Learn To 'read' The 5 Different Tones

[Puschl]

I am fairly proficient in reading thai script, and almost always prefer to see the thai characters over a romanized transcription. The exceptions (รร ทร …) still are killing me, but Thai pronunciation is a lot more regular than the English one. What is causing me big problems, though, are the five different tones. At first glance, the rules seem fairly complex, and so far I was reluctant to learn them.

Recently, however, I found a quite good listing of the tone rules on http://www.teachthai.com/ , and decided to re-type them for practicing purposes. Also, I added a few 'rules of thumb' that gave me light bulb moments.

I'll post the rules in 7 tiny 'lessons':

Lesson 0: the 5 different tones (and their thai and western names)

Lesson 1: character classes (low, middle, high)

Lesson 2: live and dead syllables

Lesson 3: tone marks

Lesson 4: tonal chart by tones

Lesson 5: tonal chart by tone marks

Lesson 6: หอ หีบ and ออ อ่าง

Edit: the topic should be "Learn to 'read' the 5 different tones". Hit Enter accidentially. Could a mod please change it. [Done. --Rikker]

Edited April 5, 2009 by Rikker
correct topic title at poster's request

[Puschl]

LESSON 0: the 5 different tones

There are five different tones that the vowel in each syllable can take:

• เสียง สามัญ (sĭang săa-man) middle tone
  
• เสียง เอก (sĭang èk) low tone
  
• เสียง โท (sĭang toh) falling tone
  
• เสียง ตรี (sĭang dtree) high tone
  
• เสียง จัตวา (sĭang jàt-dtà-waa) rising tone
  

Transliteration from http://www.thai2english.com/, which I don't really like (consonants, vowels, lengths), but their tone marks are very intuitive:

• Middle tone is a steady pitch (-)
  
• Low tone is going down (\)
  
• Falling tone goes up and "falls" again (^)
  
• High tone is going up (/), and
  
• rising tone goes down and "rises" again (v).
  

The english (and german) naming conventions are a bit confusing, because the low tone actually starts at a medium pitch and is falling. But renaming the low tone to falling tone would leave no good name for the falling tone, so just accept the conventions, and learn the thai names early on.

The tone is carried by the vowel in each syllable. Which of this five tones the vowel takes, is governed by a set of rules involving three entities:

1. the "class" of the leading consonant
   
2. the category of the syllable, being "live" or "dead"
   
3. the tone mark
   

[Puschl]

LESSON 1: The classes of the Thai consonants

The Thai characters (actually the consonants) are categorized into three groups (classes): low, middle and high class consonants. Learning which character belongs to which group is the most difficult part in this story. Probably learning by heart is the only way. I haven't heard of any rule of thumb yet.

The groups will be listed in the order middle/high/low for two reasons:

1. the middle group is the "most regular" one (see later)
   
2. middle and high groups have less members, thus may be easier to learn by heart
   

อักษรกลาง (àk-sŏn glaang) MIDDLE consonants are:

ก จ ด ต ฎ ฏ บ ป อ

(9)

ไก่ จาน เด็ก เต่า ชฎา ปฏัก ใบไม้ ปลา อ่าง

อักษรสูง (àk-sŏn sŏong) HIGH consonants are:

ข ฃ ฉ ฐ ถ ผ ฝ ส ษ ศ ห

(11)

ไข่ ขวด ฉิ่ง ฐาน ถุง ผึ้ง ฝา เสือ ฤาษี ศาลา หีบ

อักษรต่ำ (àk-sŏn dtàm) LOW consonants are:

ค ฅ ฆ ช ซ ฌ ฑ ฒ ท ธ พ ฟ ภ ฮ

ง ญ น ย ณ ร ว ม ฬ ล

(14+10)

The low consonants are grouped into "paired" and "single" low consonants. It's not necessary to learn paired and single low consonants by heart. The paired low consonants simply have one (or more) corresponding high consonant with the same pronunciation.

On teachthai.com, I've seen color-coded thai alphabet charts with green for low, orange for middle and red for high tone consonants.

