{"id":1539,"date":"2013-01-21T11:29:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T11:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/?p=1539"},"modified":"2013-01-17T20:43:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T20:43:25","slug":"how-does-one-note-thai-tones-when-writing-thai-using-the-english-alphabet-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/how-does-one-note-thai-tones-when-writing-thai-using-the-english-alphabet-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"How does one note Thai tones when writing Thai using the English alphabet? part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

I occasionally have readers who write in to ask me to explain what\u2019s up with all those numbers next to all my karoke Thai words. The answer: the numbers are declaring tones. But why am I using such an unintuitive method, I\u2019m asked?<\/span><\/p>\n

As such I will explain what all the methods I\u2019ve seen are. And then I\u2019ll explain my thoughts on each.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1) Method #1: Simply don\u2019t write the tones.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019d be amazed at how many \u2018learn thai\u2019 books out there that just don\u2019t bother with declaring tones. If you see a book like that, burn it for me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2) Method #2: Use the \u2018Vietnamese\u2019 method.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was probably the French who invented this method because the Vietnamese didn\u2019t use (or even have?) a written language before colonization. In written Vietnamese (ti\u1ebfng Vi\u1ec7t), which uses the French alphabet, you\u2019ll often see little squigglies around the letters. These are used to define tones. My guess is that a similar train of thought is used for when writing Thai using the English alphabet, which is why I call it the \u2018Vietnamese method\u2019 (I made this name up).<\/p>\n

For Thai, you add a mark above a vowel in each syllable of the word as so:<\/span><\/p>\n

e \u2013 mid tone<\/p>\n

\u00e8 \u2013 low tone<\/p>\n

\u00e9 \u2013 high tone<\/p>\n

\u00ea \u2013 falling tone<\/p>\n

\u0115 \u2013 rising tone<\/p>\n

For example, the word for \u2018hello\u2019 has four syllables: s\u00e0w\u00e0tdeekr\u00e1p<\/span><\/p>\n

I have two issues with this method. First, it\u2019s a bit non-intuitive \u2013 you need to spend some time to memorize it. I mean, the low tone looks like a picture of a line falling, no? And the falling\/rising marks have both a falling and rising half \u2013 so which is which? But my bigger issue is, where are these squiggly marks on my keyboard anyway?! To use it, I have to bring up Windows Character Map and then find the appropriate vowels and tone marks, then copy\/paste it over. It\u2019s time consuming.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3) Method #3: Use a sub\/super script to define the tone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This method involves writing a little letter to represent the tone of each syllable of a word using either subscripts or superscripts. This method is more intuitive than the previous Method #2, and doesn\u2019t require any time to learn.<\/p>\n

The code is as such:<\/span><\/p>\n

M \u2013 mid tone<\/p>\n

L \u2013 low tone<\/p>\n

H \u2013 high tone<\/p>\n

F \u2013 falling tone<\/p>\n

R \u2013 rising tone<\/p>\n

For example, the word for \u2018eat\u2019 would be: gin<\/span>M<\/sup><\/p>\n

Microsoft Word has a little button at top that makes it easy to create sub\/superscripts. Push it a second time to exit it.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is one annoying issue with this method \u2013 you are forced to break up the word for each syllable with a space before Microsoft Word allows you to add a script. It does allow you to delete that space afterwards, but it\u2019s two extra annoying steps.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, the word for \u2018hello\u2019 has four syllables: sa<\/span>L<\/sup>wat<\/span>L<\/sup>dee<\/span>M<\/sup>krap<\/span>H<\/sup><\/p>\n

Lastly, when writing on a big black\/white board by hand, the scripts can be hard to see for those in the back of the class. And they can get mixed up with the rest of the word when I don\u2019t \u2018super\u2019 them enough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I occasionally have readers who write in to ask me to explain what\u2019s up with all those numbers next to all my karoke Thai words. The answer: the numbers are declaring tones. But why am I using such an unintuitive method, I\u2019m asked? As such I will explain what all the methods I\u2019ve seen are…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[10208],"tags":[254636,10177,254607],"class_list":["post-1539","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-beginner","tag-marks","tag-thai","tag-tone"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1543,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}