I have a question about the two types of lower class consonants, long type and short type (I am unsure of the correct terms for these). These determine when a word with a dead ending has a falling tone because of a long type or high tone because of a short type. For example in the word ยาก (difficult), the consonant ย is considered to be a long type so the word has a falling tone. In the word มด (ant), the consonant ม is considered to be a short type so the word has a high tone. I have a list of lower class consonants: ท ม น ค ว ร ล ง ย พ ฟ ช ภ ฆ ฌ ญ ฑ ฒ ณ ธ ฬ ฮ. My question is, which of these are considered to be short and which long?

It is the vowels that are long or short. า in ยาก is long vowel, the o sound for the missing vowel in มด is a short vowel.

 

For example:  look at มาก and ยก.

I suggest you work your way through the reading course at https://thai-notes.com/reading/index.html

There are so many irregularities and idiosyncrasies in Thai that you'll struggle if you try to work it out for yourself.

Thank you for explaining that, it has helped me a lot. Thank you for the link too.

The tone is for the syllable. The syllable can end in a vowel or a consonant.

 

The tone for a syllable depends on

- The class of the consonant

- Whether the syllable is "Live'"or "Dead"

- Whether the vowel is long or short

- Tone mark