Isan language (Thai: ภาษาอีสาน, RTGS: phasa isan, ) is the collective name for the dialects of the Lao language as they are spoken in Thailand. It is spoken by approximately 20 million people, which is nearly one-third of the entire population of Thailand, predominantly in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand. There are also large numbers of speakers, migrant workers, in Bangkok. It serves as the primary lingua franca of the Isan region, used as a communication medium amongst native speakers and second language speakers amongst various other minority groups, such as the Northern Khmer. There are more speakers of Lao (Isan) in Thailand than in Laos.
Although the Lao language is vibrant in Northeast (Isan) Thailand, spoken as the main language in 88% of speakers’ households, the language suffers from reduced transmission and its absence in media, official events, and education. The language is written using the Thai alphabet and is also heavily influenced by Thai, as it is the principal language of writing, education, government, and most official situations. Code-switching is common, depending on the context or situation. Adoption of Thai neologisms has also further differentiated Isan from standard Lao.
Read more about Isan Language: Classification, History, Geographic Distribution, Legal Status, Dialects, Writing System, Phonology, Grammar, Nouns, Adjectives and Adverbs, Verbs, Questions and Answers, Vocabulary
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“This is of the loon—I do not mean its laugh, but its looning,—is a long-drawn call, as it were, sometimes singularly human to my ear,—hoo-hoo-ooooo, like the hallooing of a man on a very high key, having thrown his voice into his head. I have heard a sound exactly like it when breathing heavily through my own nostrils, half awake at ten at night, suggesting my affinity to the loon; as if its language were but a dialect of my own, after all.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)