Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Can A Language of A Million Speakers Be Endangered? Language Shift and Apathy Among Northern Khmer Speakers in Thailand

Published/Copyright: May 15, 2006
International Journal of the Sociology of Language
From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2006 Issue 178

Abstract

Northern Khmer is a variety of Khmer spoken in several provinces of northeastern Thailand. With over a million speakers, it is not normally regarded as an endangered language. However, the effectiveness of Thai state penetration into the countryside, Thai language policy, changing modes of production in rural villages, the rise of mass media, and increased social mobility are leading speakers to shift to the national language, Thai. This shift is exacerbated by an apathetic attitude towards Khmer identity, which arose in part as a cultural reaction to the troubled political history of neighboring Cambodia. Given current trends in Northern Khmer language use and broader sociocultural forces, it is argued that even a language with as many speakers as Northern Khmer may prove to be more endangered than generally assumed.

Published Online: 2006-5-15
Published in Print: 2006-1-20

© Walter de Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Überblick über die Entwicklung der Soziolinguistik in Albanien
  2. Variations sociolinguistiques en albanais du Nord — sur la base des données du parler de la ville du Shkodra
  3. The anatomy of survival in Arbëresh numeral forms
  4. Features of dysfunctional attrition in the Arbresh of Piana degli Albanesi
  5. Some differences between varieties of Albanian with special reference to Kosovo
  6. Who’s “mixing” the languages? Statistical-sociolinguistic analyses of differently developed bilingual practice of Albanian-speaking school pupils in German-speaking Switzerland
  7. Standard Albanian — linguistic controversy in post-Communist Albania
  8. The Albanian language: developments in the lexicon under the new social and political order
  9. The First Congress phenomenon: the case of Albanian
  10. Book reviews
  11. Rexhep Ismajli: ‘‘Në gjuhë’’ dhe ‘‘për gjuhë’’ (Rrjedhat e planifikimit të shqipes në Kosovë 1945–1968)
  12. Small languages and small language communities 50
  13. Can A Language of A Million Speakers Be Endangered? Language Shift and Apathy Among Northern Khmer Speakers in Thailand
https://doi.org/10.1515/IJSL.2006.021

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Überblick über die Entwicklung der Soziolinguistik in Albanien
  2. Variations sociolinguistiques en albanais du Nord — sur la base des données du parler de la ville du Shkodra
  3. The anatomy of survival in Arbëresh numeral forms
  4. Features of dysfunctional attrition in the Arbresh of Piana degli Albanesi
  5. Some differences between varieties of Albanian with special reference to Kosovo
  6. Who’s “mixing” the languages? Statistical-sociolinguistic analyses of differently developed bilingual practice of Albanian-speaking school pupils in German-speaking Switzerland
  7. Standard Albanian — linguistic controversy in post-Communist Albania
  8. The Albanian language: developments in the lexicon under the new social and political order
  9. The First Congress phenomenon: the case of Albanian
  10. Book reviews
  11. Rexhep Ismajli: ‘‘Në gjuhë’’ dhe ‘‘për gjuhë’’ (Rrjedhat e planifikimit të shqipes në Kosovë 1945–1968)
  12. Small languages and small language communities 50
  13. Can A Language of A Million Speakers Be Endangered? Language Shift and Apathy Among Northern Khmer Speakers in Thailand
Downloaded on 10.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/IJSL.2006.021/html
Scroll to top button