflectional morphology whatsoever.
[21]
Thai pronouns are selected according to the gender and relative status of speaker and audience.
Adjectives and adverbs
[
edit
]
There is no morphological distinction between
adverbs
and
adjectives
. Many words can be used in either function. They follow the word they modify, which may be a noun, verb, or another adjective or adverb.
?? ????
khon uan
/
k??n
?uan
/
'a fat person'
?? ??? ???? ????
khon thi uan reo
/
kh?n
t?iː
?uan
r?w
/
'a person who became fat quickly'
Comparatives
take the form "A X
????
B" (
kwa
,
/kwaː/
), 'A is more X than B'. The
superlative
is expressed as "A X
??????
" (
thi sut
,
/t?iː
sut/
), 'A is most X'.
??? ????
????
???
khao uan
kwa
chan
/
k??w
?uan
kwaː
t???n
/
'S/he is fatter than me.'
??????
thi sut
t?iː
sut
/
??? ????
??????
khao uan {
thi sut
}
/
k??w
?uan
t?iː
sut
/
'S/he is the fattest (of all).'
Adjectives in Thai can be used as
complete predicates
. Because of this, many words used to indicate tense in verbs (see Verbs:Tense below) may be used to describe adjectives.
??? ???
chan hio
/
t???n
h?w
/
'I am hungry.'
???
??
???
chan
cha
hio
/
t???n
t?a?
h?w
/
'I will be hungry.'
???
?????
???
chan
kamlang
hio
/
t???n
k?m.l?ŋ
h?w
/
'I am hungry right now.'
??? ???
????
chan hio
laeo
/
t???n
h?w
l??ːw
/
'I am already hungry.'
- Remark
??????????
mostly means 'I am hungry right now' because normally,
????
(
/l??ːw/
) marks the change of a state, but
????
has many other uses as well. For example, in the sentence,
??????????????
(
/l??ːw
t???ː
t?a?
p?j
n?j/
): 'So where are you going?',
????
(
/l??ːw/
) is used as a discourse particle.
Verbs
[
edit
]
Verbs
do not
inflect
. They do not change with person, tense, voice, mood, or number; nor are there any
participles
. The language being analytic and
case
-less, the relationship between subject, direct and indirect object is conveyed through word order and
auxiliary verbs
.
Transitive
verbs follow the pattern
subject-verb-object
.
??? ?? ???
chan ti khao
/
t???n
t?ː
k??w
/
1SG hit 3SG
'I hit him.'
??? ?? ???
khao ti chan
/
k??w
t?ː
t???n
/
3SG hit 1SG
'S/He hit me.'
In order to convey
tense, aspect and mood
(TAM), the Thai verbal system employs auxiliaries and
verb serialization
.
[22]
[21]
TAM markers are however not obligatory and often left out in colloquial use. In such cases, the precise meaning is determined through context.
[22]
This results in sentences lacking both TAM markers and overt context being ambiguous and subject to various interpretations.
??? ??? ??? ????
chan kin thi nan
/
t???n
k?n
t?iː
nan
/
'I eat there.'
????????
mueawan
m??a.w?ːn
/
??? ??? ??? ???? ????????
chan kin thi nan mueawan
/
t??n
k?n
t?iː
nan
m??a.w?ːn
/
'I ate there yesterday.'
????????
phrungni
p?ruŋ.niː
/
??? ??? ??? ???? ????????
chan kin thi nan phrungni
/
t??n
k?n
thiː
nan
p?ruŋ.niː
/
'I'll eat there tomorrow.'
The sentence
chan kin thi nan
can thus be interpreted as 'I am eating there', 'I eat there habitually', 'I will eat there' or 'I ate there'. Aspect markers in Thai have been divided into four distinct groups based on their usage.
[22]
These markers could appear either before or after the verb. The following list describes some of the most commonly used aspect markers. A number of these aspect markers are also full verbs on their own and carry a distinct meaning. For example
yu
(
????
) as a full verb means 'to stay, to live or to remain at'. However, as an auxiliary it can be described as a
temporary aspect
or
continuative marker
.
[22]
The imperfective aspect marker
?????
(
kamlang
,
/k?m
l?ŋ/
, currently) is used before the verb to denote an ongoing action (similar to the
-ing
suffix in English).
Kamlang
is commonly interpreted as a
progressive
aspect marker.
[23]
[24]
Similarly,
????
(
yu
,
/juː/
) is a post-verbal aspect marker which corresponds to the continuative or temporary aspect.
[22]
???
?????
????
khao
kamlang
wing
/
k??w
k?m.l?ŋ
wiŋ
/
??? ????
????
khao wing
yu
/
k??w
wiŋ
juː
/
???
?????
????
????
khao
kamlang
wing
yu
/
k??w
k?m.l?ŋ
wiŋ
juː
/
'He is running.'
The marker
???
(
dai
,
/daːj/
) is usually analyzed as a past tense marker when it occurs before the verb.
[21]
As a full verb,
dai
means 'to get or receive'. However, when used after a verb,
dai
takes on a meaning of potentiality or successful outcome of the main verb.
[22]
ex:
???
???
