Lesson 19

Vowel เ◌ิอ. Diphthongs เอีย, เอือ

Reading

In this lesson we cover the final long vowel /əə/, and two diphthongs, /ia/ and /ʉa/. The vowel first:

Characters	Pronunciation
เ◌ิ-	/əə/

This is written with เ◌ before the initial consonant or cluster, and ◌ิ above the initial consonant, or the second consonant of a cluster (as with tone marks). So, for example, เปิด (to switch on) is read as /pə̀ət/.

There is one word of this form which is exceptionally pronounced with a short vowel, i.e. เงิน (meaning "money" or "silver"). It is pronounced /ŋən/.

Now try reading these words:

Here are the diphthongs. Each is written with three parts which come before and above and after the related consonant(s).

Characters	Pronunciation
เ◌ีย	/ia/
เ◌ือ	/ʉa/

เ◌ีย may be used "stand alone", e.g. เตี้ย(/tîa/, short), or followed by a consonant e.g. เตียน (/tian/, flat (adj.).

เ◌ือ is the same, e.g. เรือ /rʉa/, boat) or เกลือ (/klʉa/, salt), and เมือง (/mʉaŋ/, city) or เลือด (/lʉ̂at/ blood).

Now try reading these words:

And now some slightly longer words.