There are many systems for the
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
of the
Thai language, i.e. representing the language in
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
. These include systems of
transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
, and
transcription
Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including:
Genetics
* Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...
. The most seen system in public space is
Royal Thai General System of Transcription
The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai words in the Latin alphabet. It was published by the Royal Institute of Thailand.
It is used in road signs and government publications and is the cl ...
(RTGS)—the official scheme promulgated by the
Royal Thai Institute. It is based on spoken Thai, but disregards tone, vowel length and a few minor sound distinctions.
The international standard
ISO 11940 is a transliteration system, preserving all aspects of written Thai adding diacritics to the Roman letters. Its extension
ISO 11940-2 defines a simplified transcription reflecting the spoken language. It is almost identical to RTGS. Libraries in English-speaking countries use the
ALA-LC Romanization
ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script.
Applications
The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...
.
In practice, often non-standard and inconsistent romanizations are used, especially for proper nouns and personal names. This is reflected, for example, in the name
Suvarnabhumi Airport, which is spelled based on direct transliteration of the name's
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
root. Language learning books often use their own proprietary systems, none of which are used in Thai public space.
Transliteration
An international standard,
ISO 11940, was devised with transliteration in academic context as one of its main goals.
It is based on Thai orthography, and defines a reversible transliteration by means of adding a host of diacritics to the Latin letters. The result bears little resemblance to the pronunciation of the words and is hardly ever seen in public space.
Some scholars use the
Cœdès system for Thai transliteration defined by
Georges Cœdès, in the version published by his student Uraisi Varasarin. In this system, the same transliteration is proposed for Thai and Khmer whenever possible.
Transcription
The Royal Thai System of Transcription, usually referred to as RTGS uses only unadorned Roman letters to reflect spoken Thai. It does not indicate tone and vowel length. Furthermore it merges
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
(IPA) /o/ and /ɔ/ into and IPA /tɕ/ and /tɕʰ/ into .
This system is widely used in Thailand, especially for road signs.
The ISO standard ISO 11940-2 defines a set of rules to transform the result of ISO 11940 into a simplified transcription. In the process, it rearranges the letters to correspond to Thai pronunciation, but it discards information about vowel length and syllable tone and the distinction between IPA /o/ and /ɔ/.
These are not reversible, as they do not indicate tone and underrepresent vowel quality and quantity. Graphemic distinctions between letters for Indic voiced, voiceless, and breathy-voiced consonants have also been neutralised.
History
American missionary romanization
In 1842, Mission Press in Bangkok published two pamphlets on transliteration: One for transcribing Greek and Hebrew names into Thai, and the other, "A plan for Romanising the Siamese Language". The principle underlying the transcription scheme was phonetic, i.e. it represented pronunciation, rather than etymology, but also maintained some of the features of Thai orthography.
Several diacritics were used: The
acute accent
The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed ch ...
was used to indicate
long vowels
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
, where Thai script had two different vowel signs for the vowel sounds: อิ was transliterated as ''i'', while อี was transliterated as ''í''. The exception to this rule was the signs for
อึ was transliterated as ''ŭ'', while อื was transliterated as ''ü''. The various signs for
were transliterated as ë. The
grave accent
The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and many other western European languages, as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other languages using t ...
was used to indicate other vowels:
was transliterated as ''ò'', while
became ''è''. ะ was transliterated with a hyphen, so that กะ became ''ka-'', and แกะ became ''kè-''.
Aspirated consonant
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with the ...
s were indicated by the use of an
apostrophe
The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes:
* The marking of the omission of one o ...
