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Thailand The Thai and Other Tai-Speaking Peoples
The core Thai--the Central Thai, the Northeastern Thai
(Thai-Lao), the Northern Thai, and the Southern Thai--spoke
dialects of one of the languages of the Tai language family. The
peoples who spoke those languages--generically also referred to
as Tai--originated in southern China, but they were dispersed
throughout mainland Southeast Asia from Burma to Vietnam
(see Early History
, ch. 1). It was conventional in the 1980s to refer
to Tai-speaking peoples in Thailand as Thai (same pronunciation)
with a regional or other qualifier, e.g., Central Thai. There
were, however, groups in Thailand in the late twentieth century
who spoke a language of the Tai family but who were not part of
the core population.
Although the four major Tai-speaking groups taken together
clearly constituted the overwhelming majority of Thailand's
population, it was not entirely clear what proportion of the core
Thai fell into each of the regional categories. Among the reasons
for the uncertainty were the movements of many who were not
Central Thai in origin into the Bangkok area and its environs and
the movement of Central Thai, perhaps in smaller numbers, into
other regions as administrators, educators, technicians,
bureaucrats, soldiers, and sometimes as settlers. The Central
Thai, of generally higher status than the general populace,
tended to retain their identities wherever they lived, whereas
those from other regions migrating to the central plain might
seek to take on Central Thai speech, customs, and identity.
Although politically, socially, and culturally dominant, the
Central Thai did not constitute a majority of the population and
barely exceeded the Thai-Lao in numbers, according to a mid-1960s
estimate. At that time, the Central Thai made up roughly 32
percent of the population, with the Thai-Lao a close second at
about 30 percent. The Thai-Lao were essentially the same ethnic
group that constituted the dominant population of Laos, although
they far outnumbered the population of that country
(see Ethnic and Regional Relations
, this ch.).
A number of linguistic scholars mark the reign of King Narai
(1657-88) as the point when the Central Thai (or Ayutthaya Thai)
dialect was established as the standard to which other forms or
dialects were compared. Central Thai was the required form used
in modern Thailand for official, business, academic, and other
daily transactions. From Ayutthayan times, Central Thai borrowed
words from Khmer, Pali, and Sanskrit. Thailand still maintained a
court language called Phasa Ratchasap, although King Bhumibol
Adulyadej (Rama IX, 1946- ) encouraged the use of Central Thai.
Similarly, Pali, the religious language, although still used,
gradually was being replaced by Central Thai for many ceremonies
and writings. Although the Thai Royal Academy was the final
arbiter of new words added to the language, post-World War II
Thai has been influenced heavily by American English, especially
in the area of science and technology.
Increasingly, Central Thai was spoken with varied fluency all
over the country as the education system reached larger numbers
of children
(see Education and the Arts
, this ch.). Nevertheless,
regional dialects (or their local variants) remained the language
of the home and of the local community. Learning Central Thai is
not a simple matter. The dialects of the four regional components
of the core population are only mutually intelligible with
difficulty. There are lexical and syntactic differences as well
as differences in pronunciation.
Differences in dialect were sometimes an irritant in
relations between those whose native tongue was Central Thai and
persons from other regions. On the one hand, if persons migrating
from other regions to Bangkok spoke their own dialect, they might
be treated with contempt by the Central Thai. If, on the other
hand, such persons failed to speak Central Thai with sufficient
fluency and a proper accent, that, too, could lead to their being
treated disrespectfully.
Generally, before the trend toward homogenization of dress,
language, and forms of entertainment fostered by modern
communication, there were regional differences in costume,
folklore, and other aspects of culture among the Thai people. The
continuing retention of these differences into the 1980s seemed
to be a function of relative remoteness from Bangkok and other
urban areas. Of some importance, according to observers, was the
tendency to cling to, and even accentuate, these regional
differences as symbols of a sense of grievance.
In the past, some Thai governments put great pressure on the
various Thai peoples to forsake regional customs and dialects for
"modern" Central Thai culture. In the 1980s, however, there was a
rebirth of the study and teaching of local languages, especially
Lanna Thai in the North and also the Southern Thai dialect.
Efforts were also made to expose all Thai to the different
cultures and traditions of the various regions through regional
translation and art programs. At the same time, Central Thai
became more readily accepted as a second language. The success of
the national identity programs could be explained in part by the
Thai literacy rate, one of the highest in Asia.
