Theme : Alphabets - 02a Thai alphabet - part 1

One of my favourite modern stamps is a set of 44 alphabet stamps, issued by Thailand.
They were all depicted in two sheets, one of 24 and one of 20 stamps, in 2011.

The Thai alphabet has more letters then the latin (western) alphabet, 44 consontants and 15 vowel symbols that can be combined into 28 vowel forms in total.
In addition to this, Thai is a tonal languages, the tone in which a word is pronounced, changes the meaning of the word.

All consonant signs are being displayed in the central stamps.
In the border of the first sheet, we see 24 stamps of 1 baht.
The alphabet starts with Ko/Kai (of Go/Gai) - like the G in the french Garçon.

Sheet 1 : K/G ko/kai to th/thong

Each letter refers to a word, this makes it easier to remember Kai/Gai means 'chicken'

Ko/Kai - Go/Gai  - ก ไก่ (chicken)

Cho/Chang -ช ช้าง (elephant) 

The second sheet continues with N to H

Sheet 2 : N no/nu to H ho/hu

Po/Pla - ป ปลา (fish)

Lo/Ling - ล ลิง (monkey)

The vowels are partly included in the consonant sound - ba/da/fa/ga/ha/ja/ ....
The vowel signs or combinations, alter the original vowel - bo/do/fo/go/ho/jo/ ... and are less important than in western alphabets.
Therefore, this system is called an abugida, in which vowels have a lower status than consonants and its notation is secondary.
Unless a specific vowel is written or diacritics are added, all consonants have their own specific vowel sounds included. MBK* will be read as MoBoKo, unless mentioned otherwise.
*MBK is a shopping mall in Bangkok.

ล - L(o)
◌ิ - i
ง - ng
The ล which is normally 'lo' becomse 'li' because of the ◌ิ which is placed on the proceeding consonant. That's why it should be pronounced as : 'ling' (monkey): ลิง
Each stamp is issued as a 1 baht stamp.
Sending a postcard within Thailand used to be at the rate of 3 baht.
Sending a letter to Europe, you'll need 15 baht, which results in very colourful covers.

to be continued...