Thai alphabet - wikipedia Thai alphabet Thai Type Abugida Languages Standard form : Thai, Southern Thai Non standard form : Lanna, Isan, Pattani Malay, and others. Creator King Ramkhamhaeng the Great Time period 1283 -- present Parent systems Proto - Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Pallava Khmer Thai Direction Left - to - right ISO 15924 Thai, 352 Unicode alias Thai Unicode range U + 0E00 -- U + 0E7F This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help : IPA. History of the alphabet Egyptian hieroglyphs 32 c. BCE Hieratic 32 c. BCE Demotic 7 c. BCE Meroitic 3 c. BCE Proto - Sinaitic 19 c. BCE Ugaritic 15 c. BCE Epigraphic South Arabian 9 c. BCE Ge'ez 5 -- 6 c. BCE Phoenician 12 c. BCE Paleo - Hebrew 10 c. BCE Samaritan 6 c. BCE Libyco - Berber 3 c. BCE Tifinagh Paleohispanic ( semi-syllabic ) 7 c. BCE Aramaic 8 c. BCE Kharoṣṭhī 4 c. BCE Brāhmī 4 c. BCE Brahmic family ( see ) E.g. Tibetan 7 c. CE Devanagari 13 c. CE Canadian syllabics 1840 Hebrew 3 c. BCE Pahlavi 3 c. BCE Avestan 4 c. CE Palmyrene 2 c. BCE Syriac 2 c. BCE Nabataean 2 c. BCE Arabic 4 c. CE N'Ko 1949 CE Sogdian 2 c. BCE Orkhon ( old Turkic ) 6 c. CE Old Hungarian c. 650 CE Old Uyghur Mongolian 1204 CE Mandaic 2 c. CE Greek 8 c. BCE Etruscan 8 c. BCE Latin 7 c. BCE Cherokee ( syllabary ; letter forms only ) c. 1820 CE Runic 2 c. CE Ogham ( origin uncertain ) 4 c. CE Coptic 3 c. CE Gothic 3 c. CE Armenian 405 CE Georgian ( origin uncertain ) c. 430 CE Glagolitic 862 CE Cyrillic c. 940 CE Old Permic 1372 CE Hangul 1443 ( probably influenced by Tibetan ) Thaana 18 c. CE ( derived from Brahmi numerals ) Thai alphabet ( Thai : อักษร ไทย ; RTGS : akson thai ; ( ʔàksɔ̌ːn thāj ) listen ) is used to write the Thai, Southern Thai and other languages in Thailand. It has 44 consonant letters ( Thai : พยัญชนะ, phayanchana ), 15 vowel symbols ( Thai : สระ, sara ) that combine into at least 28 vowel forms, and four tone diacritics ( Thai : วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณ ยุต, wannayuk or wannayut ). Although commonly referred to as the `` Thai alphabet '', the script is in fact not a true alphabet but an abugida, a writing system in which each consonant may invoke an inherent vowel sound. In the case of the Thai script this is an implied ' a ' or ' o '. Consonants are written horizontally from left to right, with vowels arranged above, below, to the left, or to the right of the corresponding consonant, or in a combination of positions. Thai has its own set of Thai numerals that are based on the Hindu - Arabic numeral system ( Thai : เลข ไทย, lek thai ), but the standard western Hindu - Arabic numerals ( Thai : เลข ฮินดู อา ร บิ ก, lek hindu arabik ) are also commonly used. Contents 1 History 2 Orthography 2.1 Punctuation 3 Alphabet listing 3.1 Consonants 3.1. 1 Alphabetic 3.1. 2 Phonetic 3.2 Vowels 3.3 Tone 3.4 Diacritics 3.5 Numerals 4 Other symbols 5 Sanskrit and Pali 5.1 Plosives ( วรรค vargaḥ ) 5.2 Non-plosives ( อ วรรค avargaḥ ) 5.2. 1 Sibilants ( เสียด แทรก ) 5.2. 2 Voiced h ( มี หนัก มี ลม ) 5.2. 3 Voiced lla 5.3 Vowels ( สระ ) 5.4 Other symbols 5.4. 1 Nikkhahit นิคหิต ( anusvāra ) 5.4. 2 Pinthu พินทุ ( virāma ) 5.4. 3 Yamakkan ยามักการ 5.4. 4 Visarga 6 Unicode 7 Keyboard Layouts 8 See also 9 References 10 External links History The Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script ( Thai : อักษร ขอ ม, akson khom ), which is a southern Brahmic style of writing derived from the south Indian Pallava alphabet ( Thai : ปั ล ลวะ ). Thai is considered to be the first script in the world which invented tone markers to indicate distinctive tones, which are lacking in the Mon - Khmer ( Austroasiatic languages ) and Indo - Aryan languages from which its script is derived. Although Chinese and other Sino - Tibetan languages have distinctive tones in their phonological system, no tone marker is found in their orthographies. Thus, tone markers are an innovation in the Thai language that later influenced other related Tai languages and some Tibeto - Burman languages on the Southeast Asian mainland. Thai tradition attributes the creation of the script to King Ramkhamhaeng the Great ( Thai : พ่อขุน รามคําแหง มหาราช ) in 1283, though this has been challenged. Ramkhamhaeng inscription, the oldest inscription using proto - Thai script ( Bangkok National Museum ) Orthography There is a fairly complex relationship between spelling and sound. There are various issues : For many consonant sounds, there are two different letters that both represent the same sound, but which cause a different tone to be associated. This stems from a major change ( a tone split ) that occurred historically in the phonology of the Thai language. At the time the Thai script was created, the language had three tones and a full set of contrasts between voiced and unvoiced consonants at the beginning of a syllable ( e.g. bdglmn vs. ptk hl hm hn ). At a later time, the voicing distinction disappeared, but in the process, each of the three original tones split in two, with an originally voiced consonant ( the modern `` low '' consonant signs ) producing a lower - variant tone, and an originally unvoiced consonant ( the modern `` mid '' and `` high '' consonant signs ) producing a higher - variant tone. Thai borrowed a large number of words from Sanskrit and Pali, and the Thai alphabet was created so that the original spelling of these words could be preserved as much as possible. This means that the Thai alphabet has a number of `` duplicate '' letters that represent separate sounds in Sanskrit and Pali ( e.g. the breathy voiced sounds bh, dh, ḍh, jh, gh and the retroflex sounds ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ ) but which never represented distinct sounds in the Thai language. These are mostly or exclusively used in Sanskrit and Pali borrowings. The desire to preserve original Sanskrit and Pali spellings also produces a particularly large number of duplicate ways of spelling sounds at the end of a syllable ( where Thai is strictly limited in the sounds that can occur but Sanskrit allowed all possibilities, especially once former final / a / was deleted ), as well as a number of silent letters. Moreover, many consonants from Sanskrit and Pali loanwords are generally silent. The spelling of the words resembles Sanskrit or Pali orthography : Thai สามารถ ( spelled sǎamaarth but pronounced sa - mat ( sǎːmâːt ) with a silent r and a plain t that is represented using an aspirated consonant ) `` to be able '' ( Sanskrit समर्थ samartha ) Thai จันทร์ ( spelled chanthr but pronounced chan ( tɕan ) because the th and the r are silent ) `` moon '' ( Sanskrit चन्द्र chandra ) Thai letters do not have small and capital forms like the Roman alphabet. Spaces between words are not used, except in certain linguistically motivated cases. Punctuation Minor pauses in sentences may be marked by a comma ( Thai : จุลภาค or ลูกน้ํา, chunlaphak or luk nam ), and major pauses by a period ( Thai : มหัพภาค or จุด, mahap phak or chut ), but most often are marked by a blank space ( Thai : วรรค, wak ). A bird 's eye ๏ ( Thai : ตาไก่, ta kai, officially called ฟอง มัน, fong man ) formerly indicated paragraphs, but is now obsolete. A kho mut ๛ ( Thai : โคมูตร ) can be used to mark the end of a chapter or document. Thai writing also uses quotation marks ( Thai : อัญประกาศ, anyaprakat ) and parentheses ( round brackets ) ( Thai : วงเล็บ, wong lep or Thai : นขลิขิต, nakha likhit ), but not square brackets or braces. Alphabet listing Consonants There are 44 consonant letters representing 21 distinct consonant sounds. Duplicate consonants either correspond to sounds that existed in Old Thai at the time the alphabet was created but no longer exist ( in particular, voiced obstruents such as bdgvz ), or different Sanskrit and Pali consonants pronounced identically in Thai. There are in addition four consonant - vowel combination characters not included in the tally of 44. Consonants are divided into three classes -- in alphabetic order these are middle ( กลาง, klang, ) high ( สูง, sung, ) and low ( ต่ํา, tam ) class -- as shown in the table below. These class designations reflect phonetic qualities of the sounds to which the letters originally corresponded in Old Thai. In particular, `` middle '' sounds were voiceless unaspirated stops ; `` high '' sounds, voiceless aspirated stops or voiceless fricatives ; `` low '' sounds, voiced. Subsequent sound changes have obscured the phonetic nature of these classes. Today, the class of a consonant without a tone mark, along with the short or long length of the accompanying vowel, determine the base accent ( พื้น เสียง, pheun siang. ) Middle class consonants with a long vowel spell an additional four tones with one of four tone marks over the controlling consonant : mai ek, mai tho, mai tri, and mai chattawa. High and low class consonants are limited to mai ek and mai tho, as shown in the Tone table. Differing interpretations of the two marks or their absence allow low class consonants to spell tones not allowed for the corresponding high class consonant. In the case of digraphs where a low class follows a higher class consonant, the higher class rules apply, but the marker, if used, goes over the low class one ; accordingly, ห นํา ho nam and อ นํา o nam may be considered to be digraphs as such, as explained below the Tone table. Notes Jump up ^ Modern Thai sounds / b / and / d / were formerly -- and sometimes still are -- pronounced / ʔb / and / ʔd /. For this reason, they were treated as voiceless unaspirated, and hence placed in the `` middle '' class ; this was also the reason they were unaffected by the changes that devoiced most originally voiced stops. Jump up ^ Only low class consonants may have a base accent determined by the syllable being both long and dead. To aid learning, each consonant is traditionally associated with an acrophonic Thai word that either starts with the same sound, or features it prominently. For example, the name of the letter ข is kho khai ( ข ไข่ ), in which kho is the sound it represents, and khai ( ไข่ ) is a word which starts with the same sound and means `` egg ''. Two of the consonants, ฃ ( kho khuat ) and ฅ ( kho khon ), are no longer used in written Thai, but still appear on many keyboards and in character sets. When the first Thai typewriter was developed by Edwin Hunter McFarland in 1892, there was simply no space for all characters, thus two had to be left out. Also, neither of these two letters correspond to a Sanskrit or Pali letter, and each of them, being a modified form of the letter that precedes it ( compare ข and ค ), has the same pronunciation and the same consonant class as the preceding letter ( somewhat like the European long s ). This makes them redundant. Set in 1890s Siam, a 2006 film titled in Thai : ฅ น ไฟ บิน Flying Fire Person ( in English : Dynamite Warrior ), uses ฅ kho khon to spell ฅ น Person. Compare entry for ฅ in table below, where person is spelled คน. Equivalents for romanisation are shown in the table below. Many consonants are pronounced differently at the beginning and at the end of a syllable. The entries in columns initial and final indicate the pronunciation for that consonant in the corresponding positions in a syllable. Where the entry is ' - ', the consonant may not be used to close a syllable. Where a combination of consonants ends a written syllable, only the first is pronounced ; possible closing consonant sounds are limited to ' k ', ' m ', ' n ', ' ng ', ' p ' and ' t '. Although official standards for romanisation are the Royal Thai General System of Transcription ( RTGS ) defined by the Royal Thai Institute, and the almost identical ISO 11940 - 2 defined by the International Organization for Standardization, many publications use different romanisation systems. In daily practice, a bewildering variety of romanisations are used, making it difficult to know how to pronounce a word, or to judge if two words ( e.g. on a map and a street sign ) are actually the same. For more precise information, an equivalent from the International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ) is given as well. Alphabetic Symbol Name RTGS IPA Class Thai RTGS Meaning Initial Final Initial Final ก ก ไก่ ko kai chicken k k ( k ) ( k̚ ) mid ข ข ไข่ kho khai egg kh k ( kh ) ( k̚ ) high ฃ ฃ ขวด kho khuat bottle ( obsolete ) kh k ( kh ) ( k̚ ) high ค ค ควาย kho khwai buffalo kh k ( kh ) ( k̚ ) low ฅ ฅ คน kho khon person ( obsolete ) kh k ( kh ) ( k̚ ) low ฆ ฆ ระฆัง kho ra - khang bell kh k ( kh ) ( k̚ ) low ง ง งู ngo ngu snake ng ng ( ŋ ) ( ŋ ) low จ จ จาน cho chan plate ch ( tɕ ) ( t̚ ) mid ฉ ฉ ฉิ่ง cho ching cymbals ch -- ( tɕh ) -- high ช ช ช้าง cho chang elephant ch ( tɕh ) ( t̚ ) low ซ ซ โซ่ so so chain s ( s ) ( t̚ ) low ฌ ฌ เฌอ cho choe tree ch -- ( tɕh ) -- low ญ ญ หญิง yo ying woman y n ( j ) ( n ) low ฎ ฎ ชฎา do cha - da headdress d ( d ) ( t̚ ) mid ฏ ฏ ปฏัก to pa - tak goad, javelin ( t ) ( t̚ ) mid ฐ ฐ ฐาน tho