[Puschl]

LESSON 2: live and dead syllables

The concept of live syllables (คำเป็น kam bpen) and dead syllables (คำตาย kam dtaai) distinguishes between syllables that "roll off the tongue smoothly" (live) on one hand, and syllables that "stop short" (dead) on the other hand.

The explicit rules are:

• live: long vowel without ending consonant (เก๋ มี เชื่อ ดู ...) or any vowel with an end sound of NG, N, M, Y, W (ลิง ช้อน ผม …)
  
• dead: short vowel without ending consonant (เกาะ ละ สิ …) or any vowel with an end sound of P, T or K (หลับ สัตว์ ถูก …)
  

Rule of thumb: on a live syllable you can keep on voicing the final sound, whereas you can't hum a song on the last sound of a dead syllable (trying to do so on a k-sound will either teach you to utter the german "ch"-sound or damage your vocal cords )

Of course you could keep on voicing a short end-vowel, but that makes it a long vowel.

Edited April 4, 2009 by Puschl

[Puschl]

LESSON 3: tone marks

there are four tone marks, each one closely related to a certain tone. The middle tone is not related to any tone mark. Absence of a tone mark does not always imply middle tone, though, and there are a few more exceptions.

The tone marks are (written above the placeholder อ for visibility):

• อ่ ไม้เอก (máai èk) related to เสียงเอก LOW TONE
  
• อ้ ไม้โท (máai toh) related to เสียงโท FALLING TONE
  
• อ็ ไม้ตรี (máai dtree) related to เสียงตรี HIGH TONE
  
• อ๋ ไม้จัตวา (máai jàt-dtà-waa) related to เสียงจัตวา RISING TONE
  

While เสียงเอก appropriately ends in a low tone syllable, the other names all end in a middle tone syllable, no mnemonic help there.

[Puschl]

LESSON 4: tonal chart by tones

now we know the basic elements for the rules governing intonation. We'll start with middle-tone consonants, live syllables. This is the most regular case:

กา middle consonant, live syllable:

• -: กา no tone mark → เสียง สามัญ middle tone
  
• \: ก่า ไม้ เอก → เสียง เอก low tone
  
• ^: ก้า ไม้ โท → เสียง โท falling tone
  
• /: ก๊า ไม้ ตรี → เสียง ตรี high tone
  
• v: ก๋า ไม้ จัตวา → เสียง จัตวา rising tone
  

each tone mark creates the corresponding tone. Missing tone mark creates middle tone.

กะ middle consonant, dead syllable:

• -: N/A
  
• \: กะ no tone mark → เสียง เอก low tone
  
• ^: ก้ะ ไม้ โท → เสียง โท falling tone
  
• /: ก๊ะ ไม้ ตรี → เสียง ตรี high tone
  
• v: ก๋ะ ไม้ จัตวา → เสียง จัตวา rising tone
  

Middle tone not possible. Missing tone mark creates low tone, other tone marks regular.

ขา high consonant, live syllable:

• -: N/A
  
• \: ข่า ไม้ เอก → เสียง เอก low tone
  
• ^: ข้า ไม้ โท → เสียง โท falling tone
  
• /: N/A
  
• v: ขา no tone mark → เสียง จัตวา rising tone
  

Middle and high tone not possible, ไม้ เอก and ไม้ โท regular. Missing tone mark creates rising tone.

ขะ high consonant, dead syllable:

• -: N/A
  
• \: ขะ no tone mark → เสียง เอก low tone
  
• ^: ข้ะ ไม้ โท → เสียง โท falling tone
  
• /: N/A
  
• v: N/A
  

Missing tone mark creates low tone, ไม้ โท regular, other tones not possible.

คา low consonant, live syllable

• -: คา no tone mark → เสียง สามัญ middle tone
  
• \: N/A
  
• ^: ค่า ไม้ เอก → เสียง โท falling tone
  
• /: ค้า ไม้ โท → เสียง ตรี high tone
  
• v: N/A
  

Missing tone mark regular (middle tone), ไม้ เอก and ไม้ โท shifted by one tone, others not possible.

คะ low consonant, live syllable

• -: N/A
  
• \: N/A
  
• ^: ค่ะ ไม้ เอก → เสียง โท falling tone
  
• /: คะ no tone mark → เสียง ตรี high tone
  
• v: N/A
  

ไม้ เอก shifted by one tone, missing tone mark creates high tone, others not possible.

