Thai language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Thai
Central Thai, Siamese ภาษาไทย, Phasa Thai
"Phasa Thai" (literally meaning "Thai language") written in Thai script
Region	Thailand (Central Thailand and Thai Chinese enclaves throughout country) Cambodia (Koh Kong province) Myanmar (Kengtung District)
Ethnicity	Central Thai, Thai Chinese, Mon, Lao Wiang, Phuan
Native speakers	L1: 21 million  (2000)e27 L2: 40 million (2001) Total: 61 million
Language family	Tai–Kadai Tai Southwestern Chiang Saen Sukhothai Thai
Writing system	Thai script Thai Braille Khom Thai (religious use)
Official status
Official language in	Thailand
Recognised minority language in	Cambodia  Laos  Malaysia  Myanmar
Regulated by	Royal Society of Thailand
Linguasphere	47-AAA-b
Dark Blue: Majority Light Blue: Minority
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Thai, or Central Thai (historically Siamese; Thai: ภาษาไทย), is a Tai language of the Kra–Dai language family spoken by the Central Thai, Mon, Lao Wiang, Phuan people in Central Thailand and the vast majority of Thai Chinese enclaves throughout the country. It is the sole official language of Thailand.

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 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.

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. 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. Standard Thai is based on the register of the educated classes by Central Thai and ethnic minorities in the area along the ring surrounding the Metropolis.

In addition to Central Thai, Thailand is home to other related Tai languages. Although most 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". 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. Ethnic minorities today are predominantly bilingual, speaking Thai alongside their native language or dialect.

Classification

Standard Thai is classified as one of the Chiang Saen languages—others being Northern Thai, 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.

Kra-Dai

Hlai languages Kam-Sui languages Kra languages Be language  Tai languages  Northern Tai languages Central Tai languages Southwestern Tai languages Northwestern Tai languages Khamti language Tai Lue language Shan language others Chiang Saen languages Northern Thai language Sukhothai language Thai language Southern Thai language Lao-Phuthai languages Tai Yo language Phuthai language Lao language (PDR Lao, Isan language)

History

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.

Early spread

According to a Chinese source, during the Ming dynasty, Yingya Shenglan (1405–1433), Ma Huan reported on the language of the Xiānluó (暹羅) or Ayutthaya Kingdom, saying that it somewhat resembled the local patois as pronounced in Guangdong Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand from 1351 - 1767 A.D., was from the beginning a bilingual society, speaking Thai and Khmer. Bilingualism must have been strengthened and maintained for some time by the great number of Khmer-speaking captives the Thais took from Angkor Thom after their victories in 1369, 1388 and 1431. Gradually toward the end of the period, a language shift took place. Khmer fell out of use. Both Thai and Khmer descendants whose great-grand parents or earlier ancestors were bilingual came to use only Thai. In the process of language shift, an abundance of Khmer elements were transferred into Thai and permeated all aspects of the language. Consequently, the Thai of the late Ayutthaya Period which later became Ratanakosin or Bangkok Thai, was a thorough mixture of Thai and Khmer. There were more Khmer words in use than Tai cognates. Khmer grammatical rules were used actively to coin new disyllabic and polysyllabic words and phrases. Khmer expressions, sayings, and proverbs were expressed in Thai through transference.

Thais borrowed both the Royal vocabulary and rules to enlarge the vocabulary from Khmer. The Thais later developed the royal vocabulary according to their immediate environment. Thai and Pali, the latter from Theravada Buddhism, were added to the vocabulary. An investigation of the Ayutthaya Rajasap reveals that three languages, Thai, Khmer and Khmero-Indic were at work closely both in formulaic expressions and in normal discourse. In fact, Khmero-Indic may be classified in the same category as Khmer because Indic had been adapted to the Khmer system first before the Thai borrowed.

Old Thai

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 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 and denti-alveolars; the three-way distinction among velars and palatals, 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 became voiceless aspirated stops.
• 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) 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.

