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The Consonant Sounds of Thai
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Choose Your Own Thai Font and Size
- Choose Your Favorite Pronunciation Guide Systems
- Consonant Sound Chart
- Spectrograms
- Voice Viewer: See Your Own Spectrogram and Compare!
- How do I pronounce "Thaksin" and "Phuket"?
- The Three Tricky "b" and "p" Sounds
- The Three Tricky "d" and "t" Sounds
- Is It "g" or Is It "k"?
- Is It "j" or Is It "ch"?
- Thais Really Love Their "r" and "l"
- Thais Love to Drop "r" and "l" in Clusters
- Words Can Begin with "ng"
- Is It "w" or Is It "v"?
- The Consonant for No Consonant
- Don't Spit Out Your Finals!
Introduction
On this page, we will teach you how to speak and recognize the consonant sounds of Thai, with some particularly detailed sections on the tricker consonants like the pesky triplets of "d"/"t" sounds and "b"/"p" sounds, as well as words that start with "ng."As we describe each sound of Thai, we'll also teach you how that sound is written using the pronunciation guide system of your choice. Read on...
Choose Your Own Thai Font and Size
One of my biggest frustrations when trying to learn or use Thai language on the web is that I can never read the microscopic Thai letters that everyone seems to use on their web pages!At slice-of-thai.com, we proudly present to you the buttons that every site should have. Choose your Thai font and font size and we will remember your setting and instantly apply it to all pages on slice-of-thai.com
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| Sample: | คุณ เก็บ เสื้อ ไว้ ไหน |
Choose Your Favorite Pronunciation Guide Systems
As you've probably noticed, nearly every book and website uses a different guide system (known as "romanization," "transliteration," or "phonemic transcription" systems) for helping you learn the pronunciation of native Thai words.Here at slice-of-thai.com, we let you choose the system(s) you want to see. Check your favorite system(s) below, and we will remember your setting and instantly apply it to all pages on slice-of-thai.com.
Pronunciation guides are a useful crutch, but they have hidden pitfalls which may surprise you: learn more about this, as well as how each system differs, at Pronunciation Guide Systems for Thai. Also, you can click on any system below for more information.
| System | Description | Example คุณ เก็บ เสื้อ ไว้ ไหน | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paiboon | Benjawan Poomsan Becker's Thai for Beginners | [kun-gèp-sʉ̂a-wái-nǎi] | |
| Paiboon+ | Adds a few extra sound distinctions | [kun-gÈp-sʉ̂ʉa-wái-nǎi] | |
| TLC | From the fantastic thai-language.com | [khoonM-gepL-seuuaF-waiH-naiR] | |
| Tiger | Thai learning books from Tiger Press | [koon-gèp-sûea-wái-nǎi] | |
| LP | System from the Lonely Planet guidebooks | [khun-kèp-sêua-wái-nǎi] | |
| Thai Govt+ | Lame system used for Thai road signs + tones | [khun-kèp-sûea-wái-nǎi] | |
| IPA | International Phonetic Alphabet: nerds love it | [kʰūn-kèp̚-sɯ̂ːa-wáj-nǎj] | |
| Easy Thai | Spells out each syllable using simple Thai | [คุน-เก็บ-เซื่อ-ไว้-ไหฺน] | |
| Example of how it will look: [sʉ̂a, sʉ̂ʉa, seuuaF, sûea, sêua, sûea, sɯ̂ːa, เซื่อ] | |||
Consonant Sound Chart
Well, let's dive right into it.Fortunately, most of the consonant sounds in Thai have a direct, one-to-one mapping to familiar consonant sounds in English.
On this chart, we will list all of the consonant sounds of Thai. For each consonant, we give:
- a play button
that you can click to hear a native speaker make that consonant sound, in a mid-tone syllable with the Thai vowel [ɔɔ, ɔɔ, aaw, aw, aw, o, ɔː, −อ/−อ−◌อ/◌อ◌]. - the pronunciation guide symbol we use for that sound (using whatever pronunciation guide system(s) you chose above).
- an example of an English word that also contains that consonant sound, with the relevant part of the English word underlined.
- a list of the Thai consonants which sound like this when the consonants appear at the start of a Thai syllable,
- a list of the Thai consonants which sound like this when the consonants appear at the end of a Thai syllable, and a magical "stop" or "sonorant" type which will be important for you to know later when you learn the Thai tone rules.
- for some consonant sounds, a link to very important details you need in order to recognize or pronounce these sounds.
