Language

The national language of Thailand is Thai. The Thai alphabet has forty-four consonants and thirty-two vowels. Similar to Chinese, Thai is a tonal language. A word may have five different meanings depending on how it is said because there are five tone in which to say a word. Low-tone, Mid-tone, High-tone, Rising-tone (similar to asking a question in English), and Falling-tone

Thai is thought to be the oldest language of Asia, to even pre-date Chinese. It is read left to right, like the English language. There are no sounds "th", "v" or "z" in Thai. Most Thais know English pretty well as it is taught in most schools.

Some words in Thai are gender-specific. Males in Thai say "Khrap" after words like "hello", or "thank you".



Females say "Kha". For example, hello in Thai is "sawatdee". A man saying hello in Thai would say "sawatdee khrap"

Thais greet each other with "the wai". The hands are placed prayer-like, and the person bows. Then the other personn returns the wai. There are rules of how high the hands should be and who should bow first that are judged by the status and age of the person.