Editing Isan language (section)

==Language status==
===Legal status===
''Ethnologue'' describes the Isan language as '''de facto'' language of provincial identity' which 'is the language of identity for citizens of the province, but this is not mandated by law. Neither is it developed enough or known enough to function as the language of government business.' Although Thailand does recognise the regional Tai languages, including Isan, as important aspects of regional culture and communication, the Isan language and other minority languages are still inferior to the social and cultural prestige of Standard Thai and its government sanctioned promotion in official, educational and national usage. However, the Thaification laws that banned the old Lao alphabet and forced the Lao to refer to themselves and their language as 'Thai Isan' never banned the language in the home nor the fields and the Isan people steadfastly clung to their spoken language.<ref name="Identity"/>

The situation is in stark contrast to Laos where the Lao language is actively promoted as a language of national unity. Laotian Lao people are very conscious of their distinct, non-Thai language and although influenced by Thai-language media and culture, strive to maintain 'good Lao'. Although spelling has changed, the Lao speakers in Laos continue to use a modified form of the ''Tai Noi'' script, the modern [[Lao alphabet]].<ref name="LaoLaw">Session VI of the People's Supreme Assembly, II Legislature. [http://www.un.int/lao/constitution.htm The Constitution of the Lao People's Democratic Republic] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806080917/http://www.un.int/lao/constitution.htm |date=2011-08-06 }}. (15, Aug 1991).</ref>

===Spoken status===
According to the EGIDS scale, Isan is at Stage VIA, or 'vigorous', meaning the language is used for 'face-to-face communication by all generations and the situation is sustainable'.<ref name=EGIDS>Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F., and Fennig, C. D. (eds.). 2013. EGIDS. [http://www.ethnologue.com/about/language-status#EGIDS-origins "EGIDS Explanation"].</ref> Although various studies indicate that Isan is spoken by almost everyone in Northeastern Thailand, the language is under threat from Thai, as Thai replaces the unique vocabulary specific to Lao speakers, and language shift, as more and more children are being raised to speak only Standard Thai. The lack of prestige of the language and the need for Thai to advance in government, education and professional realms or seek employment outside of Northeastern Thailand, such as Bangkok, necessitate the use and mastery of proper Thai over proper Lao.<ref name="DraperJ2004"/>

The language suffers from a negative perception and diglossia, so speakers have to limit their use of the language to comfortable, informal settings. Parents often view the language as a detriment to the betterment of their children, who must master Standard Thai to advance in school or career paths outside of agriculture. The use of the Thai script, spelling cognate words in Isan as they are in Thai, also gives a false perception of the dialectal subordination of Isan and the errors of Isan pronunciation which deviate from Thai. As a result, a generational gap has arisen with old speakers using normative Lao and younger speakers using a very 'Thaified' version of Isan, increased code-switching or outright exclusive use of Thai. Many linguists and scholars of the Isan language believe that Thai relexification cannot be halted unless the script is returned, but this has little public or government support.<ref name="Tossa-2007">{{cite book|last1=Tossa|first1=Wajuppa|title=STORYTELLING, A MEANS TO REVITALIZE A DISAPPEARING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN NORTHEAST THAILAND (ISAN)|date=2007|publisher=The 3rd International Conference on Gross National Happiness 2007|location=Bangkok|url=http://gnh-movement.org/papers/tossa.pdf|access-date=18 September 2017|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303213650/http://gnh-movement.org/papers/tossa.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="DraperJ2004"/>

===Written language usage and vitality===
[[File:Legal text in Isan (Lao) written in Tai Noi.jpg|thumb|center|450px|Portions of an ancient legal text written in the Tai Noi script on a palm-leaf manuscript. The script was banned in the 1930s but survived in Laos as the modern Lao alphabet.]]
The written language is currently at Stage IX, which on the EGIDS scale is a 'language [that] serves as a reminder of heritage identity for an ethnic community, but no one has more than symbolic proficiency'.<ref name="EGIDS"/> This applies to both the ''Tai Noi'' script used for secular literature and the ''Tua Tham'' script previously used for Buddhist texts. Only a handful of people of very advanced age and caretakers of monasteries whose libraries were not destroyed during the Thaification implementation in the 1930s are able to read either script. Evidence for the use of the written language is hard to find, but well-worn murals of very old temples often have small bits of writing in the old script.<ref name="ronn">Ronnakiat, N. (1992). Evidence of the Thai noi alphabet found in inscriptions. ''The third international symposium on language and linguistics.'' Bangkok, Thailand: Chulalongkorn University. (pp. 1326–1334).</ref>