The English examples in this chart are sufficient to learn many of the consonant sounds, but for some of the sounds we have provided links to special detail sections below.
| More Details | Sound | Thai Consonant | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guide Symbol | English Example | Start of Syllable | End of Syllable | |||
| Details | - | [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] | boy | บ | (no syllables end with this sound) | |
| - | [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] | pet | ผ, พ, ภ | บ, ป, พ, ฟ, ภ | stop | |
| - | [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] | spot | ป | (no syllables end with this sound) | ||
| Details | - | [d, d, d, d, d, d, d, ด] | dog | ฎ, ด | (no syllables end with this sound) | |
| - | [t, t, th, t, th, th, tʰ, ถ/ท] | time | ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ถ, ท, ธ | จ, ช, ฎ, ฏ, ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ด, ต, ถ, ท, ธ, ศ, ษ, ส | stop | |
| - | [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต] | stop | ฏ, ต | (no syllables end with this sound) | ||
| Details | - | [g, g, g, g, k, k, k, ก] | sky | ก | (no syllables end with this sound) | |
| - | [k, k, kh, k, kh, kh, kʰ, ข/ค] | kiss | ข, ฃ, ค, ฅ, ฆ | ก, ข, ค, ฆ | stop | |
| Details | - | [j, j, j, j, j, ch, tɕ, จ] | john | จ | (no syllables end with this sound) | |
| - | [ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, tɕʰ, ฉ/ช] | charm | ฉ, ช, ฌ | (no syllables end with this sound) | ||
| - | [f, f, f, f, f, f, f, ฝ/ฟ] | fog | ฝ, ฟ | (no syllables end with this sound) | ||
| - | [h, h, h, h, h, h, h, ห/ฮ] | have | ห, ฮ | (no syllables end with this sound) | ||
| Details | - | [l, l, l, l, l, l, l, ล] | love | ล, ฦ, ฬ | (no syllables end with this sound) | |
| - | [r, r, r, r, r, r, r, ร] | rolled Spanish r | ร, ฤ | (no syllables end with this sound) | ||
| - | [m, m, m, m, m, m, m, ม] | man | ม | ม | sonorant | |
| - | [n, n, n, n, n, n, n, น] | nation | ณ, น | ญ, ณ, น, ร, ล, ฬ | sonorant | |
| Details | - | [ng, ng, ng, ng, ng, ng, ŋ, ง] | thing | ง | ง | sonorant |
| - | [s, s, s, s, s, s, s, ซ/ส] | say | ซ, ศ, ษ, ส | (no syllables end with this sound) | ||
| Details | - | [w, w, w, w, w, w, w, ว] | wonder | ว | see vowel sounds | |
| - | [y, y, y, y, y, y, j, ย] | yellow | ญ, ย | see vowel sounds | ||
| Details | - | [, , , , , , ʔ, อ] | art, eat | อ | see vowel sounds | |
Note: Thai syllables do not end with these consonants: ฃ, ฅ, ฉ, ซ, ฌ, ผ, ฝ, ห, ฮ
Spectrograms
In the detail sections below, we will use colorful charts called spectrograms to help explain the sounds of Thai.To understand how a spectrogram works, first click the little play button below (the triangle at the left end of this player bar) to hear a silly sound:
If you have a slow internet connection, you may have to wait a little bit before the sound plays.
If the player is playing (the seconds are counting up and the little notch is making its way to the right) but you still don't hear any sound, you need to adjust the volume on your computer. You might also need to turn up the volume on the right end of the player bar above. Or, reach under the desk and see that your headphones are actually unplugged :)
A spectrogram plots that silly sound over time like this:
Click the play button of the player below the spectrogram and you will hear the silly sound again. Notice how the vertical position of the colorful curve in the plot follows the pitch of the silly sound. Sounds that are lower in pitch are near the bottom of the chart, and sounds that are higher in pitch are near the top of the chart.
Notice the blue fuzz at the bottom: that is the very low-pitched, wind-like blowing sound you can also hear along with the whistling.
The color of the spectrogram at a given point indicates how much sound with that pitch you were making at that time. The color scale works like this:
So the red parts of the spectrogram represent the most noticeable pitches.
Voice Viewer: See Your Own Spectrogram and Compare!
Here at slice-of-thai.com, we offer:Voice Viewera free software tool you can use to see the spectrogram of your own voice as you speak into a microphone.
