Know Your Dictionary: Sorting in RID99

[Note: See also in this series introduction, orthography, symbols, pronunciation guides, and word senses. Forthcoming: etymology and list of abbreviations.]

Today, in part two of this series, is my English translation of the first part of RID99's introductory material. I'm happy to entertain questions about my translation (the original Thai is here). It is, for the most part, strict. I haven't generally attempted to revise the material to make it clearer, though I have occasionally translated loosely where I thought Thai structure or word choice unnecessarily obscure the meaning.

Part 1: Sorting and word collection method

1. Consonants are ordered by letter, i.e. ก ข ฃ ค up through อ ฮ. They are not ordered by sound, i.e. if you look up the word ทราบ, you must look in the ท section; if you look up the word เหมา, you must look in the ห section. ฤ ฤๅ are ordered after ร and ฦ ฦๅ are ordered after ล.

2. Vowels are not ordered by sound, but are ordered by symbol as follows: -ะ - ั -า - ิ - ี -ึ - ื -ุ -ู เ- แ- โ- ใ- ไ-. The many combined vowel symbols are sorted by the linear vowel symbol order as given above, resulting in the following order:

-ะ
-ั (กัน)
-ั
-ะ (ผัวะ)
-า
-ำ
- ิ
- ี
- ึ
- ื
-ุ
-ู
เ-
เ-ะ (เกะ)
เ-า (เขา)
เ-าะ (เจาะ)
เ- ิ(เกิน)
เ- ี (เสีย)
เ- ีะ (เดียะ)
เ- ื (เสือ)
เ- ืะ (เกือะ)
แ-
แ-ะ (แพะ)
โ-
โ-ะ (โป๊ะ)
ใ-
ไ-

The letters ย ว อ are always sorted as consonants.

3. Word sorting is ordered foremost by initial consonant, and then by vowel symbol. Words without a vowel symbol thus come first, e.g. กก comes before กะ, or ขลา comes before ขะข่ำ. Words which have both consonants and vowel symbols are sorted by the same method as above, e.g. จริก จริม จรี จรึง จรุก, and normally are not sorted by tone marker, e.g. ไต้ก๋ง ไต้ฝุ่น ไต่ไม้; tone markers is counted in sorting order only for words which otherwise are spelled the same, e.g. ไต ไต่ ไต้ ไต๋, or กระตุ่น กระตุ้น. Words with the symbol -็ (ไม้ไต่คู้) are ordered before tone markers, e.g. เก็ง เก่ง เก้ง เก๋ง.

4. Among words which begin with กระ-, some words can only be spelled with กระ-, but others can also be spelled with กะ-. Those which can alternately be spelled with กะ- are also collected under กะ-, but only the words are given, without definitions. Therefore, for a word beginning with กะ in that section, see the definition under กระ-, e.g. กระทะ กระเปาะ, except for those which are spelled both ways with different definitions, e.g. กระแจะ-กะแจะ กระด้าง-กะด้าง, in which case definitions are given for both words.

5. There are words with an extra prefixed syllable as used in ancient compositions, e.g. มี่ as มะมี่, ริก as ระริก, ครื้น as คะครื้น or คระครื้น, แย้ม as ยะแย้ม, etc., according to the method called in Pali อัพภาส, and in Sanskrit อัภยาส, which translates as "method of overlapping letters", e.g. ททาติ or ททามิ. There are large numbers of these words, in some cases they are included under the prefix, e.g. คะครื้น is included under คะ, which states "prefixed to words which begin with the letter ค, with the same meaning as the original word". In other cases they are included according to their spelling, e.g. มะมี่, but all instances are probably not included, therefore if a word cannot be found under its spelling, see the original word, e.g. ยะแย้ม see แย้ม.

6. Some regional dialects truncate their speech, e.g. กะดะ shortened to ดะ (without กะ), กะง้อนกะแง้น shortened to ง้อนแง้น (without กะ), but the meaning is the same as the full word with กะ. Such words are kept only under กะ.

7. Words with reversed pronunciations, e.g. ตะกรุด as กะตรุด, ตะกร้อ as กะตร้อ, and ตะกรับ as กะตรับ, are normally kept in both ก and ต, but if not found in ก, look in ต.

8. The follow words are used often in poetry:

A. Words which append อา, อี or อิน to the end, e.g. กายา, กายี, กายิน.

B. Words with append เอศ to the end (in poetry terms this is called ศ เข้าลิลิต, making the word called a "toneless word" into a "first tone word" according to khlong poetry rules), e.g. กมเลศ, มยุเรศ.

C. Words which append อาการ to the end, e.g. จินตนาการ, คมนาการ, ทัศนาการ.

D. Words which append ชาติ to the end, e.g. กิมิชาติ, คชาชาติ.

These words typically have the same meaning as the original, and are collected in this dictionary, but perhaps incompletely, because there are so many. If not found under a given spelling, look under the spelling of the original, e.g. กายา, กายี, if not found under กายา or กายี, look under กาย. Whatever the meaning of กาย is, กายา and กายี have the same meaning. Look up other words after this same pattern.

9. Words with the same root that can take many forms, e.g. หิมวัต can can take the forms หิมวันต์, หิมวา, หิมวาต, หิมวาน, and หิมพาน without a change in meaning, are defined only under the original word, in this case หิมวัต. Words which have changed form from the original word are collected separately, but include a note to see the original word, e.g. หิมวันต์, หิมวา, หิมวาต, หิมวาน [หิมมะ]- น. หิมวัต.

10. Words which are subordinate names, e.g. ตะนอย, ช่อน, คา, are not included with the corresponding common noun as used in speech, e.g. มดตะนอย, ปลาช่อน, หญ้าคา, but rather the common nouns มด, ปลา, หญ้า are included according to their spelling, and subordinate names ตะนอย, ช่อน, and คา are included separately according to their spellings, except for words cannot be separated, because the whole word is the name of something, e.g. แมลงภู่, which is types of mussel or fish, and thus it is included whole under the letter ม; or, ปลากริม, which is a type of sweet, not a fish, is included whole under the letter ป. Nevertheless, there are some words which cannot be sorted according to these rules, therefore if a word after this pattern after this pattern is not found under the subordinate name, look it up under the common name, e.g. น้ำตาลกรวด is not found under กรวด, so see น้ำตาล.

11. When two words are compounded, with the first word the same as the headword, and has a meaning related to the headword, it is a subhead of that headword, e.g. กดขี่, กดคอ, กดหัว, are subheads of กด, except for compound words which have an independent meaning or a different meaning from the headword, in which case they are included as separate headwords, e.g. ขวัญอ่อน, meaning an easily startled person, i.e. a child or woman who tends to become frightened frequently, is included as a subhead of ขวัญ; whereas ขวัญอ่อน, referring to a type of dancing song, is a separate headword, because it has a different meaning. Words of this type are also numbered, e.g. ขวัญอ่อน ๑ and ขวัญอ่อน ๒. Compound words which have the same word-for-word meaning as the original words are not included, e.g. ข้าวผัด is not a subhead of ข้าว, because its meaning is the sum of its parts.

12. For words which can be compounded to either the beginning or end of other words, e.g. น้ำ, are compounded in various words, e.g. แม่น้ำ, ลูกน้ำ, น้ำใจ, น้ำต้อย, if the word that comes before the word น้ำ is spelled differently, it is ordered by spelling. For example, the word แม่น้ำ is ordered under ม; ลูกน้ำ is ordered under ล; they are not ordered under น. But if the word น้ำ comes first, it is ordered under น, as a subhead of the word น้ำ, e.g. น้ำกรด, น้ำแข็ง, น้ำย่อย.

[Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the Royal Institute, nor have I made them aware of my translations. This is intended for educational and research purposes.]