Royal Thai General System of Transcription

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The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai language words in the Latin alphabet. It is used in road signs and government publications, and is the closest thing to a standard of transcription for Thai, though its use by even the government is inconsistent.

Contents

Prominent features of the Royal Thai General System include:

  • uses only unmodified letters from the Latin alphabet; no diacritics
  • spells all vowels and diphthongs using only vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u
    • simple letters "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" are simple vowels, having the same value as in the International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA
    • combinations with "e" second as "ae", "oe", "ue", are simple vowels, similar to ligatures [æ, œ, ɯ] in IPA
    • combinations with trailing "a", "i", "o" (or several) are diphthongs, indicated by [a, j, w] respectively in IPA
  • uses consonants as in IPA, except:
    • combinations with "h" as "ph", "th", "kh" are used for aspirated p, t, k, similar to IPA [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ], to distinguish them from the separate unaspirated "p", "t", "k"
    • uses "ng" for engma as in English, IPA [ŋ]
    • uses "ch" for IPA [tɕʰ] and [tɕ]
    • uses "y" for IPA [j]
    • note that transcription of consonants in final position is according to pronunciation, not spelling

The Royal Thai General System has been criticized as inadequate for learners of Thai, particularly because of the following shortcomings:

  • it does not record tones
  • it does not differentiate between short and long vowels
  • notation "ch" does not differentiate between IPA /tɕ/ and IPA /tɕʰ/ (see table below)
  • notation "o" does not differentiate between IPA /ɔ/ and IPA /o/ (see table below)


  Letter 1 Letter 2
RTGS Thai IPA Description English Thai IPA Description English
ch จ tɕ alveo-palatal
affricate		 as "ty" in "let you" ฉ, ช, ฌ tɕʰ aspirated alveo-
palatal affricate		 as "ch" in "check"
o โ–ะ, – o close-mid back
short rounded		 like "oa" in "boat" เ–าะ ɔ open-mid back
short rounded		 like "aw" in "raw", but shorter
โ– oː close-mid back
long rounded		 like "oa" in "moan" –อ ɔː open-mid back
long rounded		 like "aw" in "raw"

For consonants, the transcription is different depending on the location in the syllable. In the section on vowels a dash ("–") indicates the relative position of the initial consonant belonging to the vowel.

Consonants   Vowels
Letter Initial position Final position
ก k k
ข kh k
ฃ kh k
ค kh k
ฅ kh k
ฆ kh k
ง ng ng
จ ch t
ฉ ch -
ช ch t
ซ s t
ฌ ch -
ญ y n
ฎ d t
ฏ t t
ฐ th t
ฑ th t
ฒ th t
ณ n n
ด d t
ต t t
ถ th t
ท th t
ธ th t
น n n
บ b p
ป p p
ผ ph -
ฝ f -
พ ph p
ฟ f p
ภ ph p
ม m m
ย y -
ร r n
ฤ rue, ri, roe -
ฤๅ rue -
ล l n
ฦ lue -
ฦๅ lue -
ว w -
ศ s t
ษ s t
ส s t
ห h -
ฬ l n
ฮ h -
    
Letter Romanisation
–ะ, –ั, รร (with final), –า a
รร (without final) an
–ำ am
–ิ, –ี i
–ึ, –ื ue
–ุ, –ู u
เ–ะ, เ–็, เ– e
แ–ะ, แ– ae
โ–ะ, –, โ–, เ–าะ, –อ o
เ–อะ, เ–ิ, เ–อ oe
เ–ียะ, เ–ีย ia
เ–ือะ, เ–ือ uea
–ัวะ, –ัว, –ว– ua
ใ–, ไ–, –ัย, ไ–ย, –าย ai
เ–า, –าว ao
–ุย ui
โ–ย, –อย oi
เ–ย oei
เ–ือย ueai
–วย uai
–ิว io
เ–็ว, เ–ว eo
แ–็ว, แ–ว aeo
เ–ียว iao

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