Thai Toolkit Betav2

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 A THAI TOOLKIT by PHILIP STOKES (A WORK IN PROGRESS PUBLICATION) © Philip Stokes 2008 0. Before you start This book is based on my experiences as a language teacher and a language learner. It is different from other books on the Thai language available to foreigners, and a word needs to be said about the methodology. One of the earliest things that struck me as I first set out to learn Thai was the vast difference in style and methodology of the books available to foreigners learning Thai compared to the books available to anyone learning English. The former are, generally, full of vocabulary lists, sample sentences and common phrases with few theoretical explanations or practical exercises. Audio materials are somewhat similar: hundreds of expressions for the learner to listen to and repeat. There is nothing wrong with this per se; indeed, the present book contains, in part, all of these characteristics. However, if you look at a typical English language learning textbook you will see something quite different. Yes, there are vocabulary lists, sentence patterns and audio tracks to listen to and repeat. But there is also a whole lot more. There are grammar points, theoretical explanations, and always – the only true way to acquire a foreign language – a plethora of practical exercises in each unit, coupled with consolidation exercises in later units. A good textbook needs to provide a variety of graded activities that one can perform with the language to test and stretch the cognitive and conceptual connections learners need to create in order to internalise a new language.

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Learning a language is rather like learning any other skill – it requires exposure (something you get from vocabulary and sentence lists), but more than that it requires repetition and reinforcement through a variety of practical exercises of gradually increasing difficulty. Like driving a car, a language learner needs to first learn the ‘movements’ of their new skill mechanically and deliberately until they become internalised through repetition and experience to be accessed without conscious thought. I have yet to see any book on the market for foreigners learning Thai that pays attention to these points about the way that learners learn. I have tried to address this lack as far as possible in the present work. Thinking about how learners learn determines not only the kind of exercises one should include in a language learning book, but also the content. The current crop of Thai language self-study books are situational – that is, chapters and language points are themed around common situations that people visiting Thailand might find themselves in such as booking a room in a hotel, ordering a meal in a restaurant or sending a postcard in the post office. Despite their modern appearance such books are behind the times. Thailand is a country that is well-used to dealing with foreigners that cannot speak Thai, and anyone who has visited the country before will know that you won’t find much chance to practice your new-found Thai language skills in hotels, restaurants and post offices, where staff are not only able to speak English, but prefer too. A country that has developed such a successful tourist industry such as Thailand has come far from the point where they expect foreigners to order their beer in the local lingua franca. Not that there is anything wrong with practicing your Thai at every available opportunity,but readers who spend time and money on expensive learning materials that, frankly, will only teach them to say Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 things in Thai that will rarely be necessary in practice are not, in the present author’s view, the best use of either of those resources. A simple phrase book is the recommended resources for that kind of goal. The present work is written on the premise that the reader would like to learn enough of the language to be able to speak for themselves no matter what situation they should find themselves in. Naturally, no book can contain the whole of a language within its pages; language teachers have to select material based on what will be most effective to give students a springboard into acquiring enough of the language to make them independent learners. This means giving them enough of the language to be able to use it for further study, rather than using their native language as an intermediary. Almost all the current books on learning Thai focus on short term ability and not long-term proficiency; they do little to allow the learner to progress beyond the book’s content itself. In order to do this, students must buy another book, go to a language school or find a private teacher. For these reasons, the content and organization of the material in this book have been chosen to build proficiency with the long-term aim of independent fluency in mind. The corollary to this is that the going may be slower or tougher at first with this book than the typical ‘quick guide’ or phrasebook, but that is only as it should be. A student who learns their ABCs before their sentences will, in the end, learn how to make their own sentences much more easily and fluently. A student who memorises sentences spoon-fed from a teacher or book will only have to go back and learn their ABCs at some later date if they ever want the freedom to express their own thoughts. The first student may begin slower, but his progress will soon become far more rapid and complete than the second student’s. Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Finally I have endeavoured to give as wide a variety of both formal and informal uses of the language as space allows in order to represent the most common speech patterns learners will need as they discover the richness of the Thai language for themselves. Transliteration There are many different conventions for representing the sounds of Thai phonetically in the Roman alpahabet, and no single one is perfect; for this reason, I make no apology for cherry-picking the best transliterations from different systems and for introducing my own variations where I feel it may render the intended sound more accurately. Due to the imperfections of transliteration, and for many other reasons that will be outlined later, the serious learner would be wise to move beyond transliteration as soon as possible and learn to read Thai script for themselves. To this end the book takes an early approach to teaching reading and writing, starting in section 1. In this book, transliterated consonants have the same sound as in ordinary English. A few special cases are noted in the text. The following conventions are used for vowels:

Transliteration

English Equivalent

ao

=

as in ‘cow’

ai

=

as in ‘eye’

ay

=

as in ‘play’

ehr

=

as in ‘air’

ee

=

as in ‘bee’

ih

=

as in ‘it’

oi

=

as in ‘oil’

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 oiy

=

as in ‘oil’ but with a short /ee/ or /iy/ sound at the end

a

=

as in ‘cat’

a:

=

(see note*)

ah

=

as in ‘car’

ir

=

as in ‘dirt’

ia

=

as in ‘ear’

uh

=

as in ‘cook’

uu

=

as in ‘dew’

ua

=

as in ‘sewer’

euh:

=

see note**

euah

=

see note**

* In Thai, some words have a very short vowel sound that comes to a guttural stop (try saying the word ‘at’ without the ‘t’). This abbreviated vowel sound is represented in the text by using a colon : so that the sound ‘a’ (‘at’ without the ‘t’) would be transliterated as /a:/. Other conventions are introduced as needed. ** The closest sound in English might be something like the noise you might make when seeing something distasteful, ‘eurgh!’ The vowel sound /euh:/ is shorter than /euah/, which has a more pronounced /a:/ sound at the end. Politeness Even informally, Thais often use the particle words ‘krap’ ครับ for males and ‘ka:’ คะ for females at the end of sentences to express politeness. They can also be used alone as single words in response to a command or question to indicate ‘yes’, much the same as people might nod assent or say ‘uhuh’, ‘OK’, ‘right’ or, ‘yes’. For males, ‘krap’ ครับ is spoken with a Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 short and high tone in either case. For females, the polite particle ‘ka:’ คะ is spoken short and high, whereas ‘ka:’ ค่ะ for assent is spoken with a falling tone (tones are discussed in detail in section 1). To aid the beginner, the polite particles are omitted in the early sections of this book. However, you should employ them from time to time in every conversation with Thai people. Exactly when you should use the polite particle and when it can be omitted cannot be stated in a rule. The best way to learn their use is to observe and copy native speakers whenever you have the opportunity. 0.1 Getting Started In this section, some basic phrases are introduced as a means of familiarising the new student to the different style, sound and pattern of their new language. Fortunately for the beginner, informal Thai is very learner-friendly as it often makes use of short phrases or ‘chunks’ to express otherwise complex ideas, leaving out words or ideas that can be understood from context. For example, pronouns (I, Me, You, He, She) are used far less than in English in everyday conversation. Look at the following examples and compare them with their English equivalents. Notice how the literal translation of Thai lacks a pronoun. (The meaning of the supercript numbers used below will be explained shortly; for now you can ignore them).