than pedestal th ( th ) ( t̚ ) high ฑ ฑ ม ณ โฑ tho montho Montho, character from Ramayana th ( th ) ( t̚ ) low ฒ ฒ ผู้ เฒ่า tho phu - thao elder th ( th ) ( t̚ ) low ณ ณ เณร no nen samanera n n ( n ) ( n ) low ด ด เด็ก do dek child d ( d ) ( t̚ ) mid ต ต เต่า to tao turtle ( t ) ( t̚ ) mid ถ ถ ถุง tho thung sack th ( th ) ( t̚ ) high ท ท ทหาร tho thahan soldier th ( th ) ( t̚ ) low ธ ธ ธง tho thong flag th ( th ) ( t̚ ) low น น หนู no nu mouse n n ( n ) ( n ) low บ บ ใบไม้ bo baimai leaf p ( b ) ( p̚ ) mid ป ป ปลา po pla fish p p ( p ) ( p̚ ) mid ผ ผ ผึ้ง pho phueng bee ph -- ( ph ) -- high ฝ ฝ ฝา fo fa lid f -- ( f ) -- high พ พ พาน pho phan phan ph p ( ph ) ( p̚ ) low ฟ ฟ ฟัน fo fan teeth f p ( f ) ( p̚ ) low ภ ภ สําเภา pho sam - phao Junk ph p ( ph ) ( p̚ ) low ม ม ม้า mo ma horse m m ( m ) ( m ) low ย ย ยักษ์ yo yak giant, yaksha y -- or n ( j ) -- or ( n ) low ร ร เรือ ro ruea boat r n ( r ) ( n ) low ล ล ลิง lo ling monkey l n ( l ) ( n ) low ว ว แหวน wo waen ring w -- ( w ) -- low ศ ศ ศาลา so sala pavilion, sala s ( s ) ( t̚ ) high ษ ษ ฤๅษี so rue - si hermit s ( s ) ( t̚ ) high ส ส เสือ so suea tiger s ( s ) ( t̚ ) high ห ห หีบ ho hip chest, box h -- ( h ) -- high ฬ ฬ จุฬา lo chu - la kite l n ( l ) ( n ) low อ อ อ่าง o ang basin -- -- ( ʔ ) -- mid ฮ ฮ นก ฮูก ho nok - huk owl h -- ( h ) -- low Notes ^ The lower curves of the letter ญ are removed when certain letters are written below them, such as ญ + the mark nikkhahit ( lower dot ) = ญฺ, etc. ^ The lower curves of the letter ฐ are removed when certain letters are written below them, such as ฐ + the vowel mark ุ = ฐุ, etc. ^ When ย ends a syllable, it is usually part of the vowel. For example, mai ( หมาย, ( maːj ˩ ˥ ) ), muai ( ห มวย, ( muaj ˩ ˥ ) ), roi ( โรย, ( roːj ˧ ) ), and thui ( ทุย, ( thuj ˧ ) ). There are some cases in which ย ends a syllable and is not part of the vowel ( but serves as an independent ending consonant ). An example is phinyo ( ภิยโย, ( phĩn ˧. joː ˧ ) ). ^ When ว ends a syllable, it is always part of the vowel. For example, hio ( หิว, ( hiw ˩ ˥ ) ), kao ( กาว, ( kaːw ˧ ) ), klua ( กลัว, ( kluːa ˧ ) ), and reo ( เร็ว, ( rew ˧ ) ). ^ อ is a special case in that at the beginning of a word it is used as a silent initial for syllables that start with a vowel ( all vowels are written relative to a consonant -- see below ). The same symbol is used as a vowel in non-initial position. Phonetic The consonants can be organised by place and manner of articulation according to principles of the International Phonetic Association. 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 / ph /, 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 ( several letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation ). Note how the conventional alphabetic order shown in the table above follows roughly the table below, reading the coloured blocks from right to left and top to bottom. Pronunciation of Thai characters in initial position Bilabial Labio - dental Alveolar Alveolo - palatal Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal ( m ) ม ( n ) ณ, น ( ŋ ) ง Plosive ( p ) ป ( ph ) ผ, พ, ภ ( b ) บ ( t ) ฏ, ต ( th ) ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ถ, ท, ธ ( d ) ฎ, ด ( k ) ก ( kh ) ข, ฃ, ค, ฅ, ฆ ( ʔ ) อ Affricate ( tɕ ) จ ( tɕh ) ฉ, ช, ฌ Fricative ( f ) ฝ, ฟ ( s ) ซ, ศ, ษ, ส ( h ) ห, ฮ Trill ( r ) ร Approximant ( w ) ว ( j ) ญ, ย Lateral approximant ( l ) ล, ฬ Notes ^ ฃ and ฅ are no longer used. Thus, modern Thai is said to have 42 consonants. ^ Initial อ is silent and therefore considered as glottal plosive. Although the overall 44 Thai consonants provide 21 sounds in case of initials, the case for finals is different. Note how the consonant sounds in the table for initials collapse in the table for final sounds. At the end of a syllable, all plosives are unvoiced, unaspirated, and have no audible release. Initial affricates and fricatives become final plosives. The initial trill ( ร ), approximant ( ญ ), and lateral approximants ( ล, ฬ ) are realized as a final nasal / n /. Only 8 ending sounds, as well as no ending sound, are available in Thai pronunciation. Among these consonants, excluding the disused ฃ and ฅ, six ( ฉ ผ ฝ ห อ ฮ ) can not be used as a final. The remaining 36 are grouped as following. Pronunciation of Thai characters in final position Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal ( m ) ม ( n ) ณ, น, ญ, ร, ล, ฬ ( ŋ ) ง Plosive ( p̚ ) บ, ป, พ, ฟ, ภ ( t̚ ) จ, ช, ซ, ฌ, ฎ, ฏ, ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ด, ต, ถ, ท, ธ, ศ, ษ, ส ( k̚ ) ก, ข, ค, ฆ ( ʔ ) Approximant ( w ) ว ( j ) ย Notes ^ The glottal plosive appears at the end when no final follows a short vowel. Vowels Thai vowel sounds and diphthongs are written using a mixture of vowel symbols on a consonant base. Each vowel is shown in its correct position relative to a base consonant and sometimes a final consonant as well. Note that vowels can go above, below, left of or right of the consonant, or combinations of these places. If a vowel has parts before and after the initial consonant, and the syllable starts with a consonant cluster, the split will go around the whole cluster. Twenty - one vowel symbol elements are traditionally named, which may appear alone or in combination to form compound symbols. Symbol Name Combinations Thai RTGS ะ วิสรรชนีย์ Wisanchani ( from Sanskrit visarjanīya ) ◌ ะ ; ◌ ั วะ ; เ ◌ ะ ; เ ◌ อะ ; เ ◌ าะ ; เ ◌ ี ยะ ; เ ◌ ื อะ ; แ ◌ ะ ; โ ◌ ะ ◌ ั ไม้หันอากาศ Mai han a-kat ◌ ั ◌ ; ◌ ั ว ; ◌ ั วะ ◌ ็ ไม้ไต่คู้ Mai tai khu ◌ ็ ; ◌ ็ อ ◌ ; เ ◌ ็ ◌ ; แ ◌ ็ ◌ า ลาก ข้าง Lak khang ◌ า ; ◌ า ◌ ; ํา ; เ ◌ า ; เ ◌ าะ ◌ ิ พินทุ อิ Phinthu i ◌ ิ ; เ ◌ ิ ◌ ; ◌ ี ; ◌ ี ◌ ; เ ◌ ี ย ; เ ◌ ี ยะ ; ◌ ื ◌ ; ◌ ื อ ; เ ◌ ื อ ; เ ◌ ื อะ ◌ ̍ ฝน ทอง Fon thong ◌ ี ; ◌ ี ◌ ; เ ◌ ี ย ; เ ◌ ี ยะ ◌ ̎ ฟันหนู Fan nu ◌ ื ◌ ; ◌ ื อ ; เ ◌ ื อ ; เ ◌ ื อะ ◌ ํ นิคหิต Nikkhahit ◌ ึ ; ◌ ึ ◌ ; ◌ ํา ◌ ุ ตีนเหยียด Tin yiat ◌ ุ ; ◌ ุ ◌ ◌ ู ตีนคู้ Tin khu ◌ ู ; ◌ ู ◌ เ ไม้ หน้า Mai na เ ◌ ; เ ◌ ◌ ; เ ◌ ็ ◌ ; เ ◌ อ ; เ ◌ อ ◌ ; เ ◌ อะ ; เ ◌ า ; เ ◌ าะ ; เ ◌ ิ ◌ ; เ ◌ ี ย ; เ ◌ ี ย ◌ ; เ ◌ ี ยะ ; เ ◌ ื อ ; เ ◌ ื อ ◌ ; เ ◌ ื อะ ; แ ◌ ; แ ◌ ◌ ; แ ◌ ็ ◌ ; แ ◌ ะ โ ไม้ โอ Mai o โ ◌ ; โ ◌ ◌ ; โ ◌ ะ ใ ไม้ม้วน Mai muan ใ ◌ ไ ไม้มลาย Mai malai ไ ◌ อ ตัว อ Tua o ◌ อ ; ◌ ็ อ ◌ ; ◌ ื อ ; เ ◌ อ ; เ ◌ อ ◌ ; เ ◌ อะ ; เ ◌ ื อ ; เ ◌ ื อะ ย ตัว ย Tua yo เ ◌ ี ย ; เ ◌ ี ย ◌ ; เ ◌ ี ยะ ว ตัว ว Tua wo ◌ ั ว ; ◌ ั วะ ฤ ตัว ฤ Tua rue ฤ ฤๅ ตัว ฤๅ Tua rue ฤๅ ฦ ตัว ฦ Tua lue ฦ ฦๅ ตัว ฦๅ Tua lue ฦๅ Notes ^ These symbols are always combined with