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Pronunciation

 

 

 

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          If you want to speak the kind of Thai that Thai people will be able to understand, you will need to keep on practicing good pronunciation.  It is as important at this stage of the fame as it was at the beginning, because, no that you are able to say a great many things in Thai quite easily, you have to take care that you do not become careless in your pronunciation habits.  The pronunciation practices given below are designed to give you a chance to check up on this.         
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          1. Initial consonant clusters
          Only a few consonants may be followed by another consonant at the beginning of a syllable.  The following combinations occur: pl, pr, tr, kl, kr, kw, phl, phr, khl, khr, and khw.   You will notice that the first consonant  is always an aspirated or unaspirated voiceless stop, while the second consonant is l, r, or w.  In going through the practice below, concentrate on the two following things:

          (a)  Take care to distinguish the unaspirated consonants from the aspirated ones.

          (b)  Guard against substituting English bl (black), br (brown), dr (drown), gl (glade), gr (grow), and gw (Gwendolyn) for the Thai clusters pl, pr, tr, kl, kr, and kw, respectively.

   Practice I

plaay

end, end-part

phlaay

male (of elephant)

praaŋ

stupa (a type of Buddhist monument)

phraaŋ

to deceive, hold back the truth

klɔɔŋ

drum

khlɔɔŋ

canal

kruu

to throng, swarm

khruu

teacher

kwaˆaŋ

to be wide

khwaˆaŋ

to hurl

troŋ

to be straight

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          There is no word to contrast with troŋ 'to be straight', because th is never followed by another consonant.  Now go through the practice a second time, this time reading the examples in reverse order.

 

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          2.   Keeping o and ɔ apart.
          Some speakers of English have trouble keeping Thai o and ɔ apart.   Moreover, those who have trouble with long vowels may confuse either a short or a long o with a short or along ɔ.

   Practice II

loŋ

to descend
lɔɔŋ

to try out
looŋ

coffin

sɔˆɔm
fork

soˆm

orange

hŏoy

to wail

hɔ̆ɔy

shellfish

 

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          3.   How is your əə sound?
          If you have difficulty in pronouncing the words in the practice immediately below, go back to Practice 1 in the Hints on Pronunciation of Unit 2, and review it thoroughly.

   Practice III

เกิน

 kəən

to exceed

เชิญ

 chəən

to invite
เดิน dəən

to walk
บังเอิญ baŋʔəən

accidentally
เถิด thə̀ət

(word of command)
ประเสริฐ pràsə̀ət

(name for a man)
เปิด pə̀ət

to open
เกิด kə̀ət

to originate, be born
เบอร์ bəə

number
เหม่อ mə̀ə

to be in a brown study
เซ่อ səˆə

to be foolish
เพ้อ phə́ə

to be delirious
เผลอ phlə̆ə

to be incautious, reckless

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          4.   Keeping apart words having different tones
          Read Practice 4 through at least twice, the first time as written, the second time in reverse order except for the last group of short sentences.

   Practice IV

ชา chaa tea
ช้า cháa to be slow
พอ phɔɔ

to be enough
พ่อ phɔˆɔ father
เหนือ nʉ̆a

to be northern; above
เนื้อ nʉ́a meat
แหม mɛ̆ɛ (exclamation)
แม่ mɛˆɛ mother
พัก phák to rest
ผัก phàk vegetable
ผัด phàt to fry
พัด phát to blow
ส่อง sɔ̀ɔŋ to shine
สอง sɔ̆ɔŋ two
ซอง sɔɔŋ

(classifier for packs of cigarettes)

naˆŋ  duu  naˆŋ

to sit and look at the movie

khăw  khaˆw   maa

he came in

maˆy  nàk   nák

not very heavy

sĭi  sìi   sĭi

four colors

bùrìi   sɔ̆ɔŋ  sɔɔŋ

two packs of cigarettes

phaˆa  mày   măy

is the cloth new?

phaˆa  maˆy   mày

the cloth isn't new
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