Origin Of The Thai Alphabet
This is an incomplete and poorly written (but historicly accurate) report
of the Thai Alphabet.
I will try to update this page when time allows.
in the mean time you can use these links and get only some of the information.
http://www.thailandlife.com
http://thaiarc.tu.ac.th/host/thaiarc/thai/introth.htm
King Rankhamhaeng (1275-1317) is thought to have been the first to create the Thai Alphabet for what was known as the country of Siam at that time. The alphabet was probably derived or at least influenced by the Khmer alphabet with similarities to Laos, Burmese, Sanskrit and Pali. Much of the Khmer language came from Sanskrit through Hinduism and Mon language. And much of the language originated from Sanskrit and Pali in the form of chants used by Buddhist Monks. Written Thai was usually in the form of Poetry or Chants until the 1850’s.
The Thai alphabet consists of 44 syllabic consonants and 18 vowels with 6 diphthongs. Diphthongs are indicated using diacritics, which appear in front, above, below and after consonants they modify.
In 1999 during my visit to Sukhothai I visited a museum that had on display the evolution of the alphabet. Something very similar to Sanskrit, a more recognizable alphabet resembling today’s alphabet then the alphabet that is used today.
There are 5 tones used in every day speaking and writing in Thai that use many grammar rules to indicate the tone to be used. I have also read in that in the Tai languages (which is spoken through out South East Asia) there is a 6th tone according to some Linguists. The spelling Tai is a grouping of similar languages. But, Thai (spelling with an H) refers to the country of Thailand were 25 million people speak the language
Examples…
mai mai mai mai
New wood burns doesn’t it?
mai mai mai mai
New wood doesn’t burn.
Ya = = medicine ya = = Don’t (+ verb)[imerative} ya = = grandmother
There are few sounds the Thai vowels make that have no comparable sounds to English, such as the letter U. Try saying “u” while smiling as wide as you can. This would be the sound you make after stepping in something awful. You will at least come very close to the same sound. If you speak French or German you’ll know what this sound is.
Examples…
(suung = = tall ) (nangsua = = book)
There are 4 lines that are needed to type or write one line of text using Thai characters.
Examples…
See HANDOUT
There is a garan used to indicate foreign words when the word is transcribed from Roman alphabet into Thai.
Example…
If San Francisco were to be written in Thai it would have a garan above the last letter to indicate to the reader that it is a foreign word.
---Thai word into Roman characters---
When transcribing Thai into English there maybe several phonetic spellings for the same word.
Khrab
Krap
Krup
Khrap is pronounced with no aspiration at the end of B (like Bob is in English). It may sound as if the person is using a P because we are not used to hearing a short B. It is an everyday way to end a sentence during conversation. Often used as a please or confirming what has been said such as when one is talking on the phone. It is during these long conversations you’d here one shorten the khrap further by saying khap. And if the male speaker is feeling a little feminine you may hear kha but keeping it’s original tone (high) (females use falling a falling tone for replies and yes).
The tone pronunciations of some common words have evolved and are now usually pronounced differently from the way they are written.
But tones have not changed when one is referring to ones self.
Some English word pairs and interesting phrases.
“A good fit” would be telling the tailor the suit is too tight.
Fan = lover, girlfriend, wife, husband. It may have been shortened and easier to say than girlfriend.
Film = feen
Ice cream = ice teem
And bo-dai = blow dry
It’s difficult to pronounce a consonant after a long vowel, like HOUSE, SOIL, TIME.
A bill from the waiter would be bin just so they heard correctly you might want to say ”check bin”. And unless the waiter spilled soup over you, you would say “Check bin krap”.
There are 4 basic accents corresponding to the country’s four regions. North, North-East or E-Sahn, Central and South. Of the 4 the Soutern is most difficult to understand for Bangkokians. Each province has it’s own idioms and strange words. In Bangkok while riding on the bus the (money takers) bus boys that take your money will yell bpai but say bpoy.
Getting back to Where the Language came from.
Word pairs!!
Canterbury England has a temple.
Chantaburi Thailand has the largest Temple in Thailand.
Thon Buri, Saraburi, Ratchaburi, Chonburi. Change the /i/ into a /y/ and they could almost be English or American place names like: Sanburi, Salisbury, Rothbury.
Borough, bourgh, bury, all mean town or city. The same goes for cities in France (Strasbourg), Germany (Hamburg) and Sweden (Goteborg). The Italian word Borgho also means town.
There are 2 town’s that start with Buri. Buri Ram Thailand and Bury St. Edmond Britian.
The Latin word Regina is similar to the Thai “rachinee”. Sanskrit “rajni” is the feminine for raj meaning great, powerful a ruler. We find this word in the Indian “rajah” in Thai street names Rajdamnern Avenue, Rajdamri Road, Ratchaburi and Si Racha for it means “royal” or “king”.
The English word royal comes from the French roi, a king, which comes from the Latin “rex”. Perhaps “raj” and “rex” are cousins of some sort.
5,000 years ago a group of languages was spoken which the experts call “indo-European. This came form central Europe between the Rhine and Central or Southern Russia. There may not be any written language to go along with this though.
From Indo-European came Indo-Iranian from which came Sanskrit and Pali.
Meanwhile around 2,000 years ago around the same period of time Indo-European developed and gave rise to the ancient European languages Latin, Greek and Germanic.
Because they all came from the same great-great-grandparent language, all of the languages have similarities. You are able to see that Latin and Sanskrit have similarities in their words and grammar syntax. Thai is not in itself an Indo-European language but contains many words which have come from Sanskrit and Pali. Many words come from Mon, Khmer and through the spread of Buddhism whose sacred Dhamma or Teachings were recorded in written Pali.
Thai-English word pairs are not common but are poetic or technical because of their Sanskrit, Pali origin.
German and Dutch nahm or naam is also pronounced exactly the same in Thai and means surname- nahm sakul