Thai-English Dictionary for Travelers
Taking a short cut in learning other languages using
English transliteration is convenient for most travelers, but this method may
not represent accurate pronunciation, especially when you try to learn Thai
language. Due to the fact that Thai language has forty-four consonants (with
only 21 separate sounds), thirty-two vowels, and four tone marks, Thai can
create a more extensive vocabulary than English.
Thai vowels are divided into two categories: short and long. Most Thai vowels
are comparable to English vowels. Being able to recognize the difference between
the short and long vowels will help you pronounce Thai words more accurately.
Thai is a tonal language. There are five tones and four tone marks. Each tone
mark, when placed above the word, will change the meaning of the word
completely. For example,
ขาว
(kao)
means white
ข่าว
(kao) means news
ข้าว
(kao) means rice
Please notice that in the example above, there is only one way to transcribe
these three words into English because of no tone mark in English. To eliminate
this confusion, we can use the following symbols to indicate the tones:
no tone means normal tone
/
indicates a high tone
\
indicates a low tone
\/
indicates a rising tone
/\
indicates a falling tone
This Thai-English dictionary introduces you to the Thai vocabulary that you will
use more often. You will find these monosyllabic words very useful. The tables
in this book will help you understand type of word, tone, and the distinction of
the vowels. This book also has examples of Thai sentences and English
translation.
Please keep in mind that you cannot always translate the sentence from your
language into Thai word-by-word. Lots of time the Thais use different
expressions and colloquial terms.
Phonological System of Thai Language
1. Consonants
There are forty-four Thai consonants, but there are only twenty-eight consonant
sounds. The consonants presented in this book are the ones that we use more
often. In fact, you do not need to know all forty-four consonants because some
of them are used with the loan words from Pali and Sanskrit or they are obsolete
ones. Thai consonants have three levels: low, mid and high.
Low-level Consonants:
ค (kh), ช
(ch), ซ (s), ท (th),
พ (p), ฟ (f), ม (m),
ย (y), ร(r), ล(l), ว(w)
Mid-level Consonants:
ก(g,จ(j),
ด(d), ต(dt), บ(b), ป(bp), อ(a)
High-level Consonants:
ข(k),
ฉ(ch), ถ(t),
ฝ(f), ผ(ph), ส(s),ห(h)
Understanding level of consonant would be very helpful to the pronunciation
since level of consonant associates with tone. This will be explained further
when we talk about tone and tone marks. The table below gives you English
equivalency to facilitate the pronunciation:7
|
Consonants
|
Name in Phonetic
|
English Sound
|
|
ก
|
gaw
|
g |
|
ข
|
kaw |
k |
|
ค
|
khaw |
k |
|
ง
|
ngaw |
ng
|
|
จ
|
jaw |
j |
|
ฉ
|
chaw |
ch |
|
ช
|
chaw |
ch |
|
ซ
|
saw |
s |
|
ด
|
daw |
d |
|
ต
|
dtaw |
dt |
|
ถ
|
taw |
t |
|
ท
|
thaw |
th |
|
น
|
naw |
n |
|
บ
|
baw |
b |
|
ป
|
bpaw |
bp |
|
ผ
|
phaw |
ph |
|
ฝ
|
faw |
f |
|
พ
|
paw |
p |
|
ฟ
|
faw |
f |
|
ม
|
maw |
m |
|
ย
|
yaw |
y |
|
ร
|
raw |
r |
|
ล
|
law |
l |
|
ว
|
waw |
w |
|
ส
|
saw |
s |
|
ห
|
haw |
h |
|
อ
|
aw |
a |
|
ฮ
|
haw |
h |
|
|
|
|
|