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Are you well?

Sabai1 dee mai4 (Lit: “well?”) สบายดีไหม

Yes, I’m fine.

Sabai1 dee (Lit: Well.) สบายดี

Where are you going?

bai nai4 (Lit: go where?) ไปไหน

I’m going to get something to eat.

bai gin khao2 (Lit: go eat rice) ไปกินข้าว

Is the food good?

aroi1 mai4 (Lit: tasty?) อร่อยไหม

It’s fine.

aroi (tasty) อร่อย1

Do you want this?

ow mai4 (Lit: take?) เอาไหม

No, I don’t want it.

mai2 ow (Lit: not take) ไม่เอา

Yes, I do want it.

ow (Lit. take) เอา

I think it’s going to rain

fon4 ja:1 dtok1 (Lit: rain will fall) ฝนจะตก

I think you’re right.

hen4 duay2 (Lit: see also) เห็นด้วย

Use the notes above to complete the following conversation between two close friends: Ploy: Hi sa1wat2 dee สวัสดี Jack: Hello sa1wat2 dee สวัสกี Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

Ploy: Where are you going? a. ___________________________________ Jack: I’m going to get something to eat. b. ___________________________________ Ploy: I think it’s going to rain. c. ___________________________________ Jack: I think you’re right. d. ___________________________________ Ploy: Do you want to take my umbrella? e. ow rom2 plao1 เอาร่มเปล่า Jack: Yes, I do. f. ___________________________________ Ploy: Goodbye sa1wat2 dee สวัสดี Jack: Goodbye g. _________________________________

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 0.2 In the above conversation you were introduced to three new words: sa1wat2 dee = hello/goodbye rom2 = umbrella

plao1 = ‘or not’

สวัสดี

เปล่า

ร่ม

The same expression, sa1wat2 dee, is used both for hello and goodbye. The word plao1 is a shortened or slang version of reuah4plao1 หรือเปล่า. You will hear both in ordinary conversation. If you study the examples above, you will notice that many Thai questions are made by adding the particle mai4 ไหม at the end of the sentence, which can be thought of as a verbal “question mark”. As we have seen, the verb ‘to want (to have something)’ is ‘ow’ เอา. The verb ‘to want (to do something)’ is ‘yarg1’ อยาก, as in Do you want to play a game?

yarg1 len2 gaym mai4? (Lit: want play game?) อยากเล่นเกมไหม

‘ow’ is also part of the phrasal verb ‘to take (something) away’ which is ow + __(object) __ + bai as in Take this chair away.

ow gao2-ee2 bai (Lit: take chair this away) เอาเก้าอี้ไป

and ‘to bring (something) here’ which is ow + __(object) __ + mar as in:

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Bring me the telephone.

ow torasap1 mar เอาโทรศัพท์มา

Bring me the computer.

ow com mar (lit: take computer here) เอาคอมมา

Do you want to play a game?

yarg1 len2 gaym mai4 (lit: want play game?) อยากเล่นเกมไหม

No, I need to do some work.

mai2 yarg1 len2, dtong2 tam ngarn (Lit: not play, need do work) ไม่อยากเล่นต้องทำงาน

What work have you got to do?

tam ngarn alai? (Lit: do work what?) ทำงานอะไร

Let’s go out instead.

bai tee2-yo dee gwa1 (Lit: go trip good more) ไปเที่ยวดีกว่า

Shall I phone for a taxi?

toh taxi dai2 mai4? (Lit: telephone taxi can?) โทรแท็กซี่ได้ไหม

Use the notes from 1 and 1.1 to complete the following conversations between two close friends: Jack: Hello, how are you? a. _________________________________________________ Ploy: I’m fine. b. _________________________________________________ Jack: Where are you going? c. _________________________________________________ Ploy: I’m going to work. Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 d. _________________________________________________ Jack: What work do you do? mee ngarn tam alai? มีงานทำอะไร Ploy: I teach English. sorn4 pasaa4 angrit1 สอนภาษาอังกฤษ Jack: Shall I call a taxi for you? e. _________________________________________________ Ploy: No, thanks. mai2 pben rai ไม่เป็นไร 0.3 Note that ‘toh’ โทร is the shortened form of ‘torasap’ โทรศัพท์. It is usually used as a verb and means ‘to telephone’. The longer word ‘torasap’ is usually used for the noun ‘a telephone’. ‘mai2 pben rai’ ไม่เป็นไร is probably the most ubiquitous phrase in the Thai language. It has countless uses and connotations according to context. It is often translated as ‘never mind’. The sound /pb/ at the beginning of ‘pben’ เป็น is perhaps best represented by the sound of the same letters in the middle of the word ‘raspberry’. ‘tam ngarn’ ทำงาน means ‘to do work’; ‘mee ngarn tam’ มีงานทำ means ‘to have work to do’ ‘sorn4’ สอน is a verb that means ‘to teach’ ‘pasaa4’ ภาษา means ‘language’ and always precedes the name of the language being spoken of, as in ‘English language’ = ‘pasaa4 angrit1’, ‘Thai language’ = ‘pasaa4 thai’.

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Complete the following conversation: Jack: Do you want to play a game? ______________________________ Ploy: No I don’t. Let’s go out instead. ______________________________

0.4 Review the vocabulary you have learned so far by matching the English words with the correct Thai transliteration. a. Hello

1.mai2 ben rai

b. how are you?

2. bai tee2-yo

c. Never mind

3. sa1wat2 dee

d. Tasty

4. ngarn

e. To bring

5. ow mar

f. Go and get something to eat

6. sabai1 dee mai4

g. Go out

7. aroi1

h. Work

8. sorn4

i. Teach

9. ow bai

j. Take (away)

10. bai gin khao2

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Write the correct transliteration in the space provided for the following words: k. Umbrella

________________

l. Game

________________

m. It’s going to rain

________________

n. Want to play

________________

o. Where are you going?

