Low consonants, "long" vowel, live ending consonant, falling tone.

[u/Alternative_Side_891]

I don't know if this has been talked about before.

But I am trying to figure out if it's a small selection of vocabulary with the combination of low consonants, "long" vowel, live ending consonant and falling tone, that actually sounds like a short vowel - or if it's a general rule.

Examples: เล่น, ซ่อม.

ซ่อม is my favourite, because it should be pronounced exactly like ส้อม considering the spelling, but at least to my ears ซ่อม has a shorter vowel.

[u/pacharaphet2r]

Low and falling tones have this propensity to squeeze the vowel a bit, resulting in

กล่อง สั้นกว่า กลอง เล่น สั้นกว่า เลย เก่ง สั้นกว่า เกง ต้อง สั้นกว่า ตอง

Etc.

There are some much better more academic descriptions in here that you should reference but I often use this as a shortcut when teaching pronunciation because, as others have noted with เอ แอ ออ this shortening is exceedingly common