In Laos, the orthography is a direct descendant of ''Tai Noi'' and continues its role as the official written language of the Lao language of the left bank as well as the script used to transcribe minority languages. The Lao written language has unified the dialects to some extent as well, as though the differences between dialects are sharper in Laos than Isan, one common writing system unites them.<ref name="LaoLaw"/><ref name="ronn"/>

===Language threats===
====Negative perceptions====
Acknowledgment of the unique history of the Isan language and the fact it is derived from a closely related albeit separate language is lacking, with the official and public position being that the language is a dialect of Thai. As a result of the great difference from Thai, based on tone, nasal vowels of a different quality and a special set of Lao vocabulary unfamiliar to Thai speakers, it is considered an 'inferior form of Thai' as opposed to its own separate language. The traditional avoidance of the language in the formal sphere re-enforces the superiority of Thai, which the Isan people have [[internalized oppression|internalized]] to the point many do not have high opinions of their first language. Combined with vocabulary retentions, many of which sound oddly archaic or have become pejorative in Standard Thai, perpetuate the myth and negative perception of Isan as an uncouth language of rural poverty and hard agricultural life. Due to associations with [[Laos]], the language was also viewed as a potential fifth column for Lao [[irredentism]] and the spread of [[communism]] into Thailand.<ref name="Signs">Draper, J. (2013). Introducing Multilingual Thai - Isan - English Signage in a Thai University. Journal of Lao Studies, 4(1), 11–42.</ref> It was in the recent past quite common for Isan people to be corrected or ridiculed when they spoke because of their incomplete mastery of Standard Thai.<ref name="Alex"/>

In polling of language favorability amongst the general population of Thailand, the Isan language ranks last after Standard Thai and the primary Thai dialect of the other regions.<ref name="Hugo">Lee, Hugo, Y.-H. (2014). '[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.639.8792&rep=rep1&type=pdf Speaking like a love entrepreneur: Language choices and ideologies of social mobility among daughters of peasants in Thailand's tourist sites]'. ''Language, Discourse and Society'', 3(1), pp. 110-143. Madrid, Spain: International Sociological Association.</ref> As a result of the need for Standard Thai proficiency in order to have better educational and employment prospects and avoid discrimination, anecdotal evidence suggests that more and more Isan children are being raised in the Thai language and are discouraged from using the local language at home.<ref name="Alex">Alexander, S. T. and McCargo, D. (2014), Diglossia and identity in Northeast Thailand: Linguistic, social, and political hierarchy. J Sociolinguistics, 18: 60–86.</ref> The Thai language has already begun to displace the predominance of Isan in the major market towns, in part because they are often also administrative centers, and in some major cities, universities have attracted students from other regions.<ref name="Signs"/>

====Code-switching====
Since the late 1930s, Isan has been a bilingual area, with most people using Isan at home and in the village, but due to diglossia, switching to Thai for school, work and formal situations. Like all bilingual societies, Isan speakers often [[code-switching|code-switch]] in and out of the Thai language. For example, in an analysis of the eighty-eight volumes of the comic ''หนูหิ่น อินเดอะซิตี้'' ({{lit|Little Hin}} in the city), the Thai language was used 62.91 percent of the time to properly quote someone—such as someone that speaks Thai, 21.19 percent of the time to provide further explanation and 8.61 percent of the time to re-iterate a previous statement for clarification.<ref>พิมพ์โพยม พิทักษ์1 และ บัญญัติ สาลี. (2559/2016). [https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/gshskku/article/view/73660/59377 หน้าที่ของการสลับภาษาระหว่างภาษาไทยกลางและภาษาไทยถิ่นอีสาน ของหนูหิ่น ในการ์ตูนเรื่อง หนูหิ่น อินเดอะซิตี้]. มนุษยศาสตร์สังคมศาสตร์. 5(2). pp. 91-109. (Thai and English)</ref> There are seven areas where the Thai language is employed, aside from direct quotation, such as the following: explanations, interjections, Thai culture, emphasis, re-iterations and jokes.<ref>พระมหาอธิวัฒน์ บุดดานาง และ รัตนา จันทร์เทาว. (2561/2018). หน้าที่ของการสลับภาษาระหว่างภาษาไทยกลาง ภาษาไทยถิ่นอีสานและภาษาบาลี ในการแสดงธรรม ของพระอาจารย์สมภพ โชติปญฺโญ. วารสารภาษา ศาสนา และวัฒนธรรม. 7(1). pp. 123-153.</ref>

