Pronunciation Tips
We will have a series of pronunciation lessons in the future, but in the meantime I thought it would be helpful to post a brief guide to the romanization system that we’re using at Thaipod101.com. You will come across a wide variety of transliteration systems used for different Thai language textbooks, websites, karaoke subtitles, traffic signs, and menus in Thailand. Some are quite good, while others are quite terrible. The Thai government has an official transliteration method, but it is inadequate for the purpose of actually learning how to speak Thai well. A good system needs to be completely unambiguous regarding every consonant and vowel sound, it must distinguish between all short and long vowels, and it must clearly indicate the tone of each syllable.
Consonants
m, n, s, f, h, w, y, l, d, b, ch -- All of these are pronounced the same as in English.
ng -- Pronounced just like the “ng” in “singing”. This is easy for English speakers to say, you just have to practice beginning syllables with it.
r -- Rolled, like a Spanish “r”.
j, g -- Very similar to English, but pronounced just a bit harder.
dt -- A harder sound that an English “t”. There is no aspiration
(puff of air).
bp -- A harder sound than an English “p”. There is no aspiration.
kh, th, ph -- Aspirated consonants like regular “k”, “t” and “p” in English as in: “kill”, “till”, and “pill”.
-k, -t, -p -- At the end of a syllable these represent very abrupt unvoiced and non-aspirated stops. With “-k” the vowel sound of the syllable gets cut off by closing the passage of air at the back of the throat. With “-t” it is cut off with the tongue pressing the roof of the mouth just behind the front teeth. With “-p” it is cut off by closing the lips.
Vowels
Thai makes distinction between vowels of short and long length. In the system we are using, every long vowel has the first letter doubled, as in: aa, ii, oo, aae, ooe, uua, uuea. Some short vowels will be written with multiple letters, but don’t have the same letter doubled, such as: ae, ue, oe, iu, ui, aw.
a -- Like the “a” in “taco”.
aa -- Same as above, but longer.
e -- Like the “e” in “ten”.
ee -- Like the “ei” in “eight”
i -- Like the “i” in “it”.
ii -- Like the “ee” in “teen”.
o -- Like the “o” in “taco”.
oo -- Same as above, but longer.
u -- Like the “u” in “tune”.
uu -- Same as above, but longer.
ai -- Like the “y” in “my”.
ao -- Like the “ow” in “cow”.
ae -- Like the “a” in “cat” or “hat” with a North American accent.
aae -- Same as above, but longer.
aw -- Like the “aw” in “saw” or “jaw”.
aaw -- Same as above, but longer.
ue -- A vowel sound that doesn’t occur in English. It is like the sound made by trying to say “u” while grinning.
uue -- Same as above, but longer.
oe -- Like the sound made by trying to say “o” with the mouth open wider. Also sounds similar to “-er” of English, but more open.
ooe -- Same as above, but longer.
All other vowels are just various combinations of the above sounds, for example:
iia = “ii” + “a”
aaeo = “aae” + “o”
uuea = “uue” + “a”
ooei = “ooe” + “i”
eo = “e” + “o”
iu = “i” + “u”
aawy = “aaw” + “i” (For this combination I use “y” because I was afraid “aawi” would look too much like two syllables.)
Tones
Thai has five tones: (mid, low, falling, high, and rising). It is good to remember them in that order. It is very important to produce the correct tone when speaking if you wish to be understood because it can completely change the meaning of the word.
mid tone -- A flat, neutral tone indicated by no accent mark. Ex.: maa “to come”
low tone -- A flat, low tone indicated with downward slant. Ex.: mài “new”
falling tone -- Rises slightly before falling sharply, indicated with a mountain-shaped accent mark. Ex.: mâak “very”
high tone -- Starts high and rises slightly higher as it’s held out, indicated with an upward slant. Ex.: láaeo “already”
rising tone -- Dips slightly before rising sharply, indicated with a valley-shaped accent mark. Ex.: wǎan “sweet”
Practice to get good pronunciation as much as you can because, once you get the sounds of Thai down, it's really a very easy language to learn.
โชคดีครับ
chôok dii khráp.
Good luck!
