Thailand is, in fact, a multilingual society in which 70 languages are spoken (Premsrirat, 2007). This paper focuses on the language shift (LS) and maintenance among non-Tai languages in Northeastern Thailand, specifically the... [ view full abstract ]
Thailand is, in fact, a multilingual society in which 70 languages are spoken (Premsrirat, 2007). This paper focuses on the language shift (LS) and maintenance among non-Tai languages in Northeastern Thailand, specifically the Kuay language in Ta Klang village (TK), Surin, and the Bru language in Woen Buek village (WB), Ubon Ratchathani. Sociolinguistic surveys with special foci on language attitudes and language choice were conducted from 2015 to 2017. In each communities, no fewer than 135 participants cooperated in an interview-style questionnaire, and approximately 25 interviewees answered an in-depth interview.
The results show that in WB the Bru are shifting away from their traditional language and using Lao Isan. WB’s LS can be attributed to the negative attitudes towards their own language: the Bru people in WB feel that they have been discriminated against for a long time, and thus, WB Bru parents have refrained from passing on the Bru language to their children so they could be free from such discrimination.
WB’s case suggests that contact is a main factor in the LS. However, TK is a counter example because residents have a long history of contact with other ethnic groups in Surin: Khmer and Lao Isan. Nevertheless, the survey revealed that TK’s people still maintain a high use of Kuay. One of the differences between the two villages is that, though Bru is an indigenous group in the Indochina peninsula, WB’s people originally emigrated from the Laos side across the Mekong River approximately 100 years ago. Therefore, WB’s people are a new addition to a Lao Isan-based society at the district level, and they have a shorter history of contact than the Kuay in TK. This paper thus proposes that having contact with the majority groups may not necessarily induce LS, but having more frequent and various ways of contact than before due to social changes in modern contexts, for example, from a mono-ethnic to multi-ethnic community, and from a self-sufficient society to a part of money economy, may induce LS.
Premsrirat, Suwilai. (2007). Endangered languages of Thailand. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2007(186), 75-93.
