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Phil.UK.Net > Phil.UK.Net Site Map > Thailand > Thailand Site Map > Learn to read Thai > Tutorial 5
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Learn to read Thai - Tutorial 5Once you start reading Thai you will notice that for several individual consonant sounds there are multiple consonants. It makes spelling tricky because unless you can remember, you're never quite sure which letter to use for a certain sound. English does this as well (gel/jam; see/ceiling) but there are many more in Thai. Why? Why questions are often pointless when related to language anomalies. Just because something doesn't make any sense, nothing is going to change. You just have to accept it and get on with it. However, if you have an inquisitive mind it is good to have some answers. Unfortunately I have no definitive answers! Thai is a tonal language - as we know - and the initial consonant is important when determining the tone of a syllable or word. Some letters that have the same sound are a different consonant class so that is one reason. For others, I have never read or been told a reason but I think there are reasons. Thai society is founded on the cornerstones of Nation, Religion, King. These institutions are extremely important to Thais and certain letters seem to be reserved for them. The Thai flag represents nation and the word for flag is pronounced tong. The 't' in this word is not a letter that is used commonly. Another 't' consonant (the 't' for tahaan - soldier) is much more commonly used for common things. This special 't' seems to be used mainly for words related to Nation, Religion, Monarchy. I can't remember the exact details but I was talking to someone about a Thai spelling inconsistency. She told me that a previous Queen's name used the regular spelling. The spelling of some common objects was thus changed so that they wouldn't be the same as the Queen's name. Monarchy is a very special and revered institution in Thailand and common things cannot be the same as royal things. That is why there is a special vocabulary in Thai just for matters relating to royalty. But as I say, you can't do anything about changing language. Just accept it for what it is and try to learn. With spoken language we need to learn vocabulary, and with written language we need to learn characters. Today I am just going to cover the 'k' consonant sounds and not cover any new words. There used to be five but even the Thais seem to have decided that five was too many! Therefore, two were made obsolete. Of the remaining three, two are used often but one is used rarely, thus you only really need to remember two - the first two below. ข
Name in Thai: ข ไข่ ค
Name in Thai: ค ควาย ฆ
Name in Thai: ฆ ระฆัง ฃ
Name in Thai: ฃ ฃวด ฅ
Name in Thai: ฅ ฅน Regarding the obsolete consonants, you may have noticed that kor kuat looks a little like kor kai and kor kon looks a little like dtor dtao:
Maybe there's an extra notch, an extra loop, or the loop goes the other way. Just be careful at first, but with time and practice identifying Thai letters will become less confusing. Another example is a consonant I haven't covered yet (dor dek) and Kor Kwaay, but there are more. The difference may be clear in some fonts, but in certain fonts - and handwriting - some letters may look very similar to others. ด ค This is what makes many fonts used on signs difficult to read because the notches and loops disappear altogether. To Thais and experienced readers of Thai the differences are obvious, but to new readers they can be difficult to spot. Study the letters carefully and - as I keep saying - the best way to remember them is to write them out repeatedly. The syllable we learnt a few days ago is actually a complete word as it stands. กระ This is the Thai word for freckle. Thai girls have some funny ideas about beauty. They use expensive lotions to turn their lovely brown skin a ghostly grey colour, and those who are fortunate enough to be born with cute freckles get them removed at a skin clinic. There are lots of skin clinics with signs outside for various skin 'deformities' that can be treated. If you click here (link opens pop-up image) you will see such a sign. The idea is to give you more practice reading the unusual fonts used on Thai signs. Reader Question A reader asks how 'people' and 'bottle' are spelt if the consonants for those words are now obsolete. They are simply spelt using common 'k' consonants. People is spelt using Kor Kwaay and bottle using kor kai. Maybe it is confusing to include the obsolete consonants, but maybe it is confusing not to? If someone reads that there are 44 Thai consonants but can only find 42 they might wonder about the 'missing' two?
Recommended books If you are serious about learning how to read Thai, I highly recommend the following two books. These two books taught me almost everything I know and I still use them almost every day for reference purposes. Most of the phrase books and text books for beginners that I have bought sit on my bookshelf accumulating dust. They are next to useless and good only to fuel the fire, except that it is never cold enough here to need a fire. However, if a sudden cold snap happens to descend, I will be grateful to Lonely Planet. If you want to learn how to speak Thai, learning to read Thai will assist your pronunciation enormously. If you are trying to learn to speak Thai from books that use hopeless transliteration systems you are wasting your time because Thais won't be able to understand you.
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