?? ?????? ????? ???
khao
dai
pai thiao mueang lao
/
k??w
daːj
p?j
t?iaw
m??aŋ
l?ːw
/
He visited Laos. (Past/Perfective)
ex:
??? ??
???
khao ti
dai
/
k??w
t?ː
daːj
/
3SG hit
POT
'He is/was allowed to hit' or 'He is/was able to hit.' (Potentiality)
????
(
laeo
,
/l??ːw/
; 'already') is treated as a marker indicating the
perfect
aspect.
[23]
That is to say,
laeo
marks the event as being completed at the time of reference.
Laeo
has to other meanings in addition to its use as a TAM marker.
Laeo
can either be a conjunction for sequential actions or an archaic word for 'to finish'.
???
???
???
khao
dai
kin
/
k??w
daːj
k?n
/
3SG
PST
eat
He ate.
??? ???
????
khao kin
laeo
/
k??w
k?n
l??ːw
/
3SG eat
PRF
He has eaten.
???
???
???
????
khao
dai
kin
laeo
/
k??w
daːj
k?n
l??ːw
/
3SG
PST
eat
PRF
He's already eaten.
Future
can be indicated by
??
(
cha
,
/t?a?/
; 'will') before the verb or by a time expression indicating the future. For example:
ex:
???
??
????
khao
cha
wing
/
k??w
t?a?
wiŋ
/
3SG
FUT
run
'He will run' or 'He is going to run.'
The
passive voice
is indicated by the insertion of
???
(
thuk
,
/t?uːk/
) before the verb. For example:
ex:
???
???
??
khao
thuk
ti
/
k??w
t?uːk
t?ː
/
3SG
PASS
hit
'He got hit.'
- This describes an action that is out of the receiver's control and, thus, conveys suffering.
Negation
is indicated by placing
???
(
mai
,
/maj/
; not) before the verb.
- ????????
, (
khao mai ti
) 'He is not hitting' or 'He doesn't hit'.
Thai exhibits
serial verb constructions
, where verbs are strung together. Some word combinations are common and may be considered set phrases.
ex:
??? ?? ??? ????
khao pai kin khao
/
k??w
p?j
k?n
k?aːw
/
he go eat rice
'He went out to eat'
ex:
??????
khao chai
k?aw
t??j
/
understand
??? ??? ??? ??????
chan fang mai {khao chai}
/
t???n
f?ŋ
maj
k?aw
t??j
/
I listen not understand
'I don't understand what was said'
ex:
???? ??
khao ma
/
k?aw
m?ː
/
enter come
'Come in'
ex:
??? ??!
ok pai
/
???ːk
p?j
/
exit go
'Leave!' or 'Get out!'
Nouns
[
edit
]
Nouns
are
uninflected
and have no
gender
; there are no
articles
. Thai nouns are
bare nouns
and can be interpreted as singular, plural, definite or indefinite.
[25]
Some specific nouns are
reduplicated
to form
collectives
:
????
(
dek
, 'child') is often repeated as
???? ?
(
dek dek
) to refer to a group of children. The word
???
(
phuak
,
/p?uak/
) may be used as a prefix of a noun or pronoun as a collective to pluralize or emphasise the following word. (
?????
,
phuak phom
,
/p?uak
p??m/
, 'we', masculine;
??????
phuak rao
,
/p?uak
r?w/
, emphasised 'we';
??????
phuak ma
, '(the) dogs'). Plurals are expressed by adding
classifiers
, used as
measure words
(
????????
), in the form of noun-number-classifier:
??? ??? ??
khru ha khon
/
k?r?ː
haː
k??n
/
teacher five person
"five teachers"
While in English, such classifiers are usually absent ("four chairs") or optional ("two bottles of beer"
or
"two beers"), a classifier is almost always used in Thai (hence "chair four item" and "beer two bottle").
Possession
in Thai is indicated by adding the word
???
(
khong
) in front of the
noun
or
pronoun
, but it may often be omitted. For example:
???
khong
k???ːŋ
belonging to
??? ??? ???
luk khong mae
/
luːk
k???ːŋ
m??ː
/
child {belonging to} mother
"mother's child"
?? ??
na a
/
n?ː
??ː
/
field uncle
"uncle's field"
[26]
Nominal phrases
[
edit
]
Nominal phrases
in Thai often use a special class of words
classifiers
. As previously mentioned, these classifiers are obligatory for noun phrases containing numerals e.g.
???????
phuying
/
p?uː.j?ŋ
woman
??????? ??? ??
phuying song khon
/
p?uː.j?ŋ
s??ːŋ
k??n
/
woman two CL
two women
[27]
In the previous example
khon
(
??
) acts as the classifier in the nominal phrase. This follows the form of noun-cardinal-classifier mentioned above. Classifiers are also required to form quantified noun phrases in Thai with some quantifiers such as
???
('all'),
???
('some'). The examples below are demonstrated using the classifier
khon
, which is used for people.
????????
nak rian
/
nak
r?an
student
{????????} ??? ??
{nak rian} thuk khon
/
nak
r?an
t?uk
k??n
/
student every CL
"every student"
??? ??? ??
khru bang khon
/
k?r?ː
b?ːŋ
k??n
/
teacher some CL
"some teacher"
However, classifiers are not utilized for negative quantification. Negative quantification is expressed by the pattern
?????
