Thai language

Name	Thai
Altname	Central Thai, Siamese, Thailandic
Image
Imagecaption	"«Phasa Thai»" (literally meaning "Thai language") written in Thai script
Nativename	«ภาษาไทย», «Phasa Thai»
Pronunciation	pʰāːsǎːtʰāj
Ethnicity	Central Thai, Thai Chinese, Mon, Lao Wiang, Phuan
Speakers	L1: million
Date	2024
Speakers Label	Speakers
Familycolor	Kradai
Fam2	Kam–Tai
Fam3	Tai
Fam4	Southwestern
Nation	Thailand
Agency	Royal Society of Thailand
Iso1	th
Iso2	tha
Iso3	tha
Glotto	thai1261
Glottorefname	Thai
Lingua	47-AAA-b
Notice	Indic
Notice2	IPA
Map
Mapcaption
Imagealt	"Phasa Thai" (ภาษาไทย) in Thai script
Fam5	Chiang Saen

Classification

Kra–Dai languages
Standard Thai is classified as one of the Chiang Saen languages—others being Northern Thai, Southern Thai and numerous smaller languages, which together with the Northwestern Tai and Lao-Phutai languages, form the Southwestern branch of Tai languages. The Tai languages are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family, which encompasses a large number of indigenous languages spoken in an arc from Hainan and Guangxi south through Laos and Northern Vietnam to the Cambodian border.

Standard Thai is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout Thailand. The standard is based on the dialect of the central Thai people, and it is written in the Thai script.

History

Thai has undergone various historical sound changes. Some of the most significant changes occurred during the evolution from Old Thai to modern Thai. The Thai writing system has an eight-century history and many of these changes, especially in consonants and tones, are evidenced in the modern orthography.

Early spread

According to a Chinese source, during the Ming dynasty, Yingya Shenglan (1405–1433), Ma Huan reported on the language of the Xiānluó (暹羅) or Ayutthaya Kingdom, saying that it somewhat resembled the local patois as pronounced in Guangdong Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand from 1351 - 1767 A.D., was from the beginning a bilingual society, speaking Thai and Khmer. Bilingualism must have been strengthened and maintained for some time by the great number of Khmer-speaking captives the Thais took from Angkor Thom after their victories in 1369, 1388 and 1431. Gradually toward the end of the period, a language shift took place. Khmer fell out of use. Both Thai and Khmer descendants whose great-grand parents or earlier ancestors were bilingual came to use only Thai. In the process of language shift, an abundance of Khmer elements were transferred into Thai and permeated all aspects of the language. Consequently, the Thai of the late Ayutthaya Period which later became Ratanakosin or Bangkok Thai, was a thorough mixture of Thai and Khmer. There were more Khmer words in use than Tai cognates. Khmer grammatical rules were used actively to coin new disyllabic and polysyllabic words and phrases. Khmer expressions, sayings, and proverbs were expressed in Thai through transference.

Thais borrowed both the Royal vocabulary and rules to enlarge the vocabulary from Khmer. The Thais later developed the royal vocabulary according to their immediate environment. Thai and Pali, the latter from Theravada Buddhism, were added to the vocabulary. An investigation of the Ayutthaya Rajasap reveals that three languages, Thai, Khmer and Khmero-Indic were at work closely both in formulaic expressions and in normal discourse. In fact, Khmero-Indic may be classified in the same category as Khmer because Indic had been adapted to the Khmer system first before the Thai borrowed.

Old Thai

Old Thai had a three-way tone distinction on "live syllables" (those not ending in a stop), with no possible distinction on "dead syllables" (those ending in a stop, i.e. either /p/, /t/, /k/ or the glottal stop that automatically closes syllables otherwise ending in a short vowel).

There was a two-way voiced vs. voiceless distinction among all fricative and sonorant consonants, and up to a four-way distinction among stops and affricates. The maximal four-way occurred in labials (/p pʰ b ʔb/) and denti-alveolars (/t tʰ d ʔd/); the three-way distinction among velars (/k kʰ ɡ/) and palatals (/tɕ tɕʰ dʑ/), with the glottalized member of each set apparently missing.