We recommend that you get Voice Viewer and use it to compare the sounds of your own voice with the samples on this page!
How do I pronounce "Thaksin" and "Phuket"?
You've probably noticed many Thai words and names that begin with "th" or "ph," such as "Thaksin" or "Phuket," when spelled with some popular pronunciation guide systems. For example, this is true of the government pronunciation guide system that is used on Thai road signs and many Thai newspapers.As an English speaker, you're probably tempted to pronounce "th" like thin or this. Don't. The Thai language does not have either of these sounds. The reason they put the "h" in there is to distinguish between the three Thai sounds "t", "d", and "th:" we'll give you all the details on this, and show you how to pronounce "th," below.
Fun as it is to make lewd jokes, "ph" never sounds like "f" (as in frog) either. Thai does have an "f" sound, but in every pronunciation guide system I've heard of, the "f" sound is always written with an "f," not a "ph." The mysterious "h" is there because it lets us distinguish between the three Thai sounds "p", "b", and "ph:" we'll give you all the details on this, and show you how to pronounce "ph," below.
This "h" mispronunciation problem is so rampant that some other pronunciation guide systems, such as the Paiboon system, side-stepped the issue altogether by using the symbols [dt], [d], and [t] instead of "t," "d," and "th," and using the symbols [bp], [b], and [p] instead of "p," "b," and "ph."
The Three Tricky "b" and "p" Sounds
Both Thai and English have three consonant sounds [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ], made with the lips. But in English, two of the three sounds are "the same" in that they're never used to distinguish different words. So we English speakers are not trained to make and recognize all three sounds separately.In Thai, the difference is critical—often you will be saying three different words depending on which of these three sounds you use.
In this section, we will explain what [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] sound like, and how you can learn to recognize and say any of them at will.
To start off, consider the three English words in the left column below. The underlined letters in each word give you an example of each of the three sounds:
| English Example | Thai Sound | How You Make It | Voiced? | Aspirated? | English Sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| spot | - [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] ป | Starting all at once, open lips to release air and start your vocal cords voicing. Make sure your vocal cords don't start voicing until your lips are open. The sound will be so sudden and explosive that you may notice a slight "popping" sound, or you may notice your pitch go up momentarily, at the moment your lips open. | unvoiced | unaspirated | b |
| baby | - [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] บ | First, with your lips closed, start your lungs pushing up air and your vocal cords voicing as air builds up inside your mouth. Then, a fraction of a second later, open up your mouth to release air and continue voicing with your vocal cords. | voiced | unaspirated | |
| pretty | - [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] ผ พ ภ | First, with your vocal cords not voicing, open up your lips to let air flow out, simultaneously constricting your throat a tiny bit so you get the windy "h" sound of a sigh. Then, a fraction of a second later, start your vocal cords voicing. | unvoiced | aspirated | p |
The "How You Make It" sections above are critical to understanding how to speak and understand these Thai sounds. In particular you need to understand two concepts:
- Voicing: Say the English word "then," stretching the "th" out really long so you can listen to it. Now say the English word "thin," again stretching out the "th." The only difference between those two "th" sounds is that your vocal cords were voiced (vibrating, humming, active, whatever you like to call it) in "then" but unvoiced (sitting idle) in "thin."
- Aspiration: Say the English word "ball" and "Paul." Notice how the "P" in Paul has a breathy, windy, sigh-like sound after the "P" but before the "aul." This is called aspiration. "Paul" is aspirated but "ball" is not.
The [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] sounds differ in terms of voicing and aspiration.
Here's a sonogram and sound clip of the [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] sounds. As you can see, the differences are all in how they start, and that is marked on the sonogram:
| [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] | [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] | [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] |
Listen to the [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] sounds. At first, you probably won't notice any difference between the first two, [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] and [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], because in English there is no "important" difference. Listen again and look at the sonogram. The [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] sound has a little extra section at the beginning of the syllable, confined to the bottom of the diagram (meaning it consists only of low pitches) where your vocal cords have started voicing and air is building up in your mouth. Here is a very exaggerated example which splits the two parts of a [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] (fill up mouth while voicing, open mouth and continue voicing) then joins them into a [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ]:
| fill up mouth + | open mouth = | [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] |
The "fill up mouth" part of a [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] is the sound you make when you're joking that you're about to throw up and you're trying to hold it back (or, when you're not joking).