(
mai mi
,
/maj
m?ː/
) + NOUN. Classifiers are also used for demonstratives such as
???
(
ni
,
/niː/
; 'this/these') and
????
(
nan
,
/nan/
; 'that/those'). The syntax for demonstrative phrases, however, differ from that of cardinals and follow the pattern
noun-classifier-demonstrative
. For example, the noun phrase "this dog" would be expressed in Thai as
?????????
(literally 'dog (classifier) this').
[27]
Pronouns
[
edit
]
Subject
pronouns
are
often omitted
, with
nicknames
used where English would use a pronoun. See
Thai name#Nicknames
for more details. Pronouns, when used, are ranked in
honorific registers
, and may also make a
T?V distinction
in relation to
kinship
and
social status
. Specialised pronouns are used for royalty, and for Buddhist monks. The following are appropriate for conversational use:
Word
|
RTGS
|
IPA
|
Meaning
|
?????
|
kraphom
|
/kra?.p??m/
|
I/me (masculine; formal)
|
??
|
phom
|
/p??m/
|
I/me (masculine; common)
|
?????
|
dichan
|
/di?.t???n/
|
I/me (feminine; formal)
|
???
|
chan
|
/t???n/
|
I/me (mainly used by women; common) Commonly pronounced as
[t???an??]
|
???
|
kha
|
/k?aː/
|
I/me (from high-status to low-status and used among close friends; informal)
|
??
|
ku
|
/k?ː/
|
I/me (impolite/vulgar)
|
???
|
nu
|
/n?ː/
|
I/me (used by women when speaking to people much older than themselves)
[28]
|
???
|
rao
|
/r?w/
|
we/us, I/me (casual), you (sometimes used but only when older person speaks to younger person)
|
???
|
khun
|
/k??n/
|
you (formal)
|
????
|
than
|
/t?a(ː)n/
|
you (highly
honorific
; formal)
|
??
|
kae
|
/k??ː/
|
you (informal, used among close friends)
[29]
|
????
|
eng
|
/??ŋ/
|
you (from high-status to low-status and used among close friends; informal)
|
???
|
thoe
|
/t???ː/
|
you (informal), she/her (informal)
|
???
|
phi
|
/p?iː/
|
older brother, sister (also used for older acquaintances)
|
????
|
nong
|
/n??ːŋ/
|
younger brother, sister (also used for younger acquaintances)
|
???
|
khao
|
/k??w/
|
he/him, she/her
|
???
|
man
|
/m?n/
|
it, he/she (offensive if used to refer to a person)
|
???
|
mueng
|
/m??ŋ/
|
you (impolite/vulgar)
|
The reflexive pronoun is
??????
(
tua eng
), which can mean any of: myself, yourself, ourselves, himself, herself, themselves. This can be mixed with another pronoun to create an
intensive pronoun
, such as
????????
(
tua phom eng
, lit: I myself) or
?????????
(
tua khun eng
, lit: you yourself). Thai also does not have a separate
possessive pronoun
. Instead, possession is indicated by the particle
???
(
khong
). For example, "my mother" is
????????
(
mae khong phom
, lit: mother of I). This particle is often implicit, so the phrase is shortened to
?????
(
mae phom
). Plural pronouns can be easily constructed by adding the word
???
(
phuak
) in front of a singular pronoun as in
??????
(
phuak khao
) meaning 'they' or
??????
(
phuak thoe
) meaning the plural sense of 'you'. The only exception to this is
???
(
rao
), which can be used as singular (informal) or plural, but can also be used in the form of
??????
(
phuak rao
), which is only plural.
Thai has many more pronouns than those listed above. Their usage is full of nuances. For example:
- "
?? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ??? ????? ???????? ???????? ????? ??? ??????? ?????????????? ???? ???
" all translate to "I", but each expresses a different gender, age, politeness, status, or relationship between speaker and listener.
- ???
(
rao
) can be first person (I), second person (you), or both (we), depending on the context.
- Children or younger female could use or being referred by word
???
(
nu
) when talking with older person. The word
???
could be both feminine first person (I) and feminine second person (you) and also neuter first and neuter second person for children.
- ???
commonly means rat or mouse, though it also refers to small creatures in general.
- The second person pronoun
???
(
thoe
) (lit: you) is semi-feminine. It is used only when the speaker or the listener (or both) are female. Males usually do not address each other by this pronoun.
- Both
???
(
khun
) and
???
(
thoe
) are polite neuter second person pronouns. However,
??????
(
khun thoe
) is a feminine derogative third person.
- Instead of a second person pronoun such as
???
('you'), it is much more common for unrelated strangers to call each other
??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??
or
???
(brother, sister, aunt, uncle, granny).
- To express deference, the second person pronoun is sometimes replaced by a profession, similar to how, in English, presiding judges are always addressed as "your honor" rather than "you". In Thai, students always address their teachers by
???
,
??????
or
???????
(each meaning 'teacher') rather than
???
('you'). Teachers, monks, and doctors are almost always addressed this way.
