Thai language

Most Thais who deal with tourists speak some English, but off the beaten track you'll probably need at least a few words in Thai . Being tonal, Thai is extremely difficult for Westerners to master. Five different tones are used - low (syllables marked `), middle (unmarked), high (marked A?), falling (marked ^), and rising (marked ~) - by which the meaning of a single syllable can be altered in five different ways. Thus, using four of the five tones, you can make a sentence from just one syllable: mA?i mA i mA?i mA?i - "New wood burns, doesn't it?"

Thai script has 44 consonants to represent 21 consonant sounds and 32 vowels to deal with 48 different vowel sounds. However, street signs in touristed areas are nearly always written in Roman script as well as Thai. Because there's no standard system of transliteration of Thai script into Roman, the Thai words and proper names in this guide will not always match the versions written elsewhere. A town such as Ubon Ratchathani, for example, could come out as Ubol Rajatani, while Ayutthaya is synonymous with Ayudhia.

We've given a few essential phrases; for more help, try Thai: A Rough Guide Phrasebook (Rough Guides)

Other useful information for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections):