Editing Thai script (section)

==Orthography==
[[File:สถานทูตเวียดนาม ประจำประเทศไทย Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand, Bangkok.jpg|thumb|Here, the word meaning "embassy", which should be spelt ''สถาน'''ทูต''''', is misspelt ''สถาน'''ฑูต''''' [''sic''] with ''tho montho'' instead of the correct ''tho thahan''. These two letters look similar for untrained eyes and share the same class.]]
There is a fairly complex relationship between spelling and sound.  There are various issues:
* For many consonant sounds, there are two different letters that both represent the same sound, but which cause a different tone to be associated. This stems from a major change (a [[tone split]]) that occurred historically in the phonology of the Thai language.  At the time the Thai script was created, the language had three tones and a full set of contrasts between [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]] and unvoiced consonants at the beginning of a syllable (e.g. ''z'' vs. ''s'').  At a later time, the voicing distinction disappeared, but in the process, each of the three original tones split in two, with an originally voiced consonant (the modern "low" consonant signs) producing a lower-variant tone, and an originally unvoiced consonant (the modern "mid" and "high" consonant signs) producing a higher-variant tone.
* Thai borrowed a large number of words from [[Sanskrit]] and [[Pali]], and the Thai alphabet was created so that the original spelling of these words could be preserved as much as possible.  This means that the Thai alphabet has a number of "duplicate" letters that represent separate sounds in Sanskrit and Pali (e.g. the alveolo-palatal fricative ''ś'') but which never represented distinct sounds in the Thai language.  These are mostly or exclusively used in Sanskrit and Pali borrowings.
* The desire to preserve original Sanskrit and Pali spellings also produces a particularly large number of duplicate ways of spelling sounds at the end of a syllable (where Thai is strictly limited in the sounds that can occur but Sanskrit allowed all possibilities, especially once former final /a/ was deleted), as well as a number of silent letters. Moreover, many consonants from Sanskrit and Pali loanwords are generally silent. The spelling of the words resembles Sanskrit or Pali orthography:
** Thai {{lang|th|สามารถ}} (spelled ''sǎamaarth'' but pronounced ''sa-mat'' {{IPA|/sǎː mâːt/}} with a silent r and a plain t that is represented using an aspirated consonant) "to be able" (Sanskrit समर्थ ''samartha'')
** Thai {{lang|th|จันทร์}} (spelled ''chanthr'' but pronounced ''chan'' {{IPA|/tɕān/}} because the th and the r are silent) "moon" (Sanskrit चन्द्र ''chandra'')
* Thai phonology dictates that all syllables must end in a [[vowel]], an [[Approximant consonant|approximant]], a [[Nasal consonant|nasal]], or a [[Voicelessness|voiceless]] [[plosive]]. Therefore, the letter written may not have the same pronunciation in the initial position as it does in the final position. See '''Alphabet listing''' below for more detail.
* Even though the high class letter ''ho hip'' {{lang|th|ห}} is used to write the sound /h/, if the letter comes before a low class letter in a syllable, it becomes the silent ''ho nam'' and turn the initial consonant into high class.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Juyaso|first=Arthit|title=Read Thai in 10 Days|publisher=Bingo-Lingo|year=2016|isbn=978-616-423-487-1|pages=40}}</ref> See '''Tones''' below for more detail.

Thai letters do not have [[letter case|upper- and lower-case]] forms like [[Latin script|Latin letters]] do. Spaces between words [[Scriptio continua|are not used]], except in certain linguistically motivated cases.

===Punctuation===
Minor pauses in sentences ''may'' be marked by a comma ({{langx|th|จุลภาค}} or {{lang|th|ลูกน้ำ}}, {{lang|th-Latn|chunlaphak}} or {{lang|th-Latn|luk nam}}), and major pauses by a period ({{langx|th|มหัพภาค}} or {{lang|th|จุด}}, {{lang|th-Latn|mahap phak}} or {{lang|th-Latn|chut}}), but most often are marked by a blank space ({{langx|th|วรรค}}, {{lang|th-Latn|wak}}). Thai writing also uses quotation marks ({{langx|th|อัญประกาศ}}, {{lang|th-Latn|anyaprakat}}) and parentheses (round brackets) ({{langx|th|วงเล็บ}}, {{lang|th-Latn|wong lep}} or {{langx|th|นขลิขิต}}, {{lang|th-Latn|nakha likhit}}), but not square brackets or braces.

A {{lang|th-Latn|paiyan noi}} {{lang|th|ฯ}} ({{langx|th|ไปยาลน้อย}}) is used for abbreviation. A {{lang|th-Latn|paiyan yai}} {{lang|th|ฯลฯ}} ({{langx|th|ไปยาลใหญ่}}) is the same as "etc." in English.

Several obsolete characters indicated the beginning or ending of sections. A bird's eye {{lang|th|๏}} ({{langx|th|ตาไก่}}, {{lang|th-Latn|ta kai}}, officially called {{lang|th|ฟองมัน}}, {{lang|th-Latn|fong man}}) formerly indicated paragraphs. An {{lang|th-Latn|angkhan kuu}} {{lang|th|๚}} ({{langx|th|อังคั่นคู่}}) was formerly used to mark the end of a [[chapter (books)|chapter]]. A {{lang|th-Latn|kho mut}} {{lang|th|๛}} ({{langx|th|โคมูตร}}) was formerly used to mark the end of a [[document]], but is now obsolete.