The Tai-speaking peoples of the Northeast, known as Thai-Lao
or Isan, live on the Khorat Plateau. Once the weakest in
Thailand, the Northeast's economy started to improve somewhat in
the 1970s because of irrigation and energy projects, such as the
construction of the Khuan Ubon Ratana (Nam Phong Dam). Moreover,
because the Northeast was the location of several United States
military bases during the Second Indochina War (1954-75), the
region had one of the best transportation systems in Asia, which
facilitated internal migration as well as communication with
Bangkok. Historically, this area relied heavily on border trade
with Laos and Cambodia; in 1987 the Thai government permitted
increased Laotian border commerce and lifted a ban on the export
of all but 61 of 273 "strategic" items previously barred from
leaving Thailand. Also, traditional handicrafts, e.g., silk
weavings and mats, increasingly were being sold outside the
region to produce extra income. Still, approximately 82 percent
of the region's labor force was involved in agriculture.
In terms of language and culture, both the Northeastern Thai
and the Northern Thai were closer to the peoples of Laos than to
the Central Thai. Speakers of the Tai language of Kham Mu'ang
(known as Yuan in its written form) made up the majority of the
population of the 9 northernmost provinces from the Burmese-Lao
border down through the province of Uttaradit, an area of about
102,000 square kilometers. Highly independent, the Northern Thai
lived mainly in small river valleys where they grew glutinous
rice as their staple food. The Chakkri Dynasty continued to
maintain a court in Chiang Mai, the largest city of the North,
which the Thai people looked to as a major religious and cultural
center.
The fourteen provinces of the South made up the poorest
region of Thailand. Primarily rural, the South had an urban
population of only 12.2 percent of its total inhabitants.
Although rice was the staple food, the South's economy was not
based on wet-rice agriculture. Never directly colonized, the
southern provinces, with their dependence on rubber and tin
production and fishing, had nonetheless long been vulnerable to
international economic forces. As world market prices for rubber
and tin declined in the 1970s, more southerners went to work in
the Middle East; and as neighboring countries established
200-mile limits on their territorial waters, an increasing number
of Thai fishing vessels could be found as far away as the coast
of Australia.
In 1985 there were more than 6 million Southern Thai. Malay
vocabulary was used in the Southern Thai dialect, and Malay in
Jawi (Arabic) script remained in many instances the medium of
written communication. Like the other regions of Thailand, the
South at times opposed the central government. Following the
closer incorporation of the Pattani region into the Thai kingdom
as the result of the provincial administrative reform of 1902,
reactions in the form of rebellions, underground movements, and
violent uprisings were common. For many years, any type of
antistate behavior or banditry reported by the government or
press was usually attributed either to Muslim insurgents or the
Communist Party of Thailand. By the mid-1980s, the press and
government had become more objective in reporting and recognizing
problems caused by environmental factors, other groups, and
government policies. Moreover, the Muslim leadership, together
with progressive political and military forces in the Thai
government, had begun addressing some of the problems of the
South, which led to increased national tranquillity.
Of the more than 85 percent of the country's population that
spoke a language of the Tai family, only a small fraction
constituted the membership of the half-dozen or so ethnic groups
outside the core Thai. These groups lived in the North or
Northeast and were often closely related to ethnic groups in
neighboring countries. In Thailand, the largest of these
Tai-speaking minorities were the Phutai (or Phuthai) of the far
Northeast, who numbered about 100,000 in the mid-1960s. There
were also many Phutai in neighboring Laos. The Phuan and the
Saek, also in the Northeast and with kin in Laos, were similar
but much smaller groups. Whereas all other Tai languages spoken
in Thailand belonged to the southwestern branch of the family,
that spoken by the Saek belonged to the northern branch,
suggesting a more recent arrival from China. The Khorat Thai were
not considered Central Thai, despite their close resemblance in
language and dress, because they and others tended to identify
them as a separate group. The Khorat Thai were said to be
descendants of Thai soldiers and Khmer women. The Shan (a Burmese
term) in the North were part of a much larger group, the majority
of whom lived in Burma, while others lived in China. Different
groups of the Shan called themselves by names in which the term
Tai was modified by a word meaning "great" or something
similar. The Thai called them Thai Ngio or Thai Yai. Also in the
North were a people called the Lue, estimated in the mid-1960s to
number less than 50,000. Like the Shan, they resided in greater
numbers elsewhere, particularly in southern China.
Data as of September 1987
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