Languages in Thailand

History of the Thai language

The national language of Thailand is known as Thai. Out of sixty million residents of the South-East Asian country, about eighty percent of them speak Thai. The Thai language is believed to come from the area between the border of Vietnam and China where they believed that was the place of the origin of Thai people. The Thai language is linked to many other languages such as those spoken in eastern Burma, northern Vietnam, Yunnan, and Laos.

The third Sukothai period king, Ramkamhaeng, introduced the written Thai Language in 1283. There was not much changes made since the written system was introduced, thus many modern Thai readers are still able to read the words from Sukothai era.

Regional variation

There are mainly four dialects spoken by the people at the southern, northern, north-eastern, and the central regions of Thailand. The language spoken by the central region known as Bangkok Thai or Central Thai is the one that is understood by all regions of Thailand and is taught in schools. Today, English is one of the most common languages taught in public schools as well. However, there are also other languages that are spoken by minority tribes but are not related to Thai language. This also includes those in the hill tribes in Chiang Mai.

In addition, different languages are used differently in social situation or conditions. For instance, some words are only can be used in the royal family and not by the commoners.