Symbols
84Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Consonants (พยัญชนะ)
The Thai consonants in dictionary order, one row per family of sounds. Kuy words use the everyday ones; ฆ ฌ ฎ ฏ ฐ ฑ ฒ ณ ศ ษ ฬ come with Thai, Pali and Sanskrit words and place names such as ศรีสะเกษ (Sisaket).
Vowel signs (สระ)
Signs that sit after, above, below or before a consonant. The before-vowels เ แ โ ใ ไ are typed first, the way they are written.
Tone marks, silencer and punctuation
Marks written above a consonant, and the two Thai punctuation signs.
Thai digits
Used beside ordinary 0–9 on Thai signs, documents and calendars.
Currency
Baht, kip and riel, the money of the three Kuy-speaking countries.
Where it's spoken
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, largest Kuy population first.
Kuy culture
The elephant and the pakam lasso of the Kuy elephant catchers of Surin.
On the map
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The Kuy language and its script
Kuy, also spelled Kui, Kuay or Kuoy, is the language of the Kuy people of northeast Thailand, southern Laos and northern Cambodia. In Thai it is ภาษากูย (phasa Kuy) or ภาษากวย; an older Thai name for the people is ส่วย (Suai), the same word as "tribute", while Kuy is their own name. In Khmer the people are កួយ (Kuoy).
Kuy is not related to Thai or Lao. It is an Austroasiatic language of the Katuic branch, a cousin of Bru and Katu and, much more distantly, of Khmer and Vietnamese. Kuy has no script of its own: in Thailand it is written with the Thai alphabet, the letters on this page; in Cambodia with Khmer letters and in Laos with Lao letters, which have their own Khmer and Lao collections.
Kuy is mostly a spoken language, passed on at home and in the village. Written Kuy comes from schools, community language projects, word lists, Bible translation and linguists, and Thai-script spellings still differ from one project to the next; there is no single official Kuy orthography.
Kuy letters in Thai script: consonants, vowels and marks
The grid lays out the 42 consonants used in modern Thai in dictionary order: ก ข ค ฆ ง จ ฉ ช ซ ฌ ญ ฎ ฏ ฐ ฑ ฒ ณ ด ต ถ ท ธ น บ ป ผ ฝ พ ฟ ภ ม ย ร ล ว ศ ษ ส ห ฬ อ ฮ, including letters used in Pali and Sanskrit spellings, since Kuy writers also write Thai names and loanwords. อ is the silent carrier for syllables that begin with a vowel.
Vowels are signs written around the consonant: after it (ะ า ำ), above (ั ิ ี ึ ื and the shortener ็), below (ุ ู) or before it (เ แ โ ใ ไ). เ, for example, is written before the consonant it follows in speech, so เก reads ke. The dot ฺ (phinthu) marks a consonant with no vowel of its own, as in Pali spelling.
Thai uses the tone marks ่ ้ ๊ ๋ and three consonant classes to spell its five tones. Kuy is not tonal the way Thai is; what it contrasts is a large set of vowels and two voice qualities, a clear and a breathy register. Thai letters only approximate those sounds, which is why Thai-script Kuy spellings use vowel signs and marks in their own ways. The silencer ์ (thanthakhat) mutes a letter, mostly in Thai and Sanskrit words.
How to type Kuy in Thai script
Kuy in Thailand is typed with the ordinary Thai keyboard, the Kedmanee layout. On Windows add Thai under Settings › Time & language › Language & region and switch with WinSpace; on a Mac add Thai under System Settings › Keyboard › Input Sources; on Android and iPhone add the Thai keyboard in the keyboard settings. Or copy the letters from the grid above.
Type in the order a pen writes: a before-vowel first (เ, then ก), then the consonant, then any vowel above or below, then the tone mark, as in กู่. Like Thai, Kuy written in Thai script usually leaves no spaces between words and puts a space between phrases and sentences.
For web pages the letters can also be written as numeric HTML entities: ก is ก, ฿ is , ₭ is and ៛ is . All the Thai letters live in the Unicode Thai block, U0E00 to U0E7F.
