Lanna (language)
| Lanna | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Thailand , Laos | |
| speaker | 6 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
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Lanna , Northern Thai or Yuan (the latter can be viewed as pejorative ; own name: Kam Müang [kam˧.mɯːəŋ˧] , ; Thaiคำ เมือง , RTGS Kham Mueang [kʰam˧.mɯːəŋ˧] ) is a Tai-Kadai - Language spoken by six million people in northern Thailand (formerly Lan Na ) and adjacent parts of Laos. The language belongs to the southwestern branch of the Tai languages and is closely related to Thai and Lao as well as the "smaller" Tai languages Lü and Khün .
Lanna was historically written in the script of the same name (also called Tai-Tham or Dharma script). As a result of Lan Na's integration into the Thai central state and the “ Thaiization ”, it is now mainly used for oral and family or informal communication, while it has been pushed back by central Thai in official and written use as well as in schools. Almost all Lanna speakers are therefore bilingual, changing languages depending on the situation ( diglossia ). In part, it is therefore only viewed as a dialect or regional language.
From around 1985 onwards, there was a decline in use. Since then, the younger generations have used the Kam Müang less and less, so that the language was to be expected to disappear in the medium term. Since the renaissance of Lanna culture and identity at the end of the 1990s, however, the use of language can again be regarded as robust, even if only as a "lower" variety within the diglossia .
literature
- Harald Hundius : Phonology and script of the northern Thai (= treatises for the knowledge of the Orient. 48, 3). Steiner-Verlag Wiesbaden, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-04845-6 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Andrew C. Shahriari: Khon Muang Music and Dance. Traditions of North Thailand. White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2006, p. 103.
- ^ William A. Smalley: Linguistic Diversity and National Unity. Language Ecology in Thailand. University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 1994, pp. 79-80.
- ↑ Thanet Charoenmuang: When the Young Can not Speak Their Own Mother Tongue. Explaining a Legacy of Cultural Domination of Cultural Domination in Lan Na. In: Regions and National Integration in Thailand 1892–1992. 1995, p. 82 ff.
- ^ David Bradley: Languages of Mainland South-East Asia. In: The Vanishing Languages of the Pacific Rim. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2007, pp. 301–336, at p. 312.