phinthu i ( ◌ ิ ). The inherent vowels are / a / in open syllables ( CV ) and / o / in closed syllables ( CVC ). For example, ถนน transcribes / th ànǒn / `` road ''. There are a few exceptions in Pali loanwords, where the inherent vowel of an open syllable is / o /. The circumfix vowels, such as เ -- าะ / ɔʔ /, encompass a preceding consonant with an inherent vowel. For example, / ph ɔʔ / is written เพาะ, and / tɕh aphɔʔ / `` only '' is written เฉ พาะ. The characters ฤ ฤๅ ( plus ฦ ฦๅ, which are obsolete ) are usually considered as vowels, the first being a short vowel sound, and the latter, long. As alphabetical entries, ฤ ฤๅ follow ร, and themselves can be read as a combination of consonant and vowel, equivalent to รึ ( short ), and รือ ( long ) ( and the obsolete pair as ลึ, ลือ ), respectively. Moreover, ฤ can act as ริ as an integral part in many words mostly borrowed from Sanskrit such as ก ฤ ษ ณะ ( kritsana, not kruetsana ), ฤทธิ์ ( rit, not ruet ), and ก ฤ ษ ดา ( kritsada, not kruetsada ), for example. It is also used to spell อังกฤษ angkrit England / English. The pronunciation below is indicated by the International Phonetic Alphabet and the Romanisation according to the Royal Thai Institute as well as several variant Romanisations often encountered. A very approximate equivalent is given for various regions of English speakers and surrounding areas. Dotted circles represent the positions of consonants or consonant clusters. The first one represents the initial consonant and the latter ( if it exists ) represents the final. Ro han ( ร หัน ) is not usually considered a vowel and is not included in the following table. It represents the sara a / a / vowel in certain Sanskrit loanwords and appears as ◌ ร ร ◌. When used without a final consonant ( ◌ ร ร ), / n / is implied as the final consonant, giving ( an ). Short vowels Long vowels Name Symbol IPA RTGS Variants Similar Sound ( English RP pronunciation ) Name Symbol IPA RTGS Variants Similar Sound ( English RP pronunciation ) Simple vowels สระ อะ Sara a ◌ ะ ◌ ◌ ั ◌ u u in `` nut '' สระ อา Sara a ◌ า ◌ า ◌ aː ah, ar, aa a in `` father '' สระ อิ Sara i ◌ ิ ◌ ิ ◌ i i y in `` greedy '' สระ อี Sara i ◌ ี ◌ ี ◌ iː i ee, ii, y ee in `` see '' สระ อึ Sara ue ◌ ึ ◌ ึ ◌ ɯ ue eu, u, uh u in French `` du '' ( short ) สระ อือ Sara ue ◌ ื อ ◌ ื ◌ ɯː ue eu, u u in French `` dur '' ( long ) ส ระอุ Sara u ◌ ุ ◌ ุ ◌ u u oo oo in `` look '' สระ อู Sara u ◌ ู ◌ ู ◌ uː u oo, uu oo in `` too '' สระ เอะ Sara e เ ◌ ะ เ ◌ ็ ◌ e in `` neck '' สระ เอ Sara e เ ◌ เ ◌ ◌ eː ay, a, ae, ai, ei a in `` lame '' สระ แอะ Sara ae แ ◌ ะ แ ◌ ็ ◌ ɛ ae aeh, a a in `` at '' สระ แอ Sara ae แ ◌ แ ◌ ◌ ɛː ae a in `` ham '' สระ โอะ Sara o โ ◌ ะ ◌ ◌ o o oa in `` boat '' สระ โอ Sara o โ ◌ โ ◌ ◌ oː o or, oh, ô o in `` go '' สระ เอาะ Sara o เ ◌ าะ ◌ ็ อ ◌ ɔ o o, aw o in `` not '' สระ ออ Sara o ◌ อ ◌ อ ◌ ◌ ◌ ◌ ็ ɔː o or, aw aw in `` saw '' สระ เอ อะ Sara oe เ ◌ อะ ɤʔ oe eu e in `` the '' สระ เออ Sara oe เ ◌ อ เ ◌ ิ ◌ เ ◌ อ ◌ ɤː ɤ oe er, eu, ur u in `` burn '' Diphthongs สระ เอี ยะ Sara ia เ ◌ ี ยะ iaʔ ia iah, ear, ie ea in `` ear '' with glottal stop สระ เอี ย Sara ia เ ◌ ี ย เ ◌ ี ย ◌ ia ia ear, ere, ie ea in `` ear '' สระ เอื อะ Sara uea เ ◌ ื อะ ɯaʔ uea eua, ua ure in `` pure '' สระ เอื อ Sara uea เ ◌ ื อ เ ◌ ื อ ◌ ɯa uea eua, ua, ue ure in `` pure '' สระ อั วะ Sara ua ◌ ั วะ uaʔ ua ewe in `` sewer '' สระ อั ว Sara ua ◌ ั ว ◌ ว ◌ ua ua uar ewe in `` newer '' Phonetic diphthongs สระ อิ + ว Sara i + wo waen ◌ ิ ว iu ; iw io ew ew in `` new '' สระ เอะ + ว Sara e + wo waen เ ◌ ็ ว eu ; ew eo eu, ew สระ เอ + ว Sara e + wo waen เ ◌ ว eːu ; eːw eo eu, ew ai + ow in `` rainbow '' สระ แอ + ว Sara ae + wo waen แ ◌ ว ɛːu ; ɛːw aeo aew, eo a in `` ham '' + ow in `` low '' สระ เอา Sara ao เ ◌ า au ; aw ao aw, au, ow ow in `` cow '' สระ อา + ว Sara a + wo waen ◌ า ว aːu ao au ow in `` now '' สระ เอี ย + ว Sara ia + wo waen เ ◌ ี ย ว iau ; iaw iao eaw, iew, iow io in `` trio '' สระ อะ + ย Sara a + yo yak ◌ ั ย ai ; aj ai ay i in `` hi '' สระ อา + ย Sara a + yo yak ◌ า ย aːi ; aːj ai aai, aay, ay ye in `` bye '' สระ ไอ Sara ai ใ ◌, ไ ◌ ไ ◌ ย สระ เอาะ + ย Sara o + yo yak ◌ ็ อย ɔi ; ɔj oi oy สระ ออ + ย Sara o + yo yak ◌ อย ɔːi ; ɔːj oi oy oy in `` boy '' สระ โอ + ย Sara o + yo yak โ ◌ ย oːi ; oːj oi oy ส ระอุ + ย Sara u + yo yak ◌ ุ ย ui ; uj ui uy สระ เออ + ย Sara oe + yo yak เ ◌ ย ɤːi ; ɤːj oei oey u in `` burn '' + y in `` boy '' สระ อั ว + ย Sara ua + yo yak ◌ ว ย uai ; uaj uai uay uoy in `` buoy '' สระ เอื อ + ย Sara uea + yo yak เ ◌ ื อย ɯai ; ɯaj ueai uai Extra vowels สระ อํา Sara am ํา am am um um in `` sum '' ฤ Rue ฤ rɯ ri rue ru, ri rew in `` grew '', ry in `` angry '' ฤๅ Rue ฤๅ rɯː rue ruu ฦ Lue ฦ lɯ lue lu, li lew in `` blew '' ฦๅ Lue ฦๅ lɯː lue lu ^ Only with ร ( ro ruea ) as final consonant, appearing as ◌ ร ( ɔːn ). ^ Only with the word ก็ ( kɔ̂ː ). ^ Used only in certain words. ^ Mai malai ( ไ ◌ ) is used for the ( ai ) vowel in most words, while mai muan ( ใ ◌ ) is only used in twenty specific words. ^ ไ ◌ ย is found in ไทย Thai and in Pali loanwords which contain - eyya. The ย is redundant, but may be pronounced in a compound word when joined by samāsa. ^ Traditionally, these sets of diphthongs and triphthongs are regarded as combinations of regular vowels or diphthongs with wo waen ( ว, / w / ) or yo yak ( ย, / j / ) as the final consonant, and are not counted among the thirty - two vowels. ^ Extra vowels are not distinct vowel sounds, but are symbols that represent certain vowel - consonant combinations. They are traditionally regarded as vowels, although some sources do not. ^ Sara ai ( ใ ◌ and ไ ◌ ) and sara ao ( เ ◌ า ) are also considered extra vowels. Tone Thai is a tonal language, and the script gives full information on the tones. Tones are realised in the vowels, but indicated in the script by a combination of the class of the initial consonant ( high, mid or low ), vowel length ( long or short ), closing consonant ( plosive or sonorant, i.e., dead or live ) and, if present, one of four tone marks, whose name derive from the name of the digits 1 -- 4 borrowed from Pali or Sanskrit. The rules for denoting tones are shown in the following chart : Tone type top to bottom : high, rising, mid, falling, low. Initial consonant class left to right : low ( blue ), middle ( green ), high ( red ). Syllable type : live ( empty circle ), dead ( full circle ), dead short ( narrow ellipse ), dead long ( wide ellipse ). Symbol Name Syllable composition and initial consonant class Thai