The major change between old and modern Thai was due to voicing distinction losses and the concomitant tone split. This may have happened between about 1300 and 1600 CE, possibly occurring at different times in different parts of the Thai-speaking area. All voiced–voiceless pairs of consonants lost the voicing distinction:

• Plain voiced stops (/b d ɡ dʑ/) became voiceless aspirated stops (/pʰ tʰ kʰ tɕʰ/).
• Voiced fricatives became voiceless.
• Voiceless sonorants became voiced.

Old Thai (Sukhothai) consonant inventory

Historical Sukhothai pronunciation

Early Old Thai

Proto-Tai
Comparison of Lao and Isan
Early Old Thai also apparently had velar fricatives /x ɣ/ as distinct phonemes. These were represented by the now-obsolete letters «ฃ» kho khuat and «ฅ» kho khon, respectively. During the Old Thai period, these sounds merged into the corresponding stops /kʰ ɡ/, and as a result the use of these letters became unstable.

At some point in the history of Thai, an alveolo-palatal nasal phoneme /ɲ/ also existed, inherited from Proto-Tai. A letter ญ yo ying also exists, which is used to represent an alveolo-palatal nasal in words borrowed from Sanskrit and Pali, and is currently pronounced /j/ at the beginning of a syllable but /n/ at the end of a syllable. Most native Thai words that are reconstructed as beginning with /ɲ/ are also pronounced /j/ in modern Thai, but generally spelled with ย yo yak, which consistently represents /j/. This suggests that /ɲ/ > /j/ in native words occurred in the pre-literary period. It is unclear whether Sanskrit and Pali words beginning with /ɲ/ were borrowed directly with a /j/, or whether a /ɲ/ was re-introduced, followed by a second change /ɲ/ > /j/. The northeastern Thai dialect Isan and the Lao language still preserve the phoneme /ɲ/, which is represented in the Lao script by «ຍ», such as in the word «ຍຸງ» (/ɲúŋ/, mosquito). This letter is distinct from the phoneme /j/ and its Lao letter «ຢ», such as in the word «ຢາ» (/jàː/, medicine). The distinction in writing has been lost in the informal writing of the Isan language with the Thai script and both sounds are represented by «ย» /j/.

Proto-Tai also had a glottalized palatal sound, reconstructed as /ʔj/ in Li Fang-Kuei (1977). Corresponding Thai words are generally spelled หย, which implies an Old Thai pronunciation of /hj/ (or /j̊/), but a few such words are spelled อย, which implies a pronunciation of /ʔj/ and suggests that the glottalization may have persisted through to the early literary period.

Vowel developments

The vowel system of modern Thai contains nine pure vowels and three centering diphthongs, each of which can occur short or long. According to Li (1977), however, many Thai dialects have only one such short–long pair (/a aː/), and in general it is difficult or impossible to find minimal short–long pairs in Thai that involve vowels other than /a/ and where both members have frequent correspondences throughout the Tai languages. More specifically, he notes the following facts about Thai:

• In open syllables, only long vowels occur. (This assumes that all apparent cases of short open syllables are better described as ending in a glottal stop. This makes sense from the lack of tonal distinctions in such syllables, and the glottal stop is also reconstructible across the Tai languages.)
• In closed syllables, the long high vowels /iː ɯː uː/ are rare, and cases that do exist typically have diphthongs in other Tai languages.
• In closed syllables, both short and long mid /e eː o oː/ and low /ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː/ do occur. However, generally, only words with short /e o/ and long /ɛː ɔː/ are reconstructible back to Proto-Tai.
• Both of the mid back unrounded vowels /ɤ ɤː/ are rare, and words with such sounds generally cannot be reconstructed back to Proto-Tai.

