Much of the religious and technical vocabulary of Thai has been taken from Sanskrit and Pali.
Now, whereas Thai only has one "ess−type" sound, Sanskrit has three, usually represented as: ś, ṣ and s.
In Thai effort is made for loanwords to preserve as much of the spelling of the original language
as possible. That meant the creation of two additional characters to represent ś and ṣ. Both are
pronounced in the same way as ส, namely /s/ at the start of a syllable, and /t/ at the end, and
both are high class, like ส.
The new consonants are:
Character
Pronunciation
Name
Meaning
Notes
ศ
/s−/, /−t/
/sɔ̌ɔ sǎaˑlaa/
Sala (open−sided pavillion)
ษ
/s−/, /−t/
/sɔ̌ɔ rʉʉˑsǐi/
Hermit
Contrast with บ
These consonants are referred to as "irregular consonants" because they are not used to write
native Thai words. All the consonants previously encountered in this course have been
"regular".
Another problem with loanwords is that sometimes consonants at the ends of syllables
are either unpronounced in the original language (e.g. "r" in "bar"), or can't be
pronounced in Thai (e.g. the "s" in "physics"). As Thai tries to preserve the original spelling of
loanwords, the unpronounced and unpronouncable characters are retained in the spelling,
but a mark, known as /thanˑthaˑkhâat/ (or, less formally, as /kaaˑran/. So,
bar is written บาร์ (pronounced /baa/), and "physics" is written ฟิสิกส์ (pronounced /fíˑsìk/).
The consonants silenced have no effect whatsoever on the pronunciation of the remaining
part of the word, so in อาจารย์ (/aaˑcaan/, teacher) ร is pronounced as if it were at the
end of the syllable, and is pronounced /n/.
Here are some words to practice reading:
การ์ตูน\/kaaˑtuun/\cartoon\1^
คริสต์\/khrít/\Christ\1^
คอมพิวเตอร์\/khɔɔmˑphiwˑtəə/\computer\1^
เจดีย์\/ceeˑdii/\chedi, stupa\1^
โทรทัศน์\/thooˑraˑthát/\television\1^
โทรศัพท์\/thooˑraˑsàp/\telephone\1^
บาร์\/baa/\bar\1^
เบอร์\/bəə/\number\1^
โบสถ์\/bòot/\ordination hall in a Buddhist temple\1^
ประสงค์\/pràˑsǒŋ/\wish\1^
พงศ์\/phoŋ/\lineage\1^
พิทักษ์\/phíˑthák/\protect\1^
พิมพ์\/phim/\to print\1^
แพทย์\/phɛ̂ɛt/\doctor\1^
ฟิสิกส์\/fíˑsìk/\physics\1^
มนุษย์\/maˑnút/\human\1^
ยักษ์\/yák/\ogre\1^
รถยนต์\/rótˑyon/\car\1^
วงศ์\/woŋ/\family\1^
วอลเลย์บอล\/wɔɔnˑleeˑbɔɔn/\volleyball\1^
วันศุกร์\/wanˑsùk/\Friday\1^
ศักดิ์\/sàk/\ability\1^
ศัพท์\/sàp/\vocabulary\1^
ศาสตราจารย์\/sàatˑtraaˑcaan/\professor\1^
ศิลป์\/sǐn/\art\1^
ศิษย์\/sìt/\student\1^
ศูนย์\/sǔun/\zero\1^
สัตว์\/sàt/\quadruped\1^
สัปดาห์\/sàpˑdaa/\week\1^
องค์\/oŋ/\classifier for kings, princes, princesses, priests, images of Buddha, gods, palaces, pagodas\1^
องค์การ\/oŋˑkaan/\organization\1^
อนุรักษ์\/aˑnúˑrák/\conserve\1^
อาจารย์\/aaˑcaan/\teacher\1^
อาทิตย์\/aaˑthít/\week\1^
แอร์\/ɛɛ/\air−conditioner\1^
Sometimes it's more than just the final consonant that's silenced.
If there's a vowel associated with the final consonant, it's silenced too.
So, for example, in ศักดิ์ (ability), both ด and ◌ิ are silenced, and the word
is pronounced /sàk/.
Also, if after the final consonant is silenced what is left doesn't make "sense"
the preceding consonant will be silenced, too. For example:
Word
Pronunciation
Meaning
วิทยาศาสตร์
/wítˑthaˑyaaˑsàat/
science
จันทร์
/can/
moon
And sometimes you just have to "know" that the previous syllable is silenced. For example:
Word
Pronunciation
Meaning
กษัตริย์
/kaˑsàt/
pure
Finally, sometimes ◌์ will appear in the middle of a syllable − most commonly r/ร and l/ล − in
words taken from English, e.g. ฟอร์ม (/fɔɔm/, form) and ปาล์ม (/paam/, palm).
Here are some words to read covering all these types: