ETHNIC TONGUES ARE UNDER THREAT IN THAILAND
An ensemble of traditional musicians begins to play. The treble sound of the oboe gets louder. Drum rolls accompany a steady rhythm of cymbals. A male singer croons in an unfamiliar dialect, “Oh, Ga Nobe Ting Tong …”
Nearby, a group of four women clad in shiny eggshell-colour silk blouses and red sarongs dance along to the music.
They slide their legs from left to right, then right to left, weaving their arms in the air — just like the movement of a dancing mantis.
The hall is filled with curious audiences from various ethnic groups who gather annually for Mother Language Day on Feb 21. Animated music and unfamiliar dialects make a surprisingly good combination.
Among the musicians on stage, the youngest, Peerapat Pama, 17, takes part in his mother-tongue performance with pride.
“Ga Nobe Ting Tong” means mantis in the Khmer Thin Thai dialect, which is spoken by 1.4 million descendants of Khmer migrants in Thailand’s northeastern provinces of Buri Ram, Si Sa Ket and Surin. It is also the name of a traditional performance in the lower part of the Northeast that associates a dancing mantis and singing about flirtation. Singers may invent their own lyrics.
Khmer Thin Thai is among the endangered languages in Thailand that will likely vanish as the young generation abandons them for the dominant Thai language.
Khmer Thin Thai is among the endangered languages in Thailand that will likely vanish as the young generation abandons them for the dominant Thai language.
Peerapat’s younger sister avoids speaking the dialect even at home.
She worries that her ethnic dialect will influence her Thai, which also means being looked down on by her peers. She also fears that people will assume that she, as a migrant based on her exotic accent, is an “underdeveloped” person.
In the siblings’ home village in Ban Prue in Surin’s Prasat district, just 56 kilometres from the Thai-Cambodian border, the family earns a fair income by growing rice and raising mulberry silkworms. Some villagers do not teach their children the Khmer Thin Thai dialect, expecting them to assimilate into Thai society.
“Maybe our next generation will forget about our mother tongue despite the advantages it gives us,” says Peerapat. “It allows us to communicate with people across the border.”