สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 49 Nitaya Kanchanawan called Pradu in Thai. Although there are slight variations in the Chong spoken in different areas, there is mutual understanding among the Chong people. At present, however, the survival of the Chong language is in a critical state. Many Chong senior citizens are afraid that the language may disappear, since there are only about 500 fluent Chong speakers in Chanthaburi/Trat, and most are over 50 years of age. Mahidol University is now trying to revive and revitalize the language by urging the local people to participate in recording the spoken language and by transcribing it into written form. A local school, Ban Khlong Phlu, is now offering a course on the Chong language to students from Prathom 3 (Grade 3) to Prathom 5 (Grade 5) as part of the local curriculum content. (Suwilai Premsrirat et al. , 2007). The revival of dialects such as Chong by creating a writing system using Thai characters is one means of preserving the local culture. Thus, in 2009 the Royal Institute appointed a Committee to Create a Writing System Using Thai Characters for Thai Dialects and Ethnic Languages (Royal Institute 2009). 45-53_mac9 5/3/12, 10:08 PM 49