Thai Language Blog

This is a continuation into the description of Thai phonemes of which pose difficulty to the typical native English speaker.

ก

This letter is best pronounced like a ‘g’. Some authors say that this letter is pronounced like a ‘k’, but they are wrong. Their insistance has led to foreigners mispronouncing many of the cities in Thailand. For example, Phuket is really pronounced ‘puu get’, while the Koh of Koh Samui is really pronounced ‘Go’.

the rule:

If the ก is found at the beginning of a syllable, pronounce it as a ‘g’.

If the ก is found at the end of a syllable, pronounce it as a ‘k’.

For example, the word Bangkok is written in Thai as บางกอก. Although it’s written as Bangkok in English, the correct Thai way to pronounce it would sound much more like ‘baang gawk’. Notice that the first ก was written as a ‘g’ and the second as a ‘k’.

แอะ, แอ
Best written as ‘ae’, the short version of this vowel sounds almost identical to the ‘a’ in apple.

อ

This vowel makes the sound ‘aaw’, like in the word ‘awkward’. It’s often transliterated as ‘or’, but this shouldn’t be done – an English speaker would incorrectly pronounce it like the ‘or’ in the word ‘organ’. Here is another example: in Thai, the word for blessing is pronounced ‘pawn’, and is popularly used for names. Unfortunately for them, their names are transliterated as ‘porn’.

One more note on transliteration with respect to my articles. I’m not transliterating Thai letter for letter or to be consistent with someone else’s way of writing Thai. Instead, I spell Karaoke in a way that best helps the American English speaker best pronounce each word.

And now for the Thai phonemes. But what is a phoneme? A phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound used to form a meaningful contrast between utterances, from which words in that language or dialect can be created. Fortunately, most phonemes (sounds) that are used in Thai can be also found in English, so I’ll keep this post simple and won’t go over those. But, there are a few tricky ones of which I’ll describe below:

ต

This letter is best transliterated as ‘dt’. Some authors write it as ‘t’, but this is incorrect as it sounds nothing like it. To make this sound, put the tip of your tongue between your teeth. Now, as you say the word ‘dog’ out loud, slide your tongue back into your mouth. It will sound like ‘dtog’. It should only take you about an hour of practice to have this down.

Note: some linguists will make the claim that ต isn’t one single phoneme but two combined. I disagree.

ง

This is by far the hardest phoneme in Thai for an English speaker, and is best transliterated as ‘ng’. It’s just like the ‘ng’ found in ‘Nguyen’ so often found in Vietnamese. It sounds somewhat like the Spanish ñ, except that the ñ is pronounced at the front of the mouth whereas ng is pronounced deep in the throat. Through teaching experience I find it generally takes 1 to 2 years of practice before a foreigner can pronounce it correctly. So find a Thai friend to help and don’t give up!

อึ, อื
This vowel (both short and long versions) can also take a few months to master. I don’t speak French, but I’ve been told it’s exactly like the French ‘eu’ sound. The sound should come from the back of the mouth, near the throat.

ป

Another hard consonant, and best transliterated as ‘bp’. Some authors will write it as either ‘b’ or ‘p’ – stay away from those authors. This letter is neither a ‘b’ nor a ‘p’, but something in between. Prepare your mouth to say the word ‘bad’, but curl your upper and lower lips inwards as you say ‘b’.

Note: Just like with ต, some linguists would argue this isn’t one single phoneme but two combined. I disagree.

to be continued . . .