Writing Thai
I find the written Thai language to be quite fascinating. Much like English, the Thai language uses a phonetic alphabet, is written from left to right, and words are formed by combining consonants and vowels that represent phonetic sounds to create written words.
However, there are some very interesting differences between written Thai and English. The most obvious one is that Thai uses a completely different alphabet, consisting of 44 consonants and 32 vowels (some of which are clusters of vowel characters). Since Thai is a tonal language, it also includes 4 tone marks (and a few other marks) to indicate the proper spoken tone of a syllable.
The Thai language has only one case, i.e. there is no upper or lower case. That turns out to be quite convenient in our modern electronic world, as otherwise there would not be enough keys on a typical keyboard to accommodate all of the Thai characters. The most common Thai characters are represented on the conventional keyboard as “lower case”, and less common characters are entered by hitting the shift key. This does make typing in Thai a bit more difficult than English, as evidence by the fact that an experienced Thai secretary can type Thai at 40 words per minute, compared with 70 words per minute for a typical English secretary. On several occasions I have greatly surprised my Thai friends and colleagues when typing, as in English I can usually exceed 70 words per minute, which appears (and sounds) quite amazing to Thais. Of course, when I type in Thai, I am lucky to manage 4 words per minute, with long periods of time spent “hunting”, and very little actual “pecking” taking place.
The Thai language also uses very little punctuation. There are no periods or commas, and only in modern times have parenthesis and quotation marks been adopted. Sentences and phrases are separated simply by a space. This proves to be quite adequate, because spaces are not inserted between words in Thai. The lack of spaces between words tends to be quite a problem for the beginning reader. Fortunately, the Thai kindergarten and first grade reading books are written using spaces between words. However, starting with the second grade, spaces between words are eliminated. Now that I am perhaps reaching the third or (optimistically) fourth grade reading level, I am finding that many common words are beginning to almost “jump” off the page at me, and are almost as clear and distinct as if they were separated from other words by spaces, as in English. I suppose this is proof that the Thai style of writing doesn’t require spaces between words. Since spaces between words are not very expensive, the Thais would certainly have added them long ago if they were of any real value to their system of writing.
Perhaps it is the very interesting method of vowel usage that ultimately makes spaces between words unnecessary. Unlike English, vowels in Thai words and syllables do not necessarily appear in the order of pronunciation. For example, in my name FRANK, the “a” sound comes after the F and R sounds, and of course before the N sound, hence the spelling of my name. However, in Thai, the vowel used to make the “a” sound must be placed at the front of the syllable. Thus, using Thai characters, my name would be spelled something like “AFRNK”. Each Thai vowel has a specific placement rule, these rules are never broken. Some vowels come at the beginning of a syllable, some after the leading consonant(s), on top, underneath, or sometimes involve multiple symbols which are placed in front, on top, and after leading consonant(s). Obviously this takes a bit of getting used to, but the system seems quite efficient and works quite well, at least for the Thai language.
As Thai is a tonal language, the spelling of a syllable must also indicate the tone associated with that syllable. Otherwise, words like “Near” and “Far”, which actually both sound exactly the same, “GLY”, but with different tones, could not be clearly understood when written. Rules for tones are a bit complicated, but basically tones are associated with consonants. Consonants are divided into three classes (and a few subclasses), each class having different tone characteristics.
The tone of a syllable is determined by the leading consonant(s), as modified by a tone mark that can be added above the consonant. Tone marks change the tone of the consonant according to various rules; tone marks do not always indicate the same tone. For example, the tone mark that looks like a small vertical line above the consonant causes some class consonants to produce a low tone, and other class consonants to produce a falling tone. I am still struggling to remember which consonants belong in which classes; though I expect to eventually get most of the system memorized (at least I try to remain optimistic).
The Thai language is different from English in an amazing variety of ways, such that this brief description has only scratched the surface. For those with an interest, and who are able to accept differences without prejudice (why can’t Thais write like us, why is the Thai system so complicated, etc.), exploring the Thai language can be a fascinating adventure. I am enjoying my journey, though the path isn’t always an easy one.
Frank T.