Listen to the [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] sounds again. Notice that the [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] sound is preceeded by that wind-like sighing sound, aspiration. On the sonogram, aspiration (or any noisy, windy sound) appears as a blue fuzz stretching from the bottom of the diagram to the top. Notice how this blue fuzz has no particular pitch: this is because your vocal cords are not voicing, and the sound is simply a wash of noise. Here is an exaggerated example that splits the [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] into its "aspiration" component and its voiced component:
| aspire + | open mouth = | [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] |
Finally, if you listen very carefully to the [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] sound in the sound clip at the beginning of this section, or if you look very carefully at the sonogram for [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], you'll see that it starts off very loud compared with [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ], and there's also a minute period of time, right at the beginning of the sound, where the pitch is higher. The pitch shift is so quick and minute that you might even hear it as a pop, click or a chirp.
This volume/pitch shift is a natural consequence of opening your tightly-held-together lips so suddenly: for a brief instant, before you start breathing out and voicing, you create pressure in your mouth and thus create a pop from your lips, your vocal cords, or both. This effect will be even more pronounced in the [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต] example in the section below. If you listen to Thai native speakers you will often hear these sounds as a clue that they are saying [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] rather than [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] or [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ]. If you can't hear this initial sound, don't worry about it; you can also listen for the "mouth filling up" sound of [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] and the aspiration of [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ].
The Three Tricky "d" and "t" Sounds
Now that you can speak and recognize [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ], you already know 99% of what you need for [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต], [d, d, d, d, d, d, d, ด], and [t, t, th, t, th, th, tʰ, ถ/ท]. These consonants follow exactly the same pattern. The only difference is the part of your mouth you use to block air: [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป], [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ], and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] are made by closing your lips and then opening them. [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต], [d, d, d, d, d, d, d, ด], and [t, t, th, t, th, th, tʰ, ถ/ท] are made by placing your tongue against your palate and/or front teeth to block the flow of air out of your mouth, and then letting your tongue (and air) go:| English Example | Thai Sound | How You Make It | Voiced? | Aspirated? | English Sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop | - [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต] ต ฏ | Begin with your tongue against or very near your upper front teeth, and a high pressure in your mouth that is held in by your toungue and throat's air-tight seal. You've probably made the "tsk tsk tsk" sound when someone's been naughty: this is the same tongue position, but with air ready to explode out instead of being sucked in. Now, blasting out all at once, let your tongue go to release the air and also start your vocal cords voicing. Make sure your vocal cords don't start voicing until your tongue has let go. The sound will be so sudden and explosive that you may notice your pitch go up momentarily, at the moment your tongue lets go. | unvoiced | unaspirated | d |
| doll | - [d, d, d, d, d, d, d, ด] ด ฎ | First, with your tongue against your palate to stop air flow, start your lungs pushing up air and your vocal cords voicing as air builds up inside your mouth. Then, a fraction of a second later, let your tongue go to release air and continue voicing with your vocal cords. | voiced | unaspirated | |
| tender | - [t, t, th, t, th, th, tʰ, ถ/ท] ถ ท ธ ฐ ฑ ฒ | First, with your vocal cords not voicing, let your tongue go to let air flow out, simultaneously constricting your throat a tiny bit so you get the windy "h" sound of a sigh. Then, a fraction of a second later, start your vocal cords voicing. | unvoiced | aspirated | t |
Here's a sonogram and sound clip of [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต], [d, d, d, d, d, d, d, ด], and [t, t, th, t, th, th, tʰ, ถ/ท]:
| [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต] | [d, d, d, d, d, d, d, ด] | [t, t, th, t, th, th, tʰ, ถ/ท] |
I won't bother dissassembling [d, d, d, d, d, d, d, ด] and [t, t, th, t, th, th, tʰ, ถ/ท] like we did for [b, b, b, b, b, b, b, บ] and [p, p, ph, p, ph, ph, pʰ, ผ/พ] above because the pattern is exactly the same.
The [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต] sound can have the same characteristic initial chirp or pitch increase as we explained for [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] above (but it will not sound like a pop or click as [bp, bp, bp, pb, p, p, p, ป] might). This effect is particularly pronounced in the [dt, dt, dt, dt, t, t, t, ต] sound clip above. On the sonogram, especially in the higher harmonics, you can see the pitch jump up at first then return to the normal pitch for the syllable.
Is It "g" or Is It "k"?
