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What's the Thai script like?

Thai, like other Indian-based scripts, lists consonants and vowels separately.

Thai consonants are all pronounced with an inherent 鈥�-or鈥� vowel. Thus, the first four letters of the Thai alphabet are [gor], [k菕r], [kor], [kor] .

In Thai, one consonant sound can be represented by several different letters. When saying a letter, Thai people give an example word that starts with that letter, to specify which particular consonant they are referring to. For example, the Thai word for chicken 喙勦竵喙� 摆驳脿颈闭 begins with the first letter of the alphabet - 喔� [gor]. The letter 喔� [gor] will always be referred to as [gor g脿i]. The full name of each letter is always used when spelling out words.

What's significant about the Thai script?

• Its origins

  The origins of the Thai script can be traced back to a south Indian script which was introduced into mainland South-East Asia during the 4th or 5th century AD. Thai is written across the page from left to right, with no spaces between words, for example:
  
  听喔權箟喔涪喔椸赋喔囙覆喔權腑喔⑧腹喙堗笚喔掂箞喔權傅喙堗苟泥竵喔粪腑喔� 喙掄箰 喔涏傅喙佮弗喙夃抚喔勦箞喔�
  [N贸i tum ngahn y貌o t锚e n锚e g猫u-up y锚e s矛p bpee lair-o k芒h]
  Noi has been working here for almost 20 years.

  The few spaces that do occur serve as punctuation marks, rather like commas and full stops.

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• An excess of letters!

  With 42 consonants, the Thai alphabet has many more than it needs: there are four different ways to write 鈥榮鈥� and six for 鈥榯鈥�.

  This abundance of letters reflects the Indian origin of the alphabet and the very different sound system for which it was originally designed.

  Many letters are hardly used and confined only to words that have been borrowed from foreign languages, such as Sanskrit, the classical language of India.

  In the early 1940s, a government attempt to reduce the number of letters proved unpopular.

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• Tricky vowels

  Vowel symbols are trickier to count because some are combinations of symbols and others have more than one form. For example, vowels can follow a consonant but they can also appear above it, below it, before it and even surround it on three sides!
  听喔涏覆 [bpah] throw 喔� + 喔�
  听喔涏傅 [bpee] year 喔� + 听 喔�
  听喔涏腹 [bpoo] crab 喔� + 听 喔�
  听喙勦笡 [bpai] go 喙� + 喔�
  听喙赌喔涏傅喔� [bpee-a] pigtail 喙赌 + 喔� + 听喔�+ 喔�

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• Difficult sounds

  While most Thai consonant sounds have close equivalents in English, many learners find it difficult to distinguish between the sounds of the letters, for example: 听喔� [b] and 听喔� [bp] in words such as 听喔氞箟喔� 摆产芒丑闭, crazy and 听喔涏箟喔� 摆产辫芒丑闭, aunt.

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• Email and website conventions:

  When giving an email or website address, the conventions are:
  @ at (same as in English)
  . dot (same as in English)
  / forward slash (same as in English) or 听喔椸副喔� 摆迟煤辫闭
  - 听喔傕傅喔断竵喔ム覆喔� [k猫et glahng] hyphen

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