Thai
A language of Thailand
| Population | 20,200,000 in Thailand (2000). 400,000 Khorat (1984). 4,704,000 mother-tongue Thai are ethnic Chinese, or 80% of the Chinese (1984). Population total all countries: 20,362,390. |
| Region | Central, centered in Bangkok. Khorat in Ratchasima. Also in Canada, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United States. |
| Language maps |
Northern Thailand, reference number 52 Northern Thailand, reference number 52 Southern Thailand, reference number 52 |
| Alternate names | Central Tai, Siamese, Standard Thai, Thaiklang |
| Dialects | Khorat Thai (Korat, Thaikorat). |
| Classification | Tai-Kadai, Kam-Tai, Be-Tai, Tai-Sek, Tai, Southwestern, East Central, Chiang Saeng |
| Language use | Official language of the country, medium of education, and most mass communication. 40,000,000 L2 speakers in Thailand (2001 A. Diller). |
| Language development | Fully developed. Bible: 1883–2000. |
| Writing system | Thai script. |
| Comments | People sometimes called ‘Siamese’. SVO. Buddhist, Christian. |
Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:
Academic Publications
Amara Prasithrathsint and Natchanan Yaowapat. 2009. "A typology of relative clauses in Mainland Southeast Asian languages."
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Bennett, J. Fraser. 1994. "Iambicity in Thai."
Bennett, J. Fraser. 2005. "Reanalyzing Thai glottal codas: probability, perception, and displaced contrast."
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Hanna, William J. 1983. "700 years of Thai writing."
Hopple, Paulette. 2001. "Historical linguistics in Southeast Asian language programs."
Kapper, James. 1992. "English borrowing in Thai as reflected in Thai journalistic texts."
Nomura, Naomitsu Mikami. 1992. "A semantic analysis of the so-called passive verbs in some Indochinese languages."
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Orawan Boonyarith. 2009. "Derivatives in Khmer compound words."
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Peterson, Mary M. 1991. Miscommunication in the classroom: Discourse level considerations.
Prachakij-karacak Phraya, David Thomas andSophana Srichampa. 1995. Some languages of Siam.
Pranee Kullavanijaya. 1997. "Village names in Guangxi Province and northeastern Thailand."
Prang Thiengburanathum and Audra Phillips. 2007. "Verb classes in Thai."
Saurman, Mary E. 1996. "Thai speech tones and melodic pitches: How they work together or collide."
Saurman, Mary E. 1999. "The agreement of Thai speech tones and melodic pitches."
Saurman, Todd. 1996. "Exploring Thai music in Bangkok."
Saurman, Todd. 2000. "Exploring Thai music in Bangkok."
SIL MSEAG, compilers. 2002. Southeast Asia 436 word list.
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Solnit, David. 1992. Review of: a Thai-Sgaw Karen dictionary, by Suriya Ratanakul, compiler.
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Solot Sirisai. 2007. "Turn taking management techniques used by Thai TV interviewers."
Somsonge Burusphat. 1992. "The identification of storyline in Thai narrative discourse."
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Somsonge Burusphat. 2007. "A comparison of general classifiers in Tai-Kadai languages."
Thomas, David. 1979. "Coordinate conjunctions in Thai."
Tumtavitikul, Apiluck. 1994. "Perhaps, the tones are in the consonants?."
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Tumtavitikul, Apiluck. 1996. "The mid central vowel [ə] in Thai."
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Tumtavitikul, Apiluck. 1997. "Reflection on the Xʼ category in Thai."
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Warotamasikkhadit, Udom. 1997. "Fronting and backing topicalization in Thai."
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