[Puschl]

LESSON 5: tonal chart by tone marks

อ่ - ไม้ เอก creates เสียง เอก low tone

exceptions:

อักษรต่ำ low consonant: เสียง โท falling tone

not used with

อักษรกลางหรือสูง คำตาย middle or high consonants, dead syllable

อ้ - ไม้ โท creates เสียง โท falling tone

exceptions

อักษรต่ำ คำเป็น low consonant, live syllable: เสียง ตรี high tone

not used with

อักษรต่ำ คำตาย low consonant, dead syllable

อ๊ - ไม้ ตรี creates เสียง ตรี

no exceptions

not used with

อักษรสูงหรือต่ำ high or low consonant

อ๋ - ไม้ จัตวา creates เสียง จัตวา rising tone

no exceptions

not used with

อักษรสูงหรือต่ำ high or low consonant

Missing tone mark:

อักษรกลางหรือตำ คำเป็น → เสียง สามัญ

middle or low consonant, live syllable → middle tone

อักษรกลางหรือสูง คำตาย → เสียง เอก

middle or high consonant, dead syllable → low tone

อักษรสูง คำเป็น → เสียง จัตวา

high consonant, live syllable → rising tone

อักษรตำ คำตาย → เสียง ตรี

low consonant, dead syllable → high tone

The rules for syllables with tone marks are fairly simple: each tone mark creates the corresponding tone, except for leading low consonants, where the tone is shifted by one (เอก to โท, โท to ตรี).

The rules which tone marks are not used with which combination of leading consonant and syllable type are more complicated, but not necessary for reading.

The rules for syllables without tone marks need to be learned by heart. Are there any mnemonic aides to learn those? And does anybody know where the character classes (กลาง สูง ตำ) have their names from, i.e. why is a high class consonant 'high classed', etc.?

[Puschl]

LESSON 6: หอ หีบ and ออ อ่าง

ห is a high consonant, which can be put in front of a low consonant to modify the intonation. A ห used this way is soundless, but makes the syllable start with a high consonant.

Example:

ลง (down/wards)

อักษรตำ คำเป็น → เสียง สามัญ

low consonant (ล-), live (-ง) syllable, no tone mark → middle tone

หลง (misunderstand)

อักษณสูง คำเป็น → เสียง จัตวา

high consonant (ห-), live syllable, no tone mark → rising tone

อ (middle) can be put in front of the low consonant ย to make the syllable begin with a middle consonant. This is a rare construction and here's the complete list of occurences:

อย่า (forbidden)

อักษรกลาง คำเป็น ไม้เอก เสียงเอก

อยู่ (stay)

อักษรกลาง คำเป็น ไม้เอก เสียงเอก

อย่าง (sort of)

อักษรกลาง คำเป็น ไม้เอก เสียงเอก

อยาก (want)

อักษรกลาง คำตาย ไม้ไม่มี เสียงเอก

I'm only guessing on the term ไม้ไม่ม, meaning that there is no tone mark. How would a native speaker phrase that?

And how would you say "A leading (low/middle/high) consonant in a (live/dead) syllable (without tone mark / with mai ek/tho/tri/jatawa) implies a (middle/low/falling/high/rising) tone" ?

Everybody is welcome to post thai words with such explications of the intonation. It would also be good to hear how other people learned reading the tones, and what was particularly helpful.

[Richard W]

Rule of thumb: on a live syllable you can keep on voicing the final sound, whereas you can't hum a song on the last sound of a dead syllable (trying to do so on a k-sound will either teach you to utter the german "ch"-sound or damage your vocal cords )

Of course you could keep on voicing a short end-vowel, but that makes it a long vowel.

And theoretically at least, the 'short' vowels are followd by a glottal stop, though it gets dropped when unstressed. (Sentence-final particles may be an exception - and you sometimes see them with mai chattawa, which is against all the rules. One used to be able to google for examples.)

The rules for syllables without tone marks need to be learned by heart. Are there any mnemonic aides to learn those?

