Help With Determining The Tone Of A Syllable

[Delight 556]

UNDERSTANDING CHARTS

(I suggest that you print these before reading the post- if you a desire to understand the post-that is)

The charts are designed to assist the reader of Thai Script establish the TONE in a syllable.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

a) Sounding ' end' consonants K P T

Start to say these' end 'consonants as normal-just do not' finish' saying them as would be the case in English.

The following vowels are all LONG for tonal purposes.

อำ ไ ใ เอา เอย ( The consonant อ is silent)

EXPLANATION OF CHARTS

-CHART for SYLLABLES without TONE MARKS-CHART A

1) The 'Answers' are the symbols

H -High Tone M-Mid tone F -Falling Tone L-Low Tone R-Rising Tone

2) The 'Question 'is in Two -parts A and B

A

Left Hand side of the chart has the Consonants -Find the particular initial consonant for the syllable in question then read across to the right

B

The ending of a syllable will be one of the following:

x) Short Vowel or K P T

y) ALL ENDING SOUNDS except ' Short Vowel or K P T'

Z) Long Vowel and K P T

Having located the appropriate syllable - ending -then read down

Where 'A' and 'B' meet is the 'Answer'

-CHART for SYLLABLES with TONE MARK-CHART B

1)

The names of the 4 TONE marks are

่mái-èek ไม้เอกbb

๋mái-too ไม้โbb

๊mái-dtrii ไม้ตรีbbb

๋mái-jàt-dtà~waa ไม้จัตวา

2)

The Actual sounds have the names

เสียงสามัญ - ordinary tone-mid

เสียงเอก - low

เสียงโท - falling tone

เสียงตรี - high tone

เสียงจัตวา - rising tone

3)

When a syllable has a tone mark the Student is required only to know

the consonant class of the initial consonant of the syllable in question .

ie LOW MID and HIGH

EXTRA INFORMATION

C) ห ( In this context this symbol is a code)

When ห precedes the following 8 consonants (all are in the LOW consonant group)-then in this case regard all 8 as being in the HIGH consonant group for tonal purposes.

This applies WITH or WITHOUT a TONE MARK

I list the 8

ล ม น ง ร ว ย ญ

d) Words which have the initial consonant ย ่ will, when following the rules produce a Falling Tone.

The rules do not apply for 4 words in Thai.

The 4 words are preceded by อ to denote this change of TONE.

They become low tone

The 4 words are :

อย่า yàa (to forbid)

อยู่ yùu ( to stay ,to live ,to be)

อยาก yàak (to want)

อย่าง yàang Kind (as in category)

e) Words beginning with 2 consonants(HIGH or MID) together that have an inherent vowel 'a'.

In this situation the TONE of the 2^nd syllable is usually determined by the consonant class of the 1^ST

This is however not always true e.g. Syllables that start ส with a inherent vowel ,then ,the consonant of the 2^nd syllable controls or does not. control

The

1^st consonant controls. สมัย sà~mǎi (HI con class plus ' ALL ENDING SOUND except not KPT or SHORT VOWEL' produces RISING tone)

2^nd consonant controls แสดง sà~dɛɛng( MID con class plus 'ALL ENDING SOUNDS except not KPT or SHORT VOWEL' produces MID tone.

--EXPLANATION OF TONES--

Attached may be useful -- but it is not part of the main post

Delight

[Rikker 25]

Where is this pasted from?

[Delight 556]

Where is this pasted from?

The information came from Thai for Beginners

I found the rules too difficult -not to understand-just to retain

So I developed the 2 charts

This is about 2 years ago

They have never let me down

Why do you ask?

[Rikker 25]

I was asking because if it's a direct quotation from a copyrighted source it may not be okay to paste in large chunks here. But if instead you've distilled and rewritten the information contained and you're not quoting directly, that's okay.

[Delight 556]

I was asking because if it's a direct quotation from a copyrighted source it may not be okay to paste in large chunks here. But if instead you've distilled and rewritten the information contained and you're not quoting directly, that's okay.

Thanks Rikker

You have described my actions perfectly

Delight

[bhoydy 5]

The tones were probably the most difficult part of learning to read and write for me. I had my own chart which i used to write out on a daily basis to try and get the tones to stick. It never seemed to cement in my head until i found the tone quiz on thai language dot com. If you have your chart and work your way through the quiz it is very beneficial. Eventually you will not need your charts and you can fly through the quiz. I'm not affiliated with this website in anyway and there are other similar tools available but this is the one that worked for me.

[Delight 556]

The tones were probably the most difficult part of learning to read and write for me. I had my own chart which i used to write out on a daily basis to try and get the tones to stick. It never seemed to cement in my head until i found the tone quiz on thai language dot com. If you have your chart and work your way through the quiz it is very beneficial. Eventually you will not need your charts and you can fly through the quiz. I'm not affiliated with this website in anyway and there are other similar tools available but this is the one that worked for me.

I constructed the charts about 2 years ago

For about 23 months they have lived in my head

I have no need to carry them about.

However I did initially.

I learned to remember them using aid memoires

eg In respect of Chart A I found I could remember the 'answers' lines Bottom to Top-easier than Top to Bottom

In respect of Chart B The phrase HIGH RISE in relation to a building for some reason stuck. LOW FALL HIGH RISE was then easy to remember. Only the MID cons have 4 tones

The FALL and the HIGH in MID consonant column shift up to give the FALL HIGH in the LOW column

The HIGH con group has just the LOW FALL of the MID cons.

Edited September 19, 2010 by Delight