Old Thai (Sukhothai) consonant inventory

	Labial				Dental/ Alveolar				(Alveolo-) Palatal			Velar			Glottal
Nasal	หม		ม		หน		น, ณ		หญ		ญ	หง		ง
Plosive/ Affricate	ป	ผ	พ, ภ	บ	ฏ, ต	ฐ, ถ	ท, ธ	ฎ, ด	จ	ฉ	ช	ก	ข	ค, ฆ	อ
Fricative	ฝ		ฟ		ศ, ษ, ส		ซ					ฃ		ฅ	ห
Trill					หร		ร
Approximant	หว		ว		หล		ล		หย	ย	อย

Historical Sukhothai pronuncation

Letters	IPA	Word in Sukhothai (in Modern Thai script)	Pronunciation in IPA (excluding tone)	Meaning and Definitions
วรรค ก | Varga Kor
ก	k	เกิด	kɤːt	v. to be born
ข	kʰ	ของ	kʰɔːŋ	n. thing
ฃ	x	ฃึ้น (ขึ้น)	xɯn	v. to go up
ค	g	ครู	gruː	n. teacher
ฅ	ɣ	ฅวาม (ความ)	ɣwaːm	n. affair; matter; content
ฆ	g	ฆ่า	gaː	v. to kill
ง	ŋ	งก	ŋok	adj. greedy
หง	ŋ̊	หงอก	ŋ̊ɔːk	v. to whiten (hair)
วรรค จ | Varga Jor
จ	tɕ	ใจ	tɕaɯ	n. heart
ฉ	tɕʰ	ฉาย	tɕʰaːj	v. to shine (on something)
ช	dʑ	ชื่อ	dʑɯː	n. name
ซ	z - ʑ	ซ้ำ	zam	adv. repeatedly
ญ	ɲ	ญวน	ɲuan	v. Vietnam (archaic)
หญ	ɲ̊	หญิง	ɲ̊iŋ	n. woman
วรรค รฏ | Varga Ra Tor
ฎ	ʔd	ฎีกา	ʔdiː.kaː	n. petition notice
ฏ	t	ฏาร	taː.raʔ	n. Ganymede
ฐ	tʰ	ฐาน	tʰaːn	n. base, platform
ณ	n	เณร	neːn	n. novice monk
วรรค ต | Varga Tor
ด	ʔd	ดาว	ʔdaːw	n. star
ต	t	ตา	taː	n. eye
ถ	tʰ	ถอย	tʰɔj	v. to move back
ท	d	ทอง	dɔːŋ	n. gold
ธ	d	ธุระ	du.raʔ	n. business; affairs; errands
น	n	น้ำ	naːm	n. water
หน	n̊	หนู	n̊uː	n. mouse
วรรค ป | Varga Por
บ	ʔb	บ้าน	ʔbaːn	n. house
ป	p	ปลา	plaː	n. fish
ผ	pʰ	ผึ้ง	pʰɯŋ	n. bee
ฝ	f	ฝัน	fan	n. dream
พ	b	พ่อ	bɔː	n. father
ฟ	v	ฟัน	van	n. tooth
ภ	b	ภาษา	baː.saː	n. language
ม	m	แม่	mɛː	n. mother
หม	m̊	หมา	m̊aː	n. dog
อวรรค | Avarga
อย	ʔj	อย่า	ʔjaː	adv. do not
ย	j	เย็น	jen	adj. cold
หย	j̊	เหยียบ	j̊iap	v. to step on
ร	r	รัก	rak	v. to love
หร	r̊	หรือ	r̊ɯː	conj. or
ล	l	ลม	lom	n. wind
หล	l̥	หล่อ	l̥ɔː	adj. handsome
ว	w	วัน	wan	n. day
หว	ẘ	หวี	ẘiː	n. comb
ศ	s	ศาล	saːn	n. court of law
ษ	s	ฤๅษรี (ฤๅษี)	rɯː.siː	n. hermit
ส	s	สวย	suaj	adj. beautiful
อ	ʔ	อ้าย	ʔaːj	n. first born son

Early Old Thai

Early Old Thai also apparently had velar fricatives as distinct phonemes. These were represented by the now-obsolete letters ฃ kho khuat and ฅ kho khon, respectively. During the Old Thai period, these sounds merged into the corresponding stops and as a result the use of these letters became unstable.