Dead syllables are like those with mai ek, except that syllables with short vowels don't have long enough to fall and have to stay high. (Don't take that too literally - short dead syllables with tone marks may have a falling tone.)

[Puschl]

Dead syllables are like those with mai ek, except that syllables with short vowels don't have long enough to fall and have to stay high. (Don't take that too literally - short dead syllables with tone marks may have a falling tone.)

Thank you, Richard. This is a good rule of thumb. I had difficulties to fully understand it, because the lessons 4+5 above are missing a special case: if a dead syllable beginning with a low consonant has a long vowel, then the sound is falling, not high as listed above.

Since posting my 'lessons' above, I've read some lessons on thai-language.com that really helped a lot.

First, the consonant sound table is a great help to learn the character classes. All middle consonants (อักษรกลาง) are so called plains, that are unaspirated stop sounds. (unaspirated/aspirated examples: ป/ผ ต/ท ก/ข จ/ช). The mysterious อ is somewhat special in that group, but it's a funny "con-sonant" anyway.

All sonorants (sounds that you can hum) are อักษรต่ำ low consonants. They are the 'single' low consonants. The 'paired' low consonants are aspirates (sounds that can blow out a candle). Each of them has one or more corresponding high consonants (อักษรสูง). Which of the aspirates is low or high still needs to be learned, but it helps a bit to know that all high consonants are aspirates. (And it helps to remember that จ and ช are pronounced differently!).

While for the aspirates there exist low and high variants, sonorants all are low and ห is used with them when a high initial consonant is needed.

A comprehensive overview on the tone rules is presented in this Table on thai-language.com . It looks pretty scary at first sight, but actually is a very helpful reference. It lists the consonants in it's three classes on the left side and explains live and dead syllables on the top. With the help of this table, and Richard's comments I came up with the following rules of thumb:

• The tonemarks ไม้ เอก/โท/ตรี/จตวา imply the corresponding sounds เสียง เอก/โท/ตรี/จตวา, (อ่ low, อ้ falling, อ๊ high, อ๋ rising) except for low initial consonant, where เอก/โท are shifted to โท/ตรี. (อ่ falling, อ้ high)
  

Remark: เอก โท ตรี จัตวา are the Pali numerals one two three four. Low initial consonant: add +1.

• Live syllables without tone marks imply เสียงสามัญ middle tone, except for high initial consonant, which implies เสียงจัตวา rising tone.
  

• Dead syllables without tone marks are almost as if they had อ่ - ไม้เอก mai ek attached: generally เสียงเอก low tone, but low initial consonant is again exceptional: generally เสียงโท falling tone as implied by mai ek, but if the vowel is short, then it'shigh tone, "because there's no time to fall".
  

I hope I got everything correct this time, since that's the way I'm memorizing it now.

[stevehaigh]

thanks but i was kind of hoping you'd found some simple formula that didn't need a super computer to work out.

i'm happy i can get the basic sound of the word now, i havn't even started to figure out the tone, i have to look at a romanized version for that.

what i don't get is, the literacy rate in Thailand is pretty high, 96% (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_lit_tot_pop-education-literacy-total-population) and lets face it, a lot of Thai's aren't that clever, yet they have no problem working out this tone stuff! i'm fairly smart but i don't know if i'll ever get the tone thing down. what am i missing?

[meadish_sweetball]

thanks but i was kind of hoping you'd found some simple formula that didn't need a super computer to work out.

i'm happy i can get the basic sound of the word now, i havn't even started to figure out the tone, i have to look at a romanized version for that.

what i don't get is, the literacy rate in Thailand is pretty high, 96% (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_lit_tot_pop-education-literacy-total-population) and lets face it, a lot of Thai's aren't that clever, yet they have no problem working out this tone stuff! i'm fairly smart but i don't know if i'll ever get the tone thing down. what am i missing?

A logical and engaging presentation and consistent practice to drum it into your head until it's firmly stuck there - having a native teacher (or a proficient foreigner with perfect tone pronunciation and reading skills) correct you will help immensely.

In my case, our teacher started by explaining the theory (which made our heads spin the first time) and then had us draw up a table showing the exact rules. We were told we had one week to memorize it completely so we could draw it out of memory.

