Geographic Distribution
Isan is primarily spoken in the 19 provinces that make up Northeastern Thailand, an area is roughly the size of England and Wales combined. It is also spoken in large parts of Uttaradit and Phitsanulok provinces and the upper portions of Eastern Thailand.
There are also small villages and pockets of Lao speakers to be found in northern and central Thailand, the legacy of forced Lao settlement from the 18th and 19th centuries. Due to internal and seasonal migration from Isan to Bangkok, there are several million Lao speakers in the Thai capital,as well as other major cities. It can also be assumed that many of the Thai citizens living abroad are Isan speakers.
Read more about this topic: Isan Language
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“Classical and romantic: private language of a family quarrel, a dead dispute over the distribution of emphasis between man and nature.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)