Editing Thai language (section)

{{Short description|National language of Thailand}}
{{Distinguish|Tai languages|Central Tai languages}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Thai
| altname          = Central Thai, Siamese
| image            = Thai_Language_(in_Thai).svg
| imagecaption     = "{{Lang|th-latn|Phasa Thai|italic=no}}" (literally meaning "Thai language") written in [[Thai script]]
| nativename       = {{Lang|th|ภาษาไทย|italic=no}}, {{Lang|th-latn|Phasa Thai}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|th|pʰāːsǎːtʰāj|}}
| script           = {{indented plainlist|
* [[Thai script]]
* [[Thai Braille]]
* [[Khom Thai script|Khom Thai]] (religious use)
}}
| region           = {{indented plainlist|
* [[Thailand]] ([[Central Thailand]] and Thai Chinese enclaves throughout country)
* [[Cambodia]] ([[Koh Kong District|Koh Kong]])
* [[Myanmar]] ([[Tanintharyi Region|Tanintharyi]])}}
| ethnicity        = [[Thai people|Central Thai]], [[Thai Chinese]], [[Mon people|Mon]], [[Lao Wiang]], [[Phuan people|Phuan]]
| speakers         = [[first language|L1]]: {{sigfig|27.177030|2}} million
| date             = 2024
| ref              = <ref name="Ethnologue28|tha">{{Ethnologue28|tha}}</ref>
| speakers2        = {{ubli|[[second language|L2]]: {{sigfig|44.206500|2}} million (2024)<ref>{{Ethnologue28|nan}}</ref> | Total: {{sigfig|71.383530|2}} million (2024)<ref name="Ethnologue28|tha">{{Ethnologue28|tha}}</ref>}}
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| familycolor      = Kradai
| fam2             = [[Tai languages|Tai]]
| fam3             = [[Southwestern Tai languages|Southwestern]]
| fam4             = [[Kam–Tai languages|Kam–Tai]]
| nation           = {{Flag|Thailand}}
| minority         = {{ubli|{{Flag|Cambodia}} | {{Flag|Laos}} | {{Flag|Malaysia}} | {{Flag|Myanmar}}}}
| agency           = [[Royal Society of Thailand]]
| iso1             = th
| iso2             = tha
| iso3             = tha
| glotto           = thai1261
| glottorefname    = Thai
| lingua           = 47-AAA-b
| notice           = Indic
| notice2          = IPA
| ancestor         = 
| map              = Idioma tailandés.png
| mapcaption       = {{legend|dodgerblue|Majority}}
{{legend|lightblue|Minority}}
| imagealt         = "Phasa Thai" (ภาษาไทย) in Thai script
}}
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Dang speaking Thai.webm|thumb|A native Thai speaker, recorded in [[Bangkok]]]]
'''Thai''',<ref group="lower-alpha" name="Explanation 1">In {{langx|th|{{Wikt-lang|th|ภาษาไทย}}|link=no}} {{Transliteration|th|RTGS|[[Royal Thai General System of Transcription|Phasa Thai]]}}</ref> or '''Central Thai'''{{efn|In {{langx|th|{{Wikt-lang|th|ภาษาไทยกลาง}}|link=no}} {{Transliteration|th|RTGS|Phasa Thai Klang}}; not to be confused with ''[[Central Tai]]''}} (historically '''Siamese''';{{efn|In {{langx|th|ภาษาสยาม|link=no}} {{Transliteration|th|RTGS|Phasa Sayam}}}}<ref group=lower-alpha name="Explanation 2">Although "Thai" and "Central Thai" have become more common, the older term, "Siamese", is still used by linguists, especially when it is being distinguished from other [[Tai languages]] (Diller 2008:6{{Full citation needed|date=November 2012}}). "Proto-Thai" is, for example, the ancestor of all of [[Southwestern Tai]], not just Siamese (Rischel 1998{{Full citation needed|date=November 2012}}).</ref> {{langx|th|ภาษาไทย|link=no}}), is a [[Tai languages|Tai]] language of the [[Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]] [[language family]] spoken by the [[Thai people|Central Thai]], [[Mon people|Mon]], [[Lao Wiang]], [[Phuan people|Phuan]] people in Central Thailand and the vast majority of [[Thai Chinese]] enclaves throughout the country. It is the sole [[official language]] of [[Thailand]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Diller|first1=A.|title=National identity and its defenders: Thailand today|last2=Reynolds|first2=Craig J.|date=2002|publisher=Silkworm Books|isbn=974-7551-88-8|editor-last=Reynolds|location=Chiang Mai|chapter=What makes central Thai a national language?|oclc=54373362}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Draper|first=John|chapter=Language education policy in Thailand |title=The Routledge International Handbook of Language Education Policy in Asia|pages=229–242|location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York City |publisher=Routledge |date=2019 |doi=10.4324/9781315666235-16|isbn=978-1-315-66623-5|s2cid=159127015}}</ref>

