Wiktionary:About Thai

Characters

Use {{lang|th| }} to properly display characters. See also Appendix:Thai script.

Transliteration

Thai transliterations (that is, romanizations) are not words. Thai entries are only permitted in the Thai script.

No transliterations are to be given on the inflection line or for translations into Thai since there is no widely adopted transliteration system. Various guide books, textbooks, and dictionaries follow different systems. The Royal Thai General System of Transcription has received criticism for over-simplification and is used inconsistently even by the government. ISO 11940 has been used academically since 2003, but not by the common public due to its complexity.

Parts of speech

Thai does not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs, which are more acurately described as stative verbs. Particles are used to indicate respect, a request, encouragement, or other moods.

Pronunciation

The Thai language makes a distinction between short and long vowels and between aspirated and unaspirated /p/, /t/, /k/, and /t͡ɕ/. There are five tones which, for single syllables with long vowels, are realized as /˧/ (mid), /˨˩/ (low), /˥˩/ (falling), /˦˥/ (high), and /˩˩˥/ (rising).

Thai spellings are phonetic, with some exceptions such as ฑ, the tones of a few very common words, the length of certain vowels, and occasional inherent ambiguity between syllables.

When ร (rɔɔ) appears in consonant clusters, many speaker drop /r/ or substitute /l/. Note that /ʔ/ is implied after a short vowel without final and the silent อ (ɔɔ) before a vowel.

Dialects

Regional variations include Khorat Thai, spoken in Nakhon Ratchasima, and Bangkok Thai. There are a number of related dialects in the Tai language family including Shan (shn), Lao (lo), and its close relative Northern Thai (nod), Northeastern Thai AKA Isan (tts), Southern Thai (sou), the latters written in Thai script.

Thai personal names

A Thai person's name can be any word in the language, a loanword from another language/dialect, or even a meaningless spelling. Therefore, a Thai person's name should not be collected in Wiktionary, or there would be the sense of "a person's name" every entry.