Particles
[
edit
]
The
particles
are often untranslatable words added to the end of a sentence to indicate respect, a request, encouragement or other moods (similar to the use of
intonation
in English), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in elegant (written) Thai. The most common particles indicating respect are
????
(
khrap
,
/k?rap/
, with a high-rising tone) when the speaker is male, and
???
(
kha
,
/k?a?/
, with a low-falling tone) when the speaker is female. Used in a question or a request, the particle
???
(low-falling tone) is changed to a
??
(high-rising tone).
Other common particles are:
Word
|
RTGS
|
IPA
|
Meaning
|
???
,
???
or
???
|
cha
|
/t?a?/
,
/t?aː/
or
/t??ː/
|
indicating emphasis. Used in a less formal context when speaking to friends or someone younger than yourself
[30]
|
??
or
???
|
la
|
/la?/
or
/la?/
|
indicating emphasis.
|
??
|
si
|
/si?/
|
indicating emphasis or an imperative. It can come across as ordering someone to do something
[30]
|
??
|
na
|
/na?/
|
softening; indicating a request or making your sentence sound more friendly.
|
Register
[
edit
]
Central Thai is composed of several distinct
registers
, forms for different social contexts:
- Street or Common Thai (
???????
,
phasa phut
, spoken Thai): informal, without polite terms of address, as used between close relatives and friends.
- Elegant or Formal Thai (
?????????
,
phasa khian
, written Thai): official and written version, includes respectful terms of address; used in simplified form in newspapers.
- Rhetorical Thai: used for public speaking.
- Religious Thai: (heavily influenced by
Sanskrit
and
P?li
) used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks.
- Royal Thai (
?????????
,
racha sap
): influenced by
Khmer
, this is used when addressing members of the
royal family
or describing their activities. (See
Monarchy of Thailand § Rachasap
.)
Most Thais can speak and understand all of these contexts. Street and Elegant Thai are the basis of all conversations.
[31]
[
citation needed
]
Rhetorical, religious, and royal Thai are taught in schools as part of the national curriculum.
As noted above, Thai has several registers, each having certain usages, such as colloquial, formal, literary, and poetic. Thus, the word 'eat' can be
???
(
kin
; common),
???
(
daek
; vulgar),
???
(
yat
; vulgar),
??????
(
boriphok
; formal),
?????????
(
rapprathan
; formal),
???
(
chan
; religious), or
????
(
sawoei
; royal), as illustrated below:
"to eat"
|
IPA
|
Usage
|
Note
|
???
|
/k?n/
|
common
|
|
???
|
/d??ːk/
|
vulgar
|
|
???
|
/jat/
|
vulgar
|
Original meaning is 'to cram'
|
??????
|
/b??ː.ri?.p?oːk/
|
formal, literary
|
|
?????????
|
/rap.pra?.t??ːn/
|
formal, polite
|
Often shortened to
???
/t??ːn/.
|
???
|
/t???n/
|
religious
|
|
????
|
/sa?.w??ːj/
|
royal
|
|
Thailand also uses the distinctive
Thai six-hour clock
in addition to the
24-hour clock
.
Vocabulary
[
edit
]
Other than
compound words
and words of foreign origin, most words are
monosyllabic
.
Chinese-language influence was strong until the 13th century when the use of Chinese characters was abandoned, and replaced by Sanskrit and Pali scripts. However, the vocabulary of Thai retains many words borrowed from
Middle Chinese
.
[32]
[33]
[34]
Khmer
was used as a prestige language in the early days of the Thai kingdoms which are believed to have been bilingual societies proficient in Thai and Khmer. There are over 2,500 Thai words derived from
Khmer
, surpassing the number of
Tai
cognates. These Khmer words span across all semantic fields. Thai scholar Uraisi Varasarin classified them into over 200 sub-categories. As a result, it is impossible for Thais, past and present, to engage in a conversation without incorporating Khmer loanwords in any given topic. The influence is particularly preponderant in regard to royal court terminology.
[35]
Later, most vocabulary was borrowed from
Sanskrit
and
P?li
;
Buddhist
terminology is particularly indebted to these. Indic words have a more formal register, and may be compared to Latin and
French borrowings in English
. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the
English language
has had the greatest influence, especially for scientific, technical, international, and other modern terms.
Origin
|
Example
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
Native Tai
|
??
|
[f?j]
|
fire
|
???
|
[naːm]
|
water
|
?????
|
[m??aŋ]
|
town
|
?????????
|
[ruŋ.r??aŋ]
|
prosperous
|
Indic sources:
P?li
or
Sanskrit
|
????? (
agni
)
|
[?ak.k?a.n?ː]
|
fire
|
?? (
jala
)
|
[t???n]
|
water
|
???? (
dh?n?
)
|
[t??ː.n?ː]
|
town
|
??????? (
virocana
)
|
[wi(?).roːt]
|
prosperous
|
Arabic-origin
[
edit
]
Arabic words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
?????????
(
al-qur??n
) or
??????
(
qur??n
)
|
?????????
or
???????
|
[??n.ku.r?.?aːn]
or
[k?ː.raːn]
|
Quran
|
???
(
rajm
)
|
????
|
[r?.j?m]
|
bad, vile (vulgar)
|
Chinese-origin
[
edit
]
From
Middle Chinese
or
Teochew Chinese
.