________________

p. English language

________________

q. Thai language

________________

r. Chair

________________

s. Telephone

________________

1. Learning your ABCs Thai is a tonal language. That means words with different meanings can have the same basic sound, but are differentiated according to how they are said. For example, the Thai question word we saw earlier ‘mai’, the Thai word for ‘no’ ไม่ and the Thaii word for ‘new’ ใหม่, are all transliterated as ‘mai’, and they all have the same basic sound as the English word ‘my’ (as in ‘that’s my car’). However, the word ไม่, which means ‘no’ is pronounced with a strong emphasis or stress at the beginning, which falls toward the end of the syllable. It is similar to the way an English child might pronounce ‘my’ for emphasis in an argument:

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Parent: That’s Annie’s book, Child: No it isn’t, it’s my book. The ใหม่, which means ‘new’, is pronounced rather like a scolded child that is sulking or sullen: Parent: Are you going to be naughty again? Child: No, mother. The tone of the word is lower and deeper than normal. These two tones are called, respectively, falling tone and low tone. There are three others: middle tone, high tone and rising tone. Middle tone is pronounced in a normal, even tone without inflection. In rising tone, the tone starts low and rises at the end, similar to the way ‘really?’ is said after some lighthearted comment concerning something surprising or unbelievable:

A: I’m going to buy your drinks all night! B: Really? I don’t believe you! High tone sounds similar to the stress English speakers put on a word when they are agitated or excited ‘help!’ ‘run!’ ‘get out!’ etc. All five of the following words are transliterated as ‘mai’ but differ in tone. See if you can say each in a discernibly different way: ใหม่

(mai1) low tone, means ‘new’

ไม่

(mai2) falling tone, short vowel, means ‘no’

ไม้

(mai3) high tone, means ‘wood’

ไหม

(mai4) rising tone indicates a question

มาย

(mai) middle tone, means ‘ a measure’

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

Notice that after the transliteration of ‘mai’ a number appears in superscript, ‘mai1’, ‘mai2’ etc. Throughout this book we will use these numbers to indicate a word or syllable’s tone in transliteration following the order above. Remember that where no number is indicated, the tone is middle tone. Do not worry about getting the tones right at the beginning, or about remembering the different meanings of the various ‘mai’ words. For now, it is enough to understand that there are five tones, and that they have a big role to play in identifying meaning in spoken Thai. 1.01 You have to learn the tones in order to speak comprehensibly in Thai, and this can only be done accurately by listening to Thai speakers (audio files that go with this book available separately through http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com). Interestingly, however, the easiest way to learn and remember the tone or tones for each word is to learn how to read Thai script. Thai script is fundamental to fluency in a way that learning to read and write English is not fundamental to the speaking of English. This is so for several reasons. The first reason is that the tonal system is built into the spelling of Thai words. This is a great advantage because it means that if you know how to read a word you also know what tone to use when you speak it. Secondly, Thai script is generally phonetic, which means not only do you know the tone of any word new word that you meet, but you also know reasonably accurately how to say the word correctly. In English, a word like ‘bow’ can be said as “I tied a bow in my laces’ or ‘At the end of the show, all the actors took a bow.’ Similarly, the same sound can be Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 represented in English by either ‘bow’ or ‘bough’. English is not a phonetic language; second-language learners who can read it often cannot speak it clearly. Thai, on the other hand, is highly phonetic, and learning to read Thai will enable you to speak it with a much greater degree of accuracy. Learning to read Thai has other advantages too. a. It is the fastest way to pick up new vocabulary. Understanding simple street signs is something you will be able to do very quickly, and this will help you acquire new vocabulary almost immediately. b. Learners who rely on transliteration do themselves a great disservice. Transliteration cannot accurately capture the sound of many Thai words, with the result that foreigners’ pronunciation is often unclear to native Thais. c. Transliteration limits the learner to a small amount of learning materials. In fact, the best learning material is to read authentic Thai. Children’s books and schoolbooks aimed at teaching Thai to Thais are also a valuable resource, which you cannot access unless you can read some basic Thai. d. Finally, if all this were not enough, imagine someone walking around New York or London, able to speak English but unable to read it or write it. We call such people ‘illiterate’ and tend to think of them as poorly educated and disadvantaged. Presumably, this is not the view you want others to have of you in Thailand. No matter what some ‘quick fix’ language books may say, if your aim is to be fluent in Thai, learning the Thai script is both essential and the most effective way to learn the language accurately and quickly.

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 1.02 The Thai alphabet contains 44 consonants and around 17 vowels, which is somewhat greater than the English alphabet of 21 consonants and 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Despite the large number of consonants, many of them have the same sound, and the alphabet is ordered and classified in such a way that makes remembering it relatively easy after very little study. Here are seven Thai letters. The transliterated capital letter before the slash (/) indicates the sound of the consonant when it appears at the beginning of a word. In Thai, many consonants change sound when they appear at the end of a word. Where this is the case, the final consonant sound is represented by the lower case letter after the slash. บ

ท

ก

ช

น

B/p

T/t

G/k

Ch/t N/n

อ

า

-or

-ah

(as in ‘law’)

(as in ‘car’)

For example, the word บอก is pronounced /bork /, with the letter บ having a /b/ sound and the letter ก having a /k/ sound. On the other hand, the word กอบ is pronounced /gorp/, with the letter ก having a hard /g/ sound and the letter บ having a /p/ sound. บอก /bork1 / to tell

กอบ /gorp1 / to scoop up

When two consonants appear together with no written vowel between them, an /oh/ (as in ‘lot’) sound is assumed between the consonant sounds. For example, บก = /bok1 / land

กบ = /gop1/ frog

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

Using the guide above, transcribe these Thai words into transliterated English (the tone numbers are provided for you). The first has been done as an example. 1. บก

/

bok1

/

land

2. ชอบ

/

2/

to like

3. บาท

/

1/

baht (the Thai currency)

4. ทา

/

/

to paint

5. กก

/

1/

to embrace

6. ชา

/

/

tea

7. ชก

/

3/

to hit

8. บอก

/

1/

to tell

9. นาน

/

/

a long time

10. นอน

/

/

to lie down

1.03 Write the following English words in Thai script: 1. embrace

______กก________

2. hit

________________

3. lie down

________________

4. tea

________________

5. like

________________

6. tell

________________

7. a long time

________________

8. paint

________________

9. land

________________

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 10. baht

________________

1.04 All Thai vowels (with one exception that we shall meet in section 5) are ‘classless’, which means they can be used with any consonant. However, depending on which vowel is being used, it can appear before, between, above, below or after the consonant it modifies. Here are three vowels that can appear above a consonant:

ั

ี

/a /

ิ

/ee/

(as in ‘hat’)

/ih/

(as in ‘free’)

(as in ‘hit’)

Write the following Thai words in transliteration. 1. ที

/tee

/

a time/occasion

2. นาที

/________/

minute

3. ทับ

/________3/

to cover

4. บิน

/________/

to fly

5. กิน

/________ /

to eat

6. กับ

/________1/

with

7. นับ

/________3/

count

8. ชิน

/________/

to be used to

9. ชี

/________/

to point

10. กีบ

/________/

hoof

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

Now that you can read some Thai words, you need to learn how to tell a word’s tone. In truth, tones apply to each syllable in a word, so a word of more than one syllable will have more than one tone. However, to begin with, we will only look at single syllable – and therefore single tone – words. There are three things that you have to ask yourself in order to determine a word’s (or syllable’s) tone: 1. What consonant does it begin with? 2. Is the final syllable ‘live’ or ‘dead’ 3. Is there a tone mark? We will deal with each of these in turn. 1.05 Initial Consonants. There are 44 consonants in the Thai alphabet, split into three groups called High class Middle class Low class (Do not confuse the three class names with the five tone names – low class does not mean low tone, for example.) Learning which class each consonant belongs to requires a short period of rote learning similar to the way you had to learn your times-table at school. However, it is very easy to remember the classes and the work you put in now will repay you no end later.