1. Proto-Tai had a system of nine pure vowels with no length distinction, and possessing approximately the same qualities as in modern Thai: high /i ɯ u/, mid /e ɤ o/, low /ɛ a ɔ/.
2. All Proto-Tai vowels were lengthened in open syllables, and low vowels were also lengthened in closed syllables.
3. Modern Thai largely preserved the original lengths and qualities, but lowered /ɤ/ to /a/, which became short /a/ in closed syllables and created a phonemic length distinction /a aː/. Eventually, length in all other vowels became phonemic as well and a new /ɤ/ (both short and long) was introduced, through a combination of borrowing and sound change. Li believes that the development of long /iː ɯː uː/ from diphthongs, and the lowering of /ɤ/ to /a/ to create a length distinction /a aː/, had occurred by the time of Proto-Southwestern-Tai, but the other missing modern Thai vowels had not yet developed.

Phonology

Consonants

Onset consonants ('Initials')

Standard Thai distinguishes three voice-onset times among plosive and affricate consonants:

• voiced
• tenuis (unvoiced, unaspirated)
• aspirated

Coda consonants ('Finals')

As with many languages, there is a difference in the number of possibilities for coda consonants in Thai as compared to onset consonants. In Standard Thai, only eight consonants occur in coda position: /p t k ʔ m n ŋ j w/. Additionally, all plosive sounds are unreleased, so that syllable-final /p t k/ are pronounced as p̚, t̚, and k̚ respectively.

Of the consonant letters, excluding the disused ฃ and ฅ, six (ฉ ผ ฝ ห อ ฮ) cannot be used as a final and the other 36 are grouped as following.

Syllable structure and consonant clusters

In Thai, the maximal syllable shape is CCVC. In the core vocabulary (i.e. excluding loanwords), only clusters of two consonants occur, of which there are 11 combinations:

• /kr/ (กร), /kl/ (กล), /kw/ (กว)
• /kʰr/ (ขร, คร), /kʰl/ (ขล, คล), /kʰw/ (ขว, คว)
• /pr/ (ปร), /pl/ (ปล)
• /pʰr/ (พร), /pʰl/ (ผล, พล)
• /tr/ (ตร)

Vowels

The vowel nuclei of the Thai language are given in the following table. The top entry in every cell is the symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet, the second entry gives the spelling in the Thai script, where a dash (–) indicates the position of the initial consonant after which the vowel is pronounced. A second dash indicates that a final consonant follows.

Each vowel quality occurs in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming distinct words in Thai.

The long-short pairs are as follows:

There are also opening and closing diphthongs in Thai, which analyze as /Vj/ and /Vw/. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:

Additionally, there are three triphthongs. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are sometimes classified as long:

Tones

1. Five-level tone value: Mid 33, Low 21, Falling 41, High 45, Rising 214. Traditionally, the high tone was recorded as either 44 or 45. This remains true for the older generation, but the high tone is changing to 334 among youngsters.
2. For the diachronic changes of tone value, see Pittayaporn (2007).
3. The full complement of tones exists only in so-called "live syllables", those that end in a long vowel or a sonorant (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /j/, /w/).
4. For "dead syllables", those that end in a plosive (/p/, /t/, /k/) or in a short vowel, only three tonal distinctions are possible: low, high, and falling. Because syllables analyzed as ending in a short vowel may have a final glottal stop (especially in slower speech), all "dead syllables" are phonetically checked, and have the reduced tonal inventory characteristic of checked syllables.

Open ('unchecked') syllables

Closed ('checked') syllables

Grammar

From the perspective of linguistic typology, Thai can be considered an analytic language. The word order is subject–verb–object, although the subject is often omitted. Additionally, Thai is an isolating language lacking any form of inflectional morphology whatsoever. Thai pronouns are selected according to the gender and relative status of speaker and audience.

Adjectives and adverbs

There is no morphological distinction between adverbs and adjectives. Many words can be used in either function. They follow the word they modify, which may be a noun, verb, or another adjective or adverb.

Comparatives take the form "A X «กว่า» B" («kwa», /kwàː/), 'A is more X than B'. The superlative is expressed as "A X «ที่สุด»" («thi sut», /tʰîː sùt/), 'A is most X'.