Chinese words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
交椅
|
Teochew
:
gao
1
in
2
|
???????
|
[kaw.?iː]
|
chair
|
?條
/
??
|
Min Nan
:
koe-tiau
|
??????????
|
[k?aj.t?aw]
|
rice noodle
|
姐
|
Hokkien
:
chia
/
che
Teochew:
ze
2
/zia
2
|
???
or
???
|
[t?eː]
or
[t?eː]
|
older sister (used in Chinese community in Thailand)
|
二
|
Hokkien:
j?
Teochew:
ri
6
|
???
|
[jiː]
|
two (archaic, but still used in word
??????
[jiː.sip]
; 'twenty')
|
豆
|
Middle Chinese
:
d?u
H
|
????
|
[t?ua]
|
bean
|
?
|
Middle Chinese:
??ŋ
X
/
??ŋ
H
|
????
|
[?aːŋ]
|
basin
|
膠
|
Middle Chinese:
k?au
|
???
|
[k?ːw]
|
glue
|
?
|
Middle Chinese:
k?æŋ
X
|
????
|
[kaːŋ]
|
fishbone
|
坎
|
Middle Chinese:
k??m
X
|
???
|
[k??m]
|
pit
|
塗
|
Middle Chinese:
duo
/
??a
|
??
|
[t??ː]
|
to smear
|
退
|
Middle Chinese:
t?u?i
H
|
???
|
[t???j]
|
to step back
|
English-origin
[
edit
]
English words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Remark
|
apple
|
???????
|
[???p.p??n]
|
|
bank
|
?????
|
[b??ŋ]
|
means 'bank' or 'banknote'
|
bill
|
???
|
[b?n]
or
[b?w]
|
|
cake
|
????
|
[k?eːk]
|
|
captain
|
??????
|
[kap.t?n]
|
|
cartoon
|
???????
|
[k?ː.t?ːn]
|
|
clinic
|
??????
|
[k?li(ː).nik]
|
|
computer
|
???????????
|
[k???m.p?iw.t??ː]
|
colloquially shortened to
???
[k???m]
|
corruption
|
??????????
|
[k???ː.rap.t??an]
|
|
countdown
|
???????????
|
[k?aw.d?ːw]
|
|
dinosaur
|
?????????
|
[d?j.n?ː.s?w]
|
|
duel
|
???
|
[d?an]
|
|
email
|
?????
|
[??ː.m?ːw]
|
|
fashion
|
??????
|
[f??ː.t??an]
|
|
golf
|
?????
|
[k??p]
|
|
shampoo
|
?????
|
[t????m.p??ː]
|
|
slip
|
????
|
[sa.lip]
|
|
taxi
|
???????
|
[t???k.siː]
|
|
technology
|
?????????
|
[t?ek.n?ː.l?ː.j?ː,
-jiː]
|
|
valve
|
?????
|
[w?ːw]
|
|
visa
|
?????
|
[w?ː.saː]
|
|
wreath
|
(???)????
|
[riːt]
|
|
French-origin
[
edit
]
French words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
English translation
|
buffet
|
???????
|
[bup.feː]
|
|
cafe
|
????
|
[k?ː.f??ː]
|
coffee
|
?????
|
[k??ː.feː]
|
coffee shop, restaurant serving alcoholic drinks and providing entertainment (dated)
|
cafeine
|
???????
|
[k?ː.f?ː.??ːn]
|
caffeine
|
chauffeur
|
???????
|
[t???ː.f??ː]
|
|
consul
|
?????
|
[k?ŋ.s?n]
|
|
coupon
|
?????
|
[k??ː.p??ŋ]
|
|
croissant
|
????????
|
[k?r?a.s??ŋ]
|
|
gramme
|
????
|
[kr?m]
|
|
litre
|
????
|
[lit]
|
|
metre
|
????
|
[me(ː)t]
|
metre
|
parquet
|
????????
|
[p?ː.keː]
|
|
petanque
|
?????
|
[p?ː.t??ŋ]
|
|
Japanese-origin
[
edit
]
Japanese words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
カラオケ
(
[ka?aoke]
)
|
?????????
|
[k??ː.r?ː.??ː.ke?]
|
karaoke
|
忍者
(
[?i??d??a]
)
|
?????
|
[n?n.t??ː]
|
ninja
|
?司
(
[s??i?]
)
|
????
|
[s?ː.t??i?]
|
sushi
|
Khmer-origin
[
edit
]
From
Old Khmer
Khmer words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
?????
(/kroŋ/)
|
????
|
[kr?ŋ]
|
capital city
|
?????
(/k?t?ːj/)
|
?????
|
[k?.t???ːj]
|
kathoey
|
?????
(/k?mu?j/)
|
????
|
[k??.m?ːj]
|
to steal, thief
|
??????
(/cr?ː.moh/)
|
????
|
[t??.muːk]
|
nose
|
?????
(/cra?n/)
|
?????
|
[t??.r??ːn]
|
prosperous
|
?????
or
?????
(/c?laːt/ or /c?laːh/)
|
????
|
[t???.laːt]
|
smart
|
?????
