สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 55 Suwilai Premsrirat As for society at large, a multilingual / multicultural society should be promoted to accommodate this undervalued cultural diversity. The notion of çThainessé needs to be broadened to offer ethnolinguistic groups their own space within Thai political society on an equal basis so that they may be empowered to live a dignified life with security, justice and opportunity. Central to this is access to quality education and employment, to reinvigorate their culture and linguistic identity. A national language policy that supports the use of ethnic languages in public life, education and local mass media is a must to meet the demands and needs of the various marginalized minority groups in Thailand. Such a policy will open up opportunities to positively exploit the variety of accumulated wealth and wisdom embodied within such unique cultures and linguistic histories, and will provide sustainable public benefits in terms of both economic and security gains. Key words : language endangerment, national language policy Topics for discussion I. The Reality of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Thailand II. Language Endangerment Issue III. Language Revival Efforts from Grassroots Communities and Indigenous Rights Movements (focusing on education) IV. International Responses V. Redefining çThainessé VI. Reconsideration of National Language Policy VII. Conclusion I. The reality of linguistic and cultural diversity in Thailand Geographically, Thailand is situated at the center of Mainland SEA which is one of the most complex areas of languages and ethnicities in the world (with around 1,000 languages). The linguistic diversity of Thailand is evident by the fact that with a population of 60 million, speaking more than 70 living languages, belonging to five language families: Tai (24 languages), Austroasiatic (23 languages), Austronesian (3 languages), Sino›Tibetan (18 languages) and Hmong-Mien (2 languages). Thai is the official / national language. Details can be found at Suwilai Premsrirat (2009). 54-75_mac9 5/3/12, 10:42 PM 55