At some point in the history of Thai, an alveolo-palatal nasal phoneme also existed, inherited from Proto-Tai. A letter ญ yo ying also exists, which is used to represent an alveolo-palatal nasal in words borrowed from Sanskrit and Pali, and is currently pronounced at the beginning of a syllable but at the end of a syllable. Most native Thai words that are reconstructed as beginning with are also pronounced in modern Thai, but generally spelled with ย yo yak, which consistently represents. This suggests that > in native words occurred in the pre-literary period. It is unclear whether Sanskrit and Pali words beginning with were borrowed directly with a or whether a was re-introduced, followed by a second change >. The northeastern Thai dialect Isan and the Lao language still preserve the phoneme /ɲ/, which is represented in the Lao script by ຍ, such as in the word ຍຸງ ( mosquito). This letter is distinct from the phoneme and its Lao letter ຢ, such as in the word ຢາ ( medicine). The distinction in writing has been lost in the informal writing of the Isan language with the Thai script and both sounds are represented by ย (See: Comparison of Lao and Isan).

Proto-Tai also had a glottalized palatal sound, reconstructed as in Li Fang-Kuei (1977). Corresponding Thai words are generally spelled หย, which implies an Old Thai pronunciation of, but a few such words are spelled อย, which implies a pronunciation of and suggests that the glottalization may have persisted through to the early literary period.

Vowel developments

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), however, many Thai dialects have only one such short–long pair, and in general it is difficult or impossible to find minimal short–long pairs in Thai that involve vowels other than 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 are rare, and cases that do exist typically have diphthongs in other Tai languages.
• In closed syllables, both short and long mid and low do occur. However, generally, only words with short and long are reconstructible back to Proto-Tai.
• Both of the mid back unrounded vowels are rare, and words with such sounds generally cannot be reconstructed back to Proto-Tai.

Furthermore, the vowel that corresponds to short Thai has a different and often higher quality in many of the Tai languages compared with the vowel corresponding to Thai.

This leads Li to posit the following:

1. Proto-Tai had a system of nine pure vowels with no length distinction, and possessing approximately the same qualities as in modern Thai: high mid low.
2. All Proto-Tai vowels were lengthened in open syllables, and low vowels were also lengthened in closed syllables.
3. Modern Thai largely preserved the original lengths and qualities, but lowered to which became short in closed syllables and created a phonemic length distinction. 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 from diphthongs, and the lowering of to to create a length distinction 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), 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. He also seems to believe that the Proto-Southwestern-Tai vowel length distinctions can be reconstructed back to similar distinctions in Proto-Tai.

Phonology

Consonants

Initials

Standard Thai distinguishes three voice-onset times among plosive and affricate consonants:

• voiced
• tenuis (unvoiced, unaspirated)
• aspirated

Where English makes a distinction between voiced and unvoiced aspirated Thai distinguishes a third sound – the unvoiced, unaspirated that occurs in English only as an allophone of for example after an as in the sound of the p in "spin". There is similarly a laminal denti-alveolar triplet in Thai. In the velar series there is a pair and in the postalveolar series a pair, but the language lacks the corresponding voiced sounds and. (In loanwords from English, English and are borrowed as the tenuis stops and.)

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 ห, one of the two h letters, is also used to help write certain tones (described below).

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	(Alveolo-) Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		ม	ณ, น		ง
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	บ	ฎ, ด
	tenuis	ป	ฏ, ต	จ	ก	อ
	aspirated	ผ, พ, ภ	ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ถ, ท, ธ	ฉ, ช, ฌ	ข, ฃ, ค, ฅ, ฆ
Fricative		ฝ, ฟ	ซ, ศ, ษ, ส			ห, ฮ
Approximant		ว	ล, ฬ	ญ, ย
Rhotic/Liquid			ร

Finals

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 mātrā (มาตรา) are used. To demonstrate, at the end of a syllable, บ and ด are devoiced, becoming pronounced as and respectively. Additionally, all plosive sounds are unreleased. Hence, final and sounds are pronounced as and respectively.

Of the consonant letters, excluding the disused ฃ and ฅ, six (ฉ ผ ฝ ห อ ฮ) cannot be used as a final and the other 36 are grouped as following.

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	ม	ญ, ณ, น, ร, ล, ฬ		ง
Plosive	บ, ป, พ, ฟ, ภ	จ, ช, ซ, ฌ, ฎ, ฏ, ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ด, ต, ถ, ท, ธ, ศ, ษ, ส		ก, ข, ค, ฆ
Approximant	ว		ย

Clusters

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:

• (กร) (กล) (กว)
• (ขร, คร) (ขล, คล) (ขว, คว)
• (ปร) (ปล)
• (พร) (ผล, พล)
• (ตร)

The number of clusters increases in loanwords such as (ทร) in อินทรา ( from Sanskrit indrā) or (ฟร) in ฟรี ( from English free); however, these usually only occur in initial position, with either or as the second consonant sound and not more than two sounds at a time.

