Table of Contents

1

Origins and Characteristics
of the Thai Languge

When learning a foreign language, you need to familiarize yourself with particularities and expressions that may appear unusual, sometimes even strange and odd. To comprehend the most important characteristics, it is helpful to set out from an overview on origins and developments of that language. Such background information may be of particular interest when learning Thai, because it blends some patterns of two very different types of language systems. Therefore, let's first take a quick look at those roots and characteristics.

Thai is, simply put, a unique combination of the characteristics of Indic and Chinese types of languages. This means that Thai unites the pecularities of two large language families: Thai has similarities with Chinese languages, on the one hand, and with Indic (Pali-Sanskrit-Brahmi) languages, on the other hand.

Origins and Characteristics of the Thai Language:

Chinese Features

The Sino-Tibetan language family can be divided into two major groups: quite early in linguistic history, the Tibeto-Burmese group split off from the Tai-Chinese group. It seems that the latter had greater importance for the development of early Thai. (The precursor language family is referred to as Tai, whereas Thai is the language that was standardized in the context of Thailand as a modern nation state.) The details of these developments have remained quite speculative until today.

On the one hand, early Chinese sources identified the so-called Tai-Kadai as a singular language group with features clearly different from Chinese. In other words, Tai languages developed in a quite distinct mode – perhaps they do not even originate in Chinese roots at all. On the other hand, it is obvious that modern Thai has characteristics strikingly similar to Chinese. Therefore, it is plausible to suggest a successive detachment of Tai-dialects from other Chinese languages with the migration of Tai-speakers from today's Yunnan, Szechuan, Southeastern China, Northern Vietnam and Laos. So people settling in the northern basin of (today's) Chaophraya river from the 7th through the 12th centuries spoke a Tai-dialect with clearly Chinese-like features.

Due to its partly Chinese affinity, Thai Language is

▶ a tonal lanuage:
every syllable must be pronounced in a predefined tone
(Thai consists of five such tones);

▶ an isolating language (also: analytic language):
every single word remains unchanged
(e.g. Thai does not us conjugation, tenses, declination, plural
endings, etc.);

▶ a (partly) monosyllabic language:
many Thai words consist only of one single syllable.

Most of the numerous monosyllabic words are colloquial expressions used in everyday language: typically, words representing persons (e.g. I: phom/chan; you: khun), animals (dog: ma:; horse: ma:), plants (tree: ton; blossom:  dø:k), simple objects (water: nam; shirt: sue:a), activities (to go: pai; to buy: sue:), or characteristics (good: di:; beautiful: su:ai) are monosyllabic. Probably it is not a coincidence that the tonal Tai-Chinese languages have produced a large number of such single-syllable words. In tonal languages like Thai, the meaning of a syllable or word changes with modification of the voiced tone. Therefore, fewer syllables are needed for creating a specific quantity of words. Although there may not be a word for each syllable in each tone, the example of "mai" can illustrate what this means: mai (middle tone) means "mile", mai (low tone) means "new", mai (falling tone) means "not" or "to burn", mai (high tone) is a question particle, and mai (rising tone) means "silk". (For a more concise explanation of tones and the colors representing them in this book, please refer to Chapter 3 on Intonation.)

Indic Features

During the 11th-13th centuries, when the first Siamese kingdoms were established by the Tai people, their relationships to the Indian Subcontinent intensified through direct contacts with sailors, traders, Buddhist pilgrims and priests. Apart from merchandise, the exchange brought new types of knowledge: for the first time, the Thai speakers received and studied texts on Theravada Buddhism, mainly promoted by the Siamese court. However, these scriptures were almost exclusively in ancient Pali language. So for the Siamese royals and nobility, proficiency in Pali language became an important key to access Buddhist philosophy and views of life. This is mainly how the Indic languages Pali, Sanskrit and Brahmi played an increasingly important role for the further development of Thai.  Because   the   public's  interest  in

Buddhist thought and wisdom increased continuously, the texts were to a large dergree adapted to the Thai language context. However, the study of Buddhism in Thailand highly depends on the knowledge of Pali even today.

Most of the characteristics of modern written Thai, however, were adopted from Khmer language, which in turn had been strongly influenced by the Indic languages of Brahmi and Sanskrit. Old Khmer writings mainly dealt with the Mahayana version of Buddhism written in Sanskrit. The Khmer letters stem from the Indic Brahmi scripture.

The official history of the Thai language chronicles a formal founding of Thai by Pho Khun Ramkhamhaeng, a popular king of the Sukhothai period. For his famous stone inscription, which is said to be the oldest written account in Thai, he is dubbed and adored as "father" of the Thai scripture. More critical Thai historians doubt this version and speculate that this story was fabricated in the 19th century, in order to glorify the achievements of the Sukhothai period and its major figures. To sum all up, there is no doubt that the Thai alphabet has originated in Khmer and Brahmi scripts, and has ever since then developed into an independant system of letters, tonal marks and other characters.

Along with the writings came words, of course, so Thai has also adopted a considerable pool of vocabulary from Indic languagaes. A direct influcence of spoken Khmer on Thai is uncertain, though it may have been stronger than widely presumed (or admitted) today. Typically, the expressions of Indic origin adopted in Thai are long words with multiple syllables. Apart from this being typical for Indic languages in general, there may be a second reason for it: because Thai has particularly been influenced by Indic languages through texts and written accounts, more complex topics such as religion, philosophy, cosmology, science, arts and administration also meant the use of more complex words and phrases.  Today,  of  course,  these  long  and

Due to its partly Indic origin, Thai language has

▶ an alphabet with letter-type characters:
the script system consists of consonants, vowels, tonal marks
and some more characters.