Adjectives in Thai can be used as complete predicates. Because of this, many words used to indicate tense in verbs (see Verbs:Tense below) may be used to describe adjectives.

Verbs

Verbs do not inflect. They do not change with person, tense, voice, mood, or number; nor are there any participles. The language being analytic and case-less, the relationship between subject, direct and indirect object is conveyed through word order and auxiliary verbs. Transitive verbs follow the pattern subject-verb-object.

In order to convey tense, aspect and mood (TAM), the Thai verbal system employs auxiliaries and verb serialization. TAM markers are however not obligatory and often left out in colloquial use. In such cases, the precise meaning is determined through context. This results in sentences lacking both TAM markers and overt context being ambiguous and subject to various interpretations.

The sentence «chan kin thi nan» can thus be interpreted as 'I am eating there', 'I eat there habitually', 'I will eat there' or 'I ate there'. Aspect markers in Thai have been divided into four distinct groups based on their usage. These markers could appear either before or after the verb. The following list describes some of the most commonly used aspect markers. A number of these aspect markers are also full verbs on their own and carry a distinct meaning. For example «yu» («อยู่») as a full verb means 'to stay, to live or to remain at'. However, as an auxiliary it can be described as a temporary aspect or continuative marker.

• Imperfective
• «อยู่» «yu» /jùː/
• «ไป» «pai» /pāj/
• «ยัง» «yang» /jāŋ/
• «กำลัง» «kamlang» /kām.lāŋ/
• «เคย» «khoey» /kʰɤ̄ːj/
• Perfective
• «ได้» «dai» /dâːj/
• Perfect
• «แล้ว» «laeo» /lɛ́ːw/
• «มา» «ma» /māː/
• Prospective/Future
• «จะ» «cha» /tɕàʔ/

• «เขาไม่ตี», («khao mai ti») 'He is not hitting' or 'He doesn't hit'.

Nouns

Nouns are uninflected and have no gender; there are no articles. Thai nouns are bare nouns and can be interpreted as singular, plural, definite or indefinite. Some specific nouns are reduplicated to form collectives: «เด็ก» («dek», 'child') is often repeated as «เด็ก ๆ» («dek dek») to refer to a group of children. The word «พวก» («phuak», /pʰûa̯k/) may be used as a prefix of a noun or pronoun as a collective to pluralize or emphasise the following word. («พวกผม», «phuak phom», /pʰûa̯k pʰǒm/, 'we', masculine; «พวกเรา» «phuak rao», /pʰûa̯k rāw/, emphasised 'we'; «พวกหมา» «phuak ma», '(the) dogs'). Plurals are expressed by adding classifiers, used as measure words («ลักษณนาม»), in the form of noun-number-classifier:
While in English, such classifiers are usually absent ("four chairs") or optional ("two bottles of beer" or "two beers"), a classifier is almost always used in Thai (hence "chair four item" and "beer two bottle").

Possession in Thai is indicated by adding the word «ของ» («khong») in front of the noun or pronoun, but it may often be omitted. For example:

Nominal phrases

Nominal phrases in Thai often use a special class of words classifiers. As previously mentioned, these classifiers are obligatory for noun phrases containing numerals e.g.

Unlike any numeral, «หนึ่ง» ('one') can mark on both positions of classifier, but in different functions. The post-head one potentially marks a referent as indefinite article.

In the previous example «khon» («คน») acts as the classifier in the nominal phrase. This follows the form of noun-cardinal-classifier mentioned above. Classifiers are also required to form quantified noun phrases in Thai with some quantifiers such as «ทุก» ('all'), «บาง» ('some'). The examples below are demonstrated using the classifier «khon», which is used for people.

However, classifiers are not utilized for negative quantification. Negative quantification is expressed by the pattern «ไม่มี» («mai mi», /mâj mīː/) + NOUN.