RTGS Vowel and final Low Mid High ( ไม่มี ) ( none ) live long vowel or vowel plus sonorant mid mid rising ( ไม่มี ) ( none ) dead short short vowel at end or plus plosive high low low ( ไม่มี ) ( none ) dead long long vowel plus plosive falling low low ่ ไม้เอก mai ek any falling low low ้ ไม้โท mai tho any high falling falling ๊ ไม้ตรี mai tri any - high - ๋ ไม้จัตวา mai chattawa any - rising - Thai language tone chart Flowchart for determining the tone of a Thai syllable. Click to enlarge `` None '', that is, no tone marker, is used with the base accent ( พื้น เสียง, pheun siang ). Mai tri and mai chattawa are only used with mid-class consonants. Two consonant characters ( not diacritics ) are used to modify the tone : ห นํา ho nam, leading ho. A silent, high - class ห `` leads '' low - class nasal stops ( ง, ญ, น and ม ) and non-plosives ( ว, ย, ร and ล ), which have no corresponding high - class phonetic match, into the tone properties of a high - class consonant. In polysyllabic words, an initial mid - or high - class consonant with an implicit vowel similarly `` leads '' these same low - class consonants into the higher class tone rules, with the tone marker borne by the low - class consonant. อ นํา o nam, leading o. In four words only, a silent, mid-class อ `` leads '' low - class ย into mid-class tone rules : อย่า ( ya, do n't ) อยาก ( yak, desire ) อย่าง ( yang, kind, sort, type ) อยู่ ( yu, stay ). Note all four have long - vowel, low - tone siang ek, but อยาก, a dead syllable, needs no tone marker, but the three live syllables all take mai ek. Low Consonant High Consonant IPA ง หง ( ŋ ) ญ ห ญ ( j ) น หน ( n ) ม ห ม ( m ) ร หร ( r ) ล หล ( l ) ว ห ว ( w ) Low Consonant Middle Consonant IPA ย อย ( j ) Exceptions where words are spelled with one tone but pronounced with another often occur in informal conversation ( notably the pronouns ฉัน chan and เขา khao, which are both pronounced with a high tone rather than the rising tone indicated by the script ). Generally, when such words are recited or read in public, they are pronounced as spelled. Diacritics Other diacritics are used to indicate short vowels and silent consonants : Mai taikhu means `` stick that climbs and squats ''. It is a miniature Thai numeral 8 ๘. Mai taikhu is often used with sara e ( เ ) and sara ae ( แ ) in closed syllables. Thanthakhat means `` killing as punishment ''. Compare virama. Symbol Name Meaning Thai RTGS ็ ไม้ไต่คู้ mai taikhu shortens vowel ์ ทัณฑฆาต thanthakhat indicates silent letter Fan nu means `` rat teeth '' and is thought as being placed in combination with short sara i and fong man to form other characters. Symbol Name Use Thai RTGS `` ฟันหนู fan nu combined with short sara i ( ิ ) to make long sara ue ( ื ) combined with fong man ( ๏ ) to make fong man fan nu ( ๏ `` ) Numerals Main article : Thai numerals The Thai script contains decimal numerical digits. Hindu - Arabic 0 5 6 7 8 9 Thai ๐ ๑ ๒ ๓ ๔ ๕ ๖ ๗ ๘ ๙ Other symbols Symbol Name Meaning Thai RTGS ฯ ไปยาล น้อย pai - yan noi marks formal phrase shortened by convention ( abbreviation ) ฯลฯ ไปยาล ใหญ่ pai - yan yai et cetera ๆ ไม้ยมก mai ya - mok preceding word or phrase is reduplicated ๏ ฟอง มัน, ตาไก่ fong man, ta kai previously marked beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or stanza ( obsolete ) ; now only marks beginning of a stanza in a poem ; now also used as bullet point ๏ '' ฟอง มัน ฟันหนู, ฟันหนู ฟอง มัน, ฝน ทอง ฟอง มัน fong man fan nu, fan nu fong man, fon tong fong man previously marked beginning of a chapter ( obsolete ) ๐ '' ฟอง ดัน fong dan ฯ อัง คั่น เดี่ยว, คั่น เดี่ยว, ขั้น เดี่ยว angkhan diao, khan diao, khan diao previously marked end of a sentence or stanza ( obsolete ) ๚ อัง คั่น คู่, คั่น คู่, ขั้น คู่ angkhan khu, khan khu, khan khu marks end of stanza ; marks end of chapter or long section ฯ ะ อัง คั่น วิสรรชนีย์ angkhan wisanchani marks end of a stanza in a poem ๚ ะ ๛ โคมูตร, สูตร นารายณ์ khomut, sutnarai marks end of a chapter or document ; marks end of a story ๚ ะ ๛ อัง คั่น วิสรรชนีย์ โคมูตร angkhan wisanchani khomut marks the very end of a written work ฿ บาท bat baht Pai - yan noi and angkhan diao share the same character. Sara a ( -- ะ ) used in combination with other characters is called wisanchani. Some of the characters can mark the beginning or end of a sentence, chapter, or episode of a story or of a stanza in a poem. These have changed use over time and are becoming uncommon. Sanskrit and Pali Brahmic scripts The Brahmic script and its descendants Northern Brahmic Gupta script Bhaiksuki alphabet Tocharian alphabet Khotanese Śāradā script Laṇḍā scripts Gurmukhī alphabet Khojki Khudabadi script Multani alphabet Mahajani Devāśeṣa Takri alphabet Dogra Siddhaṃ script Tibetan alphabet ' Phags - pa script Pungs - chen Pungs - chung Marchen Marchung Horizontal square script Soyombo alphabet Lepcha alphabet Limbu alphabet Nāgarī script Devanagari Gujarati alphabet Modi alphabet Nandinagari Kaithi Sylheti Nagari Kalinga alphabet Odia alphabet Gaudi Assamese - Bengali Tirhuta Bhujinmol Newar Ranjana alphabet Meithei script Southern Brahmic Tamil - Brahmi Vatteluttu alphabet Kolezhuthu Tamil script Grantha alphabet Malayalam script Tigalari alphabet Sinhala alphabet Dhives Akuru Thaana Saurashtra alphabet Khmer alphabet Lao alphabet Thai alphabet Cham alphabet Ahom alphabet Kawi script Balinese script Javanese script Baybayin Batak script Buhid alphabet Hanunó'o alphabet Tagbanwa alphabet Sundanese script Lontara script Makasar Rejang script Old Mon script Burmese script S'gaw Karen alphabet Chakma alphabet Tai Tham alphabet New Tai Lue alphabet Tai Le alphabet Tai Viet alphabet Bhattiprolu alphabet Kadamba alphabet Kannada alphabet Telugu script Pyu script The Thai script ( like all Indic scripts ) uses a number of modifications to write Sanskrit and related languages ( in particular, Pali ). Pali is very closely related to Sanskrit and is the liturgical language of Thai Buddhism. In Thailand, Pali is written and studied using a slightly modified Thai script. The main difference is that each consonant is followed by an implied short a ( อะ ), not the ' o ', or ' ə ' of Thai : this short a is never omitted in pronunciation, and if the vowel is not to be pronounced, then a specific symbol must be used, the pinthu อฺ ( a solid dot under the consonant ). This means that sara a ( อะ ) is never used when writing Pali, because it is always implied. For example, namo is written นะ โม in Thai, but in Pali it is