Thai script facts for kids

The Thai script is the special way of writing used for the Thai language. It's a type of writing system called an abugida. This means that vowel marks are always attached to consonant letters. Consonants are always written from left to right. But vowels have special rules. They can be written to the left, right, top, or bottom of the first consonant in each syllable.

Here's an example using the Thai consonant ก (pronounced like 'k'):

In Thai writing, spaces are not used between words. Instead, spaces are used to separate sentences and parts of sentences. You usually won't see punctuation marks like commas or periods. For example, the sentence "I like to eat fried rice, but she likes to eat pad thai" is written as ฉันชอบกินข้าวผัด แต่เธอชอบกินผัดไทย.

How Thai Script Developed

The Thai writing system was created based on an older script called the Old Khmer Script. But the Old Khmer Script didn't show tones. Tones are very important in the Thai language. To fix this, the Thai script added new letters and special tone markers. These markers show the tone of a word.

The Thai script was the first known writing system in the world to show the tones of a word. Even though the Chinese writing system existed much earlier, and Chinese was also a tonal language, there was no way to write Chinese tones until much later. The first time Chinese was written using the Latin alphabet with tone markers was in a dictionary from the 16th century.

Understanding Thai Letters

Thai has 44 consonant letters. It also has 32 vowel markers and combinations. Plus, there are 4 tone markers. This makes a total of 80 letters in Thai. It's one of the largest sound-based writing systems used today!

Even with so many consonant letters, there are actually only 21 different consonant sounds. For example, the "th" sound (like in "stop") can be written in six different ways: ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ถ, ท, or ธ. This is because the letters used can affect a word's tone. They also show if a word is a loanword (a word borrowed from another language).

Thai has five different tones: mid, high, low, rising, and falling. Readers usually figure out a syllable's tone based on a few things. These include the consonant class, if it's a "live" syllable (ends with a voiced consonant or long vowel), or a "dead" syllable (ends with a voiceless consonant or short vowel). The length of the vowel also matters. If a syllable has a tone marker, other rules apply too.

Thai borrowed some letters from Sanskrit and Pali languages. Many of these letters used to sound different in their original languages. But now, they sound the same as other Thai sounds. These borrowed letters are only used when writing loanwords from Sanskrit and Pali.

How Thai Words Are Spelled and Said

The way Thai words are spelled and how they are pronounced can be tricky. Many letters today have different sounds than they did long ago.

Many Thai words have tone markers that show their tone. But many words do not. Even without a marker, every word still has a tone. You can figure out the tone by looking at the consonant class (high, middle, or low). You also check if the syllable is "live" or "dead," and how long the vowel is. In the past, different consonant classes made different sounds. Now, they mainly help show which tone a word has.

Other challenges include silent letters and consonant changes. For example, the word chanthra (written as จันทร์ in Thai) is pronounced chan. The -thra part (written as ทร์) is silent when spoken. This is because the Thai spelling is based on the Sanskrit spelling, where the word came from. Many Thai loanwords keep the spelling rules of their original language.

Also, Thai words cannot end with just any consonant. They can only end with a nasal consonant (like 'm' or 'n'), a semivowel (like 'w' or 'y'), or a voiceless stop (like 'p' or 't'). If a word ends with a different consonant, it changes its sound to fit these rules. For example, the word wat (meaning "temple") is spelled as wad (วัด). But since 'd' (ด) is a voiced sound, it's pronounced as the voiceless 't'.

Another example is the name Bhumibol (ภูมิพล). It's pronounced Phumiphon. The 'l' sound (ล) changes to an 'n' sound. The English word bus (บัส) is pronounced bat in Thai. The 's' sound (ส) changes to a 't' sound.

Images for kids

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  Ram Khamhaeng Inscription, the oldest inscription using proto-Thai script (Bangkok National Museum)

See also

In Spanish: Alfabeto tailandés para niños