Lanna Consonants: the Ka and Ja Rows, Letter by Letter

The Lanna consonants, which the dictionary calls pian ja-na (พยัญชฯน, Kham Mueang reading pian ja-na), are arranged in the Pali way in groups called rows (wak). This lesson teaches every letter of the Ka row and the Ja row, 13 letters in all, one at a time: the shape, the Kham Mueang reading, high or low class, the sound, the Thai letter it matches, the subscript form and an example word from the dictionary. It is lesson 2 of the course Learn the Lanna Script from Zero, after What Is Tua Mueang?.

How the consonants are arranged

Tua Mueang arranges its consonants in the Pali way: in rows of five letters, read left to right, with the fifth letter of each row a nasal. The character chart by Pichai Saengboon (Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, Chiang Mai University) lists the first five rows as the Ka, Ja, Ta (retroflex), Ta and Pa rows, followed by the group of consonants outside the rows (ย ร ล ว ส ห ฬ อ). This lesson covers the first two rows.

The table shows the Ka and Ja rows as that chart lays them out. The five core letters sit in columns 1 to 5. The top of each cell is the Lanna letter, and below it is the Thai letter it matches.

The three extra Lanna letters sit in the "additional letters" cells of the chart:

High class, low class and sound pairs

The dictionary gives the class of every letter that has its own entry. Tua ka (ก, Kham Mueang reading tua ka) is ก, a high-class letter with the pitch of the Thai rising tone (jattawa). ค is a low-class letter. The names of the letters carry a tone mark to show the pitch, as in ก๋ะ and ก๊ะ.

The CMU chart pairs letters that have the same consonant sound but a different class. These are sound pairs. In these two rows they are ก with ค, ข with ฆ, จ with ช, and ฉ with ฌ. The Unicode names also pair ฃ and ฅ as a high and a low letter (HIGH KXA and LOW KXA). The nasals ง and ญ take a leading ห (ha nam) as their high partner: หง and หญ (the chart marks หญ as a conjecture). Leading ห has its own lesson.

With both a high and a low letter, a word can be written in all six tones. Under จ the dictionary says it is used together with ช (ja, low) to cover all six tones. The detailed tone rules come in the lesson on classes and tones.

The Ka row: ก ข ค ฆ ง and the extras ฃ ฅ

The Ka row has five core letters and two extras. Each card shows the big letter, its subscript form, the reading, the class, the sound and the Thai equivalent.

ก · tua ka (ka, high)

The first letter of the Ka row, used as an initial and as a final. With a medial r (กร) the dictionary says it can be read ka or kha.

Example word in the dictionary: กา (ka, Kham Mueang reading ก๋า), meaning "crow".

ข · kha (high)

Used as an initial and as a following letter in Pali and Sanskrit words.

Example word in the dictionary: ข่า (kha, Kham Mueang reading ข่า), meaning "galangal, a pungent rhizome used in cooking".

ค · ka (low)

Used as an initial, a final and a following letter. Words read kha use the form ra + ka (ระฯค) instead.

Example word in the dictionary: ค้า (ka, Kham Mueang reading ก๊า), meaning "to trade, to buy and sell".

ฆ · kha (low, Pali)

Used in Pali and Sanskrit words such as มาฆะ and สังฆะ. It is the low partner of ข.

Example word in the dictionary: มาฆบูชา (ma-kha pu-cha, Kham Mueang reading มาฆะปู๋จา), meaning "Makha Bucha, a Buddhist holy day".

ง · nga (low)

Used as an initial and as the final of the nasal-ng group. Its high partner is ห + ง (หง).

Example word in the dictionary: งัว (ngua, Kham Mueang reading งัว), meaning "cattle (cow, ox)".

ฃ · extra letter

An extra Lanna letter, placed in the 'additional letters' cell of the Ka row in the CMU chart. No dictionary word uses it, so no reading is given.

No dictionary word uses this letter yet, so we do not make one up. When the dictionary has one, it will be added to the lesson.

ฅ · extra letter, read kha

Central Thai dropped ฅ, but the Lanna script still uses it, as an initial only.

Example word in the dictionary: คน (ฅน) (khon, Kham Mueang reading คน), meaning "person, human being".

The Ja row: จ ฉ ช ฌ ญ and the extra ซ

The Ja row has five core letters and one extra, ซ.

