Thai language

Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox language

File:WIKITONGUES- Dang speaking Thai.webm

A native Thai speaker, recorded in Bangkok

Thai,<ref group="lower-alpha" name="Explanation 1">In Template:Langx Template:Transliteration</ref> or Central ThaiTemplate:Efn (historically Siamese;Template:Efn<ref group=lower-alpha name="Explanation 2">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 2008:6Template:Full citation needed). "Proto-Thai" is, for example, the ancestor of all of Southwestern Tai, not just Siamese (Rischel 1998Template:Full citation needed).</ref> Template:Langx), 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Thai language is spoken by over 70 million people in Thailand as of 2024.<ref name="Ethnologue28|tha">Template:Ethnologue28</ref> 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.<ref name=bangkok>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ethnic minorities today are predominantly bilingual, speaking Thai alongside their native language or dialect.

Classification

Template:Further 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.

File:"tooth" in Kra-Dai languages.svg

Example of divergence among the Kra-Dai Languages

Template:Clade

History

Template:More citations needed section Thai has undergone various historical sound changes. Some of the most significant changes occurred during the evolution from Old Thai to modern Thai.<ref name="Wilaiwan" /> 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,Template:Efn saying that it somewhat resembled the local patois as pronounced in Guangdong<ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Rp 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.<ref>Kasetsiri 1999: 25</ref> 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.<ref>Varasarin 1984: 91</ref> 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 Template:IPA 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 (Template:IPA) and denti-alveolars (Template:IPA); the three-way distinction among velars (Template:IPA) and palatals (Template:IPA), 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.<ref name="Wilaiwan" /> All voiced–voiceless pairs of consonants lost the voicing distinction:

Plain voiced stops (Template:IPA) became voiceless aspirated stops (Template:IPA).<ref group=lower-alpha name="Explanation 4">The glottalized stops Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA, but the glottalization is still commonly heard.</ref>
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 Template:IPA) 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.<ref group=lower-alpha name="Explanation 5">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. Template:IPA > Template:IPA. For similar reasons, Lao has developed more than two tonal distinctions in "dead" syllables.</ref>

Old Thai (Sukhothai) consonant inventory

	Labial				Dental/ Alveolar				(Alveolo-) Palatal			Velar			Glottal
Nasal	Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang
Plosive/ Affricate	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang
Fricative	Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang					Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang	Template:IPA Template:Lang
Trill					Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA Template:Lang
Approximant	Template:IPA Template:Lang		Template:IPA ว		Template:IPA หล		Template:IPA ล		Template:IPA หย					Template:IPA ย	Template:IPA อย

Historical Sukhothai pronunciation

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	n. 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

Template:Further Early Old Thai also apparently had velar fricatives Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA, and as a result the use of these letters became unstable.

At some point in the history of Thai, an alveolo-palatal nasal phoneme Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA at the beginning of a syllable but Template:IPA at the end of a syllable. Most native Thai words that are reconstructed as beginning with Template:IPA are also pronounced Template:IPA in modern Thai, but generally spelled with ย yo yak, which consistently represents Template:IPA. This suggests that Template:IPA > Template:IPA in native words occurred in the pre-literary period. It is unclear whether Sanskrit and Pali words beginning with Template:IPA were borrowed directly with a Template:IPA, or whether a Template:IPA was re-introduced, followed by a second change Template:IPA > Template:IPA. 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 (Template:IPA, mosquito). This letter is distinct from the phoneme Template:IPA and its Lao letter ຢ, such as in the word ຢາ (Template:IPA, 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 Template:IPA (See: Comparison of Lao and Isan).

Proto-Tai also had a glottalized palatal sound, reconstructed as Template:IPA in Li Fang-Kuei (1977Template:Full citation needed). Corresponding Thai words are generally spelled หย, which implies an Old Thai pronunciation of Template:IPA (or Template:IPA), but a few such words are spelled อย, which implies a pronunciation of Template:IPA 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 (1977Template:Full citation needed), however, many Thai dialects have only one such short–long pair (Template:IPA), and in general it is difficult or impossible to find minimal short–long pairs in Thai that involve vowels other than Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA are rare, and cases that do exist typically have diphthongs in other Tai languages.
In closed syllables, both short and long mid Template:IPA and low Template:IPA do occur. However, generally, only words with short Template:IPA and long Template:IPA are reconstructible back to Proto-Tai.
Both of the mid back unrounded vowels Template:IPA are rare, and words with such sounds generally cannot be reconstructed back to Proto-Tai.

