Phu Thai

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Phu Thai ( Thai ชาว ผู้ ไท ; Lao : ຊາວ ຜູ້ ໄທ ; Vietnamese Pu Thay ) are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia . They belong to the family of the Tai peoples . Their settlement area extends over parts of Vietnam , Laos and Thailand . Their language is one of the southwestern Tai languages and is closely related to Lao , but differs significantly from it.

According to the 2005 census, there are 187,000 Phu Thai people in Laos. Their settlement areas are mostly islands in the area populated by ethnic Lao. They can be found in the central and southern Laotian provinces of Bolikhamsai , Savannakhet , Khammuan , Salavan , Xieng Khouang and Champasak . The Phu Thai typically live a little higher than the ethnic Lao, for example in high valleys or at the foot of hills and mountains. Nevertheless, they belong to the state-defined category of Lao Loum ("lowland Laotians").

In Vietnam, the Phu Thai are regarded as part of the Thái nationality, to which the state groups the Tai groups, who speak the southwestern Thai languages. In 2002, the number of Phu Thai speakers in Vietnam was estimated at 209,000. They mainly settle in the northern central provinces of Hà Tĩnh and Nghệ An, which border on Laos .

In the first half of the 19th century, a large number of Phu Thai migrated to what is now Thailand, specifically in its northeast region, the Isan . A survey by the Institute for Languages ​​and Cultures of Asia at Mahidol University put the number of Phu Thai in Thailand in 2006 at 470,000. Settlement areas of the Phu Thai are in the provinces of Sakon Nakhon , Kalasin , Mukdahan , Nakhon Phanom , Udon Thani , Yasothon , Amnat Charoen and Roi Et . There, too, the Phu Thai settlement islands form, which are surrounded by the settlement area of ​​the ethnic Lao (khon isan) , with whom there is a strong interaction, but usually no mixing. Almost all Phu Thai in Thailand state that they speak Lao (or phasa isan ) in addition to their own language , the younger and more highly educated also understand Central ( Standard) Thai . So far, however, this has not been accompanied by a decline in the spread of the Phu Thai language. The Phu Thai often identify themselves as (a type of) Thai : for them, being Phu Thai and Thai are not mutually exclusive.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Phu Thai. In: Ethnologue. Languages ​​of the World. 17th edition, 2014 (online version).
  2. ^ A b c d William A. Smalley: Linguistic Diversity and National Unity. Language Ecology in Thailand. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1994, p. 199.
  3. ^ Smalley: Linguistic Diversity and National Unity. 1994, p. 200.