Thailand’s offi cial language is eff ectively
the dialect spoken and written in central
Thailand, which has successfully become the
lingua franca of all Thai and non-Thai ethnic
groups in the kingdom.
In Thai the meaning of a single syllable
may be altered by means of diff erent tones.
In standard Thai there are fi ve: low tone, mid
tone, falling tone, high tone and rising tone.
The range of all fi ve tones is relative to each
speaker’s vocal range, so there is no fi xed
‘pitch’ intrinsic to the language.
» (^) low tone – ‘Flat’ like the mid tone, but
pronounced at the relative bottom of one’s
vocal range. It is low, level and has no in-
fl ection, eg bàht (baht – the Thai currency).
» (^) mid tone – Pronounced ‘fl at’, at the rela-
tive middle of the speaker’s vocal range, eg
dee (good). No tone mark is used.
» (^) falling tone – Starting high and falling
sharply, this tone is similar to the change in
pitch in English when you are emphasising
a word, or calling someone’s name from
afar, eg mâi (no/not).
» high tone – Usually the most diffi cult for
non-Thai speakers. It’s pronounced near
the relative top of the vocal range, as level
as possible, eg máh (horse).
» (^) rising tone – Starting low and gradually
rising, sounds like the infl ection used by
English speakers to imply a question –
‘Yes?’, eg săhm (three).
The Thai government has instituted the
Royal Thai General Transcription System
(RTGS) as a standard method of writing
Thai using the Roman alphabet. It’s used in
offi cial documents, road signs and on maps.
However, local variations crop up on signs,
menus etc. Generally, names in this book
follow the most common practice.
In our coloured pronunciation guides,
the hyphens indicate syllable breaks within
words, and some syllables are further divided
with a dot to help you pronounce compound
vowels, eg mêu·a-rai (when).
The vowel a is pronounced as in ‘about’, aa
as the ‘a’ in ‘bad’, ah as the ‘a’ in ‘father’, ai as
in ‘aisle’, air as in ‘fl air’ (without the ‘r’), eu as
the ‘er’ in ‘her’ (without the ‘r’), ew as in ‘new’
(with rounded lips), oh as the ‘o’ in ‘toe’, or as
in ‘torn’ (without the ‘r’) and ow as in ‘now’.
Most consonants correspond to their
English counterparts. The exceptions are
Ъ (a hard ‘p’ sound, almost like a ‘b’, eg in
‘hip-bag’); đ (a hard ‘t’ sound, like a sharp ‘d’,
eg in ‘mid-tone’); ng (as in ‘singing’; in Thai
it can occur at the start of a word) and r (as
in ‘run’ but fl apped; in everyday speech it’s
often pronounced like ‘l’).
BASICS
The social structure of Thai society demands
diff erent registers of speech depending on
who you’re talking to. To make things simple
we’ve chosen the correct form of speech ap-
propriate to the context of each phrase.
When being polite, the speaker ends his
or her sentence with kráp (for men) or kâ
(for women). It is the gender of the speaker
that is being expressed here; it is also the
common way to answer ‘yes’ to a question or
show agreement.
The masculine and feminine forms of
phrases in this chapter are indicated where
relevant with ‘m/f’.
WANT MORE?
For in-depth language
information and handy
phrases, check out Lonely
Planet’s Phrasebook Name.
You’ll fi nd it at shop
.lonelyplanet.com, or you
can buy Lonely Planet’s
iPhone phrasebooks at the
Apple App Store.