▶ a consiberable number of multisyllabic words:
there are many long expressions consisting of multiple syllables.

occasionally complicated epxressions are no longer exclusively used by scholars, academics or civil servants, they now are integral and normal building blocks of everyday language. Everybody knows and uses words like phutthasa:sana: (Buddhism), phruesajiga:yon (November) or maha:withaya:lai (university). Nonetheless, it is still quite obvious that Thai has been influenced by Indic languages mainly through written sources. As a consequence, there are considerable differences between spoken colloquial language and written Thai. Because of this, much that can be learned from a conversation in daily life may not be of much use when it comes to writing and reading more formal and official documents – and vice versa. So reading and understanding a newspaper can be a comparatively difficult task, even for people who actually speak Thai fluently. It may be encouraging to know, though, that this is not only true for foreigners learning Thai as a foreign language. Even native speakers occasionally struggle with the difficulties of written language. So please do not feel discouraged at this point: When you start learning to read and write, it is advised to simply set out from focusing on easier texts like menus, advertising or children's textbooks.

Other Influences

Apart from the two main branches of development sketched thus far, Thai language has – in less significant ways though – been influenced by other languages. As a consequence of the constant relationships and exchanges with neighbors in the region – above all, Malaysians, Burmese, Vietnamese – some of their terms and expressions have gradually been adopted as well. Although Siam politically remained independent during the times of colonialist rule, some Portuguese, French and English idioms had been introduced through the contacts with European envoys, missionaries, and traders. The word khanom-pang for "bread", for example, contains the Portuguese "pão" (pang); and the expression farang for "Westerner" derives from the French word "France".

Today, the Thai language of course still is under a constant and continous flux, probably more intense and at a faster pace than ever before. Through tourism, cinema, music, television, email, chatrooms and social networks, new slang words and expressions spread so enormously fast, that even regular users appear to have difficulties in keeping pace. No need to mention that "inthœ:net" (internet), "websai" (website) and "fe:t-buk" (facebook) are just as much part of everyday language, as expressions like aitim (ice-cream), sapa:getti: (spaghetti), dinnœ: (dinner), chøpping (shopping), and sentœ: (center), which have become Thai words during the past few decades. But new words are not just copied from other languages, much of the slang can also be newly invented words expressing new social conditions.

Finally, it is important to stress that the Thai language group does not simply consist of one singular language, but rather of a variety of dialects with different intonation and vocabulary variations. Lao language, for instance, can be considered as a part of the Thai language group, just as other dialects spoken in different regions within Thailand.

This book is based on and outlines the dialect of central Thailand as spoken in and around Bangkok. "Central Thai" is also named "Standard Thai", because it serves as the standard for the official administration, education and media of Thailand.

Bibliography & Further Reading:

Diller, Anthony (1993): What Makes Central Thai a National Language? In: Reynolds, Craig J. (ed.), National Identity and its Defenders, Thailand, 1939-1989, 87-131. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

Lach, Donald F. (1965): Asia in The Making of Europe. Volume 1: The Century of Discovery, Book 2. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Mulder, Niels (1997): Thai Images. The Culture of the Public World. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

Reynolds, Frank E.; Reynolds, Mani B. (1982): Three Worlds According to King Ruang. A Thai Buddhist Cosmology. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press.

Thongchai Winichakul (1994): Siam Mapped. A History of the Geobody of a Nation. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

Wyatt, David K. (1984): Thailand - A Short History. Bangkok: Trasvin Publications.

2

The Thai Alphabet

tu:a-aksøn-thai ตัวอักษรไทย

It was just emphasized in the introductory chapter that the Thai alphabet (tu:a-aksøn-thai) has derived from Indic Brahmi via Khmer languages. This means that the Thai alphabet has the following characteristics:

▶  The Thai alphabet consists of letters.

This means that a single character does not have a meaning for itself. Just like in English, letters need to be assembled to create syllables and words. The letters are subdivided into consonants and vowels. In addition, Thai uses tonal markers and some special characters.

▶  Capitalization ist unknown in Thai language.

Every letter exists in one version only (not inlcuding typographical variations, of course). Therefore, capitalization is neither used in any nouns or names, nor at the beginning of a sentence.

This book aims at sensitizing the reader for the importance of learning to read Thai at a very early stage. Only those who can read can continue their studies indepently. Moreover, knowing to read Thai words leads to a more precise pronunciation, since any romanized transcription is a mere and inaccurate approximation of the more diversified shades and nuances in the sounds of the Thai letters.

2.1 Consonants

phayanchana พยัญชนะ

The 44 consonants (phayanchana) are the backbone of the Thai alphabet: Each syllable consists of at least one consonant. Just like in every alphabet, the Thai letters have a specific order: "from A to Z" here meaning from "from ก gø-gai to ฮ hø-nok-hu:k". The following table shows all consonants in their regular sequence that would also be found in a dictionary:

The 44 Consonants (in regular sequence):

Please click the Thai characters to hear the audio.