At 12:06 17.12.2004 +0100, Rett wrote:

>The second tip is that even if you only plan to read the script and
>not write it, it helps to practice writing it at the beginning. This
>makes it easier to read. I'm not sure why, but that's been my
>experience.
>
>Take about five characters at a time, and practice writing and
>recognizing them until you've gone throught the whole basic alphabet.
>Then work the some way with the forms with marked vowels, and
>important conjunct consonents. Then take a few very familiar lines,
>like the first verse of the Dhammapada, to read. Keep at it a little
>bit every day, and anyone can do it.

Agreed. Practice writing the characters this way, go slowly and
methodically, and you will soon get thoroughly familiar with the script.

The Thai script has the advantage that there are no conjunct consonants, no
extra ligatures, to learn. The first consonant of a pair is marked with a
small dot below it, to signify that there is no vowel, only the consonant
sound. There are also no initial vowel signs to learn. Instead there is an
"empty consonant" sign (or rather a 'consonant' character that marks what
we are used to regard as the start of an initial vowel), and the vowel
markers are attached to this character like to any other consonant. The
logic of the script is as beautiful as the characters themselves are.

Best regards,

Kåre A. Lie
http://www.lienet.no/