Vowels

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.

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	-ิ	-ี	-ึ	-ื-	-ุ	-ู
Mid	เ-ะ	เ-	เ-อะ	เ-อ	โ-ะ	โ-
Open	แ-ะ	แ-	-ะ, -ั-	-า	เ-าะ	-อ

Each vowel quality occurs in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming distinct words in Thai.

The long-short pairs are as follows:

Long					Short
Thai	IPA	Example			Thai	IPA	Example
–า		ฝาน		'to slice'	–ะ		ฝัน		'to dream'
–ี		กรีด		'to cut'	–ิ		กริช		'kris'
–ู		สูด		'to inhale'	–ุ		สุด		'rearmost'
เ–		เอน		'to recline'	เ–ะ		เอ็น		'tendon, ligament'
แ–		แพ้		'to be defeated'	แ–ะ		แพะ		'goat'
–ื-		คลื่น		'wave'	–ึ		ขึ้น		'to go up'
เ–อ		เดิน		'to walk'	เ–อะ		เงิน		'silver'
โ–		โค่น		'to fell'	โ–ะ		ข้น		'thick (soup)'
–อ		กลอง		'drum'	เ–าะ		กล่อง		'box'

There are also opening and closing diphthongs in Thai, which Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993) analyze as and. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:

Long		Short
Thai script	IPA	Thai script	IPA
–าย		ไ–*, ใ–*, ไ–ย, -ัย
–าว		เ–า*
เ–ีย		เ–ียะ
–	–	–ิว
–ัว		–ัวะ
–ูย		–ุย
เ–ว		เ–็ว
แ–ว		–	–
เ–ือ		เ–ือะ
เ–ย		–	–
–อย		–	–
โ–ย		–	–

Additionally, there are three triphthongs. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:

Thai script	IPA
เ–ียว*
–วย*
เ–ือย*

Tones

There are five phonemic tones: mid, low, falling, high, and rising, sometimes referred to in older reference works as rectus, gravis, circumflexus, altus, and demissus, respectively. The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA. Moren & Zsiga (2006) and Zsiga & Nitisaroj (2007) provide phonetic and phonological analyses of Thai tone realization.

Unchecked syllables

Tone	Thai	Example	Phonemic	Phonetic	Gloss
Mid	สามัญ	คา			'stick'
Low	เอก	ข่า		or	'galangal'
Falling	โท	ค่า			'value'
High	ตรี	ค้า		or	'to trade'
Rising	จัตวา	ขา		or	'leg'

Checked syllables

Tone	Thai	Example	Phonemic	Phonetic	Gloss
Low (short vowel)	เอก	หมัก			'marinate'
Low (long vowel)	เอก	หมาก			'areca nut, areca palm, betel, fruit'
High	ตรี	มัก			'habitually, likely to'
Falling	โท	มาก			'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	ตรี	มาร์ก			'Marc, Mark'
High	ตรี	ชาร์จ			'charge'
Falling	โท	เมกอัป			'make-up'
Falling	โท	แร็กเกต			'racket'

Grammar

From the perspective of linguistic typology, Thai can be considered to be an analytic language. The word order is subject–verb–object, although the subject is often omitted. Additionally, Thai is an isolating language lacking any form of inflectional morphology whatsoever. Thai pronouns are selected according to the gender and relative status of speaker and audience.

Adjectives and adverbs

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.

Verbs

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.

In order to convey tense, aspect and mood (TAM), the Thai verbal system employs auxiliaries and verb serialization. TAM markers are however not obligatory and often left out in colloquial use. In such cases, the precise meaning is determined through context. This results in sentences lacking both TAM markers and overt context being ambiguous and subject to various interpretations.

Aspect markers in Thai have been divided into four distinct groups based on their usage. 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.

• Imperfective
  • อยู่ yu
  • ไป pai
  • ยัง yang
  • กำลัง kamlang
  • เคย khoey
• Perfective
  • ได้ dai
• Perfect
  • แล้ว laeo
  • มา ma
• Prospective/Future
  • จะ cha

The imperfective aspect marker กำลัง (kamlang 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. Similarly, อยู่ (yu) is a post-verbal aspect marker which corresponds to the continuative or temporary aspect.

Comparably ยัง (yang still) which is used in an incompleted action, and usually cognates in phrase with yu (อยู่) or any other aspect markers in common use.

The marker ได้ (dai) is usually analyzed as a past tense marker when it occurs before the verb. 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.

แล้ว (laeo 'already') is treated as a marker indicating the perfect aspect. That is to say, laeo marks the event as being completed at the time of reference. Laeo has two 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'.

Future can be indicated by จะ (cha 'will') before the verb or by a time expression indicating the future.

Dative marker ให้ (hai 'give') often used in a sentence as prepositional or double objects.

The passive voice is indicated by the insertion of ถูก (thuk) before the verb.

Negation is indicated by placing ไม่ (mai not) before the verb.

• เขาไม่ตี, (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.

Nouns

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. Some specific nouns are reduplicated to form collectives: เด็ก (dek, 'child') is often repeated as เด็ก ๆ (dek dek) to refer to a group of children. The word พวก (phuak) may be used as a prefix of a noun or pronoun as a collective to pluralize or emphasise the following word. (พวกผม, phuak phom 'we', masculine; พวกเรา phuak rao emphasised 'we'; พวกหมา phuak ma, '(the) dogs'). Plurals are expressed by adding classifiers, used as measure words (ลักษณนาม), in the form of noun-number-classifier.

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 ของ (khong) in front of the noun or pronoun, but it may often be omitted.

Nominal phrases

Nominal phrases in Thai often use a special class of words classifiers. As previously mentioned, these classifiers are obligatory for noun phrases containing numerals.

However, classifiers are not utilized for negative quantification. Negative quantification is expressed by the pattern ไม่มี (mai mi) + NOUN. Classifiers are also used for demonstratives such as นี้ (ni 'this/these') and นั่น (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 หมาตัวนี้ (literally 'dog (classifier) this').

Pronouns

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
ข้าพเจ้า	khaphachao		I/me (very formal)
กระผม	kraphom		I/me (masculine; formal)
ผม	phom		I/me (masculine; common)
ดิฉัน	dichan		I/me (feminine; formal)
ฉัน	chan		I/me (mainly used by women; common) Commonly pronounced as
ข้า	kha		I/me (from high-status to low-status or familiar; informal)
กู	ku		I/me (impolite/vulgar)
หนู	nu		I/me (used by women when speaking to people much older than themselves; informal)
เรา	rao		we/us (common), I/me (casual), you (sometimes used but only when older person speaks to younger person)
คุณ	khun		you (common)
ท่าน	than		you (highly honorific; formal) Commonly pronounced as
แก	kae		you (familiar; informal)
เอ็ง	eng		you (from high-status to low-status or familiar; informal)
เธอ	thoe		you (informal), she/her (informal)
พี่	phi		older brother, sister (also used for older acquaintances; common)
น้อง	nong		younger brother, sister (also used for younger acquaintances; common)
เขา	khao		he/him (common), she/her (common) Commonly pronounced as
มัน	man		it, he/she (offensive if used to refer to a person)
มึง	mueng		you (impolite/vulgar)

The reflexive pronoun is ตัวเอง (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 ตัวผมเอง (tua phom eng, lit: I myself) or ตัวคุณเอง (tua khun eng, lit: you yourself). Thai also does not have a separate possessive pronoun. Instead, possession is indicated by the particle ของ (khong). For example, "my mother" is แม่ของผม (mae khong phom, lit: mother of I). This particle is often implicit, so the phrase is shortened to แม่ผม (mae phom). Plural pronouns can be easily constructed by adding the word พวก (phuak) in front of a singular pronoun as in พวกเขา (phuak khao) meaning 'they' or พวกเธอ (phuak thoe) meaning the plural sense of 'you'. The only exception to this is เรา (rao), which can be used as singular (informal) or plural, but can also be used in the form of พวกเรา (phuak rao), which is only plural.