(/t?n?l/)
|
???
|
[t??.n?n]
|
road
|
?????
(/p?l?ːŋ/)
|
?????
|
[p?l??ːŋ]
|
fire
|
?????
(/t?n.leː/)
|
????
|
[t??.l?ː]
|
sea
|
Malay-origin
[
edit
]
Malay words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
kelasi
|
??????
|
[k?.l?ː.s?ː]
|
sailor, seaman
|
sagu
|
????
|
[s?ː.k??ː]
|
sago
|
surau
|
???????
|
[s?.raw]
|
small mosque
|
Persian-origin
[
edit
]
Persian words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
?????
(
golab
)
|
??????
|
[k?.laːp]
|
rose
|
???????
(
kamarband
)
|
??????
|
[k??ːw.maː]
|
loincloth
|
?????
(
tarazu
)
|
?????
|
[tr?ː.t???ː]
|
balance scale
|
??????
(
saqerlat
)
|
???????
|
[sak.k?.laːt]
|
felt
|
???
(
alat
)
|
??????
|
[??.laj]
|
spare part
|
Portuguese-origin
[
edit
]
The Portuguese were the first Western nation to arrive in what is modern-day Thailand in the 16th century during the
Ayutthaya period
. Their influence in trade, especially weaponry, allowed them to establish a community just outside the capital and practise their faith, as well as exposing and converting the locals to
Christianity
. Thus, Portuguese words involving trade and religion were introduced and used by the locals.
Portuguese words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
carta
/
cartaz
|
??????
|
[kr?.daːt]
|
paper
|
garca
|
(??)?????
|
[kr?.s?ː]
|
heron
|
leilao
|
??????
|
[l?ː.l?ŋ]
|
auction, low-priced
|
padre
|
???(????)
|
[baːt.l?aŋ]
|
(Christian) priest
[36]
|
pao
|
(???)???
|
[p?ŋ]
|
bread
|
real
|
??????
|
[r?an]
|
coin
|
sabao
|
????
|
[s?.buː]
|
soap
|
Tamil-origin
[
edit
]
Tamil words
|
Thai rendition
|
IPA
|
Gloss
|
????
(
ka?i
)
|
??????
|
[k?.riː]
|
curry, curry powder
|
?????????
(
kir?mpu
)
|
??????
|
[k?ːn.p?l?ː]
|
clove
|
????
(
ney
)
|
???
|
[n??ːj]
|
butter
|
Writing system
[
edit
]
Thai is written in the
Thai script
, an
abugida
written from left to right. The language and its script are closely related to the
Lao language
and
script
. Most literate Lao are able to read and understand Thai, as more than half of the Thai vocabulary, grammar, intonation, vowels and so forth are common with the Lao language.
The Thais adopted and modified the Khmer script to create their own writing system. While in Thai the pronunciation can largely be inferred from the script, the orthography is complex, with silent letters to preserve original spellings and many letters representing the same sound. While the oldest known inscription in the
Khmer language
dates from 611 CE, inscriptions in Thai writing began to appear around 1292 CE. Notable features include:
- It is an
abugida
script, in which the
implicit vowel
is a short
/a/
in a syllable without final
consonant
and a short
/o/
in a syllable with final consonant.
- Tone markers, if present, are placed above the final
onset
consonant of the syllable.
- Vowels
sounding after an initial consonant can be located before, after, above or below the consonant, or in a combination of these positions.
Transcription
[
edit
]
There is no universally applied method for transcribing Thai into the Latin alphabet. For example, the name of the main airport is transcribed variably as Suvarnabhumi, Suwannaphum, or Suwunnapoom. Guide books, textbooks and dictionaries may each follow different systems. For this reason, many language courses recommend that learners master the Thai script.
[37]
[38]
[39]
[40]
Official standards are the
Royal Thai General System of Transcription
(RTGS), published by the
Royal Institute of Thailand
,
[41]
and the almost identical
ISO 11940-2
defined by the
International Organization for Standardization
. The RTGS system is increasingly used in Thailand by central and local governments, especially for road signs.
[42]
Its main drawbacks are that it does not indicate tone or vowel length. As the system is based on pronunciation, not orthography, reconstruction of Thai spelling from RTGS romanisation is not possible.
Transliteration
[
edit
]
The
ISO
published an international standard for the
transliteration of Thai
into Roman script in September 2005 (
ISO 11940
).
[43]
By adding diacritics to the Latin letters it makes the transcription reversible, making it a true
transliteration
. Notably, this system is used by
Google Translate
, although it does not seem to appear in many other contexts, such as textbooks and other instructional media.
See also
[
edit
]
Explanatory notes
[
edit
]
- ^
In Thai:
???????
Phasa Thai
- ^
In Thai:
???????????
RTGS
:
Paasaa Thai Klang
; Not to be confused with
Central Tai
- ^
In Thai:
????????
Paasaa Sayam
- ^
Although "Thai" and "Central Thai" have become more common, the older term, "Siamese", is still used by linguists, especially when it is being distinguished from other
Tai languages
(Diller 2008:6
[
full citation needed
]
). "Proto-Thai" is, for example, the ancestor of all of
Southwestern Tai
, not just Siamese (Rischel 1998
[
full citation needed
]
).