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

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 Template:IPA, mid Template:IPA, low Template:IPA.
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 Template:IPA to Template:IPA, which became short Template:IPA in closed syllables and created a phonemic length distinction Template:IPA. Eventually, length in all other vowels became phonemic as well and a new Template:IPA (both short and long) was introduced, through a combination of borrowing and sound change. Li believes that the development of long Template:IPA from diphthongs, and the lowering of Template:IPA to Template:IPA to create a length distinction Template:IPA, 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 (2009Template:Full citation needed), for example, reconstructs a similar system for Proto-Southwestern-Tai, but believes that there was also a mid back unrounded vowel Template:IPA (which he describes as Template:IPA), occurring only before final velar Template:IPA. He also seems to believe that the Proto-Southwestern-Tai vowel length distinctions can be reconstructed back to similar distinctions in Proto-Tai.

Phonology

Template:IPA notice

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 Template:IPA and unvoiced aspirated Template:IPA, Thai distinguishes a third sound – the unvoiced, unaspirated Template:IPA that occurs in English only as an allophone of Template:IPA, for example after an Template:IPA as in the sound of the p in "spin". There is similarly a laminal denti-alveolarTemplate:Citation needed Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA triplet in Thai. In the velar series there is a Template:IPA, Template:IPA pair and in the postalveolar series a Template:IPA, Template:IPA pair, without the corresponding voiced sounds Template:IPA and Template:IPA. (In loanwords from English, English Template:IPA and Template:IPA are borrowed as the tenuis stops Template:IPA and Template:IPA.)

In each cell below, the first line indicates International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the second indicates the Thai characters in initial position. Note that several letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation. In such cases, one of the letters may serve as the "default", being more common and/or preferred for borrowings from English and such; for example, น in the case of "n" and ส for "s". The letter ห, the default "h" letter, is also used to help write certain tones (described below).

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	(Alveolo-) Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPAslink ม	Template:IPAslink ณ, น		Template:IPAslink ง
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	Template:IPAslink บ	Template:IPAslink ฎ, ด
	tenuis	Template:IPAslink ป	Template:IPAslink ฏ, ต	Template:IPAslink จ	Template:IPAslink ก	Template:IPAslink อTemplate:Efn
	aspirated	Template:IPAslink ผ, พ, ภ	Template:IPAslink ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ถ, ท, ธ	Template:IPAslink ฉ, ช, ฌ	Template:IPAslink ข, ฃ, ค, ฅ, ฆTemplate:Efn
Fricative		Template:IPAslink ฝ, ฟ	Template:IPAslink ซ, ศ, ษ, ส			Template:IPAslink ห, ฮ
Approximant		Template:IPAslink ว	Template:IPAslink ล, ฬ	Template:IPAslink ญ, ย
Rhotic/Liquid			Template:IPAslink 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 (Template:Wikt-lang) are used. To demonstrate, at the end of a syllable, บ (Template:IPA) and ด (Template:IPA) are devoiced, becoming pronounced as Template:IPA and Template:IPA respectively. Additionally, all plosive sounds are unreleased. Hence, final Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA sounds are pronounced as Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA 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	Template:IPAslink ม	Template:IPAslink ญ, ณ, น, ร, ล, ฬ		Template:IPAslink ง
Plosive	Template:IPAslink บ, ป, พ, ฟ, ภ	Template:IPAslink จ, ช, ซ, ฌ, ฎ, ฏ, ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ด, ต, ถ, ท, ธ, ศ, ษ, ส		Template:IPAslink ก, ข, ค, ฆ	Template:IPAslink Template:Efn
Approximant	Template:IPAslink ว		Template:IPAslink 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:

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

The number of clusters increases in loanwords such as Template:IPA (ทร) in Template:Wikt-lang (Template:IPA, from Sanskrit indrā) or Template:IPA (ฟร) in Template:Wikt-lang (Template:IPA, from English free); however, these usually only occur in initial position, with either Template:IPA, Template:IPA, or Template:IPA as the second consonant sound and not more than two sounds at a time. In addition, ก may be Romanized as "g" and ป as "b" in those specific clusters to distinguish them from the corresponded aspirated stops.

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.

File:Thai vowel chart (monophthongs).svg

Monophthongs of Thai. From Template:Harvcoltxt

File:Thai vowel chart (diphthongs).png

Diphthongs of Thai. From Template:Harvcoltxt

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

Each vowel quality occurs in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming distinct words in Thai.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

The long-short pairs are as follows:

Long					Short
Thai	IPA	Example			Thai	IPA	Example
–า	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to slice'	–ะ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to dream'
–ี	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to cut'	–ิ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'kris'
–ู	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to inhale'	–ุ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'rearmost'
เ–	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to recline'	เ–ะ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'tendon, ligament'
แ–	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to be defeated'	แ–ะ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'goat'
–ื-	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'wave'	–ึ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to go up'
เ–อ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to walk'	เ–อะ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'silver'
โ–	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'to fell'	โ–ะ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'thick (soup)'
–อ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'drum'	เ–าะ	Template:IPA	Template:Wikt-lang	Template:IPA	'box'

