Are The Thai Letters On The Keyboard In Any Order?

[Neeranam]

I still have trouble finding the letters on the keyboard.

I can't make out any kind of order.

Is there any?

[BambinA]

Khor Kwaud and Kor Khon?

never noticed b4 until u make this tread so i check my keyboard

Bambi

Kwaud = bottle

Khon = human

[Girlfrombar]

i don't know if the thai pc keyboard is in the same order as in the thai typewriter keyboard

http://www.nectec.or.th/it-standards/keybo...ut/thai-key.htm

http://www.learningthai.com/thaikeyboard/

but no matter what types of keyboard; qwerty or whatever

i always use typing finger by finger!

and then by type more frequently, my fingers auto move along fluently

and i become remembering their order automatically!!

the alphabets on thai pc keyboard seem/are all in the same order anyway.

[Richard W]

I can't make out any kind of order.

Is there any?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, the digits from ๑ to ๙ are in order on the shifted top row, with a gap in the middle.

I did answer Big Spuds' question as to whether there was any logic in the Kedmanee layout. As I didn't save the reference, I'm reposting a slightly improved reply. Some of the puns assume you know the names of the letters.

The Kedmanee keyboard has 'logic' galore:

[*]Mechanically shifting is hard, so no common symbols are entered using the shift key.

[*]Common symbols, especially that tone marks and short vowels go in the middle of the keyboard.

[*]Rare symbols go to the edges, as shifted keys

For the rest, here are some mnemonics, mostly based on a crazed logic:

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Some logic is easy to see. บ is oft but a 3-sided box - so '[' for บ is clear. Give ]' a dangling tail, and behold a ล. Sara u is an inverted '6', so '6' for อุ. For English, shift makes big, so อู is 'shift 6', i.e. '^'. Number '๐' is like 'Q', so 'Q' on the left is for ๐. Thai ๑ is like '@', so yank it over there ('shift 2'). ๒๓๔ follow on, taking 'shift 3', 'shift 4' and 'shift 5'. Finish the shifted top row with digits, so ๕๖๗๘๙ are 'shift 8' i.e. '*', 'shift 9' i.e. '(', 'shift 0' i.e. ')', '_' and '+'.

A ฐาน is really just a fancy box to stand something on, so put ฐ on the fancy '{', same key as box '[' for บ.

Of ชีวิต a cat has ๙, so '=' for ช (same key as '+' for ๙). Broken-backed ช is now placed. Straight-backed ข goes before, sitting on '-'. When writing, go left on top and get จ on '0'. OK J0e?

Raise it and shrink it - apostrophe for ง. Alas, but a faint resemblance lets ';' give ว.

In English, final 's' is often found in clusters; likewise initial ห in Thai. As Grecians will tell you, initial /s/ gives /h/, so 's' yields ห. (A sceptic would say, 'Thais name English 's' and 'h' alike (saying them เอด), and were simply khonfused.') ส is like ล, so let 'l' give you ส. ศ is the other common /s/, so let 'L' give ศ. (sor khor is 'L'.) As Sanskritists know, /k/ leads to ษ (by RUKI), so let 'K' give ษ. (Do I hear some cry ยักษ์?) To complete our cluster of sors, put ซ on the right - ':' yields ซ. Is ฆ snake-headedly sinuous enough to deserve 'S'? A rattler with built-in bell, perhaps.

'J' is for 'jot', so 'j' for little mai ek (อ่).

'J' is for 'join', in English a plus, so 'J' for mai chattawa (อ๋).

'H' is for 'half', so 'H' for อ็ yields half the length.

Mai tho is commoner by far, so 'h' for อ้ - use 'h' in the middle!

Mai tri accompanies them above, so 'U' for อ๊.

Does our baby at the keyboard have indigestion? Perhaps it is time to burp you, or rather 'birpya': 'b' gives อิ; 'i' gives ร; 'r' gives พ; 'p' gives ย and 'y' gives อั. But Thai has another /y/, so 'P' gives ญ. As Sanskritists know, ณ goes with ร, so put it on the same key - 'I' gives ณ. (As Latinists know, 'y' is an extra vowel - so also is อั, reinforcing the logic.)

Now, in alphabetical order, it's อะ then อั, so thus on the keyboard - 't' gives อะ. In Pali, Sanskrit ฑ yields the /l/ of นาฬิกา. (For s'port, we have กรีฑา and กีฬา.) Songsters sing 'naarikaa', so let 'R' give ฑ. Rare ฬ is exiled rightwards (>), i.e. '>' gives ฬ.

