lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Kasong, also previously known as "Chong of Trat", is an endangered Pearic language of the Austroasiatic family spoken in Bo Rai District,[2] Trat Province of Thailand.[3] On the basis of lexical similarity determined with a relatively short word list, Kasong has been classified as a dialect of Central Chong.[4] However, further study and longer word lists point to Kasong being a separate language closely related to Chong and Samre.[3][2] Kasong is nearly extinct; there are no monolinguals and all speakers use Thai as their primary language.

Kasong
Chong of Trat
Native to	Thailand
Region	Trat Province
Native speakers	50 (2008)[1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Pearic Chong Central Chong Kasong
Writing system	none
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	None
ELP	Kasong

Of the vocabulary tested, a study found 55.38 percent of the language to consist of Thai loanwords.[3] These loanwords are grouped into two subtypes: direct from Thai or a Thai word added to an existing Kasong word.[3] This high percentage is indicative of the language's route to potential extinction as Thai displaces it.

More than 50 years ago,^[when?] all Kasong people were forbidden to use the Kasong language in their families and with others as a result of governors believing that speaking Kasong interfered with speaking Thai.[3] Thus, Kasong speakers taught their descendants Thai instead of Kasong.[3] Thai nationalism led to the Kasong people becoming ashamed of their language and not being concerned with its preservation.[3] The Kasong language and its people is representative of Thailand's many ethnolinguistic minorities.[5]

References

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