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54 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 54 Redefining çThainessé: Embracing Diversity, Preserving Unity Redefining çThainessé: Embracing Diversity, Preserving Unity Suwilai Premsrirat Resource Center for Documentation, Revitalization and Maintenance of Endangered Languages and Cultures, Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University Abstract The 21 st century is an age of rapid change. Language loss, like the loss of biodiversity, is accelerating at an alarming rate. Sixty to ninety percent of the worldûs languages are in danger of disappearing (Krauss 1992). This leads directly to a significant loss of human knowledge. Globalization and nationalism have contributed to the forced assimilation of diverse linguistic and cultural resources into dominant cultures. International organizations have responded by calling for the protection and preservation of language and cultural diversity through consecutive campaigns to raise awareness of this global issue. This paper examines the consequences of the successful promotion of the concept of çThainessé as used for the purpose of nation-building. However, despite its obvious national benefit in unifying the country for administrative purposes, it has also had a serious detrimental effect, in particular, contributing to the loss of language diversity as now evidenced by the 15 most endangered languages of Thailand (Suwilai 2007). In large language groups in border regions, such as the Patani Malay in Southern Thailand, language identity issues and cultural conflict underlie the violence and political unrest. There are concerted efforts by grassroots communities to reverse the situation, with the technical support of academics, to revitalize and maintain their language and culture in various ways, including education. One especially important method is through the teaching of the ethnic language as a main subject and the provision of mother tongue-based bilingual education, in a number of languages, including Patani Malay. 54-75_mac9 5/3/12, 10:42 PM 54