Chant text to audio, read as the book prints it
A chanting book is Thai script under Pali rules. The voices read those rules. A chant, a dhamma reading that quotes Pali, or a study passage becomes audio from the text alone.
Nom Yen
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The opening line is the homage, in the orthography a chanting book prints. The box takes up to 50 characters and speaks in 8 voices. Type a line from any chant, or ordinary Thai.
Pali reaches most Thai readers through a chanting book. The lines are printed in Thai letters with a few marks Thai itself never uses, and under each line sits the syllable-by-syllable reading. A reader who has learned the marks reads the top line. Everyone else reads the bottom one.
Audio of those lines is made by recording a person, one session at a time. A temple's morning broadcast, an app's chant library, and a school's recitation practice all wait on the same session. The voices here read either form of the line. The audio then follows the text, and a new chant is a new request.
The sheet, four lines#
The opening homage and the first three lines of the Buddha's qualities, as a chanting book prints them. The top line of each row is the Pali. Under it is the reading the book prints for someone who has not learned the marks.
- The homageนโม ตสฺส ภควโต อรหโต สมฺมาสมฺพุทฺธสฺสThe reading นะโม ตัสสะ ภะคะวะโต อะระหะโต สัมมาสัมพุทธัสสะ
- Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Self-Awakened One.
- The qualities, first lineอิติปิ โส ภควา อรหํ สมฺมาสมฺพุทฺโธThe reading อิติปิ โส ภะคะวา อะระหัง สัมมาสัมพุทโธ
- Such is the Blessed One: worthy, perfectly self-awakened,
- The qualities, second lineวิชฺชาจรณสมฺปนฺโน สุคโต โลกวิทูThe reading วิชชาจะระณะสัมปันโน สุคะโต โลกะวิทู
- consummate in knowledge and conduct, well-gone, knower of the worlds,
- The qualities, third lineอนุตฺตโร ปุริสทมฺมสารถิ สตฺถา เทวมนุสฺสานํ พุทฺโธ ภควาติThe reading อะนุตตะโร ปุริสะทัมมะสาระถิ สัตถา เทวะมะนุสสานัง พุทโธ ภะคะวาติ
- unexcelled trainer of those who can be trained, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed.
As printed
Every line, one voice
- The homage0:02
- The qualities, first line0:02
- The qualities, second line0:02
- The qualities, third line0:04
One voice reads all four lines from the printed form. The marks are the only thing being tested.
What the marks do#
Three things separate a chant line from ordinary Thai. A dot under a letter, the พินทุ, closes the syllable on that letter. A small circle above, the นิคหิต, is the nasal that ends a word. A letter with no vowel mark at all reads with a short a.
Thai has none of these, and its tone marks never appear in Pali. A voice that applies Thai reading to a chant gets the syllable count wrong in the first line. The marks are set out one by one on the Pali page.
What gets read this way#
Four kinds of audio, all made from a chanting book or a Pali text, and all produced today by booking a reader.
Chant libraries in apps
A daily chant, a full evening service, or the paritta for a ceremony. Each is a text file, and a library grows by adding one.
Temple and community broadcast
The morning and evening chant over a public address system, the same lines every day. A fixed voice reads them the same way each time, and a change is an edit.
Dhamma readings that quote Pali
A talk or a reading switches between Thai and Pali in one paragraph. One request carries both, and the voice reads each in its own rules.
Recitation practice for study
Students of Pali and candidates for the ecclesiastical exams recite set passages. A passage read aloud from the text gives them the line to repeat, at a slower rate if they ask.
Sanskrit in the same script#
Most Sanskrit a Thai reader meets is already a Thai word. ธรรม, ศาสนา, and กรรม came from Sanskrit and read as Thai. The Sanskrit that stays Sanskrit is a mantra in Thai script, and it uses the same marks the chant sheet does, with a few letters Pali never uses.
ศ and ษ, the vocalic ฤ, and free consonant clusters mark a text as Sanskrit. The voices read them under the same rules as the sheet above. The Pali page sets out how to tell the two languages apart.
Questions#
- Does it read the printed form or the reading form?
- Both. Send the line as the book prints it, marks included, or send the syllable reading under it. Either produces the chant.
- Should I add tone marks to help the voice?
- No. A chant text carries no tone marks, and adding them turns the line into Thai. Send the line exactly as printed.
- Which voice should read a chant?
- The sheet above uses one calm male voice. Every voice in the catalog reads the same marks, and a female voice reads them the same way. Play a line in the console before choosing.
- Can the audio be published in an app or played at a temple?
- Output made on free credits is for personal use and evaluation. Once you buy a plan or credits, generated output becomes yours for any use, including publication inside an app or over a public address system. That covers output generated before the purchase.
- Does the page make any claim about the chanting itself?
- No. This page is about how the audio is produced from the text. The chant, its meaning, and its use belong to the people who chant it.
- Does it read romanized Pali or Devanagari?
- This page covers Pali and Sanskrit in Thai script, which is how Thai books print them. Send the Thai-script line.
Free credits, and no card
Sign in and the free grant covers a whole morning chant and the evening one after it.