thanks Ben so when I was in gym my about
a year ago the jewel of the north of
Thailand I attended this fair that claim
to promote all facets of northern Thai
culture and it was a great fair and
being the language learning lover that I
am I felt a deep urge to study the lonna
language of the northern Thai people or
the indigenous language of that area so
I was immediately drawn to the mountain
stacks of books at the fair and I
perused through them trying to find some
sort of instructional guide or some sort
of manual have changed me the basics of
the language things like the unique of
writing system the tones the
pronunciation grammar phrases was really
basic stuff I know this which sounds a
bit geeky but I soon found out that the
search was a fruitless effort and this
is because I later came to find out as
well that there exists no quality and
highly accessible resources on the study
of this northern Thai language and so I
went to ask the vendors and the
merchants who were selling these books
oh where can I find something like this
and they even did not know they
responded really cluelessly to my
inquiry and so after this I just saw red
I thought to myself how can an entire
culture just throw away their language
like that how could they throw away
their whole culture and history like
that but the answer to this is actually
rather simple if you examine
geopolitical developments within
Thailand in the 19th and 20th centuries
so the nation-state was a form of
governance that arose rather recently
and it’s attributable to many things
things like the development of
capitalism mercantilism political
economy and territorial geography and
one of the most obvious impacts of this
form of governance is that the central
government mandates a uniform cultural
identity through instruments like state
policy they advocate for things like a
common ancestry common heritage and
crucially a common language
now when a vast nation with nuanced
cultural differences is forced to speak
a single language a phenomenon known as
linguistic imperialism arises and it’s a
form of imperialism that is within a
country’s own borders now if we view
this issue from a sociolinguistic
perspective it becomes apparent that
this phenomenon is akin to the Darwin
Darwinist theory of natural selection
and I apologize for any
oversimplifications but allow me to put
it this way we can view the centrally
mandated dominant language as a species
with highly favorable traits and
adaptations because it gives people
higher socio-economic standing for
example it gives people access to
greater jobs it allows for greater class
prestige and possibly even political
power all the while non-standard
indigenous dialects are left to fester
and speakers of these languages are not
able to pass the backbone of their
culture on to offspring
therefore the younger generation are
barred from getting knowledge that was
accumulated over generations and
generations now the Thai story follows
this system this model
word for word and the origins of a
nationalist central government can
actually be traced back to the reign of
his majesty the king rama v who
established the mun portent system or
the regional system which was a means of
administering the country during the
period of rampant French and British
colonialism in Southeast Asia power
radiated from the central authority
towards the most far-flung regions of
the nation and all this was an extremely
effective and necessary measure that
sealed at the country and protected its
independence one of the main impacts of
this was that it set the stage for the
decline of culture and languages in all
of the countries three principal regions
the north the Northeast and the south
the central Thai dialect which we’re all
familiar with today
was designated as the lingua franca of
this new nation so
in the north local lords and Kings lost
their power resulting in the decline of
the land now language and their culture
in the north in the Northeast the
various dialects of the Isan language
spoken which is was written at the level
it was written with the Liao’s and
alphabet at the time this alphabet was
banned and replaced with the central
Thai alphabet in order to forge a more
close connection with the dominant
culture and in the deep south where
citizens are predominantly Muslim their
culture was discouraged as well as
central ties fears and Muslims spheres
diverged what happened was the Arabic
script that was used to write many many
languages of the Malay people of the
South was also discouraged and replaced
with central Thai as a language of
instruction now a phenomenon like this
raises a vast socio-economic
implications because when you rob a
community of their language you’re
robbing them of their self-worth pride
identity culture history and as a result
of this it impedes political power it
creates a sense of dependency on the
main dominant culture and in addition to
this it creates the system of negative
associations and what I mean by this is
for example in Thailand urbanites and
urban dwellers may for example view
speakers of many non-standard dialects
such as the asan dialect of the
Northeast they may associate these
people with the working-class uneducated
bumpkins people with no education which
is an unfortunate perception but it is
true in some cases today
if you travel up north you’ll find that
the use of the lonna language in
professional settings is essentially
defunct and that it’s used and reserved
for specific religious institutions or
in familial or home settings and while
studies by local universities in the
region have in fact found out that these
languages are favourable you looked upon
by inhabitants and people like just see
it incorporated into their curricula
they want to know how to read and write
and speak as well as their ancestors did
the sheer impracticality of having this
as a language has prevented such reform
from happening
similarly if
the deep south UNESCO just recently
designated the but the knee dialect of
the Malay language as vulnerable and
at-risk of endangerment this is once
again due to the overwhelming influence
of the dominant central Thai culture the
United Nations once stated that in
regards to language language is
intrinsically linked to and a part of