จ · ja (high)

Used as an initial, a final and a following letter. Together with ช (ja, low) it gives all six tones.

Example word in the dictionary: จาร (jan, Kham Mueang reading จ๋าร), meaning "to inscribe with a stylus on palm leaf".

ฉ · the high letter of the Ja row

The high letter of the Ja row. Only a few dictionary words use it, such as ฉกรรจ์, หูฉลาม and ผักขึ้นฉ่าย.

Example word in the dictionary: ฉกรรจ์ (lam sa-kan, Kham Mueang reading ล่ำสะกั๋น), meaning "strong, robust (Thai ฉกรรจ์)".

ช · ja (low)

The dictionary says ช is read ja (low) and is paired with จ to cover all six tones.

Example word in the dictionary: ช้าง (jang, Kham Mueang reading จ๊าง), meaning "elephant".

ฌ · a Pali letter, often subscript

Found in Pali words, usually as a subscript under the letter before it: in พิชฌ the ฌ hangs under ช.

Example word in the dictionary: ลมพิชฌขอด (lom pit ja khot, Kham Mueang reading ลมปิ๊ชจ๊ะขอด), meaning "a wind of folk belief".

ญ · the nasal that ends the Ja row

The nasal that ends the Ja row, used in Pali words. The CMU chart gives ห + ญ as its high partner (marked as a conjecture).

Example word in the dictionary: จดบัญชี (jot ban-ji, Kham Mueang reading จ๋ดบันจี), meaning "to enter a debt in the account book".

ซ · sa, an extra letter

An extra Lanna letter, used only as an initial.

Example word in the dictionary: ซาว (sao, Kham Mueang reading ซาว), meaning "twenty (the tens word in Kham Mueang numbers)".

Subscript forms

Most Tua Mueang letters have two shapes: the full letter, used as an initial, and a reduced shape that hangs under the letter before it. The CMU manual calls it the tua choeng (subscript) or "tail" form, and it is used for a final or following consonant. In ลมพิชฌขอด (lom pit ja khot), for example, ช sits on the line and ฌ hangs beneath it. When typing with the LN TILOK font, press the ฯ key once after a consonant (see how to type with LN TILOK, in Thai).

This table shows the subscript forms of the 10 core letters as the font draws them. We checked them against dictionary spellings, for example ฆ in สังฆ์ and ฉ in อิจฉา.

The extra letters ฃ ฅ ซ have no subscript form. That agrees with English Wikipedia, which says the extra Lanna letters lack a subjoined form, and no dictionary word is spelled with a subscript form of these three.

Practise the 13 letters

Now practise with the widget below. The "Browse letters" tab reopens any card. The other two tabs are 10-question quizzes: name the Thai letter that matches a Lanna letter, or pick the Lanna letter from a Thai letter and its reading.

Summary

• Tua Mueang consonants follow the Pali order in rows. This lesson completes the first two: the Ka row and the Ja row, 13 letters (10 core + 3 extra).
• Letters are high or low class and form sound pairs, such as ก with ค and จ with ช.
• Kham Mueang reads some letters differently from central Thai: ค is read ka, ช is read ja, and the kh sound uses ฅ.
• Every core letter has a subscript form hanging under the letter before it, typed with the ฯ key. The extras ฃ ฅ ซ have none.
• The letter shapes were checked against the CMU chart and the Unicode chart.

The next lesson is the retroflex, Ta and Pa rows (coming soon). See the whole course at Learn the Lanna Script from Zero, and look up any word in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai).

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): ตั๋วก๋ะ · เปียนจ๊ะนะ · จ๋ะ · ซะ · งะ · ฅ · จ๋าร
• Pichai Saengboon. (2009). วิธีการพิมพ์อักขระธัมม์ล้านนา (ตัวเมือง) ที่ง่าย สะดวก และสวยงาม ด้วยฟอนต์ LN TILOK version 6.00 [How to type the Lanna (Tua Mueang) script easily and beautifully with the LN TILOK font, version 6.00; page 4 on the Extra key and page 6 the Lanna character chart]. Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, Chiang Mai University. In Thai.
• The Unicode Consortium. Tai Tham, U+1A20 to U+1AAF (code chart and names list). Letter names HIGH KA to NYA and their classes.
• Wikipedia. Tai Tham script (used as an initial overview of the 43 consonants and of the extra letters without subjoined forms).