Thai อักษรไทย | |
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Script type | |
Creator | Ramkhamhaeng the Great |
Time period | 1283–present |
Direction | Left-to-right |
Languages | Standard form: Thai, Southern Thai Non-standard form: Lanna, Isan, Phu Thai, Pattani Malay, Urak Lawoi, Phuan and others |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | Tai Viet |
Sister systems | Fakkham |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Thai (352), Thai |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Thai |
U+0E00–U+0E7F | |
Brahmic scripts |
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The Brahmi script and its descendants |
The Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย, RTGS: akson thai, pronounced [ʔàksɔ̌ːn tʰāj]) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (Thai: พยัญชนะ, phayanchana), 16 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least 32 vowel forms, four tone diacritics (Thai: วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, wannayuk or wannayut), and other diacritics.
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 the full characters represent consonants with diacritical marks for vowels; the absence of a vowel diacritic gives an implied 'a' or 'o'. Consonants are written horizontally from left to right, and vowels following a consonant in speech are written above, below, to the left or to the right of it, or a combination of those.