Demonstratives

Thai has a three-way distinction for its demonstratives: proximal «นี่» («ni», /nîː/; 'this/these'), medial «นั่น» («nan», /nân/; 'that/those'), and distal «โน่น» («non», /nôːn/; 'that/those over there') which is rarely used. The tone is changed depending on usage: as a pronoun, the proximal demonstrative is «นี่» («ni», /nîː/); while «นี้» («ni», /níː) is a modifier placed after nouns, prepositions, classifiers, etc. For example:
The word «ไหน» («nai», /nǎj/) plays the role of an interrogative determiner or pronoun.

The syntax for demonstrative phrases, however, differ from that of cardinals and follow the pattern noun-classifier-demonstrative. For example, the noun phrase "this dog" would be expressed in Thai as «หมาตัวนี้» (literally 'dog (classifier) this').

Pronouns

Subject pronouns are often omitted, with nicknames used where English would use a pronoun. See Thai name#Nicknames for more details. Pronouns, when used, are ranked in honorific registers, and may also make a T–V distinction in relation to kinship and social status. Specialised pronouns are used for royalty, and for Buddhist monks. The following are appropriate for conversational use:

The reflexive pronoun is «ตัวเอง» («tua eng»), which can mean any of: myself, yourself, ourselves, himself, herself, themselves. This can be mixed with another pronoun to create an intensive pronoun, such as «ตัวผมเอง» («tua phom eng», lit: I myself) or «ตัวคุณเอง» («tua khun eng», lit: you yourself). Thai also does not have a separate possessive pronoun. Instead, possession is indicated by the particle «ของ» («khong»). For example, "my mother" is «แม่ของผม» («mae khong phom», lit: mother of I). This particle is often implicit, so the phrase is shortened to «แม่ผม» («mae phom»). Plural pronouns can be easily constructed by adding the word «พวก» («phuak») in front of a singular pronoun as in «พวกเขา» («phuak khao») meaning 'they' or «พวกเธอ» («phuak thoe») meaning the plural sense of 'you'. The only exception to this is «เรา» («rao»), which can be used as singular (informal) or plural, but can also be used in the form of «พวกเรา» («phuak rao»), which is only plural.

Thai has many more pronouns than those listed above. Their usage is full of nuances. For example:

• "«ผม เรา ฉัน ดิฉัน หนู กู ข้า กระผม ข้าพเจ้า กระหม่อม อาตมา กัน ข้าน้อย ข้าพระพุทธเจ้า อั๊ว เขา»" all translate to "I", but each expresses a different gender, age, politeness, status, or relationship between speaker and listener.
• «เรา» («rao») can be first person (I), second person (you), or both (we), depending on the context.
• Children or younger women could use or be referred by word «หนู» («nu») when talking with an older person. The word «หนู» could be both feminine first person (I) and feminine second person (you) and also neuter first and neuter second person for children.
• «หนู» commonly means rat or mouse, though it also refers to small creatures in general.
• The second person pronoun «เธอ» («thoe») (lit: you) is semi-feminine. It is used only when the speaker or the listener (or both) are female. Males usually do not address each other by this pronoun.
• Both «คุณ» («khun») and «เธอ» («thoe») are polite neuter second person pronouns. However, «คุณเธอ» («khun thoe») is a feminine derogative third person.
• Instead of a second person pronoun such as «คุณ» ('you'), it is much more common for unrelated strangers to call each other «พี่ น้อง ลุง ป้า น้า อา ตา» or «ยาย» (brother, sister, aunt, uncle, granny).
• To express deference, the second person pronoun is sometimes replaced by a profession, similar to how, in English, presiding judges are always addressed as "your honor" rather than "you". In Thai, students always address their teachers by «ครู», «คุณครู» or «อาจารย์» (each meaning 'teacher') rather than «คุณ» ('you'). Teachers, monks, and doctors are almost always addressed this way.

