One of our readers decided to share some very useful information relating to the study of the Thai language, or rather the definition of tonality in the pronunciation of words. We think his advice will prove helpful to you.
With a thorough study of the Thai language reading problems usually does not occur. However, the Thai language has a slight nuance – This is the correct definition of tonality. Once I brought for myself methodology for exploring this amazing language. I remembered spelling of the word and the corresponding tone. In Thailand, developed Own rules of reading, to understand which I did not. Now, meeting an unfamiliar word, I try to just guess tone.
The national language of the Thais is composed of 5 tones. In connection with this chance to the correct pronunciation of words is only 20%. But do not hurry get upset, considering the science of tonality overwhelming. I’ll teach you how to determine the tonality in the Thai language.
By the way, try to use our Russian-Thai Phrasebook when communicating with Thais who do not know English (or so, for practice).
There are 4 pillars in the local dialect tonality. Each of them does not always reflect a certain tone, but at the same time, it minimizes the number of available variations.
Marker I – ้
Its name is recorded “mai4 toe1”. I remembered it like this: point with squiggle – Point – May Point – May To. Presence in the word 1st voice mark means pronunciation or in a high tone, or in descending order.
Marker II – ่
The name of the marker at number 2 is recorded “mai4 ek2”. For myself i explained it by comparison with a dash over the Russian letter “Y”. I will write it in a chain “Y – Yek – May Ek”. Studying Thai yourself, remember that with this tag the word is pronounced with low or falling intonation.
Marker III – ๋
Marker number 3 is registered “mai4 dtree1” or a plus sign. Over it I worked by remembering by analogy with a tree. So, as it grows, it increases in size, that is, it gets increase in length. The English call the tree “tree”. From here we get May Tria. Having noticed this voice tag in a Thai word, read it in ascending tone.
Here I want to warn you about the exception. For example, “noodles” “запис” is written in Thai. It would seem that the difficulties in there is no reading, because both tones in the word are ascending. but The trick of pronouncing the first part of “ก๋ ว ย” is in its descending intonation. The third marker is used to reprimand words that have come from the language of the Chinese people.
Marker IV – ๊
Learn Thai with this marker exceptions. The mysterious 4th marker looks like “mai4 ja1 dta1 waa1”. Thai words he gives a high tone.
