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Royal Thai General System of Transcription

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Thai romanization system

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Royal Thai General System of Transcription RTGS
Script type	romanisation
Creator	Royal Institute of Thailand
Created	1932
Period	current
Languages	Thai
This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

TheRoyal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official^[1]^[2] system for renderingThai words in theLatin alphabet. It was published by theRoyal Institute of Thailand in early 1917, when Thailand was calledSiam.^[3]^[4]

It is used in road signs^[5]^[6] and government publications and is the closest method to a standard oftranscription for Thai, but its use, even by the government, is inconsistent. The system is almost identical to the one that is defined byISO 11940-2.

Features

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Prominent features of the system are:

It uses only unmodified letters from theLatin alphabet withoutdiacritics.
It spells allvowels anddiphthongs with vowel letters:⟨a⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨u⟩.
- Single letters⟨a⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨u⟩ aremonophthongs (simple vowels), with the same value as in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
- Digraphs with trailing⟨e⟩ are monophthongs;⟨ae⟩,⟨oe⟩,⟨ue⟩ sound like/ɛ,ɤ,ɯ/ respectively.
- Digraphs andtrigraphs with trailing⟨a⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨o⟩ arediphthongs and indicate IPA/a,j,w/ respectively.
It usesconsonants as in IPA except as follows:
- Digraphs with⟨h⟩ (⟨ph⟩,⟨th⟩,⟨kh⟩) areaspirated/pʰ,tʰ,kʰ/ consonants to distinguish them from unaspirated⟨p⟩,⟨t⟩,⟨k⟩.
- It uses⟨ng⟩ for/ŋ/, as in English.
- It uses⟨ch⟩ for/tɕʰ/ and/tɕ/, somewhat like English.
- It uses⟨y⟩ for/j/, as in English.

Final consonants are transcribed according to pronunciation, notThai orthography.

Vowels are transcribed in the position in the word where they are pronounced, not as in Thai orthography. Implied vowels, which are not written in Thai orthography, are transcribed as pronounced.

A hyphen is used to avoid ambiguity in syllable separation before a succeeding syllable that starts with a vowel and before⟨ng⟩ if the preceding syllable ends with a vowel.

Transcribed words are written with spaces between them although there areno spaces in Thai. For example,สถาบันไทยคดีศึกษาInstitute of Thai Studies is transcribed asSathaban Thai Khadi Sueksa. However,compounds and names of persons are written without spaces between words. For example,ลูกเสือ (fromลูก +เสือ, 'scout') is transcribed asluksuea, notluk suea, andโชคชัย จิตงาม, the first and last names of a person, is transcribed asChokchai Chitngam, notChok Chai Chit Ngam.^[1]

Transcription table

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For consonants, the transcriptions are given for both initial and final position in the syllable. For vowels, a dash ("–") indicates the relative position of the vowel's initial consonant.

Consonants

Vowels

Letter	Initial position	Final position
ก	k	k
ขฃคฅฆ	kh	k
ง	ng	ng
จ	ch	t
ฉช	ch	t
ซ	s	t
ฌ	ch	-
ญ	y	n
ฎ	d	t
ฏ	t	t
ฐฑฒ	th	t
ณ	n	n
ด	d	t
ต	t	t
ถทธ	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	Romanization
–ะ,–ั,รร (with final),–า	a
รร (without final)	an
–ำ	am
–ิ,–ี	i
–ึ,–ื, —ือ	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

History

[edit]

There have been four versions of the RTGS, those promulgated in 1932, 1939, 1968 and 1999. The general system was issued by theMinistry of Public Instruction in 1932, and subsequent issues have been issued by the Royal Institute of Thailand.

Table of changes

[edit]

Letter	Initial position				Final position
Letter	1932	1939	1968	1999	1932	1939	1968	1999
จ	č	čh	ch	ch	t
ฤ	rư	rư	ru	rue	-
ฤ	rơ	rœ	roe	roe	-
ฤๅ	rư	rư	ru	rue	-
ฦ	lư	lư	lu	lue	-
ฦๅ	lư	lư	lu	lue	-

Letter	Romanization
Letter	1932	1939	1968	1999
–ึ,–ื	ư	ư	u	ue
แ–ะ,แ–	e̩	æ	ae	ae
เ–าะ,–อ	o̦	ǫ	o	o
เ–อะ,เ–ิ,เ–อ	ơ	œ	oe	oe
เ–ือะ,เ–ือ	ưa	ưa	ua	uea
–อย	o̦i	ǫi	oi	oi
เ–ย	ơi	œi	oei	oei
เ–ือย	ưai	ưai	uai	ueai
–ิว	iu	iu	iu	io
แ–็ว,แ–ว	e̩o	æo	aeo	aeo
เ–ียว	iau	ieo	ieo	iao

1932 version

[edit]

The general system was set up by a committee of theMinistry of Public Instruction on the following principles:^[7]

The general system should be expandable to the precise system.
The general system should be based on pronunciation, and one sound should be represented by one symbol or letter.
The general system should be in consonance with the principles of Thai grammar, orthography, and pronunciation.
In selecting symbols or letters, account should be taken of existing types for printing and typewriting and of existing systems of transcription.

