Thailand also uses the distinctive Thai six hour clock in addition to the 24 hour clock.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Vocabulary
compound words and words of foreign origin, most words are monosyllabic. Historically, words have most often been borrowed from Sanskrit and Pāli; Buddhist terminology is particularly indebted to these. Old Khmer has also contributed its share, especially in regard to royal court terminology. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the English language has had the greatest influence. Also, many Teochew Chinese words are used, some replacing existing Thai words.
Vowels
The basic vowels of the Thai language, from front to back and close to open, are given in the following table. The top entry in every cell is the symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet, the second entry gives the spelling in the Thai alphabet, where a dash (–) indicates the position of the initial consonant after which the vowel is pronounced. A second dash indicates that a final consonant must follow.
| Front | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | unrounded | rounded | ||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | /i/ -ิ | /iː/ -ี | /ɯ/ -ึ | /ɯː/ -ื | /u/ -ุ | /uː/ -ู |
| Close-mid | /e/ เ-ะ | /eː/ เ- | /ɤ/ เ-อะ | /ɤː/ เ-อ | /o/ โ-ะ | /oː/ โ- |
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ แ-ะ | /ɛː/ แ- | /ɔ/ เ-าะ | /ɔː/ -อ | ||
| Open | /a/ -ะ, -ั | /aː/ -า | ||||
The vowels each exist in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming unrelated words in Thai,[1] but usually transliterated the same: เขา (khao) means he or she, while ขาว (khao) means white.
The long-short pairs are as follows:
| Long | Short | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thai script | IPA | Gloss | Thai script | IPA | Gloss | ||||
| –า | /aː/ | /fǎːn/ | 'to slice' | –ะ | /a/ | /fǎn/ | 'to dream' | ||
| –ี | /iː/ | /krìːt/ | 'to cut' | –ิ | /i/ | /krìt/ | 'dagger' | ||
| –ู | /uː/ | /sùːt/ | 'to inhale' | –ุ | /u/ | /sùt/ | 'rearmost' | ||
| เ– | /eː/ | /ʔēːn/ | 'to recline' | เ–ะ | /e/ | /ʔēn/ | 'ligament' | ||
| แ– | /ɛː/ | /pʰɛ́ː/ | 'to be defeated' | แ–ะ | /ɛ/ | /pʰɛ́ʔ/ | 'goat' | ||
| –ื | /ɯː/ | /kʰlɯ̂ːn/ | 'wave' | –ึ | /ɯ/ | /kʰɯ̂n/ | 'to go up' | ||
| เ–อ | /ɤː/ | /dɤ̄ːn/ | 'to walk' | เ–อะ | /ɤ/ | /ŋɤ̄n/ | 'silver' | ||
| โ– | /oː/ | /kʰôːn/ | 'to fell' | โ–ะ | /o/ | /kʰôn/ | 'thick (soup)' | ||
| –อ | /ɔː/ | /klɔːŋ/ | 'drum' | เ–าะ | /ɔ/ | /klɔ̀ŋ/ | 'box' | ||
The basic vowels can be combined into diphthongs. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993) analyze those ending in high vocoids as underlyingly /Vj/ and /Vw/. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are also classified as long:
| Long | Short | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Thai | IPA | Thai | IPA |
| –าย | /aːj/ | ไ–*, ใ–*, ไ–ย | /aj/ |
| –าว | /aːw/ | เ–า* | /aw/ |
| เ–ีย | /iːa/ | เ–ียะ | /ia/ |
| – | – | –ิว | /iw/ |
| –ัว | /uːa/ | –ัวะ | /ua/ |
| –ูย | /uːj/ | –ุย | /uj/ |
| เ–ว | /eːw/ | เ–็ว | /ew/ |
| แ–ว | /ɛːw/ | – | – |
| เ–ือ | /ɯːa/ | – | – |
| เ–ย | /ɤːj/ | – | – |
| –อย | /ɔːj/ | – | – |
| โ–ย | /oːj/ | – | – |
Additionally, there are three triphthongs, all of which are long:
| Thai | IPA |
|---|---|
| เ–ียว | /iow/ |
| –วย | /uɛj/ |
| เ–ือย | /ɯɛj/ |
For a guide to written vowels, see the Thai alphabet page.
