ศาลาชุมนุม

Should be an easy question to answer for those who know Thai...

ไทย -Thai

ไ - vowel for ai (short, glide ending?)
ท - consonant Th

Why is there an additional consonant of ย?
I viewed the consonants reference page (http://www.thai-language.com/ref/consonants), the ending sound for ย is [vowel]. What does that exactly mean?

Gosh I don't know how this got missed.
I can't find 'the ending sound for ย is (vowel) but find it meaningless also. The reason for the extra ย in ไทย is a mystery to me as well. I note that ไทย used to be spelt ไท. The sound is the same in both spellings and they both mean Thai.
It may help to explain that ย ว are not vowels but they are used as vowel symbols in เอีย = อี +อา , อัว= อู+อา simply because when transitioning from the first vowel to the second (+) you automatically make ย and ว in each case. One might write the vowels อี+ยา อู+วา but that would be wrong because they are two vowels joined together and ยา วา are syllables.
ไ ใ actually stand for the syllable อัย which makes ไทย ทัยย so look upon ย in ไทย as a means of distinguishing it from ไท .

My Thai isn't that good yet but I kind of get a grasp of what you're trying to explain.

How about หนู?

Why the additional consonant of ห comes in play?

Thank you. My Thai skills still have a long way to go...

illusion wrote:My Thai isn't that good yet but I kind of get a grasp of what you're trying to explain.

How about หนู?

Why the additional consonant of ห comes in play?

Thank you. My Thai skills still have a long way to go...

ห is used to modify the tone in many Thai words. It changes the class of consonant so that a rising tone can be written with consonant classes that don't naturally allow that tone. Thereby, หนู has a rising tone whereas นู would have a mid tone.
After a while, you will begin to see whole words rather than having to break them up into syllables and sound each one out.

From https://www.dek-d.com/board/view/1843374/

"ไทย(Thai) นั้นหมายถึง ประเทศไทยและพลเมืองที่มีสัญชาติไทยทุกคน โดยทุกคนต้องถูกเหมารวมว่าเป็นเชื้อชาติไทยด้วย ซึ่งคำว่า ไทย(Thai) ก็เป็นเพียงคำที่บัญญัติขึ้นใหม่เพื่อเรียกคนในเขตแดนนี้ซึ่งมีหลากหลายเชื้อชาติ เช่น สยาม มอญ เขมร มลายู ลาว ล้านนา เป็นต้น โดยทุกเชื้อชาติข้างต้นถูกกลืนหมดและบัญญัติคำใหม่ขึ้นมา คือคำว่า ไทย(Thai)"

The word "Thai" refers to the country of Thailand and all persons who are Thai citizens. This term also includes everyone who is of the Thai race. So, the word ไทย (Thai) is a newly created word (a neologism) to refer to people who live within the borders of Thailand which includes many races, for example, the Siamese, Mon, Khmer, Malays, Laos, and Lanna peoples. All of these races have been lumped together and a neologism created for them, that is, ไทย [Thai].