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Here are all the high class consonants: ถ

ข

ฐ

ษ

ศ

ส

ผ

ฝ

ฉ

ห

ฃ*

T/t

K/k

T/t

S/t

S/t

S/t

P/p

F/f

CH/ch

H/h

K/k

(*this consonant has become obsolete, so you can ignore it) Notice that three of the consonants have the same sound, the /s/ sound when used at the beginning of a word, and the /t/ sound at the end. This makes them particularly easy to remember as there is only one other /s/ consonant in Thai, the lower class ซ s/t. Thus, you should remember that all the /s/ sound consonants except ซ are high class. Make particular note that the letter ห as an intitial consonant is often silent when followed by another consonant. For example, หนา would be pronounced /nah4/ and not /honah/. Using the letters above and those in 1.02 and 1.04, transliterate the following Thai words, all of which begin with a high class consonant: สอน

/ _______________4/

teach

ถอน

/ _______________ 4/

to withdraw

ฉัน

/ _______________ 4/

I (pronoun)

ขอ

/ _______________ 4/

please (request)

ฝน

/ _______________ 4/

rain

ศอ

/ _______________ 4/

neck, throat

ฐาน

/ _______________ 4/

base, pedestal

ผี

/ _______________ 4/

ghost

ษอ

/ _______________ 4/

(name of the letter ‘ษ’)

หา

/________________ 4/

to look for, to go and see

1.06 Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Live and Dead Syllables All the words you have just transliterated have ‘live’ final syllables. This means that the final sound of the syllable is open and could continue to be voiced in the way children might extend the sound of, say, ‘soon-nnn, or ‘saw-www’ or ‘pea-eee’. Dead or closed syllables cannot have their sound continued in this way. Think of the way the English words ‘Cop’, Shop, and ‘Gate’ end. The final sound of these words cannot be voiced in extension. In the Thai language, words that end in with the following consonant sounds are ‘dead’: -b

-p

-d

-t

-k

All other final syllables are open or ‘live, including –ng (as in ‘sing’). For the following 18 words items, circle ‘L’ or ‘D’ according to whether each ends in a live or dead syllable. 1. Song

2. Rock

L/D 7. playng

3. Home

4. Head

5. Clap

L/D

L/D

L/D

8. hin

9. barn

10. nap

11. dtop

L/D

L/D

L/D

L/D

L/D

6. Sheet

L/D

13. กับ

14. นาที

15. ชิน

16. บาท

17. นอน

L/D

L/D

L/D

L/D

L/D

L/D 12. pehn L/D 18. ชา L/D

In the exercise on the previous page, all the words you transliterated began with a high class consonant, had a live final syllable and no tone mark; therefore, Thai speakers will pronounce these with a rising tone. Tone Rule 1: Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

High Class

Live

n/a

RISING

In the case where the initial consonant is high class, the syllable is dead and there is no tone mark, the word will be pronounced with a low tone. Tone Rule 2: Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

High Class

Live

n/a

RISING

High Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

Here are some examples of words with high class initial consonant, dead syllable, and no tone mark. They are all pronounced with a low tone. Fill the blank spaces with the correct transliteration: สอบ

/_____________1/

a test

ศอก

/_____________1/

forearm

ขอบ

/_____________1/

to repay

1.07 Tone Marks There are only four tone marks in Thai. They are

่ 1

้ 2

๊

๋

3

4

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 The good thing about tone marks is that if they appear, you do not have to pay any attention to whether the syllable is live or dead, only to the class of the initial consonant.

If a word with a high class consonant has the number 1 tone mark,

-่ it will be

pronounced with a low tone regardless of whether the syllable is live or dead. Thus while, as we saw earlier, the verb ‘to teach’ สอน has a rising tone, the adjective meaning ‘cross eyed’ or ‘squint’ ส่อน is pronounced with a low tone The only difference in spelling (and, therefore, pronunciation) is the number 1 tone mark. Tone Rule 3: Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

High Class

Live

n/a

RISING

High Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

High Class

Live or Dead

สอน

/sorn/4

to teach

ส่อน

/sorn/1

cross-eyed

number 1 ่

LOW

There is just one more tone rule to learn for high class consonants, and that is the tone when tone mark number 2,

-้ , is used. Words or syllables that begin

with a high class consonant and have the number 2 tone mark are pronounced with a falling tone. ห้า /hah2/

five

ส้ม /som2/

orange

ถ้า

if

/tar2/

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

Tone Rule 4: Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

High Class

Live

n/a

RISING

High Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

High Class

Live or Dead

number 1 ่

LOW

High Class

Live or Dead

number 2

FALLING

Since the tone marks 3 and 4, -๋ and

-๊ are never used with high class

consonants, this completes the tone rules for any word or syllable that begins with any of the high class letters, which are, again: ถ

ข

ฐ

ษ

ศ

ส

ผ

ฝ

ฉ

ห

ฃ*

T/t

K/k

T/t

S/t

S/t

S/t

P/p

F/f

CH/ch

H/h

K/k

(*this consonant has become obsolete, so you can ignore it) Finally, it can be seen from the table that any word or syllable starting with a high class consonant never has middle or high tone.

1.08 Writing Practice Write the following English words in Thai script (the first one has been done for you): pedestal

_____ฐาน_______

rain

_______________

ghost

_______________

please (request)

_______________

I (pronoun)

_______________

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 look for

_______________

name of the letter ‘ษ’

_______________

neck, throat

_______________

teach

_______________

withdraw

_______________

1.09 ‘To have’ and ‘Is there…?’ One of the most common words in statements and questions is the word มี ‘mee’ pronounced with a middle tone. มี can be variously translated as ‘have’, ‘do you have…?’ ‘there is..’ or ‘Is there…?’ depending on context. Study the following patterns. Do you have a computer?

mee kom mai4 มีคอมไหม

Yes, we have a computer

mee kom krap3 มีคอมครับ

Is there a toilet?

mee hong2 nam3 mai4 มีห้องน้ำไหม

Yes, there is.

mee k้ah3

(female speaker)

มีคะ

There are five people.

mee kon hah2 kon มีคนห้าคน

I have a problem.

pohm4 mee pban ha4

(male speaker)

ผมมีปัญหา

I have a problem

chan4 mee pban ha4

(female speaker)

ฉันมีปัญหา

Do you have a room?

mee hong2 warng2 mai4

(as might be asked at a hotel)

มีห้องว่างไหม

Yes, we do.

mee khrap3

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 (male speaker)

มีครับ

No, we don’t (have a room).

mai2 mee ka:3

(female speaker)