There are also opening and closing diphthongs in Thai, which Template:Harvcoltxt analyze as Template:IPA and Template:IPA. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:

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

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*	Template:IPA
–วย*	Template:IPA
เ–ือย*	Template:IPA

Tones

Template:Multiple image 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.<ref>Frankfurter, Oscar. Elements of Siamese grammar with appendices. American Presbyterian mission press, 1900 [1] (Full text available on Google Books)</ref> The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA. Moren & Zsiga (2006)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Zsiga & Nitisaroj (2007)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> provide phonetic and phonological analyses of Thai tone realization.

File:Thai tones.svg

Thai language tone chart

Notes:

Five-level tone value: Mid [33], Low [21], Falling [41], High [45], Rising [214]. 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.<ref>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.</ref><ref>Thepboriruk, Kanjana. (2010). "Bangkok Thai Tones Revisited". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 3(1), 86–105.</ref>
For the diachronic changes of tone value, see Pittayaporn (2007).<ref>Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. (2007). "Directionality of Tone Change". Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVI).</ref>
The full complement of tones exists only in so-called "live syllables", those that end in a long vowel or a sonorant (Template:IPA).
For "dead syllables", those that end in a plosive (Template:IPA) 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

Tone	Thai	Example	Phonemic	Phonetic	Gloss
Mid	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'stick'
Low	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA or Template:IPA	'galangal'
Falling	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'value'
High	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA or Template:IPA	'to trade'
Rising	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA or Template:IPA	'leg'

Checked syllables

Tone	Thai	Example	Phonemic	Phonetic	Gloss
Low (short vowel)	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'marinate'
Low (long vowel)	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'areca nut, areca palm, betel, fruit'
High	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'habitually, likely to'
Falling	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'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	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'Marc, Mark'
High	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'charge'
Falling	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'make-up'
Falling	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	'racket'

Grammar

From the perspective of linguistic typology, Thai can be considered to be an analytic language. The word order is subject–verb–object,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> although the subject is often omitted. Additionally, Thai is an isolating language lacking any form of inflectional morphology whatsoever.<ref name=":2">Template:Citation</ref> 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.

Word	RTGS	IPA	Meaning
Template:Lang, Template:Lang or Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA, Template:IPA or Template:IPA	indicating emphasis. Used in a less formal context when speaking to friends or someone younger than yourself<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Lang or Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA or Template:IPA	indicating emphasis.
Template:Lang or Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA or Template:IPA	indicating emphasis or an imperative. It can come across as ordering someone to do something<ref name=":5" />
Template:Lang or Template:Lang	Template:Lang	Template:IPA or Template:IPA	softening; indicating a request or making your sentence sound more friendly.

"to eat"	IPA	Transliteration	Usage	Note
Template:Lang	Template:IPA	kin	common
Template:Lang	Template:IPA	daek	vulgar
Template:Lang	Template:IPA	yat	vulgar	Original meaning is 'to cram'
Template:Lang	Template:IPA	boriphok	formal, literary
Template:Lang	Template:IPA	rapprathan	formal, polite	Often shortened to Template:Lang /tʰāːn/.
Template:Lang	Template:IPA	chan	religious
Template:Lang	Template:IPA	sawoei	royal

Origin	Example	IPA	Gloss
Native Tai	ไฟ	Template:IPA	fire
	น้ำ	Template:IPA	water
	เมือง	Template:IPA	town
	รุ่งเรือง	Template:IPA	prosperous
Indic sources: Pāli or Sanskrit	อัคนี (agni)	Template:IPA	fire
	ชล (jala)	Template:IPA	water
	ธานี (dhānī)	Template:IPA	town
	วิโรจน์ (virocana)	Template:IPA	prosperous

Classification

History

Early spread

Old Thai

Old Thai (Sukhothai) consonant inventory

Historical Sukhothai pronunciation

Early Old Thai

Vowel developments

Phonology

Consonants

Initials

Finals

Clusters

Vowels

Tones

Unchecked syllables

Checked syllables

Grammar

Adjectives and adverbs

Verbs

Nouns

Nominal phrases

Demonstratives

Pronouns

Particles

Register

Vocabulary

Arabic-origin

Chinese-origin

English-origin

French-origin

Japanese-origin

Khmer-origin

Malay-origin

Persian-origin

Portuguese-origin

Tamil-origin

Writing system

Transcription

Transliteration

See also

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

General and cited sources

Further reading

External links