'D' is for 'deed', and ก for การ, so 'd' for ก. /d/ is displaced (to the right), so 'f' for ด. We need a hard working vowel, so 'g' in the middle for เอ. Then 'dfgh' scramble and shift to give us a เด็ก (gfHd).

Does /f/ go 'fa'? 'a' is for for ฟ, but ฝ goes far right (in shape and position) and uses '/'. The other zigzagger on your lips is ผ - use 'z'.

To use 'D' for ฎ would be too simple! Displace to 'E' for ฎ, and let 'D' give ฏ. Likewise, busily displace to 'u' for อี.

A Russian script 't' looks like an 'm', so 'm' is for ท. /m/ is displaced, so ',' (comma) on its right for ม. Keep the pattern, displace 'n' (next is 'o'), so 'o' is for น. And as for โ, can one not see that this is an 'F'? ธ rates as infrequent, so give it a shift and then just use 'T'.

Karan makes a consonant a big Nothing, so 'N' for อ์.

/ue/ is next to /u/ (think Wat Tuek spelt Wat Tuk), so '7' for short อึ. Long /ue/ (อื) is heavy, so drop down to 'n', a 'u' turned turtle (tuetle?).

Aye, what shall we use for ไ? Why 'w'! ใ turns its head to a dot, so '.' for ใ.

Ever noticed Indian names in 'Chh-'? That's just ฉ, a real big 'C'.

To begin with a vowel, Thai needs อ. Vowel begins with 'v', so 'v' for อ. ฮ is an enlarged อ, so make it big 'V'.

Remember SPQR, senatus populusque romanus? 'Q' is for 'and', so 'q' is for ๆ 'ditto'. While in matters Roman, 'k' likes its 'a' (e.g. kalendae 'calends' and 'k' itself), so let 'k' yield อา (lak khang). While า is OK, lakkhangyao is only for ฤ (exiled to 'A'), so hide the long one (ๅ) on '1'. ฃ and ฅ are not needed, so hide them on wandering '\'/'|'.

ภ phor samphao - looks like a job for '4'. Loop-flipped ถ goes beside, sitting on '5'.

แ is like เ, Thai handwritten 'c' is like 'e' - so 'c' for แ.

The logic for ป is unknown - 'x' marks the spot! 'e' is a vowel looking for a job - um, let it yield อำ.

Punctuation is available - quote (QWERTY ") for a statement ('.')? To query (ไหม) use 'M'.

Still unpositioned is letter number 4, ค in Thai, not 'd' as in English. ('d' is gone to ก.) '4' is gone to ภ, so double up and put ค on '8'. Put the other non-ด beside, '9' for ต. Both start inside, and curl over and down.

That exhausts my memory tricks. For other symbols, scan the top row, then look at the two sides, and finally the bottom row. In the midst of this quad lurks a rare tree - 'G' for ฌ. Shade for hardworking 'g' for 'เ'?

[Neeranam]

Ha ha Sorry I asked!

That was great richard, thanks a lot.

So I think I was right, absolutely no meaning except for the rare ones being at the side or using SHIFT.

[Richard W]

So I think I was right, absolutely no meaning except for the rare ones being at the side or using SHIFT.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it's worth remembering that the tone marks cluster on H, J and U in the middle, and that the 4 sors cluster about L. Of course, those facts are more useful if your keys are marked for Thai.

A cribsheet can be useful - my keyboarding web page serves as a cribsheet. Switch the page to Kedmanee, don't use its default key mapping. You may need to print it off as a screen dump - on Firefox, print failed bizarrely. Of course, that only works if you know QWERTY.

How does one teach a Thai to type? By key numbers (A00, C06 etc.)? The TIS-820 standard goes from position to character, so one can't use that directly. It does have a keyboard diagram one can cut out.

Richard.

[siamesekitty]

No particular order, just that the more frequently used letters/tone marks are located in the center.

There was once an attempt to make the arrangement of the keys on a Thai typewriter more intuitive, but the new design never really caught on. (I have one of these strange antique typewriters stored away somewhere. If anybody wants to buy it just let me know )

If you want to learn how to touch-type in Thai, just buy one of the Thai-typing CDs that are sold at most bookstores. As them for CD that teaches พิมพ์สัมผัส.

There's one from the Suan Dusit school that can be downloaded for free, but I'll have to warn you that it's extremely boring! โปรแกรมฝึกการพิมพ์สัมผัส ของ วิทยาลัยครูสวนดุสิต