Particles

The particles are often untranslatable words added to the end of a sentence to indicate respect, a request, encouragement or other moods (similar to the use of intonation in English), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in elegant (written) Thai. The most common particles indicating respect are «ครับ» («khrap», /kʰráp/, with a high tone) when the speaker is a man, and «ค่ะ» («kha», /kʰâʔ/, with a falling tone) when the speaker is a woman. Used in a question or a request, the particle «ค่ะ» (falling tone) is changed to a «คะ» (high tone).

Other common particles are:

Register

Central Thai is composed of several distinct registers, forms for different social contexts:

• Street or Common Thai (, «phasa phut», spoken Thai): informal, without polite terms of address, as used between close relatives and friends.
• Elegant or Formal Thai (, «phasa khian», written Thai): official and written version, includes respectful terms of address; used in simplified form in newspapers.
• Rhetorical Thai: used for public speaking.
• Religious Thai: (heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Pāli) used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks.
• Royal Thai («ราชาศัพท์», «racha sap»): influenced by Khmer, this is used when addressing members of the royal family or describing their activities. (See Monarchy of Thailand.)

Vocabulary

List of loanwords in Thai
Other than compound words and words of foreign origin, most words are monosyllabic.

Chinese-language influence was strong until the 13th century when the use of Chinese characters was abandoned, and replaced by Sanskrit and Pali scripts. However, the vocabulary of Thai retains many words borrowed from Middle Chinese.

Khmer was used as a prestige language in the early days of the Thai kingdoms which are believed to have been bilingual societies proficient in Thai and Khmer. There are over 2,500 Thai words derived from Khmer, surpassing the number of Tai cognates. These Khmer words span across all semantic fields. Thai scholar Uraisi Varasarin classified them into over 200 sub-categories. As a result, it is impossible for Thais, past and present, to engage in a conversation without incorporating Khmer loanwords in any given topic. The influence is particularly preponderant in regard to royal court terminology.

Later, most vocabulary was borrowed from Sanskrit and Pāli; Buddhist terminology is particularly indebted to these. Indic words have a more formal register, and may be compared to Latin and French borrowings in English. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the English language has had the greatest influence, especially for scientific, technical, international, and other modern terms.

Arabic-origin

Chinese-origin

From Middle Chinese or Teochew Chinese.

English-origin

French-origin

Japanese-origin

Khmer-origin

From Old Khmer

Malay-origin

Persian-origin

Portuguese-origin

The Portuguese were the first Western nation to arrive in what is modern-day Thailand in the 16th century during the Ayutthaya period. Their influence in trade, especially weaponry, allowed them to establish a community just outside the capital and practise their faith, as well as exposing and converting the locals to Christianity. Thus, Portuguese words involving trade and religion were introduced and used by the locals.

Tamil-origin

Writing system

Thai script

1. It is an abugida script, in which the implicit vowel is a short /a/ in a syllable without final consonant and a short /o/ in a syllable with final consonant.
2. Tone markers, if present, are placed above the final onset consonant of the syllable.
3. Vowels sounding after an initial consonant can be located before, after, above or below the consonant, or in a combination of these positions.

Transcription

Romanization of Thai
There is no universally applied method for transcribing Thai into the Latin alphabet. For example, the name of the main airport is transcribed variably as Suvarnabhumi, Suwannaphum, or Suwunnapoom. Guide books, textbooks and dictionaries follow different systems. For this reason, many language courses recommend that learners master the Thai script.

Official standards are the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS), published by the Royal Institute of Thailand, and the almost identical defined by the International Organization for Standardization. The RTGS system is increasingly used in Thailand by central and local governments, especially for road signs. Its main drawback is that it does not indicate tone or vowel length. As the system is based on pronunciation, not orthography, reconstruction of Thai spelling from RTGS romanisation is not possible.

Transliteration

Thai transliteration
The ISO published an international standard for the transliteration of Thai into Roman script in September 2005 (ISO 11940). By adding diacritics to the Latin letters it makes the transcription reversible, making it a true transliteration. Notably, this system is used by Google Translate, although it does not seem to appear in many other contexts, such as textbooks and other instructional media.