Thai has many more pronouns than those listed above. Their usage is full of nuances. For example:

• "ผม เรา ฉัน ดิฉัน หนู กู ข้า กระผม ข้าพเจ้า กระหม่อม อาตมา กัน ข้าน้อย ข้าพระพุทธเจ้า อั๊ว เขา" all translate to "I", but each expresses a different gender, age, politeness, status, or relationship between speaker and listener.
• เรา (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 หนู (nu) when talking with older person. The word หนู could be both feminine first person (I) and feminine second person (you) and also neuter first and neuter second person for children.
  • หนู commonly means rat or mouse, though it also refers to small creatures in general.
• The second person pronoun เธอ (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 คุณ (khun) and เธอ (thoe) are polite neuter second person pronouns. However, คุณเธอ (khun thoe) is a feminine derogative third person.
• Instead of a second person pronoun such as คุณ ('you'), it is much more common for unrelated strangers to call each other พี่ น้อง ลุง ป้า น้า อา ตา or ยาย (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 ครู, คุณครู or อาจารย์ (each meaning 'teacher') rather than คุณ ('you'). Teachers, monks, and doctors are almost always addressed this way.

Particles

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 ครับ (khrap with a high tone) when the speaker is a man, and ค่ะ (kha with a falling tone) when the speaker is a woman. Used in a question or a request, the particle ค่ะ (falling tone) is changed to a คะ (high tone).

Other common particles are:

Word	RTGS	IPA	Meaning
จ้ะ, จ้า or จ๋า	cha	or	indicating emphasis. Used in a less formal context when speaking to friends or someone younger than yourself
ละ or ล่ะ	la	or	indicating emphasis.
สิ or ซิ	si	or	indicating emphasis or an imperative. It can come across as ordering someone to do something
นะ or น่ะ	na	or	softening; indicating a request or making your sentence sound more friendly.

Register

Central Thai is composed of several distinct registers, forms for different social contexts:

• Street or Common Thai (ภาษาพูด, phasa phut, spoken Thai): informal, without polite terms of address, as used between close relatives and friends.
• Elegant or Formal Thai (ภาษาเขียน, 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 Pāli) used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks.
• Royal Thai (ราชาศัพท์, 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. 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 กิน (kin; common), แดก (daek; vulgar), ยัด (yat; vulgar), บริโภค (boriphok; formal), รับประทาน (rapprathan; formal), ฉัน (chan; religious), or เสวย (sawoei; royal), as illustrated below:

"to eat"	IPA	Usage	Note
กิน		common
แดก		vulgar
ยัด		vulgar	Original meaning is 'to cram'
บริโภค		formal, literary
รับประทาน		formal, polite	Often shortened to ทาน /tʰāːn/.
ฉัน		religious
เสวย		royal

Thailand also uses the distinctive Thai six-hour clock in addition to the 24-hour clock.

Vocabulary

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.

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.

Later, most vocabulary was borrowed from Sanskrit and Pāli; 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	ไฟ		fire
	น้ำ		water
	เมือง		town
	รุ่งเรือง		prosperous
Indic sources: Pāli or Sanskrit	อัคนี (agni)		fire
	ชล (jala)		water
	ธานี (dhānī)		town
	วิโรจน์ (virocana)		prosperous

Arabic-origin

Arabic words	Thai rendition	IPA	Gloss
الْقُرْآن (al-qurʾān) or قُرْآن (qurʾān)	อัลกุรอาน or โกหร่าน	or	Quran
رجم (rajm)	ระยำ		bad, vile (vulgar)

Chinese-origin

From Middle Chinese or Teochew Chinese.

Chinese words		Thai rendition	IPA	Gloss
交椅	Teochew: gao1 in2	เก้าอี้		chair
粿條 / 粿条	Min Nan: kóe-tiâu	ก๋วยเตี๋ยว		rice noodle
姐	Hokkien: chiá/ché Teochew: zê2/zia2	เจ้ or เจ๊	or	older sister (used in Chinese community in Thailand)
二	Hokkien: jī Teochew: ri6	ยี่		two (archaic, but still used in word ยี่สิบ 'twenty')
豆	Middle Chinese: dəuH	ถั่ว		bean
盎	Middle Chinese: ʔɑŋX/ʔɑŋH	อ่าง		basin
膠	Middle Chinese: kˠau	กาว		glue
鯁	Middle Chinese: kˠæŋX	ก้าง		fishbone
坎	Middle Chinese: kʰʌmX	ขุม		pit
塗	Middle Chinese: duo/ɖˠa	ทา		to smear
退	Middle Chinese: tʰuʌiH	ถอย		to step back

