Thai Language Translation - Thai Translator

Standard Thai Language

The official Standard Thai Language is in fact the dialect spoken in provinces situated in central Thailand including Bangkok, Ayuthaya, Suphanburi, Kanchanaburi, Samut Songkhram and Hua Hin. The official Standard Thai Language, called “Phasa Thai” (ภาษาไทย) which means the “Language of Thailand”, is spoken by approximately 60 million people.

Standard Thai is the official written and spoken language for the Kingdom of Thailand and is widely used as a medium of instruction for the education system, for public communication and for legal administration within the country. Hence, a Thai Translator or Thai teacher would normally use the official Standard Thai Language to translate or teach.

In addition to Standard Thai, there are other dialects spoken in the Northern and Southern parts of Thailand which are mutually intelligible to each other and the Standard Thai language. The spoken Southern Thai language (spoken from Prachuap Khiri Khan province to the Malaysian border) are sometimes intermixed with Patani Malay and may include local vocabularies, as these regions were once ruled by Malay Sultanates. The Northern Thai language is related to Standard Thai with Lao influence. The official Thai scripts and writing system has been maintained and recognised as the official form of written communication within the nation above all the other variations of Thai dialects.

Writing System in Thailand

To Thai language learners, the Thai translator or Thai language instructor would recommend that the student learn to read and write Thai scripts to accelerate the learning process.

The Thai Language instructor would tell you that there are 44 Thai consonants and 32 Thai vowels. In the Thai writing system, a consonant can trigger an intrinsic vowel sound 'a' or 'o'. Thus, it is common to see consonants written one after the other without any vowels in a Thai word or Thai phrase or Thai document. Every Thai consonant has a name that is a word beginning with the alphabet it refers to. Hence, each consonant can be called out by its name we spell a Thai word. The table below shows the consonants in the alphabetical order found in Thai dictionaries and their corresponding sounds.

Tips on Reading Thai Sentences.

There are no lower or upper case letters, no spaces between words and full stops in Thai sentences.

A comma (known as จุลภาค or ลูกน้ำ, chun la phâk or lûk nám) represents a short pause in a sentence.

A period (known as มหัพภาค or จุด, ma hàp phâk or chùt) represents a long pause in a sentence.

A khomut ๛ (known as โคมูตร, koh mût) can be used to mark the end of a chapter or document.

A quotation mark (known as อัญประกาศ, an-yá-prà-kàt) may be used.

A parenthesis as in round brackets (known as วงเล็บ, wong lép) may also be used.

Thai scripts are lined up in a page in a horizontal fashion, from left to right repeatedly beginning from the top of the page and ending at the bottom of the page (similar to English).

Pronounciation of Thai Syllables

There are rules whereby a Thai learner can refer to pronounce Thai words properly. In Thai language, each syllable is voiced with one of the five tones shown below. Each tone or pitch brings about a different meaning to other similar sounding syllable:

1. Mid tone
2. Low tone
3. Falling tone
4. High tone and
5. Rising tone

The following factors will determine the tone of the syllable to be voiced.

[Note: Factor 2) and 4) also determine the length of syllable. That is, is the syllable to be abruptly voiced or would it have a lingering end?]

1. The class to which the initial consonant in the syllable belongs to; and
2. Whether the vowel in the syllable is a short or long vowel; and
3. Whether there is a tone mark above the syllable; and
4. Whether the final consonant in the syllable is a stop or sonorant final consonant

(A summary of the tones, with the consonants is provided below)

Consonants and their Classes

The consonants are grouped into 3 classes, “High”, “Mid” and “Low” as follows:

(Please note that “High”, “Mid” and “Low” are class labels and not an indication of their tones)

High Consonants (Total of 11 consonants)

ข ฃ ฉ ฐ ถ ผ ฝ ศ ษ ส ห

Mid Consonants (Total of 9 consonants)

ก จ ฎ ฏ ด ต บ ป อ

Low Consonants (Total of 24 consonants)

ค ฅ ฆ ง ช ซ ฌ ญ ฑ ฒ ณ ท ธ น พ ฟ ภ ม ย ร ล ว ฬ ฮ

List of Short and Long Vowels

The Thai language teacher would tell you that the intrinsic vowel sound 'a' or 'o' in a consonant can be replaced by another different sounding vowel with additional stroke or mark added around the basic letter shown in the table below.

For example, the word “ เบีด” which means “open”  has the vowel mark “เี”on the left and top of the consonant “บ”. 

The vowels are usually grouped as Short Vowel or Long Vowel as follows:

(Note: The first “อ” is used as a consonant example to show the position of the vowels in relation to anyconsonant. The second “อ”if there is any, is part of the vowel.)

There are 7 vowels that change their forms when they are in the medial position.

(Note: Under the vowel column, the first “อ” is used as a consonant example to show the position of the vowels in relation to any consonant. The second “อ”if there is any, is part of the vowel.)

Tone Marks

When translating a Thai document, a Thai translator or Thai interpreter would often look out for the little tone marks on the Thai scripts to ensure accuracy in the Thai translation of the Thai document or Thai interpretation in Thai conferences.

There are 4 tone marks as shown below.

(Please note that the tone mark is not an indication of the final sound or pronunciation of the syllable. Please refer to the determining factors affecting the final sound of the syllable under “Pronunciation” section above.)

Sonorant and Stop Consonant

A Thai language instructor would also tell you that the tone of the syllable also depends on whether the final position of the syllable is a Sonorant Consonant or Stop Consonant.

The sound of a sonorant consonant in the final position lingers.

However, a stop consonant in the final position is abruptly voiced.

Sonorant Final
There are 5 “Sonorant Final” Consonants and they are:

Stop Final

There are 3 “Stop Final” Consonants and they are:

(*Note: The consonant sound changes when the position of the consonant changes to end of syllable)

Live Syllable and Dead Syllable

A Thai learner would be taught by a Thai language teacher the concepts of a “Live” syllable and a “Dead” syllable.
A dead syllable ends abruptly. This type of syllable ends with a short vowel or stop final consonant. For example, if the syllable ends with the stop final consonant ก, which is normally a “G” sound at the start of the syllable, the dead syllable ends abruptly as if the syllable has a silent “k” at the end.

A live syllable ends with a lingering sound. This type of syllable ends with a long vowel or sonorant final consonant. For example, if the syllable ends with the sonorant final consonant ม, which is normally an “M” consonant, the lingering humming “m” sound can be heard at the end of the syllable.

The rule for the pitch or tone of the syllable according to the consonant class can be summarised as below:

Note:

1. For consonants ง ญ ณ น ม ย ร ล ฬ ว , the consonant ย may have a silent  “ฮ” preceding it or the other consonants may have a silent “ห” preceding them at the beginning of the syllable. If such a case happens, the silent “ฮ” (“H” ) or “ห”(also “H”) is not taken into account in deciding the consonant class.

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