The Thai language is tonal, uninfected and predominantly monosyllabic, the exception being compound words derived from Khmer, Pali or Snskrit. THese latter words are often specialized vocabulary dealing with religion, philosophy and science. There are five tones in standard Thai, neutral, high, low , rising, and falling, which function to differentiate words having similar sounds.

The grammar is very simple and the lack of inflection leads to compound words to transform verbs and adjectives into nouns and gerunds. The suk meaning happy is trasformed into the attachment of the prefix kwam is form kwam suk - happyness. Verb are modified by prefixing garn. Thus does the verb to walk becomes the gerund garn does meaning walking.

ก ข ค Central Thai spoken in Bangkok is the official language but there are many dialects. That of the northeast is closely akin to Lao, that of the north has its own charm, which that of the south is often imcomprehensivible to people of the central region having, among other things, a sixth tone.

Sukhothai is properly considered the cradle of the Thai nation as that is where written Thai Language was developed. King Ramkamhaeng is credited with the creation of the Thai script based on the Khmer model, itself derived from the ancient alphabets of India. The present Thai alphabet has 44 consonants and 21 vowels together with five tone marks and other diacritical marks that indicate abbreviation and other functions. Thai is written from left to right with the words generally unseparated. This lack of punctuation can make it difficult to learn at the offset.

The first primer of the Thai language, know as the Chinda Manee was prepared during the reign of King Narai in the Ayutthaya era.