Next time you order food, consider these two words:| Pronunciation Guide System | ไก่ (chicken) - | ไข่ (egg) - |
|---|---|---|
| Paiboon | [gài] | [kài] |
| Paiboon+ | [gài] | [kài] |
| TLC | [gaiL] | [khaiL] |
| Tiger | [gài] | [kài] |
| LP | [kài] | [khài] |
| Thai Govt+ | [kài] | [khài] |
| IPA | [kàj] | [kʰàj] |
| Easy Thai | [ไก่] | [ไข่] |
They have the same tone and vowel, but a different initial consonant. But what is that consonant? Different systems write the consonants as "g," "k," or "kh."
This is a case where all pronunciation guides fail you, because the important distinction between the two sounds is not captured by any English letters that you can write at the beginning of an English word.
Let's untangle this mess and see how we're actually supposed to pronounce these two sounds (regardless of how they're written!).
First of all, in all the various pronunciation guide systems, if you see a "g," it is never the hard "g" like giraffe. For that sound, you will use other symbols such as [j, j, j, j, j, ch, tɕ, จ].
The rest of the answer lies in looking at these three words of English:
| English Sound | Voiced? | Aspirated? | Thai Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| get | voiced | unaspirated | (not a Thai sound) |
| skip | unvoiced | unaspirated | [g, g, g, g, k, k, k, ก] as in - ไก่ [gài, gài, gaiL, gài, kài, kài, kàj, ไก่] |
| kiss | unvoiced | aspirated | [k, k, kh, k, kh, kh, kʰ, ข/ค] as in - ไข่ [kài, kài, khaiL, kài, khài, khài, kʰàj, ไข่] |
When you say the word "kiss", notice how you can hear a breathy, windy, sigh-like sound after the "k" but before the "iss." This is called aspiration and it is what makes a Thai person understand that you are saying [k, k, kh, k, kh, kh, kʰ, ข/ค] as in ไข่ [kài, kài, khaiL, kài, khài, khài, kʰàj, ไข่]:
| kiss |
When you say the word "skip," notice how there is no such breathy sound—no aspiration. Without the aspiration, a Thai will hear [g, g, g, g, k, k, k, ก] as in ไก่ [gài, gài, gaiL, gài, kài, kài, kàj, ไก่]:
| skip |
That is the key difference and the one you should learn in order to differentiate these Thai sounds. Don't waste too much time worrying about which English letters they use to write it. Instead, focus on the fact that the "chicken" sound ไก่ [gài, gài, gaiL, gài, kài, kài, kàj, ไก่] does not have aspiration and the "egg" sound ไข่ [kài, kài, khaiL, kài, khài, khài, kʰàj, ไข่] does have aspiration:
| [gài, gài, gaiL, gài, kài, kài, kàj, ไก่] (chicken) | [kài, kài, khaiL, kài, khài, khài, kʰàj, ไข่] (egg) |
This is yet another reason to learn and jump over to Thai script as soon as you can.
When you say "get," you are making a sound that does not exist in Thai. It is extremely similar to the sound in "skip;" but the only difference is that your voicing starts (that is, you start making sound from your vocal cords—speaking as opposed to whispering) earlier with "get" than with "skip." Because both of them are unaspirated, a Thai will understand them both as the "chicken" sound ไก่ [gài, gài, gaiL, gài, kài, kài, kàj, ไก่], but most Thais will agree that only the "skip" sound is correct.
The designers (and I use that term loosely) of the pronunciation systems used two methods to address this mismatch between English sounds and Thai sounds:
- In some systems, such as the Thai government system, they used "k" as in [kài] for "chicken" (ไก่) and "kh" as in [khài] for "egg" (ไข่). The idea was that you were supposed to notice the extra "h" and aspirate the "egg," while not aspirating the "chicken." Um, yeah right. What happened in actual fact is that people looked at words like [kài] and [khài] in isolation and pronounced them both aspirated, or both unaspirated, and as a result of this, many Thais delivered them scrambled eggs instead of garlic chicken, or vice versa.
- Therefore was created a new generation of pronunciation systems which use "g" as in [gài] for "chicken" (ไก่) and "k" as in [kài] for "egg" (ไข่). In this case, the native English speaker will most likely pronounce the "chicken" unaspirated and the "egg" aspirated, and even though the English speaker is likely to mistakenly voice the "chicken" sound, it's ok because this does not cause the Thai listener to deliver the wrong breakfast.
Is It "j" or Is It "ch"?
