Thai Vowels Overview

[ChristianPFC]

While I was studying Thai during my holiday in Dec-Jan, I needed an overview of Thai vowels. Those I found in books or the internet were not suitable for my purposes: in books they were spread over several chapters or pages, but I wanted it on one page to print out and check whenever I came across a vowel I didn't know. So I made a chart myself, which you can download from the attachment. I did not include phonetics as I don't need them any more, there are many systems and I was too lazy to work out how to include these characters.

I think the idea of arranging the vowels in three columns: short (final and medial position), long (final and medial position) and compound (based on short or long) is new (if you know this concept from somewhere else let me know). The order is based on "Thai for Beginners"; some of the examples are from "43 Thai Vowel Cards". "-" replaces one consonant, "- -" means another consonant has to follow (vowel in medial position).

While I was working on this chart, I discovered that there are even short and long compound vowels (เ-็ว and เ-ว). For some vowels (-็อ- and เ-ือะ), no examples are given in the literature I used.

In other overviews of Thai vowels I found the following vowels without examples, which I didn't include in my chart: -ัย -ิย -ูย แ-็ว -็อย -วาย.

If you have examples for these vowels, let me know. Any further suggestions welcome.

thai vowels.doc

[aitch]

ภัย Danger

สัญญาณภัย Warning Signal

สัญญาณปลอดภัย All-Clear Signal

[aitch]

หย็อกหย็อย

1 - (hair) to be thin, sparse.

2 - (hair) to be tightly curled, frizzy, kinky.

3 - (foliage) to be thin, unhealthy.

Hi ChristianPFC,

I pulled from Mary Haas 'Thai-English Student's Dictionary'

[ChristianPFC]

Thanks for your contribution. It seems there are some vowels listed in books, for which no examples exist. Did you go through a printed dictionary or is Mary Haas 'Thai-English Student's Dictionary' available online or has a version for computer? I searched for หย็อกหย็อย on thai2german.com and thai2english.com, but it's not listed there.

Edit: I just found that thai-language.com found this word in the Royal Institute Dictionary.

Edited May 19, 2011 by ChristianPFC

[aitch]

I started with Mary Haas 'The Thai System of Writing'

-> Chapter 2: The Vocalic Symbols

-> Page 23 (#7) Examples of Vowel plus Sonorant Combinations (A) Read with Final /-j/

-> I found these two examples and then went on to the printed version of Mary Haas 'Thai-English Student's Dictionary'.

Use sealang.net's Thai library. You will see these examples verbatim. My knee-jerk reaction is to go straight to the printed page because i study during my commute.

If you find examples for -ิย, -ูย, แ-็ว, -วาย please share. I haven't had much time lately but will continue to poke around.

aitch

[Richard W]

If you find examples for -ิย, -ูย, แ-็ว, -วาย please share. I haven't had much time lately but will continue to poke around.

หิว

ควาย

I don't think -ูย exists. Do you mean -ุย, as in ปุย? Likewise, I'm doubtful of แ-็ว.

[aitch]

I threw every consonant at -ิย, -ูย, and แ-็ว and all I got was อูย 'ouch !' (page 629)

[Richard W]

I searched for -ิย in a list of 18,057 Thai words, and didn't like what I found. It might be the word internal equivalent of -ิยะ as in อริยะ. Even then, I could only find one example, เจติย, an alternative prefix form for เจดีย์. I would interpret the symbol as representing two vowels, not one.

[Suradit]

43 Thai Vowel Cards

I found a set of flash cards at Bookazine for Baht 250

Their wwebsite: http://howtolearnthai.com/thai-alphabet-flash-cards/

Complete set of Thai vowel flash cards – includes tone marks and punctuation

$8.99 USD

Includes free international shipping!

• Intuitive phonetic transcription
• Visual tone frequency and duration graphs
• Color-coded vowel categories – colorblind-safe
• Vowel pairs, dipthong and combined indicators
• Traditional printing and handwriting indicators
• Mouth position and articulation diagrams
• Consonant class and live-dead tone rule symbols
• Safe and non-toxic – edible, soy-based ink
• Online videos with audio and writing instruction

[yvanlu]

ช็อกโกแล็ต

Can this word be considered as an example? It's a loanword from English.

[aitch]

Hi ChristianPFC,

Could you clarify where you are getting the '-วาย' vowel example from ? Seems as though you are looking for the vowel/sonorant combination '-วย' with the vowel 'า' dropped right there in the middle.

aitch

[ChristianPFC]

Hi ChristianPFC,

Could you clarify where you are getting the '-วาย' vowel example from ? Seems as though you are looking for the vowel/sonorant combination '-วย' with the vowel 'า' dropped right there in the middle.

aitch

It's on womenlearnthai.com/downloads/ThaiCheatSheet-A4.pdf as a pseudovowel -วาย uaai (so it's no confusion with for example buffalo kwaai ควาย).

43 Thai Vowel Cards

I found a set of flash cards at Bookazine for Baht 250

Their wwebsite: http://howtolearntha...et-flash-cards/

That's the source I mentioned.

ช็อกโกแล็ต

Can this word be considered as an example? It's a loanword from English.

Thank you very much, that's exactly what I was looking for!

Edited May 22, 2011 by ChristianPFC

[Richard W]

If you're just looking for แ-็, you might prefer แข็ง.