Second stage (and this I believe is more important) is to learn to apply it. To do so, we used the AUA books for reading and writing, where you are presented with series of syllables without translation that you are supposed to apply the table to. If you have internalized the table, you can see it in your head and then you start by checking

'What is the initial consonant of the syllable?'

'Is the syllable dead or live?'

'Is the vowel sound short or long?' and

'Is there a tone mark?'

Provided you have learned the table by heart, and by answering those questions correctly, you can theoretically figure out the tone of any Thai syllable thrown at you.

And once you have practiced it for a few weeks/months, the process will become quick and painless.

The more you read, the more familiar words like ไหม เป็น ไป มา มาก ดี ครับ ค่ะ etc. will start to 'pop out' of the text for you, and reduce the need to analyze each syllable carefully.

This is an ongoing process - now, 8 years after I finished my formal studies, I still apply the tone rules I internalized when I see new words.

There are other methods too of course, but that is the one I used and it worked well enough.

[Puschl]

thanks but i was kind of hoping you'd found some simple formula that didn't need a super computer to work out.

Well, you've got a supercomputer (your brain) for that task, but programming takes a while

Now, learning the tone rules sure isn't easy for Farangs, neither is hearing or pronouncing them correctly. As meadish* says, you need the formal rules and a LOT of practice. Don't try to learn all the components at once. My approach was the following:

Note*: I hope it's OK to say meadish for short. I always get hungry when I read your nickname to the end. They are so delicious, those swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes, brown sauce and LOTS of lingonberries. But that belongs to another subforum ....

Distinguishing between short and long vowels is something I had to learn anyway to get correct pronounciation. (Okay, there are the devious เ-ิ- ไ- and -ำ which can be either short or long, but those are ecclectic). Distinguishing between live and dead syllables then came easy: dead syllables end in a stop sound, so either in p/t/k (regardless of vowel length) or in the glottal stop of a short vowel without ending consonant. Live syllables end in a hummable sound, so in a long vowel without ending consonant, or in a sonorant (any of the possible end sounds that are not p/t/k).

To learn the tone marks, I took the กา ก่า ก้า ก๊า ก๋า and similar lessons in "Improving Your Thai Pronunciation" by Benjawan P. Becker. Thai kindergarten kids also learn the tone marks this way (at least my nephew does). The good thing: you learn the tone marks and the pronounciation of the five tones simultaneously. Bear in mind that for low tone consonants there are exceptions. Unfortunately I found no free online กา ก่า ก้า ก๊า ก๋า audio file.

Only recently I learned the consonant classes. For me the sonorant/aspirate/plains classification helped a lot. Now I only had to learn the high-class aspirates by heart, and I hardly make mistakes any more. Distinguishing between aspirates and plains also helps improving pronounciation. I had problems with จ (unaspirated tsh, yes thats possible. Take a candle or paper and try hard not to expell air) versus ฉ/ช (aspirated tsh, blow out the candle or make the paper move).

With all that knowledge in your head (I know it's a lot), the tone rules reduce to the three bullets in post #10 above, which are a reasonable amount.

Alternatively to my approach you can get a good, comprehensive tone rules table (the one on thai-language.com linked avove is pretty cool to my mind), print it out and use it to practise a lot. The three bullets above actually are my way of memorizing the structure of this table. And I memorize the bullets by visually associating them to the various sectors in the table.

Thais have the advantage that they know the words beforehand, and not all that can read&write know the formal rules (wonder if there are rules in english when to write oo, ou or oe for [u:]).

But now it's time for some practice:

ไหม silk - tough one to start with

• ห high aspirate (soundless, just used to force the low sonorant ม to high)
  
• ไ- long vowel (usually short, but not this time)
  
• open syllable (no end consonant)
  
• live syllable (long open)
  

high initial consonant and live syllable without tone mark implies RISING (v) tone เสียงจัตวา

เป็น to be

• ป is a plain (unaspirated stop), therefor middle initial consonant
  
• end consonant -น can be hummed, therefor live syllable
  

middle initial consonant in live syllable without tone mark implies MIDDLE (-) tone เสียงสามัญ

Note: เ-็ is a short vowel, but that was not necessary to check here. เปน would also be middle tone, if that word existed.

