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Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
is home to 71 living languages, with the majority of people speaking languages of the Southwestern Tai family, and the national language being
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
. Lao is spoken along the borders with the
Lao PDR __NOTOC__ Lao may refer to: Laos * Something of, from, or related to Laos, a country in Southeast Asia * Lao people (people from Laos, or of Lao descent) * The Lao language * Lao script, the writing system used to write the Lao language ** Lao (U ...
,
Karen language The Karen () or Karenic languages are tonal languages spoken by some seven million Karen people. They are of unclear affiliation within the Sino-Tibetan languages. The Karen languages are written using the Karen script. The three main branches ...
s are spoken along the border with Myanmar, Khmer is spoken near
Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
and
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
is spoken in the south near Malaysia. Sixty-two 'domestic' languages are officially recognized, and international languages spoken in Thailand, primarily by international workers, expatriates and business people, include Burmese, Karen, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese, among others.


Officially recognized languages


National breakdown

The following table comprises all 62 ethnolinguistic groups recognized by the Royal Thai Government in the 2011 Country Report to the UN Committee responsible for the ''International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination'', available from the Department of Rights and Liberties Promotion of the Thai Ministry of Justice.


Regional breakdown

Regional language data is limited. The following table shows all the language families of
Northeast Thailand Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provin ...
, as recognized in the report which is the source for the national breakdown. Note that numbers of speakers are for the Northeast region only. Languages may have additional speakers outside the Northeast.


Provincial breakdown

Provincial-level language data is limited; those interested are directed to the ''Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand'' resource, or to the
Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
br>Thailand country report


Topolects

The sole official language of Thailand is Central Thai (Siamese), a native language in
Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
(including the
Bangkok Metropolitan Region The Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) ( th, กรุงเทพมหานครและปริมณฑล; ; ), may refer to a government-defined "political definition" of the urban region surrounding the metropolis of Bangkok, or the built ...
),
Southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
, and
Eastern Thailand Eastern Thailand is a region of Thailand bordering Cambodia on the east, Northeastern Thailand in the north, and central Thailand on the west. Geography Eastern Thailand lies between the Sankamphaeng Range, which forms a natural border with the ...
, along with
Thai Chinese Thai Chinese (also known as Chinese Thais, Sino-Thais), Thais of Chinese origin ( th, ชาวไทยเชื้อสายจีน; ''exonym and also domestically''), endonym Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย), are Chinese descenda ...
ethnic enclaves In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...
in outer parts of the country such as
Hatyai Hat Yai ( th, หาดใหญ่, , also Haad Yai or Had Yai) is a city in southern Thailand near the Malaysian border. It is south of Bangkok, and has a population of 156,802 (2019) in the city itself and an Urban area, urban population of ...
, Bandon, Nangrong, and Mueang Khonkaen. Central Thai is a Kra-Dai language closely related to Lao, Shan, and numerous indigenous languages of southern China and northern Vietnam. It is the principal language of education and government and is spoken throughout the country. The standard is written in the
Thai alphabet The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน ...
, an
abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
that evolved from the
Khmer script Khmer script ( km, អក្សរខ្មែរ, )Huffman, Franklin. 1970. ''Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader''. Yale University Press. . is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official la ...
. There are several Thai topolects. The Central Thai and
Southern Thai Southern Thailand, Southern Siam or Tambralinga is a southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand region by the Kra Isthmus. Geography Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bounded t ...
is successors of
Sukhothai language Sukhothai ( th, สุโขทัย) may refer to: * Sukhothai Kingdom, kingdom in Thailand, 1238–1583 ** Sukhothai (city), historic capital of the kingdom ** Sukhothai Historical Park, the ruins of the city ** Sukhothai state, vassal state of ...
which developed during 17th century.
Northern Thai Kam Mueang ( nod, , กำเมือง) or Northern Thai language ( th, ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ) is the language of the Northern Thai people of Lanna, Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language that is closely relat ...
is spoken in the northern provinces that were formerly part of the independent kingdom of
Lan Na The Lan Na Kingdom ( nod, , , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; th, อาณาจักรล้านนา, , ), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state centered in present-day ...
, while
Isan Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provin ...
(a Thai variant of Lao) and
Phu Thai Phu Thai (Phuu Thai; Thai, Phu Thai: ''Phasa Phuthai'', ภาษาผู้ไท or ภูไท) is a Southwestern Tai language spoken in Laos and Thailand. Although it appears different from the Isan and the Lao languages, it is spoken in ...
are native languages of the northeast. All languages are partially
mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
with Central Thai, with the degree depending on standard sociolinguistic factors. Although all are classified as a separate language by most linguists, the Thai government has historically treated them as dialects of one "Thai language" for political reasons of Thai national identity building. the Lao-based
Isan Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provin ...
in the Northeast and Kham muang in the North, is precarious given that they are not well supported in Thailand's language education policy. The
Peranakan The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, th ...
in Southern Thailand speak
Southern Thai Southern Thailand, Southern Siam or Tambralinga is a southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand region by the Kra Isthmus. Geography Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bounded t ...
at home.