indigenous peoples cultures and beliefs
it marks their distinctiveness and
cohesiveness as ethnic groups for
example without language would you excel
be able to connect with your Tamil
culture and ancestry you of sharra are
able to enjoy the dances songs religion
and arts of your ancestry because you
know your native language now this leads
on to my next point
what change can we implement well this
is where we all come in
even though linguistic imperialism as I
have put it is a rampant issue in
Thailand it is far from an isolated
phenomenon and I trust that in all of
your respective countries this
phenomenon is occurring as well and I
also trust that in all of your
respective countries all vulnerable
communities have something inherently
worth preserving whether it be lower
mythology dance culture history all of
that take for example the color wire
people of Bolivia who have a language
intrinsically linked to medicinal plants
of the rainforest and some of this
knowledge is not even known to Western
science or the Soraa language of some
tribes living in the erisa state of
India who the morphological properties
of which are so valuable to the studies
of linguistics a national social survey
carried out in the northern part of
Australia in the Torres Strait region
also discovered that Aboriginal citizens
who speak indigenous languages are in
markedly better physical and mental
health they are less likely to be
arrested by the police on charges for
drug abuse or alcohol
and those between the ages of 13 and 17
in rural and urban areas are in fact
more likely to be found in schools now
what can we do as individuals you may be
asking yourself how can i as an
individual save an entire culture or
save an entire language for that matter
now I’m not asking for anyone to
implement drastic social change or
political reform but I think the first
thing that we have to consider is
recognize this parado
this plurality of languages in your
nation question whether one single
language in a vastly diverse country is
in fact the best solution I’m not
advocating for any political agenda or
some globalist dogma but I’m looking at
this from a political perspective
because if you give a person their
heritage back their culture back and
their history back you are arming them
with the necessary means to be empowered
and be active members of their
communities and if you have the chance
interact with people from these minority
indigenous groups they may be more there
may be more around you than you think
and I previously stated that learning
languages may be difficult due to the
really few resources available but some
but there’s vast new amounts of research
being put forth that will allow for this
to happen soon so learn and learn a few
words learn a few phrases learn a bit of
grammar and the more linguistically
conscious you become the longer these
languages will survive and they won’t be
victims of linguistic imperialism as a
member of the Navajo Nation once said
every breath that you take without a
language that is your own you might as
well be dead already
thank you [Applause]
a year ago the jewel of the north of
Thailand I attended this fair that claim
to promote all facets of northern Thai
culture and it was a great fair and
being the language learning lover that I
am I felt a deep urge to study the lonna
language of the northern Thai people or
the indigenous language of that area so
I was immediately drawn to the mountain
stacks of books at the fair and I
perused through them trying to find some
sort of instructional guide or some sort
of manual have changed me the basics of
the language things like the unique of
writing system the tones the
pronunciation grammar phrases was really
basic stuff I know this which sounds a
bit geeky but I soon found out that the
search was a fruitless effort and this
is because I later came to find out as
well that there exists no quality and
highly accessible resources on the study
of this northern Thai language and so I
went to ask the vendors and the
merchants who were selling these books
oh where can I find something like this
and they even did not know they
responded really cluelessly to my
inquiry and so after this I just saw red
I thought to myself how can an entire
culture just throw away their language
like that how could they throw away
their whole culture and history like
that but the answer to this is actually
rather simple if you examine
geopolitical developments within
Thailand in the 19th and 20th centuries
so the nation-state was a form of
governance that arose rather recently
and it’s attributable to many things
things like the development of
capitalism mercantilism political
economy and territorial geography and
one of the most obvious impacts of this
form of governance is that the central
government mandates a uniform cultural
identity through instruments like state
policy they advocate for things like a
common ancestry common heritage and
crucially a common language
now when a vast nation with nuanced
cultural differences is forced to speak
a single language a phenomenon known as
linguistic imperialism arises and it’s a
form of imperialism that is within a
country’s own borders now if we view
this issue from a sociolinguistic
perspective it becomes apparent that
this phenomenon is akin to the Darwin
Darwinist theory of natural selection
and I apologize for any
oversimplifications but allow me to put
it this way we can view the centrally
mandated dominant language as a species
with highly favorable traits and
adaptations because it gives people
higher socio-economic standing for
example it gives people access to
greater jobs it allows for greater class
prestige and possibly even political
power all the while non-standard
indigenous dialects are left to fester
and speakers of these languages are not
able to pass the backbone of their
culture on to offspring
therefore the younger generation are
barred from getting knowledge that was
accumulated over generations and
generations now the Thai story follows
this system this model
word for word and the origins of a
nationalist central government can
actually be traced back to the reign of
his majesty the king rama v who
established the mun portent system or
