Thai |
|
---|---|
Type | |
Languages |
Standard form: Thai, Southern Thai Non standard form: Lanna, Isan, Pattani Malay, and others. |
Creator | King Ramkhamhaeng the Great |
Time period
|
1283–present |
Parent systems
|
|
Direction | Left-to-right |
ISO 15924 | Thai, 352 |
Unicode alias
|
Thai |
U+0E00–U+0E7F | |
Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย; rtgs: akson thai; [ʔàksɔ̌ːn tʰāj] listen) is used to write the Thai, Southern Thai and other languages in Thailand. It has 44 consonant letters (Thai: พยัญชนะ, phayanchana), 15 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least 28 vowel forms, and four tone diacritics (Thai: วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, wannayuk or wannayut).
Although commonly referred to as the "Thai alphabet", the script is in fact not a true alphabet but an abugida, a writing system in which each consonant may invoke an inherent vowel sound. In the case of the Thai script this is an implied 'a' or 'o'. Consonants are written horizontally from left to right, with vowels arranged above, below, to the left, or to the right of the corresponding consonant, or in a combination of positions.