written as น โม, because the อะ is redundant. The Sanskrit word ' mantra ' is written มนตร์ in Thai ( and therefore pronounced mon ), but is written ม นฺ ตฺ ร in Sanskrit ( and therefore pronounced mantra ). When writing Pali, only 33 consonants and 12 vowels are used. This is an example of a Pali text written using the Thai Sanskrit orthography : อร หํ ส มฺ มา ส มฺ พุ ทฺ โธ ภควา ( arahaṃ sammāsambuddho bhagavā ). Written in modern Thai orthography, this becomes อะ ระ หั ง สัมมา สั ม พุ ท โธ ภะ คะ วา arahang sammasamphuttho phakhawa. In Thailand, Sanskrit is read out using the Thai values for all the consonants ( so ค is read as kha and not ( ga ) ), which makes Thai spoken Sanskrit incomprehensible to sanskritists not trained in Thailand. The Sanskrit values are used in transliteration ( without the diacritics ), but these values are never actually used when Sanskrit is read out loud in Thailand. The vowels used in Thai are identical to Sanskrit, with the exception of ฤ, ฤๅ, ฦ, and ฦๅ, which are read using their Thai values, not their Sanskrit values. Sanskrit and Pali are not tonal languages, but in Thailand, the Thai tones are used when reading these languages out loud. In the tables in this section, the Thai value ( transliterated according to the Royal Thai system ) of each letter is listed first, followed by the IAST value of each letter in square brackets. Remember that in Thailand, the IAST values are never used in pronunciation, but only sometimes in transcriptions ( with the diacritics omitted ). This disjoint between transcription and spoken value explains the romanisation for Sanskrit names in Thailand that many foreigners find confusing. For example, สุวรรณภูมิ is romanised as Suvarnabhumi, but pronounced su - wan - na - phum. ศรีนครินทร์ is romanised as Srinagarindra but pronounced si - nakha - rin. Plosives ( วรรค vargaḥ ) Plosives ( also called stops ) are listed in their traditional Sanskrit order, which corresponds to Thai alphabetical order from ก to ม with three exceptions : in Thai, high - class ข is followed by two obsolete characters with no Sanskrit equivalent, high - class ฃ and low - class ฅ ; low - class ช is followed by sibilant ซ ( low - class equivalent of high - class sibilant ส that follows ศ and ษ. ) The table gives the Thai value first, and then the IAST value in square brackets. class unaspirated unvoiced aspirated voiced aspirated voiced nasal velar ก kà ( ka ) ข khà ( kha ) ค khá ( ga ) ฆ khá ( gha ) ง ngá ( ṅa ) palatal จ cà ( ca ) ฉ chà ( cha ) ช chá ( ja ) ฌ chá ( jha ) ญ yá ( ña ) retroflex ฏ tà ( ṭa ) ฐ thà ( ṭha ) ฑ thá ( ḍa ) ฒ thá ( ḍha ) ณ ná ( ṇa ) dental ต tà ( ta ) ถ thà ( tha ) ท thá ( da ) ธ thá ( dha ) น ná ( na ) labial ป pà ( pa ) ผ phà ( pha ) พ phá ( ba ) ภ phá ( bha ) ม má ( ma ) tone class None of the Sanskrit plosives are pronounced as the Thai voiced plosives, so these are not represented in the table. While letters are listed here according to their class in Sanskrit, Thai has lost the distinction between many of the consonants. So, while there is a clear distinction between ช and ฌ in Sanskrit, in Thai these two consonants are pronounced identically ( including tone ). Likewise, the Thai phonemes do not differentiate between the retroflex and dental classes, because Thai has no retroflex consonants. The equivalents of all the retroflex consonants are pronounced identically to their dental counterparts : thus ฏ is pronounced like ต, and ฐ is pronounced like ถ, and so forth. The Sanskrit unaspirated unvoiced plosives are pronounced as unaspirated unvoiced, whereas Sanskrit aspirated voiced plosives are pronounced as aspirated unvoiced. Non-plosives ( อ วรรค avargaḥ ) Semivowels and liquids ( กิ่ง สระ pha king sara branch vowels `` ) come in Thai alphabetical order after ม, the last of the plosives. The term อ วรรค awak means `` without a break '' ; that is, without a plosive. series symbol value related vowels palatal ย yá ( ya ) อิ and อี retroflex ร rá ( ra ) ฤ and ฤๅ dental ล lá ( la ) ฦ and ฦๅ labial ว wá ( va ) อุ and อู Sibilants ( เสียด แทรก ) เสียด แทรก, pronounced เสียด แซ ก ( siat saek ), meaning inserted sound ( s ), follow the semi-vowel ว in alphabetical order. series symbol value palatal ศ sà ( śa ) retroflex ษ sà ( ṣa ) dental ส sà ( sa ) Like Sanskrit, Thai has no voiced sibilant ( so no ' z ' or ' zh ' ). In modern Thai, the distinction between the three high - class consonants has been lost and all three are pronounced ' sà ' ; however, foreign words with an sh - sound may still be transcribed as if the Sanskrit values still hold ( e.g., ang - grit อังกฤษ for English instead of อัง ก ฤ ส ). ศ ศาลา ( so sala ) leads words, as in its example word, ศาลา. The digraph ศรี ( Indic sri ) is regularly pronounced สี ( si ), as in Sisaket Province, Thai : ศรีสะเกษ. ษ ฤๅษี ( so rue - si ) may only lead syllables within a word, as in its example, ฤๅษี, or to end a syllable as in ศรีสะเกษ Sisaket and อังกฤษ Angkrit English. ส เสือ ( so suea ) spells native Thai words that require a high - class / s /, as well as naturalized Pali / Sanskrit words, such as สาร ท ( สา ท ) in Thetsakan Sat : เทศกาล สาร ท ( เท ด - สะ - กาน - สา ท ), formerly ศารท ( สา ท ). ซ โซ่ ( so so ), which follows the similar - appearing ช in Thai alphabetical order, spells words requiring a low - class / s /, as does ทร + vowel. ทร, as in the heading of this section, เสียด แทรก ( pronounced เสียด แซ ก siat saek ), when accompanied by a vowel ( implicit in ทรง ( ซ ง song an element in forming words used with royalty ) ; a semivowel in ทรวง ( ซ วง suang chest, heart ) ; or explicit in ทราย ( ซา ย sai sand ). Exceptions to ทร + vowel = / s / are the prefix โทร - ( equivalent to tele - far, pronounced โท ระ to - ra ), and phonetic re-spellings of English tr - ( as in the phonetic respelling of trumpet : ท รัม เพ็ ท. ) ทร is otherwise pronounced as two syllables ทอ ระ -, as in ทรมาน ( ทอ ระ มา น to - ra - man to torment ). Voiced h ( มี หนัก มี ลม ) symbol value ห hà ( ha ) ห, a high - class consonant, comes next in alphabetical order, but its low - class equivalent, ฮ, follows similar - appearing อ as the last letter of the Thai alphabet. Like modern Hindi, the voicing has disappeared, and the letter is now pronounced like English ' h '. Like Sanskrit, this letter may only be used to start a syllable, but may not end it. ( A popular beer is romanized as Singha, but in Thai is สิงห์, with a mai karan on the ห ; correct pronunciation is `` sing '', but foreigners