Consonants
Thai distinguishes among three voice/aspiration patterns for plosive consonants:
- unvoiced, unaspirated
- unvoiced, aspirated
- voiced, unaspirated
Where English has only a distinction between the voiced, unaspirated /b/ and the unvoiced, aspirated /p/, Thai distinguishes a third sound which is neither voiced nor aspirated, which occurs in English only as an allophone of /p/, approximately the sound of the p in "spin." There is similarly an alveolar /t/, /tʰ/, /d/ triplet. In the velar series there is a /k/, /kʰ/ pair and in the postalveolar series the /tɕ/, /tɕʰ/ pair.
In each cell below, the first line indicates International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the second indicates the Thai characters in initial position (more letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation).
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | [ p ] ป | [ pʰ ] ผ,พ,ภ | [ b ] บ | [ t ] ฏ,ต | [ tʰ ] ฐ,ฑ*,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ | [ d ] ฎ,ฑ*,ด | [ k ] ก | [ kʰ ] ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ | [ ʔ ] อ** | |||||
| Nasal | [ m ] ม | [ n ] ณ,น | [ ŋ ] ง | |||||||||||
| Fricative | [ f ] ฝ,ฟ | [ s ] ซ,ศ,ษ,ส | [ h ] ห,ฮ | |||||||||||
| Affricate | [ tɕ ] จ | [ tɕʰ ] ฉ, ช, ฌ | ||||||||||||
| Trill | [ r ] ร | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | [ j ] ญ,ย | [ w ] ว | ||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | [ l ] ล,ฬ | |||||||||||||
- * ฑ can be pronounced as [tʰ] or [d] depended on Thai words.
- ** The glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent อ before a vowel.
Phonology, Tones
Phonology
Tones
There are five phonemic tones: middle, low, high, rising and falling. The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA.
| Tone | Thai | Phonemic | Phonetic | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | น้า | /náː/ | [naː˧˥] | aunt/uncle(younger than your parents) |
| mid | นา | /nāː/ | [naː˥˧] | a paddy |
| low | หน่า | /nàː/ | [naː˧˩] | (a nickname) |
| rising | หนา | /nǎː/ | [naː˨˩˧] | thick |
| falling | หน้า | /nâː/ | [naː˥˩] | face |
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), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in elegant (written) Thai. The most common particles indicating respect are ครับ (khrap, IPA: [kʰráp], with a high tone) for a man, and ค่ะ (kha, [kʰâ], with a falling tone) for a woman; these can also be used to indicate an affirmative.
Other common particles are:
| word | RTGS | IPA | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| จ๊ะ | cha | [tɕaʔ] | indicating a request |
| จ้ะ, จ้า or จ๋า | cha | [tɕaː] | indicating emphasis |
| ละ or ล่ะ | la | [laʔ] | indicating emphasis |
| สิ | si | [siʔ] | indicating emphasis or an imperative |
| นะ | na | [naʔ] | softening; indicating a request |
Nouns and pronouns
Nouns are uninflected and have no gender; there are no articles.
Nouns are neither singular nor plural. Some specific nouns are reduplicated to form collectives: เด็ก (dek, child) is often repeated as เด็กๆ (dek dek) to refer to a group of children. The word พวก (phuak, [pʰûak]) may be used as a prefix of a noun or pronoun as a collective to pluralize or emphasise the following word. (พวกผม, phuak phom, [pʰûak pʰǒm], we, masculine; พวกเรา phuak rao, [pʰûak raw], emphasised we; พวกหมา phuak ma, (the) dogs) Plurals are expressed by adding classifiers, used as measure words (ลักษณนาม), in the form of noun-number-classifier (ครูห้าคน, "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").
