Thai script
The Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย, RTGS: akson thai) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (Thai: พยัญชนะ, phayanchana) and 16 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least 32 vowel forms and four tone diacritics (Thai: วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, wannayuk or wannayut) to create characters mostly representing syllables.
| Thai อักษรไทย | |
|---|---|
| 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, Pattani Malay 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 | |
[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon. | |
| Brahmic scripts |
|---|
| The Brahmi script and its descendants |
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.