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 language|Mon]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=A history of Thailand|last=Baker|first=Christopher|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-316-00733-4|location=Melbourne, Australia|pages=3–4}}</ref> and [[Old Khmer]]. It is a [[tonal language|tonal]] and [[analytic language]]. Thai has a complex [[orthography]] and system of [[marker (linguistics)|relational markers]]. Spoken Thai, depending on standard [[Sociolinguistics|sociolinguistic]] factors such as age, gender, class, spatial proximity, and the urban/rural divide, is partly [[mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] with [[Lao language|Lao]], [[Isan language|Isan]], and some fellow [[Southwestern Tai languages|Thai topolects]]. These languages are written with slightly different scripts, but are linguistically similar and effectively form a [[dialect continuum]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Enfield|first=N. J.|title=How to define 'Lao', 'Thai', and 'Isan' language? A view from linguistic science|journal=Tai Culture|volume=3|issue=1|pages=62–67}}</ref>

The Thai language is spoken by over 70 million people in Thailand as of 2024.<ref name="Ethnologue28|tha">{{Ethnologue28|tha}}</ref> Moreover, most Thais in the northern (Lanna) and the northeastern (Isan) parts of the country today are bilingual speakers of Central Thai and their respective regional dialects because Central Thai is the language of television, education, news reporting, and all forms of media.<ref name=bangkok>{{cite web|url= http://thaiarc.tu.ac.th/thai/peansiri.htm |title= Linguistic Perspectives of Thai Culture |access-date= 26 April 2011 |author= Peansiri Vongvipanond |date= Summer 1994 |work= paper presented to a workshop of teachers of social science |publisher= University of New Orleans |page= 2 |quote= The dialect one hears on radio and television is the Bangkok dialect, considered the standard dialect. |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121120062746/http://thaiarc.tu.ac.th/thai/peansiri.htm |archive-date= 20 November 2012 |url-status= dead}}</ref> A recent research found that the speakers of the [[Northern Thai language]] (also known as Phasa Mueang or Kham Mueang) have become so few, as most people in northern Thailand now invariably speak Standard Thai, so that they are now using mostly Central Thai words and only seasoning their speech with the "Kham Mueang" accent.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Pim|last1=Kemasingki|first2= Pariyakorn|last2= Prateepkoh|title= Kham Mueang: the slow death of a language|journal= Chiang Mai City Life|date= August 1, 2017|page=8|quote=there are still many people speaking kham mueang, but as an accent, not as a language. Because we now share the written language with Bangkok, we are beginning to use its vocabulary as well|url=http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citylife-articles/rip-kham-mueang-the-slow-death-of-a-language/}}</ref> [[standard language|Standard Thai]] is based on the [[linguistic register|register]] of the educated classes by Central Thai and ethnic minorities in the area along [[Bangkok Metropolitan Region|the ring surrounding the Metropolis]].<ref>{{cite book |title= Language and national identity in Asia |first= Andrew |last=Simpson |year= 2007 |publisher= Oxford University Press |quote= Standard Thai is a form of Central Thai based on the variety of Thai spoken earlier by the elite of the court, and now by the educated middle and upper classes of Bangkok. It ... was standardized in grammar books in the nineteenth century, and spread dramatically from the 1930s onwards, when public education became much more widespread}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thepboriruk|first=Kanjana|date=2010|title=Bangkok Thai tones revisited|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzZWFsc2pvdXJuYWx8Z3g6NDljZWJlMjUzMGE0NGYyMw|journal=Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|volume=3|issue=1|pages=86–105|quote=Linguists generally consider Bangkok Thai and Standard Thai, the Kingdom's national language, to be one and the same.}}</ref>

In addition to Central Thai, Thailand is home to other related [[Tai languages]]. Although most linguists classify these dialects as related but distinct languages, native speakers often identify them as regional variants or dialects of the "same" Thai language, or as "different kinds of Thai".<ref>{{Citation |first1=Antonio L. |last1=Rappa |first2=Lionel |last2=Wee |title=Language Policy and Modernity in Southeast Asia: Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand |publisher=Springer |year=2006 |pages=114–115}}</ref> As a [[Lingua franca|dominant language]] in all aspects of society in Thailand, Thai initially saw gradual and later widespread adoption as a [[second language]] among the country's [[Ethnic groups in Thailand|minority ethnic groups]] from the mid-late [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Ayutthaya]] period onward.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lieberman |first1=Victor |title=Strange Parallels |volume=1: Integration on the Mainland: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830 |series=Studies in Comparative World History |date=2003 |pages=|isbn=978-0-521-80086-0|edition=Kindle }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wyatt |first=David K. |title=Thailand: A Short History |year=2003 |publisher=Yale University Press |place=New Haven, Connecticut |isbn=0-300-08475-7 }}</ref> Ethnic minorities today are predominantly bilingual, speaking Thai alongside their native language or dialect.