| Also Known As: Siamese,Thaiklang,Standard Thai,Central Tai,Thai
Description:
Thai (ภาษาไทย, Phasa Thai (help·info), transcription: phasa thai, transliteration: p̣hās̄ʹāthịy; IPA: [pʰāːsǎːtʰāj]), is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Kradai language family. The Kradai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and some linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian, or Sino-Tibetan language families. It is a tonal and analytic language. The combination of tonality, a complex orthography, relational markers and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for those who do not already speak a related language. Thai is mutually intelligible with Lao.
Standard Thai, also known as Central Thai or Siamese, is the official language of Thailand, spoken by about 65 million people (1990) including speakers of Bangkok Thai (although the latter is sometimes considered as a separate dialect). Khorat Thai is spoken by about 400,000 (1984) in Nakhon Ratchasima; it occupies a linguistic position somewhere between Central Thai and the Isan on a dialect continuum, and may be considered a..... full article at Wikipedia |
Location of Thai Language Speakers
<googlemap zoom="1" width=400 height=300 lat="31.879088" lon="103.418539" type="map">
13.920194, 101.016766, Thailand
49.837982, 105.820313, Asia</googlemap>
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