Short vowels are dead (boo)
If they don't have ending consonants
We already covered what is dead and alive in Lesson 4 for ending consonants. Well, short vowels without ending consonants are also dead. If the sound cannot extend, they're dead. You can't drag them out.
So, let's talk about dead tones. There are 4 tones instead of 5. There's no neutral sound, only neutral form of writing. For mid toned and high consonants the neutral writing will land on the first tone and for low toned (single or paired) the neutral writing will land on the third tone. The tones chart will look like this for mid tone and single low consonants.
first tone(เอก: ่ ) | second tone(โท: ้ ) | third tone(ตรี: ๊ ) | fourth tone(จัตวา: ๋ ) | |
---|---|---|---|---|
mid (ก) | กะ | ก้ะ | ก๊ะ | ก๋ะ |
single low(น) | หน่ะ | น่ะ or หน้ะ | นะ | น๋ะ |
If you'd like to be overwhelmed by all the rules involving tones, you're welcomed to take a look at the tones table to see whats coming for the future lessons.