Where the Kuy language is spoken
CLDR estimates about 430,000 Kuy speakers. Some 340,000 live in Thailand , in the Isan provinces of Surin, Sisaket, Buriram and Ubon Ratchathani, about 76,000 in southern Laos and about 19,000 in northern Cambodia , in provinces such as Preah Vihear, Kampong Thom and Stung Treng. Counts of a minority language vary a lot between sources, so treat these as estimates.
Most Kuy speakers are bilingual or trilingual. In Surin and Sisaket they also speak Thai, Northeastern Thai (Isan) and often Northern Khmer, whose speakers live in the same districts; in Laos they speak Lao and in Cambodia Khmer. Those languages have their own collections, and the Thailand, Laos and Cambodia collections gather each country's flags, food and symbols.
Kuy elephant keepers of Surin
The Kuy of Surin are Thailand's best-known elephant people. For generations their men went into the forest to catch wild elephants with a lasso of plaited buffalo hide, the pakam , and the rope is still kept and honoured at the ศาลปะกำ, the shrine of the pakam spirit. Ban Ta Klang (บ้านตากลาง) in Tha Tum district is the Kuy elephant village, where families live alongside their elephants.
Every November the province holds the Surin Elephant Round-up (งานช้างสุรินทร์), when hundreds of elephants and their mahouts parade through town. It is the day people post together, and the reason the elephant stands at the end of this page.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyKuy Language Letters & Script combos
11Worth knowing
- Kuy is written with the Thai alphabet but is not related to Thai: it belongs to the Austroasiatic family with Khmer and Vietnamese, while Thai and Lao are Kra-Dai languages.
- Kuy is written in Thai, Lao and Khmer scripts across the three countries, and a Kuy-specific writing system was introduced for teaching in 2018.
- Kuy elephant catchers revered the pakam, their buffalo-hide lasso, as the home of a guardian spirit; the ropes are kept at a village shrine, the ศาลปะกำ.
- In Cambodia the Kuy were long known as iron smelters and smiths in Preah Vihear province.
Questions people ask
7What is the Kuy language?
Kuy (Kui, Kuay, Kuoy; Thai ภาษากูย) is an Austroasiatic language of the Katuic branch, spoken by an estimated 430,000 people in northeast Thailand, southern Laos and northern Cambodia. It is related to Bru and Katu and distantly to Khmer, not to Thai.
What script does the Kuy language use?
A Kuy-specific writing system was introduced for teaching in 2018. Kuy is also written in Thai letters in Thailand (ก ข ค … ฮ with vowel signs such as า ิ เ), Khmer letters in Cambodia and Lao letters in Laos. Spellings vary between projects; there is no single official orthography.
Where do Kuy people live in Thailand?
Mostly in the Isan provinces of Surin, Sisaket, Buriram and Ubon Ratchathani, about 340,000 speakers by CLDR's estimate. Ban Ta Klang in Surin's Tha Tum district is the famous Kuy elephant village.
Are Kuy people Khmer?
No. The Kuy are a separate people with their own language. Kuy and Khmer are both Austroasiatic, but only distantly related. In Surin many Kuy also speak Northern Khmer and Thai, and in Cambodia the Kuy are one of the country's indigenous minorities.
Is Kuy the same as the Kui language of Odisha?
No. The Kui of Odisha in India is a Dravidian language of the Kandha people. The Southeast Asian Kuy on this page is an Austroasiatic language of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia; the two only share an English spelling.
What does kuy mean in Thai?
As a name, กูย (Kuy) or กวย (Kuay) means the Kuy people and their language. The Latin spelling "kuy" is also used for a vulgar Thai slang word, written ควย with a different first letter (ค, an aspirated kh, against the plain k of ก). Writing in Thai letters removes the doubt: ชาวกูย is the Kuy people.
How do I type Kuy letters?
Add the Thai keyboard (Kedmanee) on Windows, Mac, Android or iPhone and type in written order: a before-vowel such as เ first, then the consonant, then vowels above or below, then a tone mark. Or copy any letter from the grid above.
