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Low class consonant · letter 34 of 44

ย yo yak

ย (yo yak) is a low-class consonant named after ยักษ์, “giant”. At the start of a syllable it is /j/, written y in RTGS; at the end of one it is /j/ (i).

See it in 61 fontsAll 44 consonants
ยย ยักษ์yo yak · giant
Thai name
ย ยักษ์ · yo yak
Name word
ยักษ์, giant
Class
Low class
At the start of a syllable
/j/ · RTGS y
At the end of a syllable
/j/ · RTGS i
Unicode
U+0E22 · THAI CHARACTER YO YAK
In HTML
ย or ย
Kedmanee key
P
Pattachote key
E

How it sounds

A y at the start of a syllable. After a vowel it closes a diphthong, as in สาย sai, which RTGS writes with i.

One other letter has the same sound at the start of a syllable: ญ yo ying (low).

Easy to mistake for ญ yo ying: 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.

Syllables with ย and the vowel า
SpellingSyllableTone
No mark, live syllable (long vowel)ยาMid
No mark, dead syllable, short vowelยะHigh
No mark, dead syllable, long vowelยากFalling
Mai ekย่าFalling
Mai thoย้าHigh
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 ย

ThaiRTGSMeaning
ยาyamedicine
ยากyakdifficult
ยิ้มyimto smile
เย็นyencool; evening
สายsailate (in the morning); line

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

ย 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.