Thai script

The Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย, <a href="/facts/Royal_Thai_General_System_of_Transcription/EWjAaoyF">RTGS</a>: akson thai, pronounced [ʔàksɔ̌ːn tʰāj]) is the <a href="/facts/Abugida/FWhLePru">abugida</a> used to write <a href="/facts/Thai_language/PnaLdG77">Thai</a>, <a href="/facts/Southern_Thai_language/TeI5bqEm">Southern Thai</a> and many other languages spoken in <a href="/facts/Thailand/GCUnN4JK">Thailand</a>. The Thai script itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 <a href="/facts/Consonant/81X2SGS6">consonant</a> symbols (<a href="/facts/Thai_language/PnaLdG77">Thai</a>: พยัญชนะ, phayanchana), 16 <a href="/facts/Vowel/BNhCeFtH">vowel</a> symbols (<a href="/facts/Thai_language/PnaLdG77">Thai</a>: สระ, sara) that combine into at least 32 vowel forms, four <a href="/facts/Tone_(linguistics)/eprhXrWJ">tone</a> diacritics (<a href="/facts/Thai_language/PnaLdG77">Thai</a>: วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, wannayuk or wannayut), and other <a href="/facts/Diacritic/Rw6lMzQW">diacritics</a>.
Although commonly referred to as the Thai alphabet, the script is not a true <a href="/facts/Alphabet/vqfRpS3E">alphabet</a> but an <a href="/facts/Abugida/FWhLePru">abugida</a>, a writing system in which the full characters represent consonants with diacritical marks for vowels; the absence of a vowel diacritic gives an implied 'a' or 'o'. Consonants are <a href="/facts/Writing_direction/ABG251A0">written horizontally</a> from left to right, and vowels following a consonant in speech are written above, below, to the left or to the right of it, or a combination of those.

Thai script open-in-new

Thai script