Intro

VOWELS with Interactive Audio

CONSONANTS

FIVE TONES with Interactive Audio

OTHER CHARACTERS with Interactive Audio

INTERACTIVE TABLES - CLICK ON THE CONSONANTS TO HEAR THE SOUND

THREE CLASSES OF CONSONANTS

According to the above tables, the consonants are ideally divided in 3 different classes: "High" Consonants "Middle" Consonants "Low" Consonants As you have already guessed, this classification has something to do with the tone of pronunciation of a given syllable. Pay attention, anyway, to the fact that there is no direct relation between the three groups of consonants and the tone of pronunciation. That means, for example, that a syllable starting with a middle consonant can be pronounced with a middle tone, but also with high, low, falling or raising tone. So, what determines the tone of a syllable? The tone of a syllable is determined by the eventual presence of a tone marker, by the class of the initial consonant (high, middle or low) and from the fact that a syllable can have a "live" or "quenched" sound.

.. AND TWO KIND OF SYLLABLES

But.. what does it mean that a syllable has a "live" or "quenched" sound? Well.. we will refer to a syllable as "quenched" when it ends in a short vowel (which usually sounds a bit as "truncated") or when ends with any of the three consonants that we can define as "truncated". Oh, my... once again.. what is a "truncated" consonant? You can see them in the small table here below. BTW, it's a kind of consonant that can't be pronounced continuously with the same tone.. same as G in Gossip. In the other side, the syllable will be "live" when it ends in a long vowel or in any of the five "vibrant" consonants (they are consonants that make feel a kind of vibration on the gum when pronounced and that can be pronounced continuously.. same as M in Mary). To recap: STRUCTURE OF THE SYLLABLE THE SILLABLE WILL BE Consonant + Vowel + Truncated Consonant QUENCHED Consonant + Vowel + Vibrant Consonant LIVE Consonant + Short Vowel QUENCHED Consonant + Long Vowel LIVE Don't worry.. these classifications are used only to discover the hidden mechanisms ruling the way a syllable is pronounced. In the practical side, a Thai will never think about such kind of classifications during a reading. The practice and the experience will always remain the best way to learn the language. The following page takes in consideration the tone markers. A graph will help you to determine which one among the five tones available must be chosen for a given syllable. Next Page - THE FIVE TONES

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