Atelier of the Girl in Black

ภIPA

In my Thai Homework Generator IPA transcriptions I am using slightly modified IPA version, more tailored for native czech speakers. This system was developed and bestowed uppon me by my dear teacher. Lets compare it to english IPA (most common) and phonetic transcription (used by Wiktionary) to avoid any confusion.

The three columns below correspond to:

• ภIPA — what I use in my deck.
• English IPA — the pseudo-phonetic respellings common on Thai-learning websites (no canonical source — varies by site, so each cell lists the most frequent renderings).
• Wiktionary IPA — formal phonemic IPA as found in Wiktionary entries (e.g. /maː˧/ for มา).

Vowels

Simple monophthongs, short and long pairs:

ภIPA	English IPA	Wiktionary IPA
a	a / ah	a
aa	a / ah	aː
e	e / ay	e
ee	ay / e	eː
ɛ	ae / eh	ɛ
ɛɛ	air / eh	ɛː
i	i / ih	i
ii	ee	iː
o	o / oh	o
oo	o / oh	oː
ɔ	aw / o	ɔ
ɔɔ	aw / or	ɔː
u	u / oo	u
uu	oo	uː
ʉ	eu / ue	ɯ
ʉʉ	eu / ue	ɯː
ə	er / uh	ə
əə	er / ur	əː

Common diphthongs and triphthongs:

ภIPA	English IPA	Wiktionary IPA
ay	ai / eye	aj
aay	ai / eye	aːj
aw	ao / ow	aw
aaw	ao / ow	aːw
ia	ia / ear	iə̯
ʉa	eua / ua	ɯə̯
ua	ua / wa	uə̯
iaw	iao	iaw
ʉai	euai	ɯaj
uai	uai	uaj

Consonants

ภIPA	English IPA	Wiktionary IPA	Notes
p	p	p	unaspirated; sometimes heard closer to b by English speakers
ph	p	pʰ	aspirated; English IPA rarely marks aspiration
b	b	b
t	t	t	unaspirated
th	t	tʰ	aspirated
d	d	d
k	k	k	unaspirated
kh	k	kʰ	aspirated
j	j / ch	tɕ	alveolopalatal affricate, unaspirated
ch	ch	tɕʰ	alveolopalatal affricate, aspirated
f	f	f
s	s	s
h	h	h
m	m	m
n	n	n
ŋ	ng	ŋ	velar nasal — can start a word in Thai (e.g. ŋaan)
l	l	l
r	r	r	typically tapped or trilled; often realised as l in casual speech
w	w	w
y	y	j	palatal glide
ʔ	’ / —	ʔ	glottal stop; English IPA usually omits it entirely

Final stops (-p, -t, -k) are unreleased in Thai. Wiktionary marks them with the no-audible-release diacritic (/p̚ t̚ k̚/); my deck and English IPA both omit the diacritic.

Length and tones

Length. Vowel length is phonemic in Thai. My deck doubles the vowel (ɔɔ); Wiktionary uses the IPA length mark (ɔː); English IPA usually doesn’t mark length at all — readers infer it from context.

Tones. My deck writes tone as a combining diacritic on the vowel:

Tone	ภIPA	Wiktionary tone letter
mid	(unmarked, e.g. maa)	˧
low	à (e.g. màa)	˨˩
falling	â (e.g. mâa)	˥˩
high	á (e.g. máa)	˦˥
rising	ǎ (e.g. mǎa)	˩˦

English IPA typically omits tone entirely.

Worked example, showing a long /a/ with the falling tone:

• ภIPA: mâa
• English IPA: maa
• Wiktionary: /maː˥˩/