ไม่มีคะ

Is there a café here?

tee2 nee3 mee rahn garfehr mai4 (here, is there a café?) ที่นี้มีรานกาแฟไหม

Note that ที่นี้ tee2 nee3 meaning ‘here’ is often put at the beginning of a clause. You will also notice that the word for ‘room’ is ห้อง hong2. It can be combined with other words to name different kinds of rooms such as ‘toilet’ ห้องน้ำ* hong2 nam3 (room water), ‘bedroom’ ห้องนอน hong2 norn (room sleep), ‘classroom’ ห้องเรียน hong2 rian (room study) and ‘library’ ห้องสมุด hong2 sa1mut1 (room book). ห้องว่าง hong2 warng2 (room free) in the example above means ‘available room’. The word ว่าง warng2 on its own means ‘free’. If you look closely at taxis in Thailand, you will see the sign in the window that indicates the taxi is available is actually the word ว่าง depicted in tiny red neon lights. *(Do not worry that you cannot read all of these words in Thai script yet; we will be meeting more consonants and vowels shortly). 1.10 Using the notes above and from the previous lessons, complete the following conversation in transliteration with tone numbers. English

Thai

Translitertaion+tone

Is there are a toilet here?

ที่นี้มีห้องน้ำไหม

________________________

Yes there is.

มีคะ

________________________

Do you have a problem?

มีปัญหาไหมครับ

________________________

No, I don’t.

ไม่มีครับ

________________________

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Do you have a room?

มีห้องว่างไหมคะ

________________________

Is there a ghost?

มีผีไหมคะ

________________________

Do you have a telephone?

มีโทรศัพท์ไหมครับ ________________________

Do you have an umbrella?

มีร่มไหมครับ

________________________

1.11 ‘Thank you’ and ‘Thank you for…’ One of the most common expressions you will hear and one you should start using almost immediately is the polite way to say ‘Thank you’. It is a simple three word expression: Thank you

korb1 kuhn krap3

ขอบคุณครับ

The final word ‘krap3’ should be said with a short, sharp high tone. You may also wish to thank somebody for doing something or giving you something. There are two ways to do this:

i. Thank you for answering the question. korb1 kuhn tee2 dorb1 kam-tarm4 ขอบคุณที่ตอบคำถาม ii. Thank you for the answer. korb1 kuhn sam4-rab1 kam dorb1 ขอบคุณสำหรับคำตอบ The difference between i. and ii. in English is that in i. ‘thank you for’ is followed by an –ing word whereas in ii. it is followed by a noun. This difference is reflected in Thai by using a different word to translate ‘for’. If you want to use Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 an –ing word, korb kuhn is followed by ‘tee2’; if you want to use a noun, it is followed by ‘sam4-rab1. The patterns are i. korb kuhn + tee2 + verb = Thank you for + (verb)-ing ขอบคุณ + ที่ + คำกริยา ii. korb kuhn + sam4-rab1 + noun = Thank you for + noun ขอบคุณ + สำหรับ + คำนาม Here are some examples Thank you for the gift.

korb1 kuhn sam4-rab1 kong4 kwan4 ขอบคุณสำหรับของขวัญ

Thank you for your kindness

korb1 kuhn sam4-rab1 nam3 jai ขอบคุณสำหรับน้ำใจ

Thank you for helping.

korb1 kuhn tee2 chuay2 leuah4 krap3 ขอบคุณที่ ช่วยเหลือครับ

Thank you for telling (me).

korb1 kuhn tee2 bork1 (hai2 pohm4) ขอบคุณที่บอก(ให้ผม)

Thank you for calling (telephoning) 1.12 Common Phrases

korb1 kuhn tee2 toh mar ขอบคุณที่โทรมา

In this section we will look at some useful phrases and how they are constructed. This will improve both your vocabulary and grammar, as well as giving you some handy tools in some common situations. We will look at six short sentences: 1. I’ve lost my passport.

chan4 tam passport hai4 ฉันทำพาสป่อร์ตหาย

2. What should I do?

chan4 kuan ja:1 tam yahng1-rai dee

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 ฉันควรจะทำอย่างไงดี 3. What did I do wrong?

chan4 tam alai pit1 reuah4 ฉันทำอะไรผิดหรือ

4. What do you call this in Thai?

riak2 sing1 nee3 wa2 arai pben pasaa4 thai เรียกสิ่งนี้ว่าอะไรเป้นภาษาไทย

5. There’s something wrong with

computer dtua nee3 mee pban-hah4

this computer.

คอมพิวเตอร์ตัวนี้มีปัญหา

6. When will you let me know?

kuhn ja:1 hai2 chan4 ruu3 meu2-rai คุณจะให้ฉันรู้เมื่อไร

1. I’ve lost my passport. chan4 tam passport hai4 ฉันทำพาสป่อร์ตหาย Although there is a Thai word for passport, the English version is in such widespread use that it is very unlikely you will ever be in a situation where you need to use it with someone who doesn’t know what it means. (However, just in case, the correct Thai expression is nang4-seu4 dern dtahng1 pra1-tet2 หนังสือเดินต่างประเทศ) The pronoun chan4 ฉัน is somewhat informal for both males and females, but it is most commonly used by women (we are about to meet the other pronouns shortly). The verb ‘to lose’ consists of two parts ทำ…หาย that go on either side of the noun that has been lost. Hence, you can use this pattern ฉันทำ + noun + หาย with any common object. Here are the names of some things you might lose: 1.13 Complete the following: Keys กุญแจ gun-jehr

chan4 tam ________________ hai4

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Shoes ร้องเทา rorng3 tao

chan4 _____ ________________ ____4

Telephone (see 1.1)

_____- _____ ________________ ____-

Wallet กระ่เป๋า gra-pbao3

_____- _____ _______________3 ____-

Ticket ตั๋ว dtua4

_____- _____ _______________4 ____-

2. What should I do? chan4 kuan ja:1 tam yahng1rai dee ฉันควรจะทำอย่างไงดี Thai has a number of different expressions for the different meanings expressed in English by ‘should’. Kuan-ja:1 ควรจะ is equivalent to the meaning of ‘should’ in the sense of ‘ought to’ and, like English, is placed after the subject and before the verb. ‘tam-yahngrai-dee’ is a compound of three words, which literally translate as ‘do-how-good’ so ‘chan4 kuan ja:1 tam yahng1rai dee’ can be rendered as something close to ‘How do I do the best thing?’ You can vary this expression by changing the pronoun at the beginning. ผม /ดิฉัน

pohm4

/ dichan4

I (male formal) / (female

formal) คุณ

kuhn

You

เขา เรา

kao4 rao

He / She We

พวกเขา

puak kao4

They

Notice that all the tone4, rising tone, pronouns begin with upper class letters that you have already learned. 1.14 Complete the following expressions in transliterated Thai. Include the tone numbers where necessary by referring to the previous pages. Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

What should you do?

คุณควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________ What should they do?

พวกเขาควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________ What should she do?

เขาควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________ What should we do?

เราควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________ What should I do

ผมควรจะทำอย่างไงดี

________________________________________________________________________

3. What did I do wrong? chan4 tam alai pit1 reuah4 ฉันทำอะไรผิดเหรือ Here is another useful expression using the verb tam ทำ. The word after ทำ is ‘alai’, which means ‘what’, followed by another piece of useful vocabulary, pit1 which means ‘wrong’. ‘reuah’ หรือ has no meaning other than to signify a question. Here are some other useful word combinations using ‘pit1’ and ‘reuah’. Notice the subject is suppressed in the same way as mentioned in Section One: Getting Started. พูดผิดเหรือ

puut2 pit1 reuah4 Did I say it incorrectly?

เขียนผิดเหรือ

kian4 pit1 reuah4

Did I write it incorrectly?

ทำผิดเหรือ

tam pit1 reuah4

Did I do it wrong?

4. What do you call this in Thai? riak2 sing1 nee3 wa2 arai ben pasaa4 thai เรียกสิ่งนี้ว่าอะไรเป้นภาษาไทย Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

33

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 This long phrase can be shortened to simply ‘riak2 wa2 arai’ เรียกว่าอะไร (call what?) in informal speech, but the longer version has some elements worth noting. riak2

เรียก

to call

sing1

สิ่ง

thing

nee3

นี้

this

wa2

ว่า

(verb particle)

arai

อะไร

what

pben

เป็น

being/of

pasaa4

ภาษา

language

thai

ไทย

Thai

The word order of riak2 sing1 nee3 wa2 arai ben pasaa4 thai is “call-thingthis-what-in-language Thai”. This is a common pattern in Thai. For example “Tell that girl she is pretty” would similarly reverse the order of ‘that’ and ‘girl’ to become “tell-girl-person-that(one)-she-(is)pretty” bork1 puu2ying4 kohn nan3 wa2 kao4 suay4 บอกผู้หญิงคนนั้นว่าเขาสวย. Notice that in this pattern ‘that’ has the same function as it does in English despite its different position, namely to specify which girl is to be told, not to specify what is to be said to her.

5. There’s something wrong with this computer. computer dtua nee3 mee pban-hah4 คอมพิวเตอร์ตัวนี้มีปัญหา The word ‘dtua’ is a classifier word for computers (and many other objects as well as animals), which cannot be translated exactly in English but means something like ‘thing’, ‘object’ or ‘body’ (just as ‘kohn’ means ‘person’ and is a classifier for males and females). Again we can see the pattern of using the noun before its classifier “computer –object-this-have-problem”. Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

6. When will you let me know? kuhn ja:1 hai2 chan4 ruu3 meu2-rai คุณจะให้ฉันรู้เมื่อไร Two important words here are the future tense marker ja:1 จะ (will) and the verb ruu3 รู้ (to know). In Thai, verbs do not change ending to indicate tense as they do in English, which is a significant advantage to the adult learner – no need to memorise long tables of verb endings. Instead, a few specific time words are used to indicate all tenses. All future tense is indicated by ja:1 จะ. We will meet the tense words for past and perfect tenses later. Another key word is ruu3 รู้ (to know). This forms a number of common compounds and expressions. Probably the most familiarly heard are I don’t know

mai2 ruu3

ไม่รู้

and it’s variant I don’t know either

mai2 ruu3 meuan4 gan

ไม่รู้เหมือนกัน

Again, notice the different word order in this expression: “You-will-letme-know-when?” In Thai, question words always appear at the the end of a sentence, unlike English where they usually appear first. Here’s two other examples: When will you telephone me? toh hah4 pohm4 meu2-rai

โทรหาผมเมื่อไร

When did I speak incorrectly? pohm4 puut2 pid1 meu2-rai ผมพูดผิดเมื่อไร

1.15

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Complete the following in transliteration adding tone numbers where necessary. Try checking your answers by identifying the words in the Thai script, referring back to the previous pages as necessary. When will you write?

________________________________________

คุณจะเขียนเมื่อไร When will you speak with that girl? คุณจะพูดกับผู้หญิงคนนั้นเมื่อไร

___ __1 ____2 gap1 ___2-____4 ____ ____3 ____2-__ (with)

I don’t know

_________________________________________

ไม่รู้ When will you bring the telephone?

_________________________________________

คุณจะเอาโทรศัพท์มาเมื่อไร When will they take this chair away? (note: the classifier for ‘chair’ is ‘dtua’ ตัว) พวกเขาจะเอาเก้าอี้ตัวนี่ไปเมื่อไร

__________________________________________

1.16 Vowels used as initial letters. Recall the three vowels from section 1.4 that appear above a consonant:

ั

ี

/a /

ิ

/ee/

(as in ‘hat’)

/ih/

(as in ‘free’)

(as in ‘hit’)

There are six vowels that can appear before a consonant: อ

เ

แ

ไ

ใ

โ

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 -

/ay/

/ehr/

(as in ‘play’) (as in ‘air’)

/ai/

/ai/

(as in ‘eye’)

/oh/ (as in ‘note’)

Technically, the letter อ /or/ functions as a middle class consonant when it appears at the beginning of a word, but as a vowel in any other position. Where it appears as the intitial letter, it is silent and the word will be pronounced using the sound of the next letter in the word. The function of อ as an initial letter is purely to make a word’s tone consistent with its spelling, as we will see shortly when we examine the tone rules for middle class consonants. In any other position, อ functions as a vowel and is pronounced as /or/ (as in ‘raw’) unless it is modified by any other letter in the word. Here are some examples of the vowels เ /ay/ and แ /ehr/ เก

gay

unreliable

เบ

bay

cot

แก่

gehr1

old

แต่

dtehr1

but

The vowels ไ and ใ both have the same sound /ai/ as in ‘eye’, but ใ is often pronounced slightly shorter than ไ. The vowel sound comes to a more sudden stop, whereas with ไ it tends to be as long as the natural expulsion of air (for most non-native Thai speakers the difference is almost inaudible). Finally, the vowel โ /oh/, which you have already met in the word โทร ‘toh’ for telephone, is a deeper and more rounded /oh/ sound than the implicit /oh/, mentioned in section 1.02, which occurs when two consonants appear together without a written vowel. 1.17 Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Using all the vowels (don’t forget า /ah/) and letters you have learned so far, try to read and transliterate the following words. The tone numbers have been provided for you for all words except those beginning with high-class consonants, which you should determine yourself by referring back to sections 1.05 to 1.08. Remember mid tone words have no tone number.

