Nitaya Kanchanawan
Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute Academy of Arts
Abstract
There are two meanings of Thai-ization: Thai domination and using Thai characters in written system a´ la Romanization. In the case of the Chong ethnic language in Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Trat provinces where there is no written system, Thai-ization is used to preserve local identity. In the case of the Malayu Patani ethnic language in Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces, Thai-ization is used for the sake of bilingual education.
Key words: Thai-ization, phonemic transcription, phonetic transcription, Romanized transcription, Thai-ized transcription