Diglossia and identity in Northeast Thailand: Linguistic, social, and political hierarchy
@article{Alexander2014DiglossiaAI, title={Diglossia and identity in Northeast Thailand: Linguistic, social, and political hierarchy}, author={Saowanee T. Alexander and Duncan McCargo}, journal={Journal of Sociolinguistics}, year={2014}, volume={18}, pages={60-86} }
The paper explores diglossic relations between Central Thai and phasa isan, a variety officially known as a dialect of Thai, but linguistically close to Lao. Phasa isan is spoken by almost one-third of Thailand's population but its speakers in the Northeast are often stigmatized as uneducated and backward. We conducted field research mainly among university students in Ubon Ratchathani, a northeastern border province, by drawing upon data from survey questionnaires, reflective essays…
43 Citations
Proud to be Thai: The Puzzling Absence of Ethnicity-Based Political Cleavages in Northeastern Thailand
- SociologyPacific Affairs
- 2019
Underneath the veneer of a homogenous state-approved Thai ethnicity, Thailand is home to a heterogeneous population. Only about one-third of Thailand’s inhabitants speak the national language as…
Rethinking Globalization, English and Multilingualism in Thailand: A Report on a Five-Year Ethnography
- Education3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies
- 2019
The starting point of this paper is to the development of a relatively panoramic account of English and multilingualism in Thailand, illuminating the relationships among powers (trends), individuals…
Blood Curse and Belonging in Thailand: Law, Buddhism, and Legal Consciousness
- HistoryAsian Journal of Law and Society
- 2016
Abstract This article takes up Talal Asad’s suggestion that studies of law and religion should reject the modern/non-modern binary and instead consider the “fragmented cultures” and “hybrid selves”…
Language practices and attitudes among young minority language speakers in Thailand
- Linguistics
- 2020
ABSTRACT Language practices and attitudes among young minority language speakers in Thailand, focusing on the Kui language, are examined. Sociolinguistic data obtained from three months of fieldwork…
DYNAMICS AND ADAPTATION OF THE PHUAN ETHNIC GROUP IN THAILAND
- SociologyJournal of Southeast Asian Studies
- 2021
This is an examination of the continued dynamics and adaptation of the Phuan ethnic group in Thailand, especially how their customs have changed according to evolving social and environmental…
The Thai Lao question: the reappearance of Thailand’s ethnic Lao community and related policy questions
- Political Science, Sociology
- 2018
This article presents an anatomy of the 2011 Thailand Country Report to the Committee responsible for the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in which Thailand…
Multiple identities of multilingual minorities: Values and practices influencing social, national and personal identity formation
- Sociology
- 2021
This empirical study examined the ways in which multilingualism influences the community identities of individuals and minority groups. The motivations for their specific social behaviors are rarely…
Understanding the ethnic inequality of the Thai Lao through perspectives on promoting social inclusion policy in Thailand in accordance with UN Sustainable Development Goal 10.2
- Political ScienceSocial Identities
- 2021
ABSTRACT This article presents one of the first attempts to understand UN Sustainable Development Goal 10.2 (UNSDG 10.2) on reducing inequality as applied to a major ethnic minority community via a…
War of words
- Sociology
- 2016
Thai grassroots activists known as ‘redshirts’ (broadly aligned with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) have been characterised according to their socio-economic profile, but despite…
Sticky rice in the blood: Isan people’s involvement in Thailand’s 2020 anti-government protests
- Sociology
- 2021
ABSTRACT This article examines the extent, form, and motivations for Isan people’s involvement in the 2020 Thai youth protests, both in Thailand’s northeast region and in Bangkok. Based on…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 20 REFERENCES
Contesting Isan‐ness: discourses of politics and identity in Northeast Thailand
- Sociology
- 2004
This paper discusses the idea of Isan (Northeastern Thai) ethnoregional identity, and its relationship with two major alternative ideas: Thai identity and Lao identity. Drawing on ethnolinguistic…
Inferring ethnolinguistic vitality in a community of Northeast Thailand
- Linguistics
- 2010
Abstract This paper reports on the use of ethnolinguistic vitality as the framework for a sociolinguistic survey measuring attitudes to multilingualism and reporting on the experiences of a community…
Dialect, Language, Nation1
- Linguistics
- 1966
The impossibility of stating precisely how many “languages” or “dialects” are spoken in the world is due to the ambiguities of meaning present in these terms, which is shown to stem from the original…
An ‘Ethnic’ Reading of ‘Thai’ History in the Twilight of the Century-Old Official ‘Thai’ National Model
- Sociology
- 2012
Recent political events in Thailand have shed light on a long neglected and dangerous corner of ‘Thai’ history. An oceanic shift in Thai politics, only beginning to be tracked, now threatens the…
Coalitions and Language Politics: Policy Shifts in Southeast Asia
- Political Science
- 2012
Why is it that some governments recognize only one language while others espouse multilingualism? Related, why are some governments able to shift language policies, and if there is a shift, what…
Twenty Years of Sinlapa watthanatham: Cultural Politics in Thailand in the 1980s and 1990s
- HistoryJournal of Southeast Asian Studies
- 2000
Founded in 1979, the Thai popular monthly magazine Sinlapa watthanatham aimed to make history, art and culture into areas of contestation against long-established official interpretations, and thus…
“The Provinces Elect Governments, Bangkok Overthrows Them”: Urbanity, Class and Post-democracy in Thailand
- Political Science
- 2010
Urban social movements are often associated with what are considered ‘progressive’ causes and most activists involved in such movements are inclined to describe themselves in such terms. The Thai…