to Thailand typically say `` sing - ha ''. ) Voiced lla symbol value ฬ llá ( la ) Vowels ( สระ ) symbol value อะ a ( a ) อา a ( ā ) อิ i ( i ) อี i ( ī ) อุ u ( u ) อู u ( ū ) เอ e ( e ) โอ o ( o ) ฤ ru ( ṛ ) ฤๅ ru ( ṝ ) ฦ lu ( ḷ ) ฦๅ lu ( ḹ ) All consonants have an inherent ' a ' sound, and therefore there is no need to use the ะ symbol when writing Sanskrit. The Thai vowels อื, ไอ, ใอ, and so forth, are not used in Sanskrit. The zero consonant, อ, is unique to the Indic alphabets descended from Khmer. When it occurs in Sanskrit, it is always the zero consonant and never the vowel o ( ɔː ). Its use in Sanskrit is therefore to write vowels that can not be otherwise written alone : e.g., อา or อี. When อ is written on its own, then it is a carrier for the implied vowel, a ( a ) ( equivalent to อะ in Thai ). The vowels อํา and อึ occur in Sanskrit, but only as the combination of the pure vowels sara a อา or sara i อิ with nikkhahit อํ. Other symbols There are a number of additional symbols only used to write Sanskrit or Pali, and not used in writing Thai. Nikkhahit นิคหิต ( anusvāra ) Symbol IAST อํ ṃ In Sanskrit, the anusvāra indicates a certain kind of nasal sound. In Thai this is written as an open circle above the consonant. Nasalisation does not occur in Thai, therefore, a nasal stop is always substituted : e.g. ตํ taṃ, is pronounced as ตัง tang by Thai sanskritists. If nikkhahit occurs before a consonant, then Thai uses a nasal stop of the same class : e.g. สํ สฺ กฺ ฤ ตา ( saṃskṛta ) is read as สัน สก ฤ ตา san - sa - krit - ta ( The ส following the nikkhahit is a dental - class consonant, therefore the dental - class nasal stop น is used ). For this reason, it has been suggested that in Thai, nikkhahit should be listed as a consonant. Nikkhahit นิคหิต occurs as part of the Thai vowels sara am อํา and sara ue อึ. Pinthu พินทุ ( virāma ) อฺ Because the Thai script is an abugida, a symbol ( equivalent to virāma in devanagari ) needs to be added to indicate that the implied vowel is not to be pronounced. This is the pinthu, which is a solid dot below the consonant. Yamakkan ยามักการ อ๎ Yamakkan is an obsolete symbol used to mark the beginning of consonant clusters : e.g. พ๎ รา ห๎ ม ณ phramana ( brāhmaṇa ). Without the yamakkan, this word would be pronounced pharahamana ( barāhamaṇa ) instead. This is a feature unique to the Thai script ( other Indic scripts use a combination of ligatures, conjuncts or virāma to convey the same information ). The symbol is obsolete because pinthu may be used to achieve the same effect : พฺ รา หฺ ม ณ. Visarga The means of recording visarga ( final voiceless ' h ' ) in Thai has been lost. Unicode Main article : Thai ( Unicode block ) 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. It is a verbatim copy of the older TIS - 620 character set which encodes the vowels เ, แ, โ, ใ and ไ before the consonants they follow, and thus Thai, Lao, and Tai Viet are the only Brahmic scripts in Unicode that use visual order instead of logical order. Thai Official Unicode Consortium code chart ( PDF ) 0 5 6 7 8 9 U + 0E0x ก ข ฃ ค ฅ ฆ ง จ ฉ ช ซ ฌ ญ ฎ ฏ U + 0E1x ฐ ฑ ฒ ณ ด ต ถ ท ธ น บ ป ผ ฝ พ ฟ U + 0E2x ภ ม ย ร ฤ ล ฦ ว ศ ษ ส ห ฬ อ ฮ ฯ U + 0E3x ะ ั า ํา ิ ี ึ ื ุ ู ฺ ฿ U + 0E4x เ แ โ ใ ไ ๅ ๆ ็ ่ ้ ๊ ๋ ์ ํ ๎ ๏ U + 0E5x ๐ ๑ ๒ ๓ ๔ ๕ ๖ ๗ ๘ ๙ ๚ ๛ U + 0E6x U + 0E7x Notes 1. ^ As of Unicode version 10.0 2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points Keyboard layouts Thai characters can be typed using the Kedmanee layout and the Pattachote layout. See also Thai language Thai language : Script : Transliteration Royal Thai General System of Transcription ISO 11940 ISO 11940 - 2 Thai numerals Thai braille References This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( December 2007 ) Jump up ^ Anthony V.N. Diller, Thai Orthography and the History of Marking Tone, Oriens Extremus, Vol. 39, No. 2 ( 1996 ), pp. 228 - 248, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24047473?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Retrieved May 8, 2017. Missing or empty title = ( help ) Jump up ^ `` The origins of the Thai typewriter ''. Archived from the original on December 5, 2011. Retrieved December 5, 2011. ^ Jump up to : Tingsabadh, Kalaya ; Arthur S. Abramson ( 1993 ). `` Thai ''. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 ( 1 ) : 24̂ -- 28. doi : 10.1017 / S0025100300004746. ^ Jump up to : Karoonboonyanan, Theppitak ( 1999 ). `` Standardization and Implementations of Thai Language '' ( pdf ). National Electronics and Computer Technology Center. Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 04. ^ Jump up to : `` Thai '' ( pdf ). Unicode. 2009. Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 04. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thai pronunciation. Comprehensive free Thai alphabet resource Comparing Thai script with Devanagari, Khmer, Burmese, and Tai Tham Omniglot - Thai Thai consonants Thai vowels Transliterations for Thai Vowels, Thai Consonants Phonetic Organization of the Thai Consonants, by Richard Wordingham Virtual Thai Keyboard Freeware for the Windows operating system Insert Zero - Width Space Character -- This utility prepares Thai text by inserting the Unicode `` Zero - Width Space Character '' between detected word breaks. Types of writing systems Overview History of writing Grapheme Lists Writing systems undeciphered inventors constructed Languages by writing system / by first written accounts Types Abjads Numerals Aramaic Hatran Arabic Pitman shorthand Hebrew Ashuri Cursive Rashi Solitreo Tifinagh Manichaean Nabataean Old North Arabian Pahlavi Pegon Phoenician Paleo - Hebrew Proto - Sinaitic Psalter Punic Samaritan South Arabian Zabur Musnad Sogdian Syriac ʾEsṭrangēlā Serṭā Maḏnḥāyā Teeline Shorthand Ugaritic Abugidas Brahmic Northern Asamiya ( Ôxômiya ) Bānglā Bhaikshuki Bhujinmol Brāhmī Devanāgarī Dogri Gujarati Gupta Gurmukhī Kaithi Kalinga Khojki Khotanese Khudawadi Laṇḍā Lepcha Limbu Mahajani Meitei Mayek Modi Multani Nāgarī Nandinagari Odia ' Phags - pa Newar Ranjana Sharada Saurashtra Siddhaṃ Soyombo Sylheti Nagari Takri Tibetan Uchen Umê Tirhuta Tocharian Zanabazar Square Zhang - Zhung Drusha Marchen Marchung Pungs - chen Pungs - chung Southern Ahom Balinese Batak Baybayin Bhattiprolu Buhid Burmese Chakma Cham Grantha Goykanadi Hanunó'o Javanese Kadamba Kannada Karen Kawi Khmer Kulitan Lanna Lao Leke Lontara Malayalam Maldivian Dhives Akuru Eveyla Akuru Thaana Mon Old Makassarese Old Sundanese