Thai Alphabet Question

[zanemay]

There are three pairs of letters in which the letters are the same shape except that the right side is higher. They are grouped together in alphabetical order I believe.

bah baymay pah plah

pah peung fah fah

phah phaan fah fan

Two of them are P/F pairs.

Is there some logic behind this, if any?

I was not able or far along enough in my studies in BKK to ask.

Thanks,

Zane

P.S. I am in California now after 15weeks in LOS. Continuing with study of Thai.

[ June 08, 2001: Message edited by: Zane May ]

[gawguy]

Zane,

This may be because the consonants are in different tone classes. I can't verify that right now though.

Good luck,

Gaw Guy

[boemba]

quote:

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Originally posted by Zane May:

There are three pairs of letters in which the letters are the same shape except that the right side is higher. They are grouped together in alphabetical order I believe.

bah baymay pah plah

pah peung fah fah

phah phaan fah fan

Two of them are P/F pairs.

Is there some logic behind this, if any?

I was not able or far along enough in my studies in BKK to ask.

Thanks,

Zane

I is quite a complicated matter. Thai consonants are divided into three groups:high, mid and low consonants.Some consonants(like f, ph, th) have both a high and mid consonant version. Let's just say the kind of consonant co-determines the tone of the word that is spoken. (tones are also further determined by tone markers)

[ June 08, 2001: Message edited by: Zane May ]

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bar prices

old stuff

[samak]

the shape on the right side of those consonants has nothing to do with their class. they are pairs, as their sound is similar like:

bor baimai (soft sound), por pla (hard sound) etc. (both are middle class consonants). same applies to the ph/f consonants (their the shape of the bend of the left side determines their class).

is there a logic behind? you would have to ask king ramkhamhaeng...

[Chanchao]

Hm, your question made me wonder if there is anything to the 'd' and 'b' pair in English, as well as the 'p' and 'q' pair. They look so similar except that the loop goes the other way. Is there any logic behind this?

Cheers,

Chanchao

[Guest]

bor bai mai is a "b"

pbor pblaa is like an unaspirated "p"

similar to a cross between a "b" and a "p"

por peung/for faa high class "p" and "f"

por paan/for fun low class "p" and "f"

for all aspirated sounds there is a high

and a low class (t s c k h p f)

It takes a while to get the logic behind the letters,but it is there.

I dont think that much of the current method the AUA in bkk uses to teach thai,but,I think their Reading and Writing course texts by J.Marvin Brown are really good and if you can get them they give the best explanation of the rationale behind the thai system.