: บ ''b''
ป ''p''
and พ ''p’''
ʰ This included separating the affricates จ ''ch''
͡ɕand ช ''ch’''
͡ɕʰ
Proposed system by the Siamese society
For many years, the
Siam Society
The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage ( th, สยามสมาคมในพระบรมราชูปถัมภ์) was established in 1904 with a mission to promote knowledge of the culture, history, arts, and natural sciences of Thai ...
was discussing a uniform way in which to transliterate Thai using
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
. Numerous schemes were created by its individual members and published in its journal, including one tentative scheme by King
Rama VI
Vajiravudh ( th, วชิราวุธ, , 1 January 188126 November 1925) was the sixth monarch of Siam under the Chakri dynasty as Rama VI. He ruled from 23 October 1910 until his death in 1925. King Vajiravudh is best known for his efforts ...
, published in 1913. The same year, the society published a proposal for "transliterating Siamese words", which had been designed by several of its members working together. The system was dual, in that it separated
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
loans, which were to be transliterated according to the
Hunterian system, however, an exception was made for those words which had become so integrated into Thai that their Sanskrit and Pali roots had been forgotten. For proper Thai words, the system is somewhat similar to the present RTGS, for instance with regards to the differentiation of consonants' initial and final sounds. Some of the major differences are:
*Aspiration would be marked with ''
spiritus asper
In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( grc, δασὺ πνεῦμα, dasỳ pneûma or ''daseîa''; la, spīritus asper) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, d ...
'' placed ''after'' the consonant, so that ข and ค would both be transliterated as k῾ (whereas RTGS transliterates them as ''kh'').
*Long vowels were indicated by adding a
macron to the corresponding sign for the short vowel.
*The vowels อึ and อื (
and
ː would be transliterated using an umlauted ''u'', respectively ''ü'' and ''ǖ'' (the macron is placed ''above'' the umlaut).
*The vowel แอ would be transliterated as ''ë'', whereas RTGS transliterates it as ''ae''.
*When ะ indicates a shortened vowel, it would be indicated with the letter ''ḥ'', so that แอะ would be transliterated as ''ëḥ''.
*The vowel ออ
ː would be distinguished from โอ with a superscript ''v'': ''ǒ''. Its corresponding short form เอาะ
would be transliterated as ''ǒḥ''.
*The vowel เออ would be transliterated as ''ö''.
As the system was meant to provide an easy reference for the European who was not familiar with the Thai language, the system aimed at only using a single symbol to represent each distinct sound. Similarly, tones were not marked, as it was felt that the "learned speaker" would be so familiar with the Thai script, as to not need a transliteration scheme to find the proper pronunciation.
King
Vajiravudh
Vajiravudh ( th, วชิราวุธ, , 1 January 188126 November 1925) was the sixth monarch of Siam under the Chakri dynasty as Rama VI. He ruled from 23 October 1910 until his death in 1925. King Vajiravudh is best known for his efforts ...
, however, was not pleased with the system, contending that when different consonants were used in the final position, it was because they represented different sounds, such that a final -ล would, by an ''educated'' speaker, be pronounced differently from a final -น. He also opposed using a phonetic Thai spelling for ''any'' word of Sanskrit or Pali origin, arguing that these should be transliterated in their Indic forms, so as to preserve their etymology. While most of Vajiravudh's criticisms focused on the needs and abilities of ''learned readers'', he argued against the use of ''spiritus asper'' to indicate aspiration, as it would mean "absolutely nothing to the lay reader".
See also
*
ISO 11940
*
ISO 11940-2
*
Romanization of Lao
Lao romanization systems are transcriptions of the Lao script into the Latin alphabet.
Tables Consonants
The table below shows the Lao consonant letters and their transcriptions according to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet,) BGN/PCGN ...
*
Royal Thai General System of Transcription
The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai words in the Latin alphabet. It was published by the Royal Institute of Thailand.
It is used in road signs and government publications and is the cl ...
References
Further reading
*
* Kanchanawan, N. (2006)
"Romanization, Transliteration, and Transcription for the Globalization of the Thai Language" ''The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand, 31''(3), 832-841.
*
*
*
External links
Automatic Thai Romanization generator(including RTGS, ALA-LC and
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
) at thai-language.com
{{Romanization