Pallava Pyu Rejang Rencong Sinhala Sundanese Tagbanwa Tai Le Tai Tham Tai Viet Tamil Telugu Thai Tigalari Vatteluttu Kolezhuthu Malayanma Visayan Others Boyd 's syllabic shorthand Canadian syllabics Blackfoot Déné syllabics Fox I Ge'ez Gunjala Gondi Japanese Braille Jenticha Kayah Li Kharosthi Mandombe Masaram Gondi Meroitic Miao Mwangwego Sorang Sompeng Pahawh Hmong Thomas Natural Shorthand Alphabets Linear Abkhaz Adlam Armenian Avestan Avoiuli Bassa Vah Borama Carian Caucasian Albanian Coorgi -- Cox alphabet Coptic Cyrillic Deseret Duployan shorthand Chinook writing Early Cyrillic Eclectic shorthand Elbasan Etruscan Evenki Fox II Fraser Gabelsberger shorthand Garay Georgian Asomtavruli Nuskhuri Mkhedruli Glagolitic Gothic Gregg shorthand Greek Greco - Iberian alphabet Hangul Hanifi IPA Kaddare Latin Beneventan Blackletter Carolingian minuscule Fraktur Gaelic Insular Kurrent Merovingian Sigla Sütterlin Tironian notes Visigothic Luo Lycian Lydian Manchu Mandaic Medefaidrin Molodtsov Mongolian Mru Neo-Tifinagh New Tai Lue N'Ko Ogham Oirat Ol Chiki Old Hungarian Old Italic Old Permic Orkhon Old Uyghur Osage Osmanya Pau Cin Hau Runic Anglo - Saxon Cipher Dalecarlian Elder Futhark Younger Futhark Gothic Marcomannic Medieval Staveless Sidetic Shavian Somali Tifinagh Vagindra Visible Speech Vithkuqi Wancho Zaghawa Non-linear Braille Maritime flags Morse code New York Point Semaphore line Flag semaphore Moon type Ideograms / Pictograms Adinkra Aztec Blissymbol Dongba Ersu Shaba Emoji IConji Isotype Kaidā Míkmaq Mixtec New Epoch Notation Painting Nsibidi Ojibwe Hieroglyphs Siglas poveiras Testerian Yerkish Zapotec Logograms Chinese family of scripts Chinese Characters Simplified Traditional Oracle bone script Bronze Script Seal Script large small bird - worm Hanja Idu Kanji Chữ nôm Zhuang Chinese - influenced Jurchen Khitan large script Sui Tangut Cuneiform Akkadian Assyrian Elamite Hittite Luwian Sumerian Other logo - syllabic Anatolian Bagam Cretan Isthmian Maya Proto - Elamite Yi ( Classical ) Logo - consonantal Demotic Hieratic Hieroglyphs Numerals Hindu - Arabic Abjad Attic ( Greek ) Muisca Roman Semi-syllabaries Full Celtiberian Northeastern Iberian Southeastern Iberian Khom Redundant Espanca Pahawh Hmong Khitan small script Southwest Paleohispanic Zhuyin fuhao Somacheirograms ASLwrite SignWriting si5s Stokoe Notation Syllabaries Afaka Bamum Bété Byblos Cherokee Cypriot Cypro - Minoan Ditema tsa Dinoko Eskayan Geba Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics Iban Japanese Hiragana Katakana Man'yōgana Hentaigana Sogana Jindai moji Kikakui Kpelle Linear B Linear Elamite Lisu Loma Nüshu Nwagu Aneke script Old Persian Cuneiform Vai Woleai Yi ( Modern ) Yugtun Braille ⠃ ⠗ ⠁ ⠊ ⠇ ⠇ ⠑ Braille cell 1829 braille International uniformity ASCII braille Unicode braille patterns Braille scripts French - ordered scripts ( see for more ) Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Belarusian Bharati Devanagari ( Hindi / Marathi / Nepali ) Bengali Punjabi Sinhalese Tamil Urdu etc. Bulgarian Burmese Cambodian Cantonese Catalan Chinese ( Mandarin, mainland ) Czech Dutch Dzongkha ( Bhutanese ) English ( Unified English ) Esperanto Estonian Faroese French Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Guarani Hawaiian Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Inuktitut ( reassigned vowels ) Iñupiaq IPA Irish Italian Kazakh Kyrgyz Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Mongolian Māori Navajo Nigerian Northern Sami Persian Philippine Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Samoan Scandinavian Slovak South African Spanish Tatar Taiwanese Mandarin ( largely reassigned ) Thai & Lao ( Japanese vowels ) Tibetan Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese Welsh Yugoslav Reordered scripts Algerian Braille ( obsolete ) Frequency - based scripts American Braille ( obsolete ) Independent scripts Japanese Korean Two - Cell Chinese Eight - dot scripts Luxembourgish Kanji Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 ) Symbols in braille Braille music Canadian currency marks Computer Braille Code Gardner -- Salinas braille codes ( GS8 / GS6 ) International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ) Nemeth braille code Braille technology Braille e-book Braille embosser Braille translator Braille watch Mountbatten Brailler Optical braille recognition Perforation Perkins Brailler Refreshable braille display Slate and stylus Braigo Persons Louis Braille Charles Barbier Valentin Haüy Thakur Vishva Narain Singh Sabriye Tenberken William Bell Wait Organisations Braille Institute of America Braille Without Borders Japan Braille Library National Braille Association Blindness organizations Schools for the blind American Printing House for the Blind Other tactile alphabets Decapoint Moon type New York Point Night writing Vibratese Related topics Accessible publishing Braille literacy RoboBraille Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thai_alphabet&oldid=818291692 '' Categories : Scripts with ISO 15924 four - letter codes Brahmic scripts Thai language Writing systems without word boundaries Scripts encoded in Unicode 1.0 Hidden categories : Pages with citations lacking titles Pages with citations having bare URLs Articles containing Thai - language text Articles with hAudio microformats All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2016 Articles needing additional references from December 2007 All articles needing additional references Commons category with local link different than on Wikidata Talk Variants Contents About Wikipedia Languages Asturianu Bân - lâm - gú Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Deutsch Eesti Español Français 한국어 हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano Basa Jawa ລາວ Lietuvių Magyar Македонски Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Nordfriisk Norsk پنجابی Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Suomi Svenska ไทย Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 吴语 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 2 January 2018, at 18 : 56. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: how many vowels are in the thai alphabet
Answer: phayanchana), 15 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least; phayanchana), 15 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least; , phayanchana), 15 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least; phayanchana), 15 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least