Step 12: silent letters and the killer mark

Thai keeps the spelling of words it borrowed from Sanskrit and Pali, then stops pronouncing the parts that do not fit Thai sounds. Rather than delete the letters, it marks them dead. THE KILLER MARK: ์ is called ทัณฑฆาต (than-thá-khâat) or, in everyday speech, การันต์ (gaa-ran). It sits above a letter and means: this letter is silent. จันทร์ is jan (Monday), and both the ท and the ร go quiet under it. ศุกร์ is sùk (Friday). สัตว์ is sàt (animal). Once you know the mark, these words stop being frightening and become shorter than they look. The days of the week are the best place to meet it, because several carry one and you will read them on every clinic door and government notice. SILENT WITHOUT A MARK: you have met two cases already in step 9, the leading ห in หมา and the leading อ in อยาก. There is a third worth knowing: a ร can fall silent with no mark at all. สามารถ (able) is sǎa-mâat, not sǎa-maa-rót: the ร drops and the ถ closes the syllable as a t. FINAL CONSONANTS THAT LOOK LIKE SYLLABLES: in that same word, the ถ at the end is the final consonant of the second syllable, pronounced t, not a syllable of its own. Thai finals collapse to a small set of sounds regardless of the letter written, which is why ถ says t here and ร can say n elsewhere. That is the reading system complete. Class, live or dead, vowel length, tone mark, leading consonant, implicit vowel, cluster, silent letter. Every Thai word on this site is now something you can work out rather than memorise.