Page 176 - The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand Vol.XIII-2021

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XIII – 2021

Table 7: Consonant letters which more than one letter represent one consonant

2 letters 3 letters 4 letters 5 letters 6 letters
d ด ฎ ph พ ผ ภ s ซ ศ ษ ส kh ข ฃ ค ฅ ฆ th ถ ท ธ ฐ ฑ ฒ

t ต ฏ ch ฉ ช ฌ y ย หย ญ หญ

f ฝ ฟ n น หน ณ อย

h ห ฮ l ล หล ฬ

 ง หง

m ม หม

r ร หร

w ว หว

Despite being developed for Thai, the Thai consonant letters were also
designed for Pali and Sanskrit; hence, there is nothing odd if the 12 consonant
letters (ฏ, ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ณ, ฆ, ฌ, ธ, ภ, ศ, ษ, ฬ) are specifically designed to write Pali and
Sanskrit. They do not represent the distinct consonants except that they share the

same with other letters. Because of the influence of Indian phonologists, these 12
letters are ordered systematically and easy to recognize in that ฏ, ฐ, ฑ, ฒ, ณ are in
column 4 and ฆ, ฌ, ธ, ภ in row R and ศ, ษ in row F and ฬ in row M (Mixed places

of articulation), as shown in the table below. Note that in this table the letters in
brackets are those invented by unknown Thai scholars to write the Thai language
and will not appear in Pali or Sanskrit.

166 The Thai Writing System: Reasons behind Its System