Learn about the Thai tones
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| Michael: What are tones? |
| Arnon: And how many tones are there in Thai? |
| Michael: At ThaiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, despite having made significant progress in Thai, Ben Lee still finds tones confusing. He is not sure how to correctly pronounce a certain word, so he decides to ask his friend, Nipaporn Niyom, for help: |
| "Shirt?" |
| Ben Lee: เสื้อเหรอ (sûuea rǒoe)? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: เสื้อเหรอ (sûuea rǒoe)? |
| Nipaporn Niyom: เสือ (sǔuea) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: เสื้อเหรอ (sûuea rǒoe)? |
| Michael: "Shirt?" |
| Nipaporn Niyom: เสือ (sǔuea) |
| Michael: "Tiger." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: You have probably heard that Thai is a tonal language, but do you know what that means? "Tone" refers to the use of pitch to distinguish the meaning of words. The Thai alphabet has 21 consonant sounds and 18 basic vowel sounds. Added to these are a few new consonant and vowel sounds you will probably find unfamiliar, if you're English speaking. Your biggest challenge, though, will be mastering the five tones in Thai. So, in this lesson, you will learn what these tones are and why they are so important in Thai pronunciation. |
| Before learning how to correctly pronounce the different tones, you should review your consonants, as they influence the tones to some extent. You also first need to know what the unfamiliar vowels sound like. |
| Michael: In the Thai language, a single word said with different tones can give you up to five entirely different meanings. That is why it's so important to get the tone right! As I said, there are five tones: mid, low, falling, high, and rising. You can usually tell the tone of a word by its spelling, but we will touch on that later. Let us first listen to an example of how one word can have completely different meanings just by how you pronounce it. Don't worry too much about which tones are used—simply listen to the different sounds. The first one means "silk," |
| Arnon: ไหม (mǎi) |
| Michael: Yet, if you pronounce the same word like this, |
| Arnon: ไม (mai) |
| Michael: it means "mile" and it uses the middle tone. The next one is |
| Arnon: ใหม่ (mài) |
| Michael: which means "new." This is the low tone. Next is the rising tone, |
| Arnon: ไม่/ไหม้ (mâi) |
| Michael: which changes the meaning of the word to "not" or "burning." The final one is pronounced, |
| Arnon: ไม้ (máai) |
| Michael: which means "wood." |
| As you can hear, the different tones can change the meaning completely. Some of the words can only be spoken with one or two tones, but others, such as the one we demonstrated, can be spoken in all of the tones. Therefore, the tonal system in the Thai language is crucial in understanding and communicating fluently! |
| In fact, this aspect is just as important as spelling. Get it wrong, and you will be saying a different word with a different meaning, and you will probably be misunderstood. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Now let's take a closer look at the dialogue. Can you remember how Ben Lee says "Shirt?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Arnon as Ben Lee: เสื้อเหรอ (sûuea rǒoe)? |
| Michael: This word can be pronounced in a few ways. What we just heard was the falling tone, and this is how we know the speaker meant "shirt." |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Next, do you remember how Nipaporn Niyom answered "Tiger?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Arnon as Nipaporn Niyom: เสือ (sǔuea) |
| Michael: This time, the exact same word was said with a rising tone, so we know that the speaker meant "tiger." Again, the difference is only in the tone. Let us learn them one by one! |
| The easiest tone in Thai is the middle tone, and it is pronounced with a neutral, mid-range voice, which is the natural way you would speak but without any emphasis. Try to say this mid tone word with the native speaker without varying your pitch throughout the word. |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] มา (maa) [SLOWLY] มา (maa) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: This means "to come." How did you do? It isn't as easy as it sounds, is it? Don't worry—with a bit of practice, you will master it in no time. |
| Next, we have the low tone, which is pronounced in a lower register and a steady voice. The word means "egg." |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] ไข่ (khài) [SLOWLY] ไข่ (khài) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: The third tone is called the falling tone. As the name suggests, you start high and then let your voice fall to a lower pitch. Remember that the variation in your voice must be obvious enough for people to actually hear it! It does not have to be exaggerated, just clear. Now, listen to this example and visualize the voice being pulled down: |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] ใช่ (châi) [SLOWLY] ใช่ (châi) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: This is the word for "yes." Fourth is the high tone, and, this time, take your voice up to a higher register, and keep it steady there for the whole syllable—like this |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] ม้า (máa) [SLOWLY] ม้า (máa) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: This word means "horse." Lastly, we have the rising tone, and this one sounds like you are asking a question. To pronounce it, start in a lower register, then let your voice go down a little bit more, but then raise your voice again—like in this word |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] หมา (mǎa) [SLOWLY] หมา (mǎa) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: meaning "dog." That's it! Now, let's practice some more vocabulary. Just for fun, repeat the following words after the native speaker and listen closely if you can hear which tone is used. |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] ไกล (glai) [SLOWLY] ไกล (glai) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: This word means "far." If you guessed that a mid-tone was used, you are correct! Well done! The next word means "close." |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] ใกล้ (glâi) [SLOWLY] ใกล้ (glâi) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: Could you identify the tone? That's right, it is the falling tone. The next one shouldn't be too difficult. The word means "store," |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] เก็บ (gèp) [SLOWLY] เก็บ (gèp) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: and it is pronounced with a low tone, which I'm sure you could hear. The next word means "ticket." |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] ตั๋ว (dtǔua) [SLOWLY] ตั๋ว (dtǔua) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: Can you hear that it sounds almost like you're asking a question? Now, if you identified the rising tone, good for you! Our last example is the Thai word for "know" and it illustrates the last Thai tone: |
| Arnon: [NORMAL] รู้ (rúu) [SLOWLY] รู้ (rúu) |
| [pause 3 seconds] |
| Michael: Could you hear the steady, high tone? Great if you did! |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that the Thai language has five different tones with which we can pronounce words, and these tones change the meaning of the words. You also practiced saying words using all of the different tones. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: As previously mentioned, tones are indicated by the way a word is written. This is done in a special way. Have you ever noticed the marks above words written in the Thai alphabet? These marks tell you what tone you are supposed to use. Even the romanized version of Thai has a very simple set of tone markers. These are useful for beginners who cannot read Thai yet, or who are only wanting to learn spoken Thai. |
| With these tone markers above the words, there is a trick that is very helpful for your pronunciation practice. When practicing tones, picture the tone markers, because they do a great job of illustrating what your voice should do! |
| The mid tone has no mark, so you know your voice should not change. The low tone mark is a line going at a downward slant. The high tone has a line going at an upward slant. The rising tone looks like the letter "V" and, if you trace it, you first go down and then rise up again. The falling tone is the opposite—an upside-down "V." If you trace it, it starts off going up, but then it falls downwards. As you can guess, your voice should do what these tone marker lines do. That trick helped me, and hopefully it will help you, too! |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Arnon: แล้วพบกันใหม่เร็วๆนี้ครับ (láaeo-phóp-gan-mài reo-reo-níi khràp) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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