Thai script
Also known as Thai, Thai alphabet
a type of abugida writing system used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand
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Thai script is a writing system used to write Thai, Southern Thai, and other languages spoken in Thailand, belonging to a category called an abugida where consonants and vowels are closely integrated. It matters as the essential tool for reading and writing in Thailand, enabling communication and literacy across the country.
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The Thai script (Thai: อักษรไทย, RTGS: akson thai, pronounced [ʔàksɔ̌ːn tʰāj]) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (Thai: พยัญชนะ, phayanchana), 16 vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sara) that combine into at least 32 vowel forms, four tone diacritics (Thai: วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต, wannayuk or wannayut), and other diacritics.
Although commonly referred to as the Thai alphabet, the script is 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.