Thai

Thai, or Central Thai (historically Siamese; Thai: ภาษาไทย), is a Tai language of the Kra–Dai language family. It is spoken by the Central Thai, Mon, Lao Wiang, and Phuan people in Central Thailand and by the vast majority of Thai Chinese enclaves throughout the country. It is the sole official language of Thailand.

Thai is the most spoken of over 60 languages of Thailand by both number of native and overall speakers. Over half of its vocabulary is derived from or borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit, Mon and Old Khmer. It is a tonal and analytic language. Thai has a complex orthography and system of relational markers. Spoken Thai, depending on standard sociolinguistic factors such as age, gender, class, spatial proximity, and the urban/rural divide, is partly mutually intelligible with Lao, Isan, and some fellow Thai topolects. These languages are written with slightly different scripts, but are linguistically similar and effectively form a dialect continuum.

The Thai language is spoken by over 70 million people in Thailand as of 2024. Central Thai is the language of television, education, news reporting, and all forms of media. Most Thais in the northern (Lanna), the Southern (Tai) and the northeastern (Isan) parts of the country are therefore today bilingual in Central Thai and their own regional dialect. A study found that speakers of the Northern Thai language, also known as Phasa Mueang or Kham Mueang, have become few, most people in northern Thailand now speaking Standard Thai. They use mostly Central Thai words and only season their speech with the "Kham Mueang" accent. Standard Thai is based on the register of the educated classes by Central Thai and ethnic minorities in the area along the ring surrounding the Metropolis.

From Wikipedia · Thai language · CC BY-SA 4.0