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Thai script

  Tags: Thai | Writing System
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Waegukin
Newbie
Korea, South
Joined 5499 days ago

19 posts - 22 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean

 
 Message 1 of 4
08 February 2013 at 9:11am | IP Logged 
All the apps and programs I've found to learn the Thai script say they include the letter
and a word associated with that letter. An example is "gor gai" with the picture of a
chicken. Apparently "gai" means Chicken...

So from people who have learned the script, what is the best way to learn how the letter
is pronounced plus the name of the item attached? I'm just a bit confused.
1 person has voted this message useful



nakrian keegiat
Diglot
Groupie
Thailand
Joined 4906 days ago

70 posts - 172 votes 
Speaks: English*, Thai
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 2 of 4
08 February 2013 at 2:40pm | IP Logged 
I don't know if there is a best way. Some people try to look at the shape of a letter and make up a story about it, like with ก (gor gai). "Well, it looks like a chicken's head and I'll name him Greg since it has the same hard G sound", or "I hope I don't get gored by the chicken's beak".

There are some systems out there that use this method but they ignore the word associated with the letter and just assign a new one based on the shape. I'd avoid these since you will have to unlearn their name for each letter to learn the correct one.

I just used rote memorization to learn the names of the letters and how to write them then practiced by reading.

Edited by nakrian keegiat on 08 February 2013 at 6:31pm

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leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6549 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 3 of 4
08 February 2013 at 5:22pm | IP Logged 
I agree with nakrian keegiat; there probably is no best way. I also used rote memory.

You may know this already, but when Thais talk about letters, for example when they are discussing spelling, they use the whole name of the letter. So they would say “gor gai” instead of just “gor”. So it’s important to learn the whole name. Obviously not as important as knowing how to pronounce/read it, but still important.

So it’s a good idea to learn these names early on, because you’re likely to want to discuss letters a lot in the early stages of learning. One suggestion – the first time you learn the consonants, learn them by class, rather than alphabetical order. That way the consonant class will be well burned into your memory, which is necessary when you learn the tone rules. Alphabetical order is also nice to know, and many learners learn them first in that order. But imo it’s not nearly as important as class, and can be learned later.

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nakrian keegiat
Diglot
Groupie
Thailand
Joined 4906 days ago

70 posts - 172 votes 
Speaks: English*, Thai
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 4 of 4
08 February 2013 at 5:57pm | IP Logged 
Here's an easy trick to learning the consonant classes: there's only 9 Mid class and 11 High class. Learn these really well and when you see a letter that isn't in one of these groups then you know it's one of the 24 Low class consonants. It's easier that way than trying to memorize all 44.

Learning them by class (starting with mid and high) is a good idea but I learned them in alphabetical order then learned the classes afterwards using the technique above.


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