Thai
Thai is a member of the Southwestern subgroup of the Tai language family. It
is spoken primarily in Thailand, as a first language by some 20 million people,
and as a second language, by another 10 million. It is an isolating language,
that is, one which is devoid of inflection, and it is tonal. Sociolinguistic
variables play an important role in expression in Thai. There are particles
that indicate respect or deference towards the addressee, and there is a special
"high'' form of speech, characterized by specialized vocabulary and stylistic
devices that is only used when talking about members of the royal family, and
other persons of high rank.
The Thai people originated in China, and migrated into the Indochina peninsula
where they were initially dominated by the Mon and then later, beginning in
the tenth century, by the Khmer. As a result, Thai has borrowed heavily from
the Mon and Khmer (Cambodian) languages. The Thai gained their independence
in the mid-thirteenth century and shortly thereafter, developed a script, known
as the Sukhotai on which the modern Thai writing system is based. This system
is essentially alphabetic (one symbol stands for one sound) with some elements
of a syllabic system (one symbol stands for a syllable).. Thai has also been
heavily influenced by Indic and Chinese culture. Literary Thai depends on Sanskrit
and Pali, another Indic language, for much of its learned vocabulary--a situation
analogous to English's dependence on Latin. Because of the polysyllabic nature
of the large amount of Indic loans, Thai changed from an essentially monosyllabic
language in its morphemic structure to one that is now polysyllabic.
Sources:
UCLA Language Materials Project
Information on writing systems:
Geocities.com:
Brahmi descended scripts
omniglot.com
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
Other Local Resources:
UCSD International Center
Mingei museum of folk art
SD cultural events
International web radio
Landmark
Theaters: foreign films