Thai language

The Thai language is the official language of Thailand. The
Thai name for the language is ภาษาไทย (phasa thai, meaning "the
language of Thais"). Thai is part of the Tai
languages group of the Tai-Kadai
language
family. The Tai-Kadai languages are thought to have originated in southern
China, and some
linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic,
Austronesian,
or Sino-Tibetan
language families. It is a tonal and
analytic
language. The combination of tonality, complex orthography,
relational markers and a different phonology can
make Thai a difficult language for Westerners to learn.

Thai (ภาษาไทย
[phasa thai])

Spoken in:

Thailand

Region:

--

Total speakers:

46–50 Million

Ranking:

24

Genetic
classification:

Tai-Kadai

Kam-Tai
Be-Tai
Tai-Sek
Tai
Southwestern
East
Central
Thailand

Regulated by:

--

Language codes

ISO 639-1

th

ISO 639-2

tai

SIL

TTS

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Languages and Dialects

Standard Thai, also known as Central Thai or Siamese, is the official
language of Thailand, spoken by about 25 million people (1990) including
speakers of Bangkok Thai (although the latter is sometimes considered as a
separate dialect). Khorat Thai is spoken by about 400,000 (1984) in Nakhon
Ratchasima; it occupies a linguistic position somewhere between Central Thai
and Isan, and
may be considered a dialect of either.

In addition to Standard Thai, Thailand is home to several other related Tai
languages, including:

Isan
(Northeastern Thai), the language of the Isan region of
Thailand, is considered by some to be a dialect of the Lao
language, which it closely resembles. It is spoken by about 15 million
people (1983).

Lü (Tai Lue, Dai), spoken by
about 78,000 (1993) in northern Thailand.

Northern
Thai (Lanna, Kam Mueang, or Tai Yuan), spoken by about 6 million (1983).

Phuan, spoken by an unknown number of people in central Thailand and Isan.

Phu Thai, spoken by about 156,000 around Nakhon
Phanom province (1993).

Shan (Thai
Luang, Tai Long), spoken by about 56,000 in north-west Thailand (1993).

Song, spoken by about 20,000 to 30,000 in central and northern
Thailand(1982).

Southern Thai (Pak Dtai or Dambro), spoken about 5 million (1990).

Tai Dam, spoken by about 20,000 (1991) in Isan and Saraburi
province.

Statistics are from . Many of these languages are spoken by larger numbers
outside Thailand. Most speakers of dialects and minority languages speak Central
Thai in addition.

Within Standard Thai, there are different forms for different social
contexts:

Street Thai: informal, without polite terms of address, as used between
close relatives and friends.

Elegant Thai: official and written version, includes respectful terms of
address; used in simplified form in newspapers.

Rhetorical Thai: used for public speaking.

Sacred Thai.

Royal Thai.

Less educated Thais can speak only at the first level. Few can speak the
Sacred or Royal versions.

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Script

Main article: Thai
alphabet

The Thai alphabet probably derives from the Old Khmer (อักขระเขมร) script,
which is a southern Brahmic script of
the Indic family.
Notable features include:

It is an abugida script,
in which the implicit vowel is a long open o (the aw sound
in English) for consonants
standing alone and a short closed o if the initial consonant is
followed by another consonant.

Tone markers are placed above the initial consonant of a syllable or on
the last consonant of an initial consonant
cluster.

Vowels associated
with consonants are nonsequential: they can be located before, after, above or
below their associated consonant, or in a combination of these positions.

The latter in particular causes problems for computer encoding and text
rendering.

There is no universal standard for transliterating Thai into English. For
example, the name of King Rama IX, the present monarch, is transliterated
variously as Bhumibol, Phumiphon, or many other versions. Guide books, text
books and dictionaries may each follow different systems. For this reason, most
language courses recommend that learners master the Thai alphabet. In scholarly
usage, French scholars tend to romanize Thai with a letter-for-letter
transcription according to the original Sanskrit value of the characters.
Anglophone scholars generally prefer either a simplified phonetic rendering or
some variation on the International Phonetic Alphabet. This article uses a
simplified IPA system which does not indicate tone or vowel quantity.

The Thai Royal Institute publishes a set of rules for transliterating English
words into the Thai alphabet, but these rules are not intended to be used in
reverse.

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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. As in many Asian languages, the Thai
pronominal system varies according to the sex and relative status of speaker and
audience.

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Adjectives

Adjectives
follow the noun. A duplicated adjective is used to identify a person,
e.g. คนอ้วนๆ (kon uan uan)- "The fat person."

