A Tai-Kadai language and the official tongue of Thailand — tonal, with five distinct tones and a Brahmic-derived script not separated by spaces between words.
Where it’s spoken
Thai is the official language of Thailand and the lingua franca for a country with significant Lao (Isan), Northern Thai (Lanna), Southern Thai, Malay, Khmer, and hill-tribe minorities. About 21 million speak Central (Standard) Thai natively, but the figure rises to roughly 60 million when regional Thai dialects and second-language users are counted.
What it sounds like
Thai is tonal with five tones — mid, low, falling, high, and rising — and complex tone-marking rules involving the inherent class of the initial consonant. The phonology features aspirated and unaspirated stops, and vowel-length contrasts. Final consonants are restricted in distribution.
How it’s written
The Thai script is a Brahmic abugida adapted from a Khmer-derived script around the 13th century. It has 44 consonant letters, divided into three classes that affect tone determination, plus vowel marks placed above, below, before, or after the consonant. The script does not use spaces between words within a sentence.
History
Thai writing is traditionally credited to King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai in 1283. Subsequent dynasties and the modern Royal Institute have refined the script and standardized spelling.
Find more languages by letter
Thai starts with T and ends with I. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Thai":