Thai script

The Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย, RTGS: akson thai, pronounced ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. It has 44 consonant symbols, 16 vowel symbols that can combine into many forms, and several marks that show tone and other sounds.

Although often called the Thai alphabet, it is not a simple alphabet. Instead, it is an abugida, meaning each main symbol stands for a consonant sound, and extra marks are added to show vowels and tones. When no vowel mark is added, the consonant has a default sound, usually like “a” or “o”.

Letters in Thai script are written horizontally from left to right. Vowels that come after the consonant in speaking are shown in special positions around the consonant — above, below, or to the sides. This makes the script both interesting and useful for writing the sounds of Thai.

History

The Thai script comes from the Old Khmer script, which itself grew from the South Indian Pallava alphabet and the ancient Brahmi tradition. The earliest Thai script, called the Sukhothai script, developed from the Old Khmer script. One famous example is the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription from 1292, though some experts wonder if it is completely real.

Later changes to the Thai script added tone markers to show sounds that were not in the languages it came from, like some Dravidian languages, Indo-Aryan languages, and Mon-Khmer languages, which are part of the Austroasiatic languages family. These scripts also started writing some consonant clusters side by side instead of stacking them, but these ways of writing did not last long.

Orthography

The Thai script has a complex relationship between spelling and sound. For some sounds, there are two letters that sound the same but change the tone of the word. This happened because the Thai language changed over time. Thai also borrowed many words from Sanskrit and Pali, so the script includes extra letters to keep the original spellings of these words. This means some letters are silent and not pronounced.

Thai letters do not have uppercase and lowercase forms like Latin letters. Spaces are usually used to separate words, but commas and periods can also mark pauses in sentences. There are special symbols for abbreviations and older characters that marked the start or end of sections, though some of these are no longer used.

Thai script is used to write Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. Unlike some other scripts, Thai does not use conjunct consonants or independent vowels. Instead, it uses consonant symbols combined with vowel symbols to form syllables.

There are 44 consonant letters in Thai, representing 21 distinct sounds. These consonants are divided into three classes: middle, high, and low. Vowels in Thai are written using 16 vowel symbols that combine in various ways around the consonants. The script also includes four tone diacritics that help indicate the tone of a word, which is important in Thai because it is a tonal language.

Summary charts

The Thai script is used to write the Thai language and several other languages spoken in Thailand. It includes 44 consonant symbols, 16 vowel symbols that can form at least 32 different vowel shapes, and four tone marks that help indicate pronunciation. While often called an alphabet, it is actually an abugida, meaning each symbol represents a consonant, and vowels are added using special marks. When no vowel mark is used, the consonant implies a default vowel sound, usually "a" or "o".

Sanskrit and Pali

The Thai script adapts to write Sanskrit and Pali, two important languages in Thailand. Pali, closely related to Sanskrit, serves as the liturgical language of Thai Buddhism and is studied and written using a slightly modified Thai script. The main change is that each consonant is followed by an implied short "a" sound, which is always pronounced. If this vowel should not be pronounced, a special symbol called pinthu must be used.

For example, the word "namo" is written นะโม in Thai but นโม in Pali, because the "ะ" is not needed. The Sanskrit word "mantra" is written มนตร์ in Thai but มนฺตฺร in Sanskrit. When writing Pali, fewer consonants and vowels are used than in standard Thai.

In Thailand, Sanskrit words are read using Thai sounds for the consonants, which can make them hard for experts to understand. The vowels used in Thai are mostly the same as in Sanskrit, except for a few that keep their Thai sounds. Even though Sanskrit and Pali have no tones, Thai tones are used when reading these languages out loud.

Sukhothai

Further information: Sukhothai script

The Thai script comes from the Sukhothai script. This older writing system helped create the letters and sounds we use today in Thailand to write many languages.

Unicode

Main article: Thai (Unicode block)

The Thai script was added to the Unicode Standard in October 1991 with the release of version 1.0. The Unicode block for Thai is U+0E00–U+0E7F. This block is a copy of an older character set called TIS-620. It includes special ways to write certain vowels before the consonants they follow. Because of this, Thai, along with Lao, Tai Viet, and New Tai Lue, are unique among Brahmic scripts in how they arrange letters in writing.

Keyboard layouts

Thai characters can be typed using the Kedmanee layout and the Pattachote layout. These are the two main ways people write Thai words on a computer or phone.