Tai-Kadai · ISO 639-3 tha · th
Thai Language ภาษาไทย
Thai is a Tai-Kadai language spoken by about 55 million people in 2 countries. It is an official language of Thailand. It is written in the Thai script.
Where Thai is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
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
- Thai
Writing system
Thai script
Related languages
About the Thai language
Thai (ภาษาไทย) is spoken by about 55 million people, which makes it the 32nd most spoken language in the world — just behind Gujarati (60 million) and ahead of Iranian Persian (53 million). It belongs to the Tai-Kadai language family and, more precisely, to the Lao-Thai group within the Daic-Beic branch.
Where is Thai spoken?
Thai is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Thailand (56 million) and Singapore (42,199). More than half of the population speaks it in Thailand — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Thai: Thailand 80% (56 million) and Singapore 0.7% (42,199).
Thai is an official language in 1 country: Thailand.
Writing system and status
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 Northeastern Thai, Southern Thai, Lao, Northern Thai, Shan, Tai Dam and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 th, ISO 639-3 tha.
Frequently asked questions about Thai
How many people speak Thai?
Where is Thai spoken?
In which countries is Thai an official language?
What language family does Thai belong to?
What is Thai called in Thai?
Is 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.