- ^
The glottalized stops
/?b
?d/
were unaffected, as they were treated in every respect like voiceless unaspirated stops due to the initial glottal stop. These stops are often described in the modern language as phonemically plain stops
/b
d/
, but the glottalization is still commonly heard.
- ^
Modern
Lao
,
Isan
and
northern Thai dialects
are often described as having six tones, but these are not necessarily due to preservation of the original six tones resulting from the tone split. For example, in standard Lao, both the high and low variants of Old Thai tone 2 merged; however, the mid-class variant of tone 1 became pronounced differently from either the high-class or low-class variants, and all three eventually became phonemic due to further changes, e.g.
/kr/
>
/k?/
. For similar reasons, Lao has developed more than two tonal distinctions in "dead" syllables.
- ^
Initial ? is silent and therefore considered as a
glottal stop
.
- ^
? and ? are no longer used. Thus, modern Thai is said to have 42 consonant letters.
- ^
The glottal plosive appears at the end when no final follows a short vowel
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Thai
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
- ^
Diller, A.; Reynolds, Craig J. (2002). "What makes central Thai a national language?". In Reynolds (ed.).
National identity and its defenders : Thailand today
. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
ISBN
974-7551-88-8
.
OCLC
54373362
.
- ^
Draper, John (2019), "Language education policy in Thailand",
The Routledge International Handbook of Language Education Policy in Asia
, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 229?242,
doi
:
10.4324/9781315666235-16
,
ISBN
978-1-315-66623-5
,
S2CID
159127015
- ^
Baker, Christopher (2014).
A history of Thailand
. Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3?4.
ISBN
978-1-316-00733-4
.
- ^
Enfield, N.J. "How to define 'Lao', 'Thai', and 'Isan' language? A view from linguistic science".
Tai Culture
.
3
(1): 62?67.
- ^
Peansiri Vongvipanond (Summer 1994).
"Linguistic Perspectives of Thai Culture"
.
paper presented to a workshop of teachers of social science
. University of New Orleans. p. 2. Archived from
the original
on 20 November 2012
. Retrieved
26 April
2011
.
The dialect one hears on radio and television is the Bangkok dialect, considered the standard dialect.
- ^
Kemasingki, Pim; Prateepkoh, Pariyakorn (1 August 2017).
"Kham Mueang: the slow death of a language"
.
Chiang Mai City Life
: 8.
there are still many people speaking kham mueang, but as an accent, not as a language. Because we now share the written language with Bangkok, we are beginning to use its vocabulary as well
- ^
Andrew Simpson (2007).
Language and national identity in Asia
. Oxford University Press.
Standard Thai is a form of Central Thai based on the variety of Thai spoken earlier by the elite of the court, and now by the educated middle and upper classes of Bangkok. It ... was standardized in grammar books in the nineteenth century, and spread dramatically from the 1930s onwards, when public education became much more widespread
- ^
Thepboriruk, Kanjana (2010).
"Bangkok Thai tones revisited"
.
Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society
.
3
(1). University of Hawaii Press: 86?105.
Linguists generally consider Bangkok Thai and Standard Thai, the Kingdom's national language, to be one and the same.
- ^
Antonio L. Rappa; Lionel Wee (2006),
Language Policy and Modernity in Southeast Asia: Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand
, Springer, pp. 114?115
- ^
Lieberman, Victor (2003).
Strange Parallels: Volume 1, Integration on the Mainland: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c.800?1830
. Studies in Comparative World History (Kindle ed.).
ISBN
978-0-521-80086-0
.
- ^
Wyatt, David K. (2003).
Thailand: A Short History
. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
ISBN
0-300-08475-7
.
- ^
Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993
:25)
- ^
Frankfurter, Oscar. Elements of Siamese grammar with appendices. American Presbyterian mission press, 1900
[1]
(Full text available on Google Books)
- ^
Moren, Bruce; Zsiga, Elizabeth (2006).
"The Lexical and Post-Lexical Phonology of Thai Tones*"
.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory
.
24
(1): 113?178.
doi
:
10.1007/s11049-004-5454-y
.
ISSN
0167-806X
.
S2CID
170764533
.
- ^
Zsiga, Elizabeth; Nitisaroj, Rattima (2007).
"Tone Features, Tone Perception, and Peak Alignment in Thai"
.
Language and Speech
.
50
(3): 343?383.
doi
:
10.1177/00238309070500030301
.
ISSN
0023-8309
.
PMID
17974323
.
S2CID
18595049
.
- ^
Teeranon, Phanintra. (2007).
"The change of Standard Thai high tone: An acoustic study and a perceptual experiment"
.
SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics, 4
(3), 1?16.
- ^
Thepboriruk, Kanjana. (2010).
"Bangkok Thai Tones Revisited"
.
Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 3
(1), 86?105.
- ^
Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. (2007).
"Directionality of Tone Change"
.
Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVI)
.
- ^
Warotamasikkhadit, Udom (1972).
Thai Syntax
. The Hague: Mouton.
