Lexical Variations of Thai Phuan in Ban Phue District, Udon Thani Province

Abstract

This article aims to analyze lexical variations in three generations of Thai Phuan speakers in Ban Phue District, Udon Thani Province. A wordlist of 233 items in Thai Phuan was used for elicitation of language data. The informants were nine females divided into three groups: older generation informants who were 65 years old or older (G1), middle generation informants who were 40-50 years old (G2), and younger generation informants who were 15-25 years old (G3). The results of the study show that informants in the older generation use Thai Phuan lexical items more than informants in the other groups. The informants in the younger generation, on the other hand, use Thai Phuan lexical items less than the other groups. However, the informants in the older generation exhibited the highest use of Thai Phuan lexical items mixed with other lexical items. Additionally, it was found that there were two categories of lexical variants: lexical variants in Thai Phuan and lexical variants in other dialects. This study found a loss of lexical items in Thai Phuan due to usage of lexical items from Standard Thai and Isan, the northeastern Thai dialect.