English-origin

English words	Thai rendition	IPA	Remark
apple	แอปเปิล
bank	แบงก์		means 'bank' or 'banknote'
bill	บิล	or
cake	เค้ก
captain	กัปตัน
cartoon	การ์ตูน
clinic	คลินิก
computer	คอมพิวเตอร์		colloquially shortened to คอม
corruption	คอร์รัปชัน
countdown	เคานต์ดาวน์
dinosaur	ไดโนเสาร์
duel	ดวล
e-mail	อีเมล
fashion	แฟชั่น
golf	กอล์ฟ
shampoo	แชมพู
slip	สลิป
taxi	แท็กซี่
technology	เทคโนโลยี
valve	วาล์ว
visa	วีซ่า
wreath	(พวง)หรีด

French-origin

French words	Thai rendition	IPA	English translation
buffet	บุฟเฟต์
café	กาแฟ		coffee
	คาเฟ่		coffee shop, restaurant serving alcoholic drinks and providing entertainment (dated)
caféine	กาเฟอีน		caffeine
chauffeur	โชเฟอร์
consul	กงสุล
coupon	คูปอง
croissant	ครัวซ็อง
gramme	กรัม
litre	ลิตร
mètre	เมตร		metre
parquet	ปาร์เกต์
pétanque	เปตอง

Japanese-origin

Japanese words	Thai rendition	IPA	Gloss
カラオケ	คาราโอเกะ		karaoke
忍者	นินจา		ninja
寿司	ซูชิ		sushi

Khmer-origin

From Old Khmer

Khmer words	Thai rendition	IPA	Gloss
ក្រុង (/kroŋ/)	กรุง		capital city
ខ្ទើយ (/kʰtəːj/)	กะเทย		kathoey
ខ្មួយ (/kʰmuəj/)	ขโมย		to steal, thief
ច្រមុះ (/crɑː.moh/)	จมูก		nose
ច្រើន (/craən/)	เจริญ		prosperous
ឆ្លាត or ឆ្លាស (/cʰlaːt/ or /cʰlaːh/)	ฉลาด		smart
ថ្នល់ (/tʰnɑl/)	ถนน		road
ភ្លើង (/pʰləːŋ/)	เพลิง		fire
ទន្លេ (/tɔn.leː/)	ทะเล		sea

Malay-origin

Malay words	Thai rendition	IPA	Gloss
kelasi	กะลาสี		sailor, seaman
sagu	สาคู		sago
surau	สุเหร่า		small mosque

Persian-origin

Persian words	Thai rendition	IPA	Gloss
گلاب‎ (golâb)	กุหลาบ		rose
کمربند‎ (kamarband)	ขาวม้า		loincloth
ترازو (tarâzu)	ตราชู		balance scale
سقرلات (saqerlât)	สักหลาด		felt
آلت (âlat)	อะไหล่		spare part

Portuguese-origin

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	กระดาษ		paper
garça	(นก)กระสา		heron
leilão	เลหลัง		auction, low-priced
padre	บาท(หลวง)		(Christian) priest
pão	(ขนม)ปัง		bread
real	เหรียญ		coin
sabão	สบู่		soap

Tamil-origin

Tamil words	Thai rendition	IPA	Gloss
கறி‎ (kaṟi)	กะหรี่		curry, curry powder
கிராம்பு‎ (kirāmpu)	กานพลู		clove
நெய் (ney)	เนย		butter

Writing system

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:

1. It is an abugida script, in which the implicit vowel is a short in a syllable without final consonant and a short in a syllable with final consonant.
2. Tone markers, if present, are placed above the final onset consonant of the syllable.
3. Vowels sounding after an initial consonant can be located before, after, above or below the consonant, or in a combination of these positions.

Transcription

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.

Official standards are the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS), published by the Royal Institute of Thailand, 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. 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

The ISO published an international standard for the transliteration of Thai into Roman script in September 2005 (ISO 11940). 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

In Spanish: Idioma tailandés para niños

• Thai script
• Thai honorifics
• Thai literature
• Thai numerals
• Thai braille
• Thai typography
• Comparison of Lao and Thai