ไป go

• ป is a plain (unaspirated stop), therefor middle initial consonant
  
• ไ- again is long here
  
• open syllable (no ending consonant), therefor
  
• live syllable (long open)
  

middle initial consonant in live syllable without tonemark implies MIDDLE (-) tone เสียงสามัญ

มา to come

• ม is a sonorant (hummable), therefor low initial consonant
  
• -า is a long vowel
  
• open (no ending consonant), therefor
  
• live syllable
  

low initial consonant in live syllable without tone mark implies MIDDLE (-) tone

มาก a lot, much, very

• initial consonant: low
  
• vowel: long
  
• end consonant: stop sound
  
• syllable type: dead
  
• tone mark: none
  

low initial consonant in dead syllable without tonemark: special case where vowel length is important.

Mnemonic: dead syllable without tonemark almost like with mai ek. Low initial consonant gives falling tone, and a long vowel gives the time to really fall (short vowel: high tone).

So มาก has FALLING (^) tone

ดี good

• initial consonant: middle (plain, unaspirated stop)
  
• syllable type: live (long open)
  
• tone mark: none
  

middle initial consonant in live syllable implies MIDDLE tone

ครับ polite particle for male speaker

• initial consonant: low (aspirate, so no mmemonics. high counterparts are ข and the almost extinct ฃ)
  
• syllable type: dead (end in stop sound "p")
  
• vowel length: short
  
• tone mark: none
  

low initial consonant in dead syllable without tone mark. Mnemonic: theoretically falling, but because the vowel is too short to fall, the tone remains high.

So ครับ has HIGH (/) tone

ค่ะ polite particle for female speaker

• initial consonant: low (see above)
  
• syllable type: dead (short open)
  
• tone mark: mai ek (-่)
  

As there is a tone mark, we only need to know the initial consonant. Since it is a low consonant, the ไม้เอก first tone mark is shifted to เสียงโท second tone, aka FALLING (^) tone.

คะ polite particle for female speaker, used in questions

• initial consonant: low
  
• syllable type: dead
  
• vowel length: short
  
• tone mark: none
  

Again the special case: low initial consonant in dead syllable without tone mark. Would be falling, but since the vowel is short, it's HIGH (/) tone.

[Mousehound]

Thank you all for this very interesting info.

I have just started to learn the alphabet this week. The consonants are not a problem. I use a slightly modified version of the "Thai Alphabet in an hour" method and find it works well. Learning tables for me is a big problem. I am very right hand side brain. Therefore pictures really work well for me. Learning the consonants with a picture of mountains, sea or buildings, combined with the use of colour, to denote their class, is effective. My experience as a teacher is that males in particular tend to pick up and remember using graphical assosciation: females, as a rule, seem better at learning numbers and tables without such devices.

As I am still bumbling about I find the vowels a lot harder. I even mistake some of them for consonants. But I am convinced that you are on the ball with encouraging people to learn to read Thai as quickly as possible. The roman translitteration varies so much that it is like learning another sub-language each time you pick up another book on the subject.

As I don't live in Thailand and I am restricted to all too rare visits, hearing spoken Thai is critical. The best I have at this time is the BYKi course. Which I find better than Pimsleur.

[Puschl]

I use a slightly modified version of the "Thai Alphabet in an hour" method and find it works well. Learning tables for me is a big problem. I am very right hand side brain. Therefore pictures really work well for me. Learning the consonants with a picture of mountains, sea or buildings, combined with the use of colour, to denote their class, is effective.

Agree, images and colors help a lot. In my brain, low consonants are green, mid consonants yellow and high consonants red, which I've seen in tow different sources. The bad thing is, this is no standard, and other sources might use other color codes. As for linking sounds to pictures, the classical alphabet poem (กอ เอ๋ย กอ ไก่) takes a similar approach based on repetition (seeing the letter ข next to an image of a ไข่ ), but it works only if you know the language already (i.e. for Thai kindergarten kids). Funny side note: my nephew early on said มอ เมว instead of สอ เสือ because the tiger in one drawing looked like a kitten.

