Learning To Read Thai

[camerata]

My spoken Thai is fine, better than most actually, no worries, however after 13 years I should really learn to read and write. My 5 year old kid can so I should.

I need a teacher of some decription who's experienced at teaching "thick" people. Any names or numbers folks?

It my New Years resolution.

TS,

after 18 years, this is the best program I've found.

It's available at (or used to be) Panthip, Sriracha, etc.

chok dee

It seems pretty antiquated. It wouldn't allow me to install in directory "Program Files". I could install it on Win2000 Pro but it suggested I switch my display to 256 colours and then errored when I ran it. Has anyone run it successfully on Win XP?

[Richard W]

... Use Thai then, it's the only method of writing Thai phonetically that's perfect.

I take it the smilie is your admission that the statement is doubly untrue.

I'd just get some books. Even though it's archaic to the max, I still love 'The Fundamentals of the Thai Language'. I have it as a computer file here as well, PM me if you want a copy. This book starts out teaching written Thai language pretty much from the first page. Don't be fooled by the ancient looking transliteration scheme they use alongside the Thai text, the book was written in 1950 or something when apparently they couldn't print anything that wasn't A-Z and a-z.

One additional reference aid I recommend is a consonant chart arranged Pali-style, as at An Alternative Presentation of the Thai Consonants, for when one learns the distinction between high, mid and low consonants. It may also be worth learning whcih consonants were made by stretching or denting others.

Another practical issue is the order in which one learns the consonants and vowels. Just learning them in alphabetical order seems unnecessarily hard. For example, the first 13 include two obsolete consonants and two rare consonants. I'm having difficulty in remembering the precise order in which I learnt them, so ​I'll knock up a sequence for learning consonants on the fly to possibly kick off some discussion.

• ก (ko kai) ค (kho khwai) ง (ngo ngu) จ (cho chan) ช (cho chang) ซ (so so) ด (do dek) ต (to tao) ท (tho tahan) น (no nu) บ (bo bai mai) ป (po pla) พ (pho phan) ฟ (fo fan) ม (mo ma) ย (yo yak) ร (ro ruea) ล (lo ling) ว (wo waen) ส (so suea) ห (ho hip) อ (o ang)
  (I'm not sure how this should be split, but split it should be.)
  
• High consonants: ข (kho khai) ฉ (cho ching) ถ (tho thung) ผ (pho phueng) ฝ (fo fa)
  
• ญ (yo ying)
  
• Low 'h' (dialect, English and onamatopoeic): ฮ (ho nok huk)
  
• Common Indic voiced aspirates (but voiceless aspirates in Thai): ธ (tho thong) ภ (pho samphao)
  
• Extra 's': ศ (so sala) ษ (so ruesi)
  
• Indic retroflexes (same as dentals in Thai): ฎ (do chada) ฏ (to patak) ฐ (tho than) ฑ (tho montho) ฒ (tho phu thao) ณ (no nen)
  
• Rare Indic voiced aspirates (but voiceless aspirates in Thai): ฆ (kho rakhang) ฌ (cho choe)
  Misc: ฬ (lo chula)
  
• Obsolete consonants: ฃ (kho khuat) ฅ (kho khon)
  

For some people, a bit of history leavens the learning, e.g. the fact that when Thai was first written it had only three tone contrasts.