Although some Isan people may not speak the language well, Thai is a convenient language of clarification, especially between Isan speakers of different dialects that may be unfamiliar with local terms of the other speaker. As Isan does not exist in formal, technical, political or academic domains, it is generally more comfortable for Isan speakers to use Thai in these areas as a result of the diglossia, with many Isan speakers unaware or unfamiliar with native terms and ''[[belles-lettres]]'' that are still used in contemporary Lao. Thai is also sometimes used to avoid Isan features that are stigmatized in Thai, such as retention of vocabulary that is pejorative or archaic as well as Lao pronunciations of cognate words that sound 'folksy'. Despite the fact that code-switching is a natural phenomenon, younger generations are blurring the distinction between languages, using more Thai-like features and as they forget to switch back to Isan, language shift takes hold.<ref name="Alex"/><ref name="Tossa-2007"/>

====Thai-influenced language shift====
The Thai language may not be the primary language of Isan, but Isan people are in constant exposure to it. It is required to watch the ever-popular [[soap opera]]s, news, and sports broadcasts or sing popular songs, most of it produced in Bangkok or at least in its accent. Thai is also needed as a written language for instructions, to read labels on packages, road signs, newspapers and books. Isan children who may struggle to acquire the language, are forced to learn the language as part of [[compulsory education]] and often when they are older, for employment. Although attitudes towards regional cultures and languages began to relax in the late 1980s, the legal and social pressures of Thaification and the need for Thai to participate in daily life and wider society continue. The influence of Thai aside, anecdotal evidence suggests that many older Isan lament the corruption of the spoken language spoken by younger generations and that the younger generations are no longer familiar with the traditional Lao forms used by previous generations.<ref name="Tossa-2007"/><ref name="Planning">Draper, J. (2015). Towards a curriculum for the Thai Lao of Northeast Thailand. Current Issues in Language Planning, 16(3), 238-258.</ref>

In a 2016 study of language shift, villagers in an Isan-speaking village were divided by age and asked to respond to various questionnaires to determine lexical usage of Lao terms, with those born prior to 1955, those born between 1965 and 1990 and those born after 1990. The results show what would be expected of a language undergoing language shift. As Isan and Thai already have a similar grammatical structure and syntax, the main variance is in lexical shift, essentially the replacement of Isan vocabulary. The oldest generation, at the time in their 60s or older, uses very normative Lao features little different than those found in Laos. The middle generations, ranging from 35 to 50 years of age, had a greater prevalence of Thai vocabulary, but overall maintained a traditional Isan lexicon, with the Thai terms usually not the primary spoken forms. The youngest generation, although still arguably using very many Lao phrases and vocabulary, had a remarkable replacement of Isan vocabulary, with Thai forms becoming either the primary variant or replacing the Isan word altogether. Similarly, when Isan usage has two variants, generally a common one not understood in Thai and another that is usually a cognate, younger speakers tend to use the cognates with greater frequency, pushing their speech to Thai as older speakers will use them in variance.<ref name="Prom">Promkandorn, S. (2016). Language Vitality and Lexical Variation of the Isan Language in Rongsan Village, Phayao Province. [Unpublished Master's of Linguistics Thesis]. Phayap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.</ref>

Thai loan words were generally localized in pronunciation, easing them into the flow of Isan conversation and unnoticeable to most but the oldest members of the community that preserve 'proper Isan' usage. Although the youngest generation was still speaking a distinct language, each generation brings the increased risk of the Isan language's extinction as it becomes relexified to the point of no longer being a separate language but a dialect of Thai with some Lao influence. The lack of official usage, official support for its maintenance and lack of language prestige hinder attempts to revitalize or strengthen the language against the advance of Thai.<ref name="Planning"/>

