Stand Alone-Sound:
This is the sound which the character will make. Notice that this is just the sound it makes without respect to the length of the vowel. It’s rather difficult to type vowel length in English because, well, we don’t use “length” for vowels in the same way Thais do.
Where as Thais have characters and symbols in their written language to display the length of the sound, we do not.
Example: In Thai โอะ is a short “oh” sounds. Think of it like when something surprises you suddenly and you just say a quick “oh!” Yes, it’s something like that. But Thai also has a second “oh” sound โอ which is a longer held tone. Think of when you say “oooohh” like when you understand something at last. It’s probably not quite as dramatic as that, but it’s important to grasp as the length of the vowel sound changes the meaning of the word. I’ll go into this more in the next section.
If you’re a new student to Thai, some of these sounds may be new for you. Thai does have some vowels sounds that English lacks and you’ll have to practice often to get your mouth used to forming these new sounds. (I know I did- and still do!)
Thai vowels which English lacks:
อึอ and อือ – If these sounds take you a while to get the hang of, don’t worry. I’m positive every native English speaker grapples with them at first. The sound is “eu” and I read in one book it can be compared to the “eu” in the French word “bleu”. It’s difficult to type out this sound in English but, just so you know, the word มือ (meu = hand) is not pronounced “moo”, “muh” or “mua”.
เอือะ and เอือ – This is kind of an extended version of “eu” in the fact that it starts with “eu” and then ends with an “ah” sound. “Eua” short and “Euuaa” long.
ฤ and ฤๅ – Many books translate this vowel as “leu” but this is a mistake! The obsolete characters ฦ and ฦๅ are pronounced “leu”. ฤ and ฤๅ are pronounced “reu”. So why do so many books tell us to say “leu” for the wrong character? I believe it is because they fail to instruct us in the difference between Asian “l” and “r” and Western “l” and “r”.
Any “r” sound in Thai may at first sound like an “l” to you. This is because Thais (and most Asian languages) have a rolled, much softer “r” than English. Where as our “r’s” are very hard and rigid (especially in American English) the Thai “r’s” are softer and rolled.
Your everyday Thai will usually slur it a little to where it, indeed, sounds similar to an English “l”. But this does not mean that we should take the lazy way out and pronounce our Thai “r’s” like “l’s”. Besides, I’ve tried that, and they can tell you’re saying an “l” sound. Instead, please ignore these lousy pieces of “advice” from other books and practice proper Thai pronunciation by rolling all of your “r” sounds.
Think of it like this… English “r’s” are like a sharp 90 degree angle where as Thai “r’s” are like a smooth curve. If you think that Thais are saying “l” instead of “r”, well, some of them are (it’s a lazy slur… like we may say “gonna” instead of “going to”) but many of them do roll their r’s properly. We just have to train our ears a little to hear the difference. Don’t worry, if you don’t get it already, you will soon. It’s not hard!
Stand Alone-Sound:
This is the sound which the character will make. Notice that this is just the sound it makes without respect to the length of the vowel. It’s rather difficult to type vowel length in English because, well, we don’t use “length” for vowels in the same way Thais do.
Where as Thais have characters and symbols in their written language to display the length of the sound, we do not.
Example: In Thai โอะ is a short “oh” sounds. Think of it like when something surprises you suddenly and you just say a quick “oh!” Yes, it’s something like that. But Thai also has a second “oh” sound โอ which is a longer held tone. Think of when you say “oooohh” like when you understand something at last. It’s probably not quite as dramatic as that, but it’s important to grasp as the length of the vowel sound changes the meaning of the word. I’ll go into this more in the next section.
If you’re a new student to Thai, some of these sounds may be new for you. Thai does have some vowels sounds that English lacks and you’ll have to practice often to get your mouth used to forming these new sounds. (I know I did- and still do!)
Thai vowels which English lacks:
อึอ and อือ – If these sounds take you a while to get the hang of, don’t worry. I’m positive every native English speaker grapples with them at first. The sound is “eu” and I read in one book it can be compared to the “eu” in the French word “bleu”. It’s difficult to type out this sound in English but, just so you know, the word มือ (meu = hand) is not pronounced “moo”, “muh” or “mua”.
เอือะ and เอือ – This is kind of an extended version of “eu” in the fact that it starts with “eu” and then ends with an “ah” sound. “Eua” short and “Euuaa” long.
ฤ and ฤๅ – Many books translate this vowel as “leu” but this is a mistake! The obsolete characters ฦ and ฦๅ are pronounced “leu”. ฤ and ฤๅ are pronounced “reu”. So why do so many books tell us to say “leu” for the wrong character? I believe it is because they fail to instruct us in the difference between Asian “l” and “r” and Western “l” and “r”.
Any “r” sound in Thai may at first sound like an “l” to you. This is because Thais (and most Asian languages) have a rolled, much softer “r” than English. Where as our “r’s” are very hard and rigid (especially in American English) the Thai “r’s” are softer and rolled.
Your everyday Thai will usually slur it a little to where it, indeed, sounds similar to an English “l”. But this does not mean that we should take the lazy way out and pronounce our Thai “r’s” like “l’s”. Besides, I’ve tried that, and they can tell you’re saying an “l” sound. Instead, please ignore these lousy pieces of “advice” from other books and practice proper Thai pronunciation by rolling all of your “r” sounds.
Think of it like this… English “r’s” are like a sharp 90 degree angle where as Thai “r’s” are like a smooth curve. If you think that Thais are saying “l” instead of “r”, well, some of them are (it’s a lazy slur… like we may say “gonna” instead of “going to”) but many of them do roll their r’s properly. We just have to train our ears a little to hear the difference. Don’t worry, if you don’t get it already, you will soon. It’s not hard!
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