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High class consonant · letter 38 of 44

ศ so sala

ศ (so sala) is a high-class consonant named after ศาลา, “pavilion”. At the start of a syllable it is /s/, written s in RTGS; at the end of one it is /t̚/ (t).

See it in 61 fontsAll 44 consonants
ศศ ศาลาso sala · pavilion
Thai name
ศ ศาลา · so sala
Name word
ศาลา, pavilion
Class
High class
At the start of a syllable
/s/ · RTGS s
At the end of a syllable
/t̚/ · RTGS t
Unicode
U+0E28 · THAI CHARACTER SO SALA
In HTML
ศ or ศ
Kedmanee key
Shift + L
Pattachote key
Shift + N

How it sounds

A high-class s, like ส. It is found mostly in words that came into Thai from Pali and Sanskrit. At the end of a syllable it is read t: ประเทศ prathet.

3 other letters have the same sound at the start of a syllable: ซ so so (low), ษ so ruesi (high), ส so suea (high).

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 high-class letter gives a rising tone in a live syllable and a low tone in a dead one. Mai ek gives low and mai tho falling; the other two marks are not used.

Syllables with ศ and the vowel า
SpellingSyllableTone
No mark, live syllable (long vowel)ศาRising
No mark, dead syllable, short vowelศะLow
No mark, dead syllable, long vowelศากLow
Mai ekศ่าLow
Mai thoศ้าFalling
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 ศ

ThaiRTGSMeaning
ศูนย์sunzero; centre
ศึกษาsueksato study (formal); education
ศิลปะsinlapaart
ศุกร์sukFriday
ประเทศprathetcountry

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

ศ 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.