{| class="wikitable" 
|+ Thai relexification in the speech of Isan youth in Rongsan Village<ref name="Prom"/>
! colspan="2" | Central Thai
! colspan="2" | Isan
! colspan="2" | Lao
! colspan="2" |Isan youth
! Gloss
|-
| {{lang|th|โหระพา}}<br>''horapha''
| {{IPA|/hǒː.ráʔ.pʰāː/}}
| {{lang|tts|อีตู่}}<br>''i tu''
| {{IPA|/ʔìː túː/}}
| {{lang|lo|ອີ່ຕູ່}}<br>''i tou''
| {{IPA|/ʔīː tūː/}}
| {{lang|tts|โหระพา}}<br>''horapha''
| {{IPA|/hǒː.làʔ.pʰâː/}}
| 'Thai basil'
|-
| {{lang|th|พี่สาว}}<br>''phi sao''
| {{IPA|/pʰîː sǎːw/}}
| {{lang|tts|เอื้อย}}<br>''ueai''
| {{IPA|/ʔɯ̂aj/}}
| {{lang|lo|ເອື້ອຍ}}<br>''ueai''
| {{IPA|/ʔɯ̂aj/}}
| {{lang|tts|พี่สาว}}<br>''phi sao''
| {{IPA|/pʰīː sǎːw/}}
| 'older sister'
|-
| {{lang|th|คนใบ้}}<br>''khon bai''
| {{IPA|/kʰōn bâj/}}
| {{lang|tts|คนปากกืก}}<br>''khon pak kuek''
| {{IPA|/kʰôn pàːk kɯ̀ːk/}}
| {{lang|lo|ຄົນປາກກືກ}}<br>''khôn pak kuk''
| {{IPA|/kʰón pȁːk kɯ̏ːk/}}
| {{lang|tts|คนใบ้}}<br>''khon bai''
| {{IPA|/kʰôn bâj/}}
| 'mute' (person)
|-
| {{lang|th|กระรอก}}<br>''krarok''
| {{IPA|/kràʔ.rɔ̂ːk/}}
| {{lang|tts|กระฮอก}}<br>''krahok''
| {{IPA|/kǎʔ.hɔ̂ːk/}}
| {{lang|lo|ກະຮອກ}}<br>''kahok''
| {{IPA|/káʔ.hɔ̂ːk/}}
| {{lang|tts|กระรอก}}<br>''krarok''
| {{IPA|/kǎʔ.lɔ̑ːk/}}
| 'squirrel'
|-
| {{lang|th|กระซิบ}}<br>''krasip''
| {{IPA|/kràʔ.síp/}}
| {{lang|tts|ซิ่ม}}<br>''sim''
| {{IPA|/sīm/}}
| {{lang|lo|ຊັບຊິຶ່ມ}}<br>''sap suem''
| {{IPA|/sāp sɯ̄m/}}
| {{lang|tts|กระซิบ}}<br>''krasip''<br>
| {{IPA|/kǎʔ.sìp/}}
| 'to whisper'
|-
| {{lang|th|งีบ}}<br>''ngip''
| {{IPA|/ŋîːp/}}
| {{lang|tts|เซือบ}}<br>''suep''
| {{IPA|/sɯ̂ap/}}
| {{lang|lo|ເຊືອບ}}<br>''suep''
| {{IPA|/sɯ̂ap/}}
| {{lang|th|งีบ}}<br>''ngip''
| {{IPA|/ŋîːp/}}
| 'to nap'
|-
| {{lang|th|รวม}}<br>''ruam''
| {{IPA|/rūam/}}
| {{lang|tts|โฮม}}<br>''hom''
| {{IPA|/hôːm/}}
| {{lang|lo|ໂຮມ}}<br>''hôm''
| {{IPA|/hóːm/}}
| {{lang|tts|รวม}}<br>''ruam''
| {{IPA|/lûam/}}
| 'to gather together'<br>'to assemble'
|-
| {{lang|th|ลูก}}<br>''luk''
| /lûːk/
| {{lang|tts|หน่วย}}<br>''nuai''
| /nūaj/
| {{lang|lo|ຫນ່ວຍ}}/{{lang|lo|ໜ່ວຍ}}<br>''nouay''
| /nūaj/
| {{lang|tts|ลูก}}<br>''luk''
| /lȗːk/
| 'fruit'<br>(classifier)
|-
| {{lang|th|ไหล่}}<br>''lai''
| /làj/
| {{lang|tts|บ่า}}<br>''ba''
| /báː/
| {{lang|lo|ບ່າ}}<br>''ba''
| /bāː/
| {{lang|tts|ไหล่}}<br>''lai''
| /lāj/
| 'shoulder'<br />
|}

===Continued survival===
The development of 'Isan' identity and a resurgence in attention to the language has brought increased attention and study of the language. Academics at universities are now offering courses in the language and its grammar, conducting research into the old literature archives that were preserved. Digitizing palm-leaf manuscripts and providing Thai-script transcription is being conducted as a way to both preserve the rapidly decaying documents and re-introduce them to the public. The language can be heard on national television during off-peak hours, when music videos featuring many Isan artists of [[morlam|molam]] and Isan adaptations of Central Thai [[luk thung]] music. In 2003, HRH Princess Royal [[Sirindhorn|Sirinthon]] was the patron of the Thai Youth Mo Lam Competition.<ref name="DraperJ2004"/>