Comparatives
take the form "A X กว่า (gwa) B" (A is more X than B). The superlative is
expressed as A X ที่สุด (teesut).

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Verbs

Verbs do not inflect
(i.e. do not change with person, tense or number). Duplication conveys the idea
of doing the verb a lot. The passive
voice is indicated by the insertion of โดน (dohn) or ถูก
(tuuk) before the verb. Tense is conveyed by
present; จะ
(ja) before the verb for the future; ได้
(dai) before the verb (or a time expression) for the past.

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Adverbs

Many adverbs are
expressed by a duplicated adjective. Adverbs usually follow the verb.

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Nouns

Nouns are
uninflected, and there are no plural forms or articles.
Plurals are expressed by adding "nouns of multitude" (ลักษณนาม) or classifiers
in the form of noun-number-classifier, e.g. "teacher five person" for "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").

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Pronouns

Subject pronouns are often
omitted, while nicknames are
often used where English would use a pronoun. There are specialised pronouns in
the royal and sacred Thai languages. The following are appropriate for
conversational use:

ผม (phom) = I/me (masculine)

ดิฉัน (di-chan) = I/me (feminine)

ฉัน (chan) = I/me (masculine or feminine; informal)

คุณ (khun) = you (polite)

เธอ (thœ) = you (informal)

เรา (rao) = we

เขา (kao) = he/she

มัน (man) = it

พวกเขา (phuak-kao) = they

พี่ (phi) = older brother or sister (often used loosely for older
non-relatives)

น้อง (nong) = younger brother or sister (often used loosely for
younger non-relatives)

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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). They are not used in written Thai. The most common particles
indicating respect are ครับ (pronounced "khrap", with a high tone, the "r" sound
is usually omitted) for a man, and ค่ะ (pronounced "kha" with a falling tone)
for a woman; these can also be used to indicate an affirmative.

Other common particles are:

จ๊ะ (ja) indicating a request;

จ้ะ, จ้า or จ๋า (ja) indicating emphasis;

ละ or ล่ะ (la) indicating emphasis;

สิ (si) indicating emphasis or an imperative; and

นะ (na) indicating a request.

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Phonology

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Tones

There are five phonemic tones: middle, low, high, rising and falling. They
are indicated in the written script by a combination of the class of the initial
consonant (high, mid or low), vowel length
(long or short), closing consonant (unvoiced/stop or voiced/sonorant) and
sometimes one of four phonemes forming
unrelated words in Thai, but usually transliterated the same: เขา
(khao) means he or she, while ขาว (khao) means white.

The short-long pairs are as follows:

Short

Sound

Long

Sound

กะ

a in "fan"

กา

a in "father"

กิ

i in "it"

กี

ee in "see"

กุ

oo in "look"

กู

ue in "blue"

เก็

e in "set"

เก

a in "lame"

แกะ

eh in "eh!"

แก

e in "fell" (long)

กึ

u in French "du" (short)

กื

u in French "dur" (long)

เกิ

ur in "burn"

เกอ

eu in "eugh!"

โกะ

o in "poke"

โก

o in "go"

เกาะ

o in "for"

กอ

aw in "aw!"

The basic vowels can be combined into diphthongs as
follows:

ไก or ใก

I in "I"

กาย

I in "I" (stressed)

เกา

ow in "cow"

กาว

ao in "Lao"

เกียะ

ea in "ear"

เกีย

ea in "ear" (long)

กิว

ew in "new" (short)

--

--

กัวะ

ure in "pure" (short)

กัว

ewe in "newer"

กุย

uey in "bluey"

กูย

ooee in "cooee!"

เก็ว

e in "set" + o in "poke"

เกว

a in "lame" + o in "poke"

--

--

แกว

e in "fell" (long) + o in "poke"

--

--

เกือ

u in French "dur" + a in "father"

--

--

เกย

eu in "eugh!" + a in "lame"

--

--

กอย

oy in "boy" (long)

--

--

โกย

ue in "Chloe"

Additionally, there are three triphthongs,
all of which are long:

เกียว

ee + aow

กวย

oo + I in "I"

เกือย

u in French "dur" + I in "I"

For a a guide to written vowels, see the Thai
alphabet page.

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Vocabulary

Other than compound
words and words of foreign origin, most words are monosyllabic.
Historically, words have most often been imported from Sanskrit and Pali; Buddhist
terminology was a particularly fruitful source of these. Since the beginning of
the 20th century,
however, the English
language has been the greatest influence.

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

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References

Segaller, Denis. Thai Without Tears: A Guide to Simple Thai
Speaking. Bangkok: BMD Book Mags, 1999. ISBN
9748711528.

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