ศาลาชุมนุม

[lim_laihuat]

Hi can someone enlightened me on the pronunciation of the vowel character at the last character of the word อุบัติเหตุ (accident).
I cannot reconcile the final sara "oo" when the pronounciation is "oo ba ti het". Also in the Thai name Somsak (สมศักคิ์ ) the last character "คิ์ " ; although it is silent character there is a sara "i" on top.

[Toffeeman]

The sara อุ is silent in the word เหตุ. Why it is there I dont know. Probably the word is derived from another language and has been translated like this but pronounced เหต. There are more words like this which have silent vowels at the end. You just have to learn them.

Here is an example of me getting 1 wrong a while ago. กลายเป็นอากาศธาตุ. A thai idiom meaning 'vanish into thin air' I learned it without checking the pronunciation and then dropped into a conversation with friends with this pronunciation: glai bpen argart tado. I pronounced the last vowel when in fact it is silent which then makes the last word 1 syllable and in a falling tone. Eventually a friend worked out what I was trying to say but the moment had passed and my attempt at humour had been wasted.

You will see that it the same consonant vowel confiduration as in the word เหตุ so know I am wary of that and always check the pronunciation. Another to check is the ติ configuration as that sometimes is silent.

Your other example is easier to explain. The อ์ symbol means the sound is silent. Both consonant and vowel.

[Tgeezer]

The sara อุ is silent in the word เหตุ. Why it is there I dont know. Probably the word is derived from another language and has been translated like this but pronounced เหต. There are more words like this which have silent vowels at the end. You just have to learn them.

vowel.

That's helped me a lot because in วัตถุ you do pronounce the อุ meaning 'things' it is very similar to ธาตุ elements(sic) ธาตุดิน where the อุ is pronounced. อากาศธาตุ is one which I would have said wrongly.