The roman translitteration varies so much that it is like learning another sub-language each time you pick up another book on the subject.

Roman (latin) translitteration wouldn't be that ambiguous. It's the ENGLISH transliterations (with all the norman, anglo-saxon, french... influence on ortography) that's causing big problems.

Back to practise (also training high/low consonants):

Short / long vowel in dead syllable without tone mark:

for middle and high initial consonant it's always LOW (\) tone, regardless of vowel length (เสียงเอก siang ek, as if there were mai ek).

For low initial consonants, it's FALLING if the vowel is long, or HIGH if the vowel is short.

kh- sounds: low: ค ฆ , high: ข (ฃ)

คัด to select; also: transcribe

no tone mark, low initial consonant, dead syllable, short vowel, HIGH (/) tone

คาด to expect

no tone mark, low initial consonant, dead syllable, long vowel, FALLING (^) tone

ขัด to polish; to obstruct

no tone mark, high initial consonant, dead syllable, (short vowel), LOW (\) tone

ขาด to miss; incomplete; crippled

no tone mark, high initial consonant, dead syllable, (long vowel), LOW (\) tone

ph- sounds: low: พ ภ , high: ผ

พุ to erupt

พุทธ Buddha

no tone mark, low initial consonant, dead syllable, short vowel, HIGH (/) tone

พูด to speak

เภท sort, variety (Pali)

no tone mark, low initial consonant, dead syllable, long vowel, FALLING (^) tone

ผุ to decay

ผุด to pop up

เผ็ด spicy-hot

no tone mark, high initial consonant, dead syllable, (short vowel), LOW (\) tone

ผูก to attach

เผือก taro root; albino

no tone mark, high initial consonant, dead syllable, (long vowel), LOW (\) tone

[RickBradford]

I think our brains (wonderful lazy things that they are) instinctively try to find patterns to make our comprehension easier.

From my Thai reading, patterns which have solidified for me are:

NO TONE MARK.

* There's a long open vowel or a sonorant ending (therefore a live syllable). If consonant is low or middle-class, the tone is middle. If the consonant is high, (always understood to include the pre-posed ห ), the tone is rising.

* All other syllable endings (dead syllables). If consonant is middle or high-class, the tone is low. If the consonant is low-class, then the tone is either high or falling, depending on the length of the vowel. (I have to look those up)

WITH TONE MARKS.

* These make things much easier. If consonant is low, the 'horn' tone, as in ร้าย imparts the high tone, the 'vertical' tone, as in ไร่, imparts a falling tone.

* If consonant is middle or high-class, the horn tone-mark imparts falling tone, the vertical tone mark imparts low tone.

* In addition, mid-class consonants have their two private tone marks, as in โจ๋ (rising tone) and ตุ๊ก (high tone)

[Rikker]

what i don't get is, the literacy rate in Thailand is pretty high, 96% (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_lit_tot_pop-education-literacy-total-population) and lets face it, a lot of Thai's aren't that clever, yet they have no problem working out this tone stuff! i'm fairly smart but i don't know if i'll ever get the tone thing down. what am i missing?

What you're missing is being a native speaker. In any language, native speakers learn to speak before we read and write. So every Thai child who learns to read is fluent in the spoken language before they ever crack their first primer.

After all, spoken language is primary; written language is an imperfect representation of it. Thais of average literacy begin to "not know" stuff when you get into the realm of written/formal Thai, that isn't really used in natural speech.

Don't fret about having trouble with the reading. For us learners, speaking and reading go hand in hand. Learning to read helps correct mistakes and bad habits we pick up in speech, and speaking helps us actually be able to pronounce the words we read. At least it has and does for me.

That doesn't really make the task any easier, but there you have it.

[mangkorn]

...Thais of average literacy begin to "not know" stuff when you get into the realm of written/formal Thai, that isn't really used in natural speech....

As it is in every culture and language. Ask any native English speaker - especially those who insist that they are intellectually superior to Thai people - to explain simple things like "past participle," "gerund," "present-perfect tense," etc., and you are unlikely to hear anything approaching even a minimal comprehension of the question, no matter how "clever" they think they are.