the regional system which was a means of
administering the country during the
period of rampant French and British
colonialism in Southeast Asia power
radiated from the central authority
towards the most far-flung regions of
the nation and all this was an extremely
effective and necessary measure that
sealed at the country and protected its
independence one of the main impacts of
this was that it set the stage for the
decline of culture and languages in all
of the countries three principal regions
the north the Northeast and the south
the central Thai dialect which we’re all
familiar with today
was designated as the lingua franca of
this new nation so
in the north local lords and Kings lost
their power resulting in the decline of
the land now language and their culture
in the north in the Northeast the
various dialects of the Isan language
spoken which is was written at the level
it was written with the Liao’s and
alphabet at the time this alphabet was
banned and replaced with the central
Thai alphabet in order to forge a more
close connection with the dominant
culture and in the deep south where
citizens are predominantly Muslim their
culture was discouraged as well as
central ties fears and Muslims spheres
diverged what happened was the Arabic
script that was used to write many many
languages of the Malay people of the
South was also discouraged and replaced
with central Thai as a language of
instruction now a phenomenon like this
raises a vast socio-economic
implications because when you rob a
community of their language you’re
robbing them of their self-worth pride
identity culture history and as a result
of this it impedes political power it
creates a sense of dependency on the
main dominant culture and in addition to
this it creates the system of negative
associations and what I mean by this is
for example in Thailand urbanites and
urban dwellers may for example view
speakers of many non-standard dialects
such as the asan dialect of the
Northeast they may associate these
people with the working-class uneducated
bumpkins people with no education which
is an unfortunate perception but it is
true in some cases today
if you travel up north you’ll find that
the use of the lonna language in
professional settings is essentially
defunct and that it’s used and reserved
for specific religious institutions or
in familial or home settings and while
studies by local universities in the
region have in fact found out that these
languages are favourable you looked upon
by inhabitants and people like just see
it incorporated into their curricula
they want to know how to read and write
and speak as well as their ancestors did
the sheer impracticality of having this
as a language has prevented such reform
from happening
similarly if
the deep south UNESCO just recently
designated the but the knee dialect of
the Malay language as vulnerable and
at-risk of endangerment this is once
again due to the overwhelming influence
of the dominant central Thai culture the
United Nations once stated that in
regards to language language is
intrinsically linked to and a part of
indigenous peoples cultures and beliefs
it marks their distinctiveness and
cohesiveness as ethnic groups for
example without language would you excel
be able to connect with your Tamil
culture and ancestry you of sharra are
able to enjoy the dances songs religion
and arts of your ancestry because you
know your native language now this leads
on to my next point
what change can we implement well this
is where we all come in
even though linguistic imperialism as I
have put it is a rampant issue in
Thailand it is far from an isolated
phenomenon and I trust that in all of
your respective countries this
phenomenon is occurring as well and I
also trust that in all of your
respective countries all vulnerable
communities have something inherently
worth preserving whether it be lower
mythology dance culture history all of
that take for example the color wire
people of Bolivia who have a language
intrinsically linked to medicinal plants
of the rainforest and some of this
knowledge is not even known to Western
science or the Soraa language of some
tribes living in the erisa state of
India who the morphological properties
of which are so valuable to the studies
of linguistics a national social survey
carried out in the northern part of
Australia in the Torres Strait region
also discovered that Aboriginal citizens
who speak indigenous languages are in
markedly better physical and mental
health they are less likely to be
arrested by the police on charges for
drug abuse or alcohol
and those between the ages of 13 and 17
in rural and urban areas are in fact
more likely to be found in schools now
what can we do as individuals you may be
asking yourself how can i as an
individual save an entire culture or
save an entire language for that matter
now I’m not asking for anyone to
implement drastic social change or
political reform but I think the first
thing that we have to consider is
recognize this parado
this plurality of languages in your
nation question whether one single
language in a vastly diverse country is
in fact the best solution I’m not
advocating for any political agenda or
some globalist dogma but I’m looking at
this from a political perspective
because if you give a person their
heritage back their culture back and
their history back you are arming them
with the necessary means to be empowered
and be active members of their
communities and if you have the chance
interact with people from these minority
indigenous groups they may be more there
may be more around you than you think
and I previously stated that learning
languages may be difficult due to the
really few resources available but some
but there’s vast new amounts of research
being put forth that will allow for this
to happen soon so learn and learn a few
words learn a few phrases learn a bit of
grammar and the more linguistically
conscious you become the longer these
languages will survive and they won’t be
victims of linguistic imperialism as a
member of the Navajo Nation once said
every breath that you take without a
language that is your own you might as
well be dead already
thank you [Applause]
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