Thai
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Thai is the mother tongue of the Thai people, the largest ethnic group in
Thailand and is spoken by nearly 65 million persons. Thai is considered a member
of the Kadai language family, whose individual languages are spoken in Thailand
as well as Laos, Burma, northern Vietnam and southern China. Experts believe that
this family of languages originated in what is today southern China.1
The Central Thai dialect is spoken throughout Thailand, but particularly in and
around Bangkok. It is the language of government, media and education. Other languages
and dialects spoken in Thailand which are in the same family include Southern Thai,
Northern Thai and Laotian. The Thai language incorporates many words from Sanskrit
and Pali languages of India, as English does with Latin. These Sanskrit and Pali
words include vocabulary for science, government, education, religion and literature.
Thai also uses terms from English and the Khmer language of neighboring Cambodia.2
Written Thai is a derivative of a style of writing which, according to tradition
and lore, was developed by Ramkhamhaeng the Great, a 13th century Thai king. The
Thai alphabet consists of 44 consonants, 15 vowel symbols, and four tone marks.
Thai is a “tonal” language, which means tones (or pitches) are an important part
of the language; the meaning of a word can change depending on whether a syllable
is spoken with a low, middle, high, falling, or rising pitch. Also, Thai letters
have only one case, which is a contrast to the upper-case and lower-case letters
of the Latin alphabet.
In the United States, Thai ranks 36th of 322 languages being spoken, with 1 of every
2,178 people age five and above using Thai in the home. The U.S. states with the
highest populations of Thai speakers are Texas, New York and Florida. Cook County,
Illinois is the county with the largest population (4,200), while Humboldt County,
Nevada, has the highest percentage of its population who speak Thai: 1 in every
210 residents.3
Thai is classified by the Defense Language Institute as a “category three” (out
of four) language in regard to difficulty of mastery by native English speakers.4
On the Foreign Service Institute language difficulty scale, Thai is rated as a “category
two” (out of three) language, due to significant linguistic and cultural differences
from English.5
Thai is one of the ten NLSC Pilot Program languages
Thai is designated as one of the ten pilot languages that the NLSC is recruiting
during its pilot year. The languages chosen were selected based upon the following:
- They meet short- and long-term requirements with emphasis on high-level expertise in languages critical to our national security.
- These languages generally meet the requirements for a pilot such as this based on the number of persons residing in the United States who are proficient in these languages.
- The list of languages includes some whose populations are difficult to locate and recruit.
- Each of these languages has multiple proficiency tests available.
Interesting Resources on Thai
- Thai/Lao Language Information Page - Thai Language General Facts
- Thai Language Audio Resource Center
- U.S. English Foundation Thai Data Sheet