ไม่

no

________2

เกเร

naughty

________

โต

big, grow

________

ขอ

please

_________-

แน่น

tight

_________2

ผ่าน

to pass

---------

ใฝ่

to aspire to

_________-

แสบ

to sting

_________-

แสน

100,000

_________-

ศก

year

_________-

1.18 Middle Class Consonants There are 9 middle class consonants: ก

จ

G/k

J/t

ฎ

ฏ

ด

ต

บ

ป

อ

d/t

dt/t

d/t

dt/t

b/p

pb/p - /-or

The letters ‘gor ‘ก’ and jor ‘จ’ are both widely used and occur as initial consonants in many common words. กิน

gin

to eat

ไก่

gai1

chicken

กับ

gap1

with

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38

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 กลับ

glap1

go back

จาน

jarn

plate

จะ

ja:1

will

จราจร

ja:ajon

road traffic

and also as final consonants, where the sound changes to ‘k’ for ก and ‘t’ for จ: บอก

bork1

tell

แตก

dtehrk1

break

ตำรวจ

dtam-ruat2

police

The /d/ and /dt/ sounding initial consonants are all middle class, which makes it easier to remember the tone rules for any word starting with these sounds. ด /d/ and ต /dt/ are widespread; however, ฎ and ฏ are rarely used and (with one exception) never appear as the initial letter in a word. For the sake of memorising the consonant classes, ฎ and ฏ can be forgotten for the time being. Here are some common words using ด and ค: เด็ก

dek1

child

ได้

dai2

can

ด้วย

duay2

together, also

ตัว

dtua

body, object, thing

ตา

dtah

eye

ตำรวจ

dtam-ruat2

police

แต่

dehr1

but

แตก

dtehrk1

break

Two important consonants in the middle class set are บ /bor/ and ป /pbor/. The first is equivalent in sound to the letter ‘b’ in English, the second is somewhere Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 between /p/ and /b/ in English, rather like the sound in the middle of ‘raspberry’. Here are some common words using บ and ป: บอก

bork1

to tell

บาท

baht1

(the Thai currency)

บริษัท

bori-sat1

company, firm

บัตร

bat1

(I.D/Credit) card

ใบ

bai

leaf. sheet

บน

bon

on, on top of

แบบ

berhp1

style, way

ไป

pbai

go

ปี

pbee

year

ปลา

pblah

fish

ปาก

pbark1

mouth

ปิด

pbit1

close

เปิด

pberht1

open

As final consonants both บ and ป have the sound ‘p’, as in the Thai word แบบ /behrp/ above. The final middle class consonant is อ /or/, which is soundless on its own, but serves to make the tone rules and spelling consistent. Some common words that begin with อ are: read

ahn1

อ่าน

bathe/wash

ahp1

อาบ

may, could

aht1

อาจ

We will look at the tone rules for middle class consonants in 6.5, but first some vocab building.

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© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 1.19 Write the transliteration with tone number where necessary and also write the Thai word for each of the following: English

Transliteration

body

dtua

ตัว

break

_________________

__________________

but

_________________

__________________

can

_________________

__________________

card

_________________

__________________

chicken

_________________

__________________

child

_________________

__________________

close

_________________

__________________

company

_________________

__________________

eat

_________________

__________________

fish

_________________

__________________

go

_________________

__________________

go back

_________________

__________________

leaf

_________________

__________________

mouth

_________________

__________________

on

_________________

__________________

open

_________________

__________________

plate

_________________

__________________

police

_________________

__________________

road traffic

_________________

__________________

style

_________________

__________________

together

_________________

__________________

will

_________________

__________________

year

_________________

__________________

+ tone

Thai

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41

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 1.20 Write the transliteration and the English meaning of the following Thai words: Thai

Transliteration

ตำรวจ

_________________

__________________

จราจร

_________________

__________________

ไก่

_________________

__________________

ปลา

_________________

__________________

จาน

_________________

__________________

ใบ

_________________

__________________

กิน

_________________

__________________

ไป

_________________

__________________

กลับ

_________________

__________________

ด้วย

_________________

__________________

กับ

_________________

__________________

แต่

_________________

__________________

บน

_________________

__________________

เปิด

_________________

__________________

ปิด

_________________

__________________

แบบ

_________________

__________________

ได้

_________________

__________________

จะ

_________________

__________________

แตก

_________________

__________________

+tone

English

1.21 Using just items from 1.19 and 1.20, construct simple sentences in Thai for each of the English expressions (remember you don’t need to worry about articles or punctuation in Thai). The first one has been done as an example. English

Transliteration

Thai

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42

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 The child eats the fish

dek1 gin pblah

เด็กกินปลา

The fish eats the child

_________________

__________________

The fish will eat the child

_________________

__________________

The fish opens its mouth

_________________

__________________

The fish closes its mouth

_________________

__________________

The chicken is on the plate

_________________

__________________

The policeman will break the plate. Transliteration ___________________________________________________________ Thai

____________________________________________________________

The fish is on the plate, but the child eats the chicken. Transliteration ___________________________________________________________ Thai

____________________________________________________________

1.22 In the above, the word order in Thai is the same as in English. However, when we use the verb ได้ dai2 meaning ‘can’, this word appears at the end: เช่น chayn2 (= ‘for example’): The child can eat the fish

dek1 gin blah dai2

เด็กกินปลาได้

The policeman can break the plate

dtam-ruat2 dtehrk1 jarn dai2 ตำรวจแตกจานได้

Now try the following: English

Transliteration

Thai

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43

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

The child can open his mouth _____________________________ ________________________ The child can eat the chicken _______________________ ______ ________________________ The child can break the plate _____________________________ ________________________

1.23 Tone rules for middle class consonants. There are six tone rules for middle class consonants. The first two are the easiest to remember. Where there is no tone mark at all, the tone will be middle tone in case of a live syllable, and low tone in case of a dead one: Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

Middle Class

Live

n/a

MIDDLE

Middle Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

เช่น ปี

pbee

year

ปิก

pbid1

close

Where tone mark number 1 is used, the tone will be low tone, regardless of whether the syllable is live or dead. Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

Middle Class

Live

n/a

MIDDLE

Middle Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

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44

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Middle Class

n/a

number 1

LOW

เช่น ไก่

gai1 chicken

Where tone mark number 2 is used, the tone will be falling, regardless of whether the syllable is live or dead. Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

Middle Class

Live

n/a

MIDDLE

Middle Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

Middle Class

n/a

number 1

LOW

Middle Class

n/a

number 2

FALLING

เช่น ได้

dai2

can

ด้วย

duay2

together, also

Tone marks 3 and 4 are in fact ONLY used with middle class consonants, so these are the only rules you will have to remember for them. They indicate high tone and rising tone respectively. Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

Middle Class

Live

n/a

MIDDLE

Middle Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

Middle Class

n/a

number 1

LOW

Middle Class

n/a

number 2

FALLING

Middle Class

n/a

number 3

HIGH

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45

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Middle Class

n/a

number 4

RISING

เช่น ต๋ัว

dtua3

ticket

(note the difference from ตัว dtua ‘body’) จ๊ะ

ja:3

yeah, OK

(note the difference from จะ ja:1 ‘will’) Both tones occur together in the expression จ๊ะเอ๋

ja:3 ay4

peekaboo! surprise!