Now that you understand how to say and understand "g" and "k," you have almost all of the knowledge you need to say and understand "j" and "ch," which follow the same pattern:| Pronunciation Guide System | จาน (plate) - | ชาน (platform) - |
|---|---|---|
| Paiboon | [jaan] | [chaan] |
| Paiboon+ | [jaan] | [chaan] |
| TLC | [jaanM] | [chaanM] |
| Tiger | [jahn] | [chahn] |
| LP | [jaan] | [chaan] |
| Thai Govt+ | [chan] | [chan] |
| IPA | [tɕāːn] | [tɕʰāːn] |
| Easy Thai | [จาน] | [ชาน] |
As with "g" and "k," different pronunciation guide systems write the "j" and "ch" sounds with different letters, and in some sense none of them are right, because the real distinction is not captured by any English letters.
First off, the real Thai sounds follow the same pattern as "g" and "k":
| English Sound | Voiced? | Aspirated? | Thai Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake | voiced | unaspirated | (not a Thai sound) |
| glass jar | unvoiced | unaspirated | [j, j, j, j, j, ch, tɕ, จ] as in - จาน [jaan, jaan, jaanM, jahn, jaan, chan, tɕāːn, จาน] (almost) |
| chain | unvoiced | aspirated | [ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, tɕʰ, ฉ/ช] as in - ชาน [chaan, chaan, chaanM, chahn, chaan, chan, tɕʰāːn, ชาน] (almost) |
As with "g" and "k," the important difference that you should pay attention to is aspiration (if you haven't already read the section about "g" and "k" above, do it now, otherwise none of this will make sense). In particular:
- The [ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, tɕʰ, ฉ/ช] sound of "chain" and [chaan, chaan, chaanM, chahn, chaan, chan, tɕʰāːn, ชาน] is aspirated, meaning that you must make the breathy, windy, sigh-like sound of aspiration after the "ch" but before the "an." Otherwise Thais will think you are saying [j, j, j, j, j, ch, tɕ, จ].
- The [j, j, j, j, j, ch, tɕ, จ] sound of "glass jar" and [jaan, jaan, jaanM, jahn, jaan, chan, tɕāːn, จาน] is not aspirated, meaning that you must not make that breathy sound, otherwise Thais will think you are saying [ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, tɕʰ, ฉ/ช].
- The "j" sound of "Jake" is not a sound that occurs in Thai. Thais never voice their "j." Thais will simply ignore your voicing (although it will immediately indicate to them that you are not a native speaker) and pay attention only to whether you aspirated the sound or not. Since most English speakers never aspirate their "j"s (try it—it sounds funny: "Jhhhhake"), a Thai speaker is likely to understand your voiced "j" as a funny sounding Thai [j, j, j, j, j, ch, tɕ, จ], which is why most modern pronunciation guide systems chose to use the letter "j:" it's not perfect, but it minimizes misunderstandings where you end up with an entire platform full of food.
| [jaan, jaan, jaanM, jahn, jaan, chan, tɕāːn, จาน] | [chaan, chaan, chaanM, chahn, chaan, chan, tɕʰāːn, ชาน] |
The "j" and "ch" sounds also demonstrate one of the most fundamental flaws with the Thai Government pronuncation guide system: in that system, they're both written with as "ch!"
A Tongue Detail
You probably noticed our little hedge in the table above where we said our English example words for "j" and "ch" are "almost" like the Thai. That is because to say "j" and "ch" correctly, you must understand one more little detail that doesn't apply to "g" and "k:" the [j, j, j, j, j, ch, tɕ, จ] and [ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, ch, tɕʰ, ฉ/ช] sounds of Thai are made with the tongue in a different position than the familiar "j" and "ch" sounds of English.Say the word "judge" or "church" and feel the way in which your tongue makes contact with the roof of your mouth, just before making the "j" or "ch" sounds. Linguists use the term domed to describe the way in which our tongue "bunches up" against our palate in order to make these sounds. Say "jug" and "tug" a bunch of times and compare what your tongue does. With "jug," your tongue is domed; it feels as if there is a large surface area of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth from your palate back to the back of your mouth. With "tug," your tongue just makes a tap at one little spot, further forward in your mouth towards your front teeth.
In terms of the place where your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, the Thai sounds are more like the English "t" than they are like the English "j" or "ch." The tongue is not domed and it touches the roof of your mouth at one little spot further forward, nearer to where you make a "t" sound. You might say that the Thai sound is more "dainty" or "crisp" or "whispy" than the English sound.
Here is an example that might help you hear the difference. Here is the slang phrase [jing-jíng