Thailand

Central Thai

also: Standard Thai, Bangkok Thai

The Bangkok-area variety that forms the basis of the modern Thai standard. The reference variety in education, broadcasting, and most Thai instruction abroad.

Isan

also: Northeastern Thai, Lao-Isan

The Tai language of Thailand's Northeast region. Closer to Lao than to Central Thai; spoken by the largest non-Central-Thai population in the country.

Lanna

also: Northern Thai, Kham Mueang

The Tai language of Thailand's Northern region around Chiang Mai. Carries its own historical script and a literary tradition tied to the former Lanna kingdom.

Hmong

also: Miao

A cluster of Hmong-Mien languages spoken across the highlands of southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Carried abroad through the post-Vietnam-War Hmong diaspora to the United States, France, and Australia.

Mien

also: Yao

A cluster of Hmong-Mien languages spoken by the Yao peoples across southern China and adjacent Southeast Asia. Sister branch to Hmong, with around 800,000 speakers across the diaspora.

Mon

An Austroasiatic language of Lower Burma and adjacent Thailand. Once the dominant cultural language of mainland Southeast Asia, displaced over centuries by Burmese and Thai expansion.

Mlabri

also: Mrabri, Yumbri

A Khmuic (Austroasiatic) language of formerly nomadic hunter-gatherers in the highlands of Nan and Phrae provinces, northern Thailand, and adjacent Laos. Roughly 100–300 speakers; its numeral system allows only one and two to modify nouns, and it lacks the register contrasts typical of related languages.