Тайский алфавит: история и особенности письма

Abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand

The Thai script (อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (พยัญชนะ, phayanchana) and 16 vowel symbols (สระ, sara) that combine into at least 32 vowel forms and four tone diacritics (วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, or ) to create characters mostly representing syllables. Although commonly referred to as the "Thai alphabet", the script is in fact not a true alphabet but an abugida, a writing system in which the full characters represent consonants with diacritical marks for vowels; the absence of a vowel diacritic gives an implied 'a' or 'o'. Consonants are written horizontally from left to right, and vowels following a consonant in speech are written above, below, to the left or to the right of it, or a combination of those.

The Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script (อักษรขอม, akson khom), which is a southern Brahmic style of writing derived from the south Indian Pallava alphabet (ปัลลวะ). According to tradition it was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great (พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช). The earliest attestation of the Thai script is the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription dated to 1292, however some scholars question its authenticity. The script was derived from a cursive form of the Old Khmer script of the time. See Tones below for more detail. Thai letters do not have upper and lower case forms like Latin letters do. Spaces between words are not used, except in certain linguistically motivated cases.

Minor pauses in sentences may be marked by a comma (จุลภาค or ลูกน้ำ, chunlaphak or luk nam), and major pauses by a period (มหัพภาค or จุด, mahap phak or chut), but most often are marked by a blank space (วรรค, wak). Thai writing also uses quotation marks (อัญประกาศ, anyaprakat) and parentheses (round brackets) (วงเล็บ, wong lep or นขลิขิต, nakha likhit), but not square brackets or braces. A paiyan noi ฯ (ไปยาลน้อย) is used for abbreviation. A paiyan yai ฯลฯ (ไปยาลใหญ่) is the same as "etc." in English. Several obsolete characters indicated the beginning or ending of sections. A bird's eye ๏ (ตาไก่, ta kai, officially called ฟองมัน, fong man) formerly indicated paragraphs. An angkhan kuu ๚ (อังคั่นคู่) was formerly used to mark the end of a chapter. A kho mut ๛ (โคมูตร) was formerly used to mark the end of a document, but is now obsolete.

Thai (along with its sister system, Lao) lacks conjunct consonants and independent vowels, while both designs are common among Brahmic scripts (e. g., Burmese and Balinese). In scripts with conjunct consonants, each consonant has two forms: base and conjoined. Consonant clusters are represented with the two styles of consonants. The two styles may form typographical ligatures, as in Devanagari. Independent vowels are used when a syllable starts with a vowel sign.

Spoken Southern Thai can have up to seven tones. When Southern Thai is written in Thai script, there are different rules for indicating spoken tone. Tones Nakhon Si Thammarat accent rules IPA First tone An initial consonant class "high" with long sound, and an initial consonant class "low" after the word. An initial consonant class "high" with short sound, and an initial consonant class "low"with [k̚], [t̚], [p̚] finals after the word. Second tone An initial consonant class "high" both short long sound,and an initial consonant class "low" after the word. Third tone An initial consonant class "middle" long sound. An initial consonant class "middle" short sound with [k̚], [t̚], [p̚] finals. Fourth tone An initial consonant class "middle" both short long sound. Fifth tone An initial consonant class "low" with head word. Sixth tone An initial consonant class "low" long sound. Seventh tone An initial consonant class "low" short sound.