The committee considered that for the general system, tone and quantity marks were unneeded. They would be provided for the precise system.^[7] The marks are accents above the vowels,^[7] one reason that the vowel symbols used to have no marks above them.^[8]

1939 version

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The 1939 issue allowed short vowels to be marked with abreve (˘) where expedient.^[7] By contrast, theALA-LC transliteration uses the 1939 version with the addition of amacron (¯) for long vowels and aspiritus asper (ʽ) to transliterateอ/ʔ/ as a consonant.

The changes in vowel notation copied existing usage (æ, œ)^[9] andIPA notation (æ, ǫ).^[7]

Relationship to precise system

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The precise system was issued along with the general system in 1939. A transliteration in the precise system could be converted to the general system by doing the following:^[7]

Removing parenthesised character
Replacingʽ andhʽ byh
Removing length and tone markings
Removingḥ, which corresponds toะ/ʔ/, which may be viewed as a length mark
Removing the character distinguishing dots below and primes
Changingay andaiy toai except before vowels
Changingč točh
Changingie toia,uo toua andưœ toưa

The last set of changes removes a graphic distinction between vowels in closed syllables and vowels in open syllables.^[7]

Theh is added toč in the general system to make it easier to read. When the diacritic was subsequently removed, theh was justified as avoiding the misreading of the transliteration as/k/ or/s/ rather than the correct/tɕ/.^[3]

1968 version

[edit]

The 1968 version removed diacritics, including the horn ofư and replaced the ligaturesæ andœ byae andoe. While that is more suitable as the standard transliteration for maps, it removed the contrast between the transcriptions ofจ/tɕ/ andช/tɕʰ/,อึ/ɯ/ andอุ/u/,เอือ/ɯa/ andอัว/ua/, andโอ/oː/ andออ/ɔː/.^[3]

1999 version

[edit]

The 1999 version restored the distinction between the transcriptions of the pairsอึ/ɯ/ andอุ/u/ andเอือ/ɯa/ andอัว/ua/.^[3] It also simplified the transliteration of finalว/w/, which now is always transcribed⟨o⟩.^[3]

Allowed variants

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The following variants have been allowed:

Preferred form	čh	æ	œ	ǫ	ơ	ư
Alternative	ĉh^[7]	ae^[8]	oe^[8]	o̦^[7]	oʼ^[7]	uʼ^[7]

Criticism

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The system does not transcribe all features ofThai phonology. Particularly it has the following shortcomings:

It does not recordtones.
It does not differentiate betweenshort and long vowels.
The notation⟨ch⟩ does not differentiate betweenIPA/tɕ/ and IPA/tɕʰ/ (see table below). Using⟨c⟩ or⟨j⟩ for/tɕ/ would have been more consistent^[10] with the other stops and is used as such inISO 11940-2.
The notation⟨o⟩ does not differentiate between IPA/ɔ/ and IPA/o/ (see table below).

	Phoneme 1				Phoneme 2
RTGS	Thai	IPA	Description	English	Thai	IPA	Description	English
ch	จ	tɕ	alveo-palatal affricate	roughly like⟨ty⟩ in "let you" ^{[citation needed]}	ฉ,ช,ฌ	tɕʰ	aspirated alveo- palatal affricate	roughly like⟨ch⟩ in "check"
o	โ–ะ,–	oʔ	close-mid back short rounded	like the vowel in "note" (American pronunciation)	เ–าะ	ɔʔ	open-mid back short rounded	like⟨o⟩ in "boy"
o	โ–	oː	close-mid back long rounded	like⟨o⟩ in "go"(Scottish English)	–อ	ɔː	open-mid back long rounded	like⟨aw⟩ in "raw"

Theoriginal design envisioned the general system to give broad details of pronunciation, and the precise system to supplement that with vowel lengths, tones, and specific Thai characters used.^[7] The ambiguity of⟨ch⟩ and⟨o⟩ was introduced in the1968 version.