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:
| word | RTGS | IPA | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ผม | phom | [pʰǒm] | I/me (masculine; formal) |
| ดิฉัน | dichan | [dìːtɕʰán]) | I/me (feminine; formal) |
| ฉัน | chan | [tɕʰǎn] | I/me (masculine or feminine; informal) |
| คุณ | khun | [kʰun] | you (polite) |
| ท่าน | thaan | [thâan] | you (polite to a person of high status) |
| เธอ | thoe | [tʰɤː] | you (informal), she/her (informal) |
| เรา | rao | [raw] | we/us, I/me (casual) |
| เขา | khao | [kʰǎw] | he/him, she/her |
| มัน | man | [mɑn] | it |
| พวกเขา | phuak khao | [pʰûak kʰǎw] | they/them |
| พี่ | phi | [pʰîː] | older brother, sister (also often used loosely for older cousins and non-relatives) |
| น้อง | nong | [nɔːŋ] | younger brother, sister (also often used loosely for younger cousins and non-relatives) |
| ลูกพี่ ลูกน้อง | luk phi luk nong | [luːk pʰiː luːk nɔːŋ] | cousin (male or female) |
Verbs
Verbs do not inflect (i.e. do not change with person, tense, voice, mood, or number) nor are there any participles. Duplication conveys the idea of doing the verb intensively.
The passive voice is indicated by the insertion of ถูก (thuk, IPA: [tʰuːk])) before the verb. For example:
- เขาถูกตี (khao thuk ti, IPA: [kʰǎw tʰuːk tiː]), He is hit. This describes an action that is out of the receiver's control and, thus, conveys suffering.
To convey the opposite sense, a sense of having an opportunity arrive, ได้ (dai, IPA: [daj], can) is used. For example:
- เขาจะได้ไปเที่ยวเมืองลาว (khao cha dai pai thiao mueang lao, IPA: [kʰǎw tɕaʔ dâj paj tʰîow mɯːaŋ laːw]), He gets to visit Laos.
Note, dai (IPA: [daj] and IPA: [daːj]), though both spelled ได้ , convey two separate meanings. The short vowel dai (IPA: [daj]) conveys an opportunity has arisen and is placed before the verb. The long vowel dai (IPA: [daːj]) is placed after the verb and conveys the idea that one has been given permission or one has the ability to do something. Also see the past tense below.
- เขาตีได้ (khao ti dai, IPA: [kʰǎw tiː dâːj]), He is/was allowed to hit or He is/was able to hit
Negation is indicated by placing ไม่ (mai, not) before the verb.
- เขาไม่ตี, (khao mai ti) He is not hitting. or He doesn't hit.
Tense is conveyed by tense markers before or after the verb.
- Present can be indicated by กำลัง (kamlang, IPA: [kamlaŋ], currently) before the verb for ongoing action (like English -ing form), by อยู่ (yu, IPA: [juː]) after the verb, or by both. For example:
- เขากำลังวิ่ง (khao kamlang wing, IPA: [kʰǎw kamlaŋ wiŋ]), or
- เขาวิ่งอยู่ (khao wing yu, IPA: [kʰǎw wiŋ juː]), or
- เขากำลังวิ่งอยู่ (khao kamlang wing yu, IPA: [kʰǎw kamlaŋ wiŋ juː]), He is running.
- Future can be indicated by จะ (cha, IPA: [tɕaʔ], will) before the verb or by a time expression indicating the future. For example:
- เขาจะวิ่ง (khao cha wing, IPA: [kʰǎw tɕaʔ wiŋ]), He will run or He is going to run
- Past can be indicated by ได้ (dai, IPA: [daːj]) before the verb or by a time expression indicating the past. However, แล้ว (laeo, :IPA: [lɛːw], already) is more often used to indicate the past tense by being placed behind the verb. Or, both ได้ and แล้ว are put together to form the past tense expression, i.e. Subject + ได้ + Verb + แล้ว. For example:
- เขาได้กิน (khao dai kin, IPA: [kʰǎw daːj kin]), He ate
- เขากินแล้ว (khao kin laeo, IPA: [kʰǎw kin lɛːw], He (already) ate or He's already eaten
- เขาได้กินแล้ว (khao dai kin laeo, IPA: [kʰǎw daːj kin lɛːw]), He (already) ate or He's already eaten
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
