Tai-Kadai · ISO 639-3 sou
Southern Thai Language ภาษาปักษ์ใต้
Southern Thai is a Tai-Kadai language spoken by about 5.5 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Thai script.
Where Southern Thai is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Southern Thai
Language family
- Tai-Kadai
- Kam-Tai
- Daic-Beic
- Daic
- Central-Southwestern Tai
- Wenma-Southwestern Tai
- Sapa-Southwestern Tai
- Southwestern Tai
- Southwestern Thai PH
- Lao-Thai
- Southern Thai
Writing system
Thai script
Related languages
About the Southern Thai language
Southern Thai (ภาษาปักษ์ใต้) is spoken by about 5.5 million people, which makes it the 172nd most spoken language in the world — just behind Kabyle (5.6 million) and ahead of Sukuma (5.4 million). It belongs to the Tai-Kadai language family and, more precisely, to the Lao-Thai group within the Daic-Beic branch.
Where is Southern Thai spoken?
Southern Thai is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Thailand (5.6 million).
Southern Thai is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Southern Thai is written in the Thai script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Thai, Northeastern Thai, Lao, Northern Thai, Shan, Tai Dam and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 sou.
Frequently asked questions about Southern Thai
How many people speak Southern Thai?
Where is Southern Thai spoken?
What language family does Southern Thai belong to?
What is Southern Thai called in Southern Thai?
Is Southern Thai an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.