Minority languages

The position of all minority languages, including the largest, i.e., Yawi in the far south, a dialect of Malay, is the primary community language of the Malay Muslims. Khmer is spoken by older Northern Khmer. Varieties of Chinese are also spoken by the older
Thai Chinese Thai Chinese (also known as Chinese Thais, Sino-Thais), Thais of Chinese origin ( th, ชาวไทยเชื้อสายจีน; ''exonym and also domestically''), endonym Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย), are Chinese descenda ...
population, with the
Teochew dialect Teochew or Chaozhou (, , , Teochew endonym: , Shantou dialect: ) is a dialect of Chaoshan Min, a Southern Min language, that is spoken by the Teochew people in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by their diaspora around the world. I ...
being best represented. However, the vast majority of Thai Chinese and Northern Khmer speaking Central Thai.


Sign languages

Several
village sign language A village sign language, or village sign, also known as a shared sign language, is a local indigenous sign language used by both deaf and hearing in an area with a high incidence of congenital deafness. Meir ''et al.'' define a village sign languag ...
s are reported among the mountain peoples ('hill tribes'), though it is not clear whether these are independent languages, as only
Ban Khor Sign Language Ban Khor Sign Language (BKSL) is a village sign language used by at least 400 people of a rice-farming community in the village of Ban Khor in a remote area of Isan (northeastern Thailand). Known locally as ''pasa kidd'' ('language of the mute') ...
has been described. Two related
deaf-community sign language A deaf-community or urban sign language is a sign language that emerges when deaf people who do not have a common language come together and form a community. This may be a formal situation, such as the establishment of a school for deaf students, ...
s developed in
Chiangmai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...
and
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
; the national
Thai Sign Language Thai Sign Language (TSL), or Modern Standard Thai Sign Language (MSTSL), is the national sign language of Thailand's deaf community and is used in most parts of the country by the 20 percent of the estimated 56,000 pre-linguistically deaf people ...
developed from these under the influence of
American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...
.


Endangerment status of languages

The 2014
Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
country report for Thailand, which uses the EGIDS language endangerment assessment scale, lists one national language (Central Thai), one educational language (Isan), 27 developing languages, 18 vigorous languages, 17 threatened languages, and 7 dying languages.


Most widely spoken languages


ICERD 2011 country report data

The following table shows ethnolinguistic groups in Thailand with equal to or more than 400,000 speakers according to the Royal Thai Government's 2011 Country Report to the Committee Responsible for the ''
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a United Nations convention. A third -generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discri ...
'' (ICERD).:99 and the Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand project. Note that the degree to which language speakers will have shifted in their idiolects towards Central Thai will depend on standard
sociolinguistic Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of l ...
factors, like age, education, gender, and proximity to an urban center. Ethnolinguistic groups of Thailand with equal to or more than 400,000 speakers:99


Ethnologue data

The figures in the following table are for first language speakers, following Ethnologue. Note that Ethnologue describes 'Isan' as 'Northeastern Thai', following Thai government practice until the 2011 Country Report. Languages by number of speakers in Thailand with more than 400,000 speakers (with Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale) aExpanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) of ''Ethnologue'':
0 (International): "The language is widely used between nations in trade, knowledge exchange, and international policy."
1 (National): "The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government at the national level."
2 (Provincial): "The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government within major administrative subdivisions of a nation."
3 (Wider Communication): "The language is used in work and mass media without official status to transcend language differences across a region."
4 (Educational): "The language is in vigorous use, with standardization and literature being sustained through a widespread system of institutionally supported education."
5 (Developing): "The language is in vigorous use, with literature in a standardized form being used by some though this is not yet widespread or sustainable."
6a (Vigorous): "The language is used for face-to-face communication by all generations and the situation is sustainable."
6b (Threatened): "The language is used for face-to-face communication within all generations, but it is losing users."
7 (Shifting): "The child-bearing generation can use the language among themselves, but it is not being transmitted to children."
8a (Moribund): "The only remaining active users of the language are members of the grandparent generation and older."
8b (Nearly Extinct): "The only remaining users of the language are members of the grandparent generation or older who have little opportunity to use the language."
9 (Dormant): "The language serves as a reminder of heritage identity for an ethnic community, but no one has more than symbolic proficiency."
10 (Extinct): "The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language."


