Basic Facts about the Thai Language
Thai is the first language of the Thai people, Thailand’s major ethnic group and is also the official language of Thailand. The Thai people are divided geographically among the Central Thai, the Northeastern Thai or Isan or Lao, the Northern Thai, and the Southern Thai. The Central Thai have long dominated the nation politically, economically, and culturally.
Due to education system and the forging of a national identity, many people are now able to speak Central Thai as well as their own local dialects. Standard Thai, or Siamese, is spoken by about 65 million people (1990) including speakers of Bangkok Thai (although the latter is sometimes considered as a separate dialect).
Thai is a member of the Tai language group and is part of the larger Tai-Kadai language group. The Tai-Kadai language group is a tonal language family originating in Southeast Asia as well as in and southern China. This language group was originally classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, but is are now classified as an independent family. The Thai alphabet is derived from the Khmer alphabet which is modeled after the Brahmic script from the Indic family.
