เ-ือย

This is the long double sound of “eu-ay”. It is represented in the transliteration by “EU-AY”.

There are only about twenty words where this vowel is used, of which those given below are about the only ones you are likely to meet.

	เหนื่อย	NEU-AY	Tired
	เรื่อย	REU-AY	Gently, Steadily.
	เลื่อย	LEU-AY	A saw

แ-ว	This combination has the sound of “aa-w” but it is not very much used. It is represented in the transliteration by “AA-W”.

The words you are most likely to meet are;

	แล้ว	LAAW	Already
	แมว	MAAW	Cat
	แก้ว	GAAW	Glass

In a few words this combination is not treated as a combined vowel at all but as the simple vowel แ- and the consonant ว.

	แฉว	CHAWAA	Indented, Concave.
	แคว	KWAA	A tributary

โ-ย	This has the sound of “oi” as in “going”. It is represented in the transliteration by “OY”.

It occurs in only a few words of which the commonest is probably;

โดย

DOY

With, by.

ไ-ย	This has the sound of “y” as in “fly”. It occurs in only one common word namely “Thai”.

ไทย

THAI

Thai

Note.
In accordance with the system of transliteration adopted throughout this book the word “Thai” should be written TY but as it is so commonly rendered as “THAI” we have departed from the strict adherence to the system in this case.

In addition to the combined vowel forms given in this and the previous lessons, there are a few others which are so rarely met with that it is not considered necessary to deal with them in detail. The principles set out in the forgoing lessons however should enable you to work out the correct pronunciation for yourself if you ever come across them.

Generated by Lyndon Hill on Thu Jul 20 18:40:32 BST 2006.

Copyright remains with the original authors.