Census data

The following table employs 2000 census data and includes international languages. Caution should be exercised with Thai census data on first language. In Thai censuses, the four largest Tai-Kadai languages of Thailand (in order, Central Thai,
Isan Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provin ...
(majority Lao), Kam Mueang,
Pak Tai Hēidì () or Hēishén (), who is the Běidì (, Cantonese language, Cantonese: ''Pak Tai'') or Běiyuèdàdì () is a deity in Chinese folk religion, Chinese religion, one of the cosmological "Five Forms of the Highest Deity" (). He is also id ...
) are not provided as options for language or ethnic group. People stating such a language as a first language, including Lao, are allocated to 'Thai'. This explains the disparity between the three tables in this section. For instance, self-reporting as Lao has been prohibited, due to the prohibition of the Lao ethnonym in the context of describing Thai citizens, for approximately one hundred years. The 2011 Country Report data is therefore more comprehensive in that it differentiates between the four largest Tai-Kadai languages of Thailand and between languages described as 'local languages' and 'dialects and others' in the census. * Above the age of five


Language education policy

Thai is the language of education. The curriculum introduced by the 1999 National Education Act, which introduced 12 years of free education, emphasized Thai as being the national language. The 2008 ''Basic Education Core Curriculum'' prioritises Thai, although it also mentions 'dialects' and 'local languages', i.e., ethnic minority languages. The monolingual education system is generally seen as ineffective, with one-third of teenagers functionally illiterate. Illiteracy in Thai is particularly widespread in Thailand's three southernmost provinces as the Patani dialect of Malay is the mother tongue for the majority Malay community. International programs and schools which teach, for example, English or Chinese alongside Thai exist, as do a small number of pilot projects to teach ethnic minority languages alongside Thai in Thai schools.


See also

*
Demographics of Thailand The demographics of Thailand paint a statistical portrait of the national population. Demography includes such measures as population density and distribution, ethnicity, educational levels, public health metrics, fertility, economic status, reli ...
* Ethnic minorities of Thailand * Kra-dai languages *
Nationality, religion, and language data for the provinces of Thailand In its 1970 and 2000 censuses, Thailand collected nationality data by province, whereas in its 1990 and 2000 census, Thailand collected both religion and language data by province. In both 1970 and 2000, almost every Thai province's population w ...
*
Southwestern Tai languages The Southwestern Tai, Southwestern Thai or Thai languages are a branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. Its dialects include Siamese (Central Thai), Lanna, Lao, Shan and others. Classification The internal classification of the Southwe ...
* Thai language


Further reading

*Bradley, D. 2007. East and Southeast Asia. In C. Moseley (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of the world’s endangered languages'', pp. 349–424. London: Routledge. *Bradley, D. 2007. Languages of Mainland South-East Asia. In O. Miyaoka, O. Sakiyama, and M. E. Krauss (eds.), ''The vanishing languages of the Pacific Rim'', pp. 301–336. Oxford Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *
Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand
'' 2004. (in Thai). Office of the National Culture Commission, Bangkok. *Lebar, F. M., G. C. Hickey, and J. K. Musgrave. 1964. ''Ethnic groups of mainland Southeast Asia''. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press (HRAF). *Luangthongkum, Theraphan. 2007. The Position of Non-Thai Languages in Thailand. In Lee Hock Guan & L. Suryadinata (Eds.), ''Language, nation and development in Southeast Asia'' (pp. 181–194). Singapore: ISEAS Publishing. *Matisoff, J. A. 1991. Endangered languages of Mainland Southeast Asia. In R. H. Robins and E. M. Uhlenbeck (eds.), ''Endangered languages'', pp. 189–228. Oxford: Berg Publishers. *Matisoff, J. A., S. P. Baron, and J. B. Lowe. 1996. ''Languages and dialects of Tibeto-Burman''. Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus Monograph Series 1 and 2. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Smalley, W. 1994. ''Linguistic Diversity and National Unity: Language Ecology in Thailand''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Suwilai Premsrirat. 2004. "Using GIS For Displaying An Ethnolinguistic Map of Thailand." In Papers from the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, edited by Somsonge Burusphat. Tempe, Arizona, 599–617. Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies.


References


External links

* Languages of Thailand at Muturzikin.com
Languages of Thailand
at ''Ethnologue'' {{Asia topic, Languages of