A high-class consonant. It says s at the start of a syllable and -t at the end. 38th in the alphabet, 41st of the 44 to learn here. You will meet it now and then.
01The sound it makes
4 of the 44 letters open a syllable with s, so the sound on its own will never tell you which one you are looking at. 18 letters close one with -t, and ศ is among them.
High class takes only two of the four marks. Unmarked and live, ศrises; ◌่ pulls it low and ◌้ makes it fall. Every dead syllable is low, and there is no mark that can change that.
Live — carried on ◌า
Dead short — ◌ะ
Dead long — ◌าก
The 3 tones this ladder reaches
↗Rising (จัตวา)Starts low then rises upward. Like English when asking a yes/no question.
↓→Low (เอก)Starts low and stays low. Slightly flat and subdued, like a quiet statement.
↘Falling (โท)Starts high then drops. Like English when expressing disappointment: "Oh..."
The same letter is two sounds: ศ is s at the front of a syllable and -t at the back. Of the 4,271 words in this app it opens 58, sits inside 146 and closes 38.
Position here is orthographic — where the letter is written, not where it is said. The five leading vowels เ แ โ ใ ไ are skipped when deciding what comes first, so ไก่ counts as a word that starts with ก.
Written first58
…and 52 more.
Inside146
…and 140 more.
Written last38
…and 32 more.
04Text it turns up in
A word list is a specimen jar. 10 of the 221 sentences and phrases in this app are written with ศ somewhere in them — here are 4, shortest first, with every ศ lit.
05The class it belongs to
ศ is one of 11 high-class consonants. That membership is the single fact the ladder in 02 is built on — change the class and every tone in it changes. Here they all are, with ศ lit among them.