- ^
a
b
c
Bisang, W. (1991),
"Verb serialisation, grammaticalisation, and attractor positions in Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, Thai and Khmer"
,
Partizipation: das sprachliche Erfassen von Sachverhalten
, Tubingen: Narr, pp. 509?562
, retrieved
2 May
2021
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Jenny, Mathias; Ebert, Karen H.; Zuniga, Fernando (2001),
"The aspect system of Thai"
,
Aktionsart and Aspectotemporality in non-European languages
, Zurich: Seminar fur Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Universitat Zurich, pp. 97?140,
ISBN
978-3-9521010-8-7
, retrieved
2 May
2021
- ^
a
b
Boonyapatipark, Tasanalai (1983).
A study of aspect in Thai
. University of London.
- ^
Koenig, Jean-Pierre; Muansuwan, Nuttanart (2005).
"The Syntax of Aspect in Thai"
.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory
.
23
(2): 335?380.
doi
:
10.1007/s11049-004-0488-8
.
ISSN
0167-806X
.
JSTOR
4048104
.
S2CID
170429648
.
- ^
Jenks, Peter (2011).
The Hidden Structure of Thai Noun Phrases
(PDF)
(PhD dissertation). Harvard University.
ISBN
978-1-267-10767-1
.
S2CID
118127511
.
ProQuest
915016895
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 3 May 2015.
- ^
"Thailanguage.org"
. Archived from
the original
on 17 August 2017
. Retrieved
18 September
2010
.
- ^
a
b
Smyth, David (2014).
Thai
(2nd ed.). Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
ISBN
978-1-317-97457-4
.
OCLC
879025983
.
- ^
"The Many Different Ways To Say "I"
"
.
Beginner Thai Speaking
. 28 September 2021
. Retrieved
12 November
2021
.
- ^
Joanne Tan.
"How to say You in Thai Language"
.
Learn Thai in Singapore
.
- ^
a
b
"What Do 'krub' And 'ka' Mean In Thai Language & When To Use"
. 5 October 2021
. Retrieved
1 November
2021
.
- ^
"The Languages spoken in Thailand"
.
Studycountry
. Retrieved
26 December
2017
.
- ^
Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (2009).
Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook
. p. 611.
Thai is of special interest to lexical borrowing for various reasons. The copious borrowing of basic vocabulary from Middle Chinese and later from Khmer indicates that, given the right sociolinguistic context, such vocabulary is not at all immune
- ^
Haarmann, Harald (1986).
Language in Ethnicity: A View of Basic Ecological Relations
. p. 165.
In Thailand, for instance, where the Chinese influence was strong until the Middle Ages, Chinese characters were abandoned in written Thai in the course of the thirteenth century.
- ^
Leppert, Paul A. (1992).
Doing Business With Thailand
. p. 13.
At an early time the Thais used Chinese characters. But, under the influence of Indian traders and monks, they soon dropped Chinese characters in favor of Sanskrit and Pali scripts.
- ^
Khanittanan, Wilaiwan (2004). "Khmero-Thai: The Great Change in the History of the Thai Language of the Chao Phraya Basin".
Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society
.
11
.
- ^
"S?y?m-portukes? ???ks???: Kh? re?yk "ch? k?fæ" khır lxk khır th?y h?r??x portukes?"
????-?????????????: ??????? "?? ????" ????????? ??? ???? ????????
[Siam-Portuguese Studies: The term 'tea, coffee'. Who copied someone, Thai or Portuguese?]. 2010.
- ^
Pronk, Marco (2013).
The Essential Thai Language Companion: Reference Book: Basics, Structures, Rules
. Schwabe AG. p. v.
ISBN
978-3-9523664-9-3
.
learn the Thai alphabet as early as possible, and get rid of romanized transcriptions as soon as you can
- ^
Juyaso, Arthit (2015).
Read Thai in 10 Days
. Bingo-Lingo. p. xii.
There have been attempts by Thai language schools to create a perfect phonetic system for learners, but none have been successful so far. ... Only Thai script is prevalent and consistent in Thailand.
- ^
Waites, Dan (2014).
"Learning the Language: To Write or Not to Write"
.
CultureShock! Bangkok
. Marshall Cavendish.
ISBN
978-981-4516-93-8
.
you're far better off learning the Thai alphabet
- ^
Cooper, Robert (2019).
"Learning Thai: Writing Thai in English"
.
CultureShock! Thailand: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette
. Marshall Cavendish.
ISBN
978-981-4841-39-9
.
take a bit of time to learn the letters. The time you spend is saved many times over when you begin to really learn Thai.
- ^
Royal Thai General System of Transcription
, published by the Thai Royal Institute only in Thai
- ^
Handbook and standard for traffic signs
(PDF)
(in Thai), Appendix ?,
archived
(PDF)
from the original on 15 November 2017
- ^
ISO 11940 Standard
.
General and cited sources
[
edit
]
- ????????? ???????????? ??? ?????????? ?????????????.
2549.
?????????????????????????????????
(
Stress and Intonation in Thai
)
??????????????????????? ????? 24 ??????? 2 (?????? ? ???????? 2549) ???? 59?76.
ISSN
0857-1406
.
- ???????? : ???????????????????????????. 2547. ???????? : ????????????????????????????????.
ISBN
974-537-499-7
.
- Diller, Anthony van Nostrand, et al. 2008.
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Further reading
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External links
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