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Thai:

See also

• Thai script
• Thai honorifics
• Thai literature
• Thai numerals
• Thai braille
• Thai typography
• Comparison of Lao and Thai

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

• Diller, A., National identity and its defenders: Thailand today, Reynolds, Craig J., 2002, Silkworm Books, Reynolds, Chiang Mai, What makes central Thai a national language?, 54373362
• Draper, John, Language education policy in Thailand, The Routledge International Handbook of Language Education Policy in Asia, 229–242, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York City, Routledge, 2019, 10.4324/9781315666235-16, 159127015
• A history of Thailand, Baker, Christopher, Cambridge University Press, 2014, Melbourne, Australia, 3–4
• Enfield, N. J., How to define 'Lao', 'Thai', and 'Isan' language? A view from linguistic science, Tai Culture, 3, 1, 62–67
• Linguistic Perspectives of Thai Culture, 26 April 2011, Peansiri Vongvipanond, Summer 1994, paper presented to a workshop of teachers of social science, University of New Orleans, The dialect one hears on radio and television is the Bangkok dialect, considered the standard dialect., 20 November 2012, dead
• Pim, Kemasingki, Pariyakorn, Prateepkoh, Kham Mueang: the slow death of a language, Chiang Mai City Life, August 1, 2017, there are still many people speaking kham mueang, but as an accent, not as a language. Because we now share the written language with Bangkok, we are beginning to use its vocabulary as well
• Language and national identity in Asia, Andrew, Simpson, 2007, Oxford University Press, Standard Thai is a form of Central Thai based on the variety of Thai spoken earlier by the elite of the court, and now by the educated middle and upper classes of Bangkok. It ... was standardized in grammar books in the nineteenth century, and spread dramatically from the 1930s onwards, when public education became much more widespread
• Thepboriruk, Kanjana, 2010, Bangkok Thai tones revisited, Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society, University of Hawaii Press, 3, 1, 86–105, Linguists generally consider Bangkok Thai and Standard Thai, the Kingdom's national language, to be one and the same.
• Antonio L., Rappa, Lionel, Wee, Language Policy and Modernity in Southeast Asia: Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, Springer, 2006, 114–115
• Lieberman, Victor, Strange Parallels, 1: Integration on the Mainland: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830, Studies in Comparative World History, 2003, Kindle
• Wyatt, David K., Thailand: A Short History, 2003, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut
• Ying-yai Sheng-lan: The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores (1433), 1970, Hakluyt Society at the University Press
• Li, Fang Kuei, 1977, A Handbook of Comparative Tai, Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, 15, i–389, 0078-3188
• Morén, Bruce, Zsiga, Elizabeth, 2006, The Lexical and Post-Lexical Phonology of Thai Tones*, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, en, 24, 1, 113–178, 10.1007/s11049-004-5454-y, 170764533, 0167-806X, subscription
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• Warotamasikkhadit, Udom, Thai Syntax, 1972, Mouton., The Hague
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General and cited sources

