High, Mid and Low Consonants in Tua Mueang: All 44

High, mid and low consonants in tua mueang, the Lanna script, sort the letters into three classes, and the class tells you which tone a syllable takes. Take the first letter of the alphabet, which Lanna people call tua ka (tua ka, ก): the dictionary says it is a high-class letter, although ก is mid class in the Thai alphabet. This lesson brings the classes of all 44 consonants from lessons 2 to 4 together in one place, says where each class comes from, and explains how a letter's class and Lanna's two tone marks give six tones. It is lesson 5 of the course Learn Tua Mueang from Zero, after Consonants 3: Avagga and Extra Letters.

What are the three classes in Tua Mueang?

According to the Moradok Lanna dictionary, the 44 Lanna consonants fall into these groups:

The letter อย (written อฺยฺ in the dictionary), which exists only in Lanna, is also mid class according to the dictionary. It is a special form written with two letters, so it is not counted among the 44. Its shape is in Consonants 3: Avagga and Extra Letters.

Why the class matters

Chiang Mai Kham Mueang has six tone levels. In its entries for the ห-leading letters the dictionary names them: saman (mid), ek (low), tho (falling), tri phian, tri (high) and jattawa (rising). Tri phian is higher than tho but lower than tri, and Thai does not have it.

Yet the Lanna script has only two tone marks: mai yo, which matches the Thai mai ek, and mai kho jang ("the elephant hook"), which the dictionary says gives the tri or tri phian tone. Two marks plus no mark give only three choices for any one letter. Under the letter ม the dictionary says it "has 3 tone levels and can take only 2 tone marks".

Lanna's answer is to use letters in pairs: one high-class and one low-class letter with the same consonant sound, so that a pair covers all six levels. Under ป the dictionary puts พ (read pa) beside it "to make all 6 tones", and under จ it says จ "is used together with ช (read ja) to make all 6 tone levels".

Which tone does each class and mark give?

The dictionary gives two six-tone examples: the ป-พ pair under ป and the ม-หม pair under ม. This table puts both in the order of the six levels the dictionary lists under the ห-leading letters (saman, ek, tho, tri phian, tri, jattawa). The examples are written in Thai letters, as they are read.

This matches what the letter entries say: an unmarked high-class letter "has the pitch of the jattawa tone" (ก จ ถ ผ ป ฝ), an unmarked low-class letter is "at the saman level" (ภ), and the dictionary prints tri phian readings in italics with mai tho, as in the ห-leading words.

Real words from the ต-ท pair

The dictionary has real words for five of the levels with ต (high class) and ท (low class, read with a t sound). The column "written with" shows the Thai letters of the spelling.

We have not found a one-syllable word of the same shape for the tri phian level of this pair (ต + mai kho jang), so it is left out. Notice that the Central Thai word ตา (eye) is read ต๋า, with a rising tone, because ต is high class, while ทา (to smear) is read ตา, because ท is a low-class letter with a t sound. Romanization hides the tones: all five are ta.

The class table: all 44 letters

These tables hold every consonant from lessons 2 to 4. "Class source" names the source (numbers in brackets are dictionary entry numbers), and the last column gives the class of the same letter in the Thai alphabet. Bold marks a letter whose class differs from Thai.

High class: 15 letters

Mid class: 3 letters

Low class: 22 letters

Class not yet confirmed: 4 letters

Compared with Thai: ก จ ต ป become high class

The Thai alphabet sorts its 44 consonants into 11 high, 9 mid and 24 low (the trai yang system). Set side by side with Tua Mueang, only a few letters differ:

• ก จ ต ป are mid class in Thai, but the dictionary makes them high class in Tua Mueang, read ka, ja, ta, pa with a rising tone and paired with the low-class ค ช ท พ.
• ด บ อ stay mid class, but the dictionary calls them two-sound consonants (see the next section).
• For Thai ฎ and ฑ the dictionary says Tua Mueang uses ด; ฏ and ณ are not yet confirmed.
• ฤ ฦ count as vowels in Thai and are not in its class system, but the CMU chart puts them among the additional letters of Tua Mueang.
• Every other letter has the same class as in Thai.

Mid class: ด บ อ, the two-sound consonants

Lanna has few mid-class letters, and the dictionary calls ด, บ, อ and อย all two-sound consonants: one written form can be read at two tone levels, and only the meaning of the sentence tells you which. The letter อ takes only two tone-mark shapes but still reaches all six levels.

The dictionary's example is อุ้ย, written the same way in two words. In kong ui (kong ui, ค้อฯงอุ้ยฯ), a large gong, อุ้ย means "big" and is said between tho and tri; in แม่อุ้ย, grandmother, it is said with the tri tone.

Lone low-class letters and the leading ห

Some low-class letters have no high-class partner with the same sound: ง น ม ย ล ว. Under ห the dictionary explains that ห is put in front of these six to give them a high-class sound, as หง หน หม หย หล หว, without pronouncing the ห. That gives them all six levels, just like a high-low pair. The leading ห has its own lesson next in the course.

Quiz: the class of all 44 letters

This widget holds all 44 consonants sorted by class. The "Browse letters" tab shows the reading, class, source and an example word. The "Quiz: which class?" tab shows a Lanna letter and you choose high, mid or low; after each answer it also tells you the class of the same letter in Thai. (Letters with an unconfirmed class are left out of the quiz.)

Summary

• According to the dictionary, Tua Mueang has 15 high-class letters, 3 mid-class letters (ด บ อ, plus the special form อย), 22 low-class letters, and 4 letters (ฏ ณ ฤ ฦ) whose class is not yet confirmed.
• Lanna has two tone marks, mai yo and mai kho jang, so one letter gives 3 tone levels. A high-low pair (ป-พ, ต-ท) or a low letter with the leading ห gives all 6, including tri phian, which Thai lacks.
• An unmarked high-class letter has the rising tone; an unmarked low-class letter has the mid tone.
• Unlike Thai, ก จ ต ป are high class; ด บ อ are mid class as two-sound consonants.

The next lesson is the six ห-leading letters (coming soon). Go back to Consonants 3: Avagga and Extra Letters, see the whole course at Learn Tua Mueang from Zero, and look up any word in the Moradok Lanna dictionary.

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (moradoklanna.com/dict), letter and tone-mark entries: ตั๋วก๋ะ · ห๋ะ · อยะ · ไม้เหย๋าะ · ขอจ๊าง · ตรีเพี้ยน, checked 22 October 2026
• พิชัย แสงบุญ (Pichai Saengboon). (2009). วิธีการพิมพ์อักขระธัมม์ล้านนา (ตัวเมือง) ที่ง่าย สะดวก และสวยงาม ด้วยฟอนต์ LN TILOK version 6.00 [How to type the Lanna Dhamma script easily and beautifully with the LN TILOK font, version 6.00] (page 6, the Lanna character chart). Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, Chiang Mai University
• The Unicode Consortium. Tai Tham, U+1A20 to U+1AAF (code chart and names list). The letter names that carry a class (HIGH / LOW), used for the letters the dictionary does not class
• ทรูปลูกปัญญา (TruePlookpanya). ไตรยางศ์ [The three consonant classes] (in Thai). Used for the Thai classes (11 high, 9 mid, 24 low)