Which you will hear whenever you are around adults with small children; it is also used sometimes as a greeting between intimate friends. Transliterate and determine the tone for the following words by referring to the tone tables above: To complain

บ่น

____________________

Some

บ้าง

____________________

From

จาก

____________________

To read

อ่าน

____________________

To dress

แต่ง

____________________

Unripe

ดิบ

____________________

House

บ้าน

____________________

To pump

ปั๊ม

____________________

On

บน

__________________

แตก

____________________

ิTo

break

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46

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008

1.24 Review Here is the complete list of tone rules you have learned so far. Consonant

Syllable

Tone mark

TONE

High Class

Live

n/a

RISING

High Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

High Class

Live or Dead

number 1 ่

LOW

High Class

Live or Dead

number 2

FALLING

Middle Class

Live

n/a

MIDDLE

Middle Class

Dead

n/a

LOW

Middle Class

n/a

number 1

LOW

Middle Class

n/a

number 2

FALLING

Middle Class

n/a

number 3

HIGH

Middle Class

n/a

number 4

RISING

Though this may look complex, in fact there are some common patterns that make the tones easy to remember. For example, notice that the number 1 tone mark always indicates a low tone with both high and middle class consonants. The number two tone mark always indicates a falling tone with both high and middle class consonants. Also, when there is no tone mark, both high and middle class consonants result in a low tone with dead syllables. Here is the complete list of high class and middle class letters: High Class ถ

ข

ฐ

ษ

ศ

ส

ผ

ฝ

ฉ

ห

ฃ*

T/t

K/k

T/t

S/t

S/t

S/t

P/p

F/f

CH/ch

H/h

K/k

(*this consonant has become obsolete, so you can ignore it)

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47

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 Middle Class: ก

จ

G/k

J/t

ฎ

ฏ

ด

ต

บ

ป

อ

d/t

dt/t

d/t

dt/t

b/p

pb/p - /-or

And here are the vowels you have learned that go above a consonant:

ั

ี

/a /

ิ

/ee/

(as in ‘hat’)

/ih/

(as in ‘free’)

(as in ‘hit’)

and the six vowels that go before a consonant: อ

เ

แ

-

/ay/

/ehr/

ไ /ai/

(as in ‘play’) (as in ‘air’)

ใ /ai/

(as in ‘eye’)

โ /oh/ (as in ‘note’)

1.25 More vowels There are two more vowels apart from the three above that can go above a consonant. these are

ึ eu:

ื euah

The difference in sound is primarily one of length. The first one is a short vowel, the second somewhat longer. The closest sound in English might be something 48 Like it? Hate it? Found an error? Want more? Got to the author’s blog at http://philipstokesel.blogspot.com

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 like the noise you might make when seeing something distasteful, ‘eurgh!’ with an a: sound added on to the end – eurgh!-a: and eurgh:-a: These two vowels occur in many useful words, เช่น (chen = for example): นึก(ว่า)

neu:k1 (wa2)

to think, consider (that)

รุ้สึก(ว่า)

ruu3seu:k1 (wa2)

to feel (that)

ถึง

teu:ng4

to reach

ฝึกฝน

feu:k1fon4

to practice

เลือก

leuahk2

to choose

คื

keuah

namely, which is

ตื่น

dteuan1

to wake up

จืด

jeuaht1

tasteless

Finally, there are two other symbols that can occur above a consonant, these are

_็

and

_์

The first one is a vowel shortener symbol. That is, it has no sound in itself, but it serves to shorten the length of the vowel sound. For example the word เป็น has the /ay/ sound given by the vowel เ shortened to make it sound more like the vowel in the English name ‘ben’ (without the vowel shortene symbol, it would

sound more like /bayn/. The symbol

์

only appears above the final consonant

of a word, and indicates that the consonant should not be pronounced. For this reason, it is sometimes called the consonant ‘killer’ symbol. เช่น (chen = for example):

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49

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 เป็น

bpen

being

เด็ก

dek1

child

สิทธิ์

sit1

right (as in ‘the right to do…’)

ทุกข์

tuk3

suffering

1.26 Vowels that go under a consonant There are two vowels that can go beneath a consonant:

ุ

ู

uh

uu

(as in ‘luck’)

(as in ‘Winnie the Pooh’)

เช่น (chen): ผู้

puu2

male, person that…(equivalent to the suffixes ‘–er’ and ‘-or’ in English)

สู้

suu2

to fight, to beat

สุข

suhk

happiness

ปู

pbuu

crab

1.27 Vowels that go after a consonant There are only four vowels that go after a consonant, which are

า

อ

ำ

/ah/

/or/

/am/

ะ /a/

เช่น (chen): หา

hah4

to find

หมอ

mor4

doctor

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50

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 คำ

kam

word

จำ

jam

remember

จะ

ja:1

will

ค่ะ

ka:2

(polite particle for females)

There are also two special symbols worth mentioning here,

ๆ

which indicates that a word is repeated, and

ฯ

which indicates that a word is abbreviated.

เช่น สู้ ๆ

suu2 suu2

fight! fight!

กรุงเทพ ฯ

Krunghthep

Bangkok (the full name of Bangkok in Thai is much longer, but it is usually abbreviated to this in many places, including on vehicle licence plates.)

1.28 Vowel combinations You now are in possession of all the vowels, but to complete your knowledge you have to learn the ways in which they can be combined together. Here is the complete list. Study it first, then try the exercise that follows. -ะ

_ั

/a:/ /a/ เ-ะ

เ-า

-า

-ำ

/ah/

/am/

เ-าะ

/ay:/ /ao/ /oh:/

_ิ

เ-ิ /ir/

_ี

_ึ

_ื

-ุ

-ู

เ-

แ-

/ih/ /ee/ /eu:/ /euah/ /uh/ /uu/ /ay/ เ-ี

เ-ื

/ia/ /ir-a:/

แ-ะ

แ-าะ

โ

/ehr/

โ-ะ

ใ

/eh:/ /oh:/ /oh/ /oh:/

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/ai:/

51

© Philip Stokes/Work In Progress Publications 2008 ไ

เ-ย

/ai/ /oiy/

แ-ว /ehr-ao/

Transliterate each of the following and try to say it out loud. Don’t forget to work out and voice the proper tone by following the tone rules. Remember also that ห is often silent as an initial consonant when it is followed by another consonant (see 1.05). เกือบ

____________________

almost

เขา

____________________

he/she (pronoun)

เจ้า

____________________

owner

เสีย

_____________________

use, waste, spend

เกาะ _____________________

island

โต๊ะ

table

_____________________

ศูนย์ _____________________

centre, zero

หนึ่ง _____________________

one

เจ็ด

_____________________

seven

เก้า

_____________________

nine

เกิน

_____________________

too much

แจ้ว

_____________________

clear (sound)

Coming soon (I promise!!  ): the low class consonants

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