• «อภิลักษณ์ ธรรมทวีธิกุล และ กัลยารัตน์ ฐิติกานต์นารา.» 2549. «การเน้นพยางค์กับทำนองเสียงภาษาไทย» (Stress and Intonation in Thai) «วารสารภาษาและภาษาศาสตร์ ปีที่ 24 ฉบับที่ 2 (มกราคม – มิถุนายน 2549) หน้า 59–76.» issn 0857-1406.
• «สัทวิทยา : การวิเคราะห์ระบบเสียงในภาษา. 2547. กรุงเทพฯ : สำนักพิมพ์มหาวิทยาลัยเกษตรศาสตร์.» isbn 974-537-499-7.
• Diller, Anthony van Nostrand, et al. 2008. The Tai–Kadai Languages. isbn 978-070-071-457-5.
• Gandour, Jack, Tumtavitikul, Apiluck and Satthamnuwong, Nakarin. 1999. Effects of Speaking Rate on the Thai Tones. Phonetica 56, pp. 123–134.
• Li, Fang-Kuei. A handbook of comparative Tai. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1977. Print.
• Rischel, Jørgen. 1998. 'Structural and Functional Aspects of Tone Split in Thai'. In Sound structure in language, 2009.
• Tumtavitikul, Apiluck, 1998. The Metrical Structure of Thai in a Non-Linear Perspective. Papers presented to the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 1994, pp. 53–71. Udom Warotamasikkhadit and Thanyarat Panakul, eds. Temple, Arizona: Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University.
• Apiluck Tumtavitikul. 1997. The Reflection on the X′ category in Thai. Mon-Khmer Studies XXVII, pp. 307–316.
• «อภิลักษณ์ ธรรมทวีธิกุล». 2539. «ข้อคิดเกี่ยวกับหน่วยวากยสัมพันธ์ในภาษาไทย» วารสารมนุษยศาสตร์วิชาการ. 4.57–66. issn 0859-3485 .
• Tumtavitikul, Appi. 1995. Tonal Movements in Thai. The Proceedings of the XIIIth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Vol. I, pp. 188–121. Stockholm: Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University.
• Tumtavitikul, Apiluck. 1994. Thai Contour Tones. Current Issues in Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, pp. 869–875. Hajime Kitamura et al., eds, Ozaka: The Organization Committee of the 26th Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, National Museum of Ethnology.
• Tumtavitikul, Apiluck. 1993. FO – Induced VOT Variants in Thai. Journal of Languages and Linguistics, 12.1.34 – 56.
• Tumtavitikul, Apiluck. 1993. Perhaps, the Tones are in the Consonants? Mon-Khmer Studies XXIII, pp. 11–41.
• Higbie, James and Thinsan, Snea. Thai Reference Grammar: The Structure of Spoken Thai. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2003. isbn 974-8304-96-5.
• Nacaskul, Karnchana («ศาสตราจารย์กิตติคุณ ดร.กาญจนา นาคสกุล») Thai Phonology, 4th printing. («ระบบเสียงภาษาไทย, พิมพ์ครั้งที่ 4») Bangkok: Chulalongkorn Press, 1998. isbn 978-974-639-375-1.
• Nanthana Ronnakiat («ดร.นันทนา รณเกียรติ») Phonetics in Principle and Practical. («สัทศาสตร์ภาคทฤษฎีและภาคปฏิบัติ») Bangkok: Thammasat University, 2005. isbn 974-571-929-3.
• Segaller, Denis. Thai Without Tears: A Guide to Simple Thai Speaking. Bangkok: BMD Book Mags, 1999. isbn 974-87115-2-8.
• Smyth, David (2002). Thai: An Essential Grammar, first edition. London: Routledge.
• Smyth, David (2014). Thai: An Essential Grammar, second edition. London: Routledge. isbn 978-041-551-034-9.
• Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya, Abramson, Arthur, 1993, Thai, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23, 1, 24–28, 10.1017/S0025100300004746, 249403146

Further reading

• Inglis, Douglas. 1999. Lexical conceptual structure of numeral classifiers in Thai-Part 1. Payap Research and Development Institute and The Summer Institute of Linguistics. Payap University.
• Inglis, Douglas. 2000. Grammatical conceptual structure of numeral classifiers in Thai-Part 2. Payap Research and Development Institute and The Summer Institute of Linguistics. Payap University.
• Inglis, Douglas. 2003. Conceptual structure of numeral classifiers in Thai. In Eugene E. Casad and Gary B. Palmer (eds.). Cognitive linguistics and non-Indo-European languages. CLR Series 18. De Gruyter Mouton. 223–246. isbn 978-311-017-371-0

External links

• IPA and SAMPA for Thai
• Consonant Ear Training Tape
• Tones of Tai Dialect

Category:Analytic languages
Category:Isolating languages
Category:Languages attested from the 13th century
Category:Languages of Thailand
Category:Languages written in Brahmic scripts
Category:Stress-timed languages
Category:Subject–verb–object languages