 Factors
determining the tone.
To determine
the tone of any syllable the following four factors have
to be considered.
1.
Class of the initial consonant.
The Thai consonants
are divided up into three groups known respectively as HIGH,
MIDDLE and LOW
class consonants and the first thing to look at in determining
the tone of a word or syllable is the class of the initial
consonant.
You will soon
discover that there are many cases where the letter Ë
as an initial consonant is silent and there are a few cases
where the letter Í
as an initial consonant is also silent, but this makes no
difference to the rule, the tone is still governed by the
class of the initial consonant even though it be a silent
consonant.
The HIGH class
consonants are;
¢ © ° ¶ ¼ ½
È É Ê Ë
The MIDDLE class
consonants are;
¡ ¨ ® ¯ ´ µ
º » Í
All the remainder
are LOW class consonants.
 2.
The final sounded consonant.
All words which
do not end in a vowel sound must have either M, N, NG, K,
P, or T as the final sound.
(Note:
Although this is strictly true, you will find
that in conversation the final consonant is often slurred
and particularly after a long vowel, the final P may sound
more like a B and the final T more like a D.)
Where there is
no tone mark, the tone of the syllable or word will depend
on both the class of the initial consonant and on whether
it ends with the M, N, NG sounds or the K, P, T sounds.
It should be noted that a final consonant with the sign
-ì
(MY TUNTAKAHT) over it is not sounded and hence can have
no effect on the tone. [MORE]
3.
The type of final vowel.
If th e
word has no tone mark and ends in a final vowel, the tone
is dependent on whether this final vowel is a long or short
one.
The short vowels
for tonal purposes are
-Ð, -Ñ, -Ô, -Ö, -Ø, the inherent “a”, the inherent
“o” and all vowels shortened by the sign
-ç over the consonant or by the addition of the vowel
-Ð
at the end.
All the others
are long vowels.
4.
The tone mark.
There are altogether
four tone marks but only two namely (-è)
MYAYK and (-é)
MYTO are in common use.
The other two
(-ê)
MYDTREE and (-ë)
MYJUDTAWAH are used only in a few words beginning with middle
class consonants.
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