Thai for Beginners 7 Guide to Pronunciation ‘Tones Because Thai is a tonal language, its pronunciation presents new challenges for English speakers. IT the tone is wrong, you will not be easily understood even if everything else is correct. Thai uses five tones. For example, to pronounce a rising tone, your voice Starts at a low pitch and goes up (much like asking a question in English). The phonetic transliteration in this text book uses tone marks over the vowels to show the tone for cach word. Note that (he tone marks used for transliteration are different from those used in thai script. ‘lone Marks ( Transliteration) Tong Tone symbol Example aid None maa low 4 maa falling i maa high ; maa rixing . maa Vowels Most Thai vowels have two versions, short and long. Short vowels are clipped and cut off at the end. [ong ones are drawn out. This book shows short vowels with a single letter and long vowels with double letters Ca’ [or short: ‘ua’ for long) The ‘iW has no comparable sound in English. Try saying ww while spreading your Sips in as wide « stile as possible. UH the sound you are making 1s similar to one you might have uttered alter Stepping on something disgusting, you are probably close!& Short & Long Vowels a aa i ii u uu u ant ee ee a like a in Alaska like a in father Hike i in up like ee in see like_oo in boot dike u in ruler dike u in ruler, but with a smile like a but longer like e in pet like a in pale dike a in cat like a in sad dike er in teacher Guide to Pronunciation fan - teeth maa - come sip - ten sli - four kun - you stun - zero hung - one mun ~ hand set - finish pleeng-song le - and deeng - red 13 - dirty withour the r sound like 9 but longer like Q in note like 0 in go like au in caught like aw in law Complex Vowels jaa - meet jon - poor joon -robber gd - island noon - sleep The following dipthongs are combinations of the above vowels. ai Pare ja ual ua ai vot ui co £0 mai - nol mao - drunk bia - beer dua- body Tua - boat ni Hike dooi by kui - chat reo - fast té0 - row adi sawi - sand aao—_kaao - rice jag tijao - sifeky ual rual - rich wai onal - sired an kool - wait oa] noar- butter iu hiu - hungry ceo CeO - Waist ceo 1éeu - already