i’m back to studying sanskrit again, this time taking a class at ramkhamheng which is finally forcing me to memorize things that i used to just look up in charts. the thing about the course is that it uses a pronunciation system based on the thai alphabet instead of the commonly used devanagari. i’m not totally sure i think this is a good system, the devanagari alphabet is only 33 letters and can be easily memorized in a day or two. additionally, since many of the thai letters change their pronunciation (ป is pronounced as a hard p and not the thai mix of b and p) it actually can be somewhat confusing.

while somewhat annoying, this system is incredibly helpful in understanding word origin. the thai language borrows no grammar from sanskrit (they are classified in different families), but it borrows tons of vocabulary. the thing is, that in borrowing words their form is maintained but they are pronounced according to thai rules. one particularly interesting change that had me wondering for quite some time is the reason that word “बुद्ध (buddha)” becomes “พุทธ (phoot) (listen)” in thai. the words seem totally different, but when you notice that the way that these sanskrit letters correspond to thai letters, and the fact that when there is a consonant cluster at the end of a thai word, only one of those consonants are generally pronounced then it makes much more sense.

ब	พ
द	ท
ध	ธ

i put together the above chart using images stolen from http://www.sanskrit.org/www/Sanskrit/SanskritPronunc.htm and then adding in the corresponding thai letter. the full version of my chart can be downloaded by clicking on the image above or right here.