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Low class consonant · letter 5 of 44 · obsolete

ฅ kho khon

ฅ (kho khon) is a low-class consonant named after คน, “person”. It is obsolete: modern spelling uses another letter in its place.

See it in 61 fontsAll 44 consonants
ฅฅ คนkho khon · person
Thai name
ฅ คน · kho khon
Name word
คน, person
Class
Low class
At the start of a syllable
/kʰ/ · RTGS kh
At the end of a syllable
not used
Unicode
U+0E05 · THAI CHARACTER KHO KHON
In HTML
ฅ or ฅ
Kedmanee key
\ (on Windows: Shift + \)
Pattachote key
none

How it sounds

Obsolete. ฅ had the same sound and class as ค, and modern spelling uses ค in its place, its own name word included; the example words on this page are written with ค. Like ฃ, it is still taught in the alphabet and has a key on Thai keyboards.

4 other letters have the same sound at the start of a syllable: ข kho khai (high), ฃ kho khuat (high), ค kho khwai (low), ฆ kho rakhang (low).

Easy to mistake for ค kho khwai and ด do dek: compare them at a large size in the grid below.

Class and tone

With no mark, a low-class letter gives the mid tone in a live syllable; in a dead one the tone is high when the vowel is short and falling when it is long. Mai ek gives falling and mai tho high.

How ฅ would behave, as a low-class letter
SpellingSyllableTone
No mark, live syllable (long vowel)ฅาMid
No mark, dead syllable, short vowelฅะHigh
No mark, dead syllable, long vowelฅากFalling
Mai ekฅ่าFalling
Mai thoฅ้าHigh
Mai tri–not used with this class
Mai chattawa–not used with this class

The syllables show the rule, not words to learn. The tone rules explain live and dead syllables.

Words with the sound of ฅ

No word in modern spelling uses ฅ. These are written with ค, the letter that replaced it.

ThaiRTGSMeaning
คนkhonperson (its own name word, spelled with ค today)
คอkhoneck
คืนkhuennight
ควายkhwaiwater buffalo

RTGS shows neither tone nor vowel length; type a word into the font tester to see it in every font.

ฅ in every font

The letter in each of the 61 families you can download here, in its regular style. Looped faces start the stroke from a small circle; loopless ones leave it out. Each card opens the family’s page.