Tai Peoples and Theirs Languages: A Preliminary ... - Khamkoo

whereas Phrae has two. 16 Such a difference seems trivial in the eyes of almost all nonspecialists.
Southern Thai is spoken by indigenous Thai-speaking people of Southern
Thailand in 14 provinces down south, starting from Chumphorn to Narathiwat. Speakers
of Southern Thai are known informally as speakers of Pak Tai (literally meaning or
translated: the southern side). Dambrö is another name given to the Southern Thai dialect
in western literature, such as that by Lebar and others, 17 and it was classified by them as a
patois (1964 : 205). In reality, the Southern Thai dialect is less a case of a patois than a
geographical dialect; if one cannot call an American Texan parlance a patois, then the
Southern Thai dialect is definitely not a patois. 18 Besides Dambrö is considered by most
Thai southerners as pejorative since it alludes to ignorance : literal translation of the
phrase Dambrö is “How to………..how do you do that?” So the term should not be used
to refer to the Southern Thai dialect.
There are greater variations within the Southern Thai dialect than what we have
seen in the Central and Northern Thai dialects. This might be due to the fact that the
southern parts of the country had never been grouped as vassal states under some prince
who exercised a strong jurisdiction over the entire area. The central power from
Ayuddhaya (and later from Bangkok) invested in the person of Chao Phya Nakorn
Si Thammarat (a civil-servant not a governor with royal blood) was not keenly felt by the
people in the southern adjacent provinces. This was very different from the power
wielded by the Chiengmai princes, who although in theory vassals of the King of
Ayuddhaya (and later of Bangkok), in actuality ruled as absolute monarchs. 19 The rough
terrain in Southern Thailand also contributes to dialectal diversity. The Malay peninsula,
the northern part of which is Southern Thailand, has a range of mountains with dense
forests which divide the peninsula lengthwise. Communication by land across the
peninsula was quite difficult prior to the time of modern highways. The many southern
rivers are short with rapids and uninviting currents for travel. The combination of all
these factors results in many differences among the several Southern Thai dialects. Even a
non-specialist can point out that the Songkhla dialect is different from the Nakorn Si
Thammarat dialect and that there exists a considerable difference between the dialects on
the east coast (in provinces along the Gulf of Thailand) and the dialects on the west coast
(in provinces along the Indian Ocean). The dialects on the west coast seem to have more
16 Siwaporn Chotecheun, The Phonology of Nan with Comparisons to Phrae, unpublished
M.A. thesis, Mahidol University, 1986, p.231
17 Frank M. Lebar, Gerald C. Hickey and John K. Musgrave (editors), Ethnic Groups of
Mainland Southeast Asia, Human Relations Area Files Press, New Haven, 1964, p.288
18 A patois is, according to a dictionary (contemporary to Lebar and others’ book,) by Mario Pei,
Glossary of Linguistic Terminology (1966: p.196), “The popular unwritten speech in a given
locality; the local dialect of the lower social strata, normally unwritten”
19 Some knowledge of the Thai history might help clarify this point. David K. Wyatt’s Thailand
A Short History, Yale University Press, 1982, 1984, p.351, especially Chapters 4-6 is a good
read, as well as David J. Steinberg and others, In Search of Southeast Asia A Modern History,
Oxford University Press, 1971, 1975, p.552, especially pp.62-64, pp.107-117, pp.169-173, pp.
176-179.
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