Systems, such as Royal Thai (RTGS) and ISO 11940, exist for transcribing Thai using the Latin alphabet. However, the reverse, transcribing English using the Thai script, has not been standardized, and may never be. What follows is an attempt for fun.
| บ | b | จ | ch | ด | d | ฟ | f |
| ค | g | ห | h | ช | j | ก | k |
| ล | l | ม | m | น | n | ง | ng |
| ป | p | ร | r | ส | s | ษ | ṣh |
| ต | t | ถ | th | ฝ | v | ว | w |
| ย | y | ซ | z | ||||
| –ว– | [ua] | –วย | [uɛj] | –อ | [ɔː] | –ำ | [ɑm] |
| –ั – | [ɑ] | –า | [aː] | –ิ | [i] | –ี | [iː] |
| –ึ | [ɯ] | –ื | [ɯː] | –ุ | [u] | –ู | [uː] |
| เ–็ – | [e] | เ– | [eː] | เ–ิ – | [ɤ] | เ–อ | [ɤː] |
| แ–็ – | [ɛ] | แ– | [ɛː] | โ– | [oː] | ใ–,ไ– | [ɑj] |
There are far more characters in Thai than in the Latin alphabet. There are a number of sounds in one language that do not exist in the other, and many nondestinct characters in both languages. Tones, aspirated consonants, and glottal vowels have been removed. The Pali transcription has been used wherever the Thai has no equivilant English pronounciation (such as ค [ga] which would normally be pronounced as [kha]). The English vowels are dishonest in so far as there are many more variations than five (fx. hot, open, look, loop), so the Thai vowels have been barely reduced.
(images taken from Tony Salt’s Thai Language page)
Comments (4)
You simply have too much time at hand. But I guess you are living by Søren Kierkegaard’s words:
“Lediggang som saadan er ingenlunde Roden til alt Ondt, tværtimod, den er et sandt guddommeligt Liv, naar man ikke keder sig.”
I’ve added some Thai Script Study Sheets
i found this on a shirt and want to know what it means?
chohk dee kha
do you have any idea? there is an elephant on it also. Thank you.
Hi Lonnie,
That’s a woman politely saying “good luck” {luck good (female polite suffix)}
โชค ดี ครับ chohk dee khrap (male)
โชค ดี ค่ะ chohk dee kha (female)