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The Languages and Dialects of Southeast Asia:
 How on Earth Do They Mean
What They Mean When They Say What They Say? 

Susan Carley  

The Academic Setting 

Setting 

Rio Rancho, New Mexico, is a growing town located just northwest of Albuquerque and the Rio Grande River.  Just ten years ago Rio Rancho had less than 25,000 people, currently there are 50,000, and it is anticipated that by 2010 there will be more than 100,000.  The presence of Intel in the community brings a numbers of employees and their families to the area.  Consequently, many families come from other parts of the country and world, which adds to the richness of the economic and cultural diversity as well as the background experience of the students that attend Rio Rancho High School. 

            Rio Rancho High School currently has over 3100 students and is the largest high school in New Mexico.  In its five years of serving students, the high school has included grades nine through twelve.  Beginning in the 2002 – 2003 school year the high school will only include grades ten through twelve and the ninth graders will be going to a new mid-high academy for eighth and ninth graders on a separate campus. Students at the high school enroll in one of the four academies: Humanities, Science, Fine Arts, and Business and Technology. 

            Rio Rancho High School requires students to take a humanities class each year.  The humanities program combines social studies with language arts in a yearlong course. The high school uses a 90-minute 4-block schedule.   

The tenth grade humanities curriculum incorporates world history with language arts and literature.  World humanities encompasses many themes: geography and human interaction, history, politics, economy, religions, culture, literature, achievements, and ideas. The study of languages and writing systems fits well within the history of ideas and achievements of a culture.    

Humanities 10 covers ancient times through the Industrial Revolution.  (Current global issues and world affairs from 1900 to present are taught later in Humanities 12.) The fall semester covers Mesopotamia, classical civilizations including Greece and Rome, and the rise of Europe.  Included in the curriculum is the study of the spread of Proto Indo European languages.  During this semester students will have the opportunity to explore the spread and changes in the English language as well as the various other languages included within the Germanic family. The Indo-European will be revisited later in the spring when students study India.  

The spring semester includes all other major civilizations around the world.  One of the units includes Southeast Asia.  One of the more remarkable traits of this region is that is includes more language dialects than any other area in the world. Generally speaking each country of Southeast Asia has a dominant language, but each of these languages has a wide variety of dialects spoken in different areas within the countries. It is also a region of incredible human mass migration.  This makes it an ideal place to stop and examine the effects of geography and social history on the development and change in language. This is the perfect place to stop and ask the question, “How did the coconut get to Gilligan’s Island?” or rather, “How did all these people get to Southeast Asia and why don’t they all call a coconut a coconut?”  Students will be challenged to answer the question, “How did all these people get to Southeast Asia and why do they speak so many forms of the same language?” 

Goals 

Students will engage in upper level thinking skills including analysis and synthesis of information by reading about the history, geography, and languages of Southeast Asia, making predictions and writing about cause and effect, and presenting information to the rest of the class.   Secondarily, but no less important, another goal is for students to gain an appreciation for the richness and beauty of the wealth of languages in Southeast Asia. 

Objectives 

Objective One: Students will analyze the history of the countries of Southeast Asia including economy, society, politics, geography, and achievements.

Objective Two: Students will make logical predictions regarding the effects of geography and history on the languages of Southeast Asia.

Objective Three: Students will analyze the languages of the countries of Southeast Asia.

Objective Four: Students will present information on the history and languages of one country in Southeast Asia. 

Context and Background 

All of this begins with one simple statement from the World History textbook.  Had the book said more I might not have been driven to such curiosity:  “It has been said that a greater number of different languages are spoken in Southeast Asia than in any area of comparable size on Earth” (Spielvogel 328).

 

The rest, as they say, is history. 

The Geography of Southeast Asia 

The region of Southeast Asia, for the purposes of this study, includes those countries that lie south of China and east of India, including both the mainland and the archipelago of Indonesia (Spielvogel 327). Southeast Asia is sandwiched between two areas with expanding populations and throughout history has felt this pressure from China and India.            

Two major mountain ranges extend southward from China to the Bay of Bengal in the west and the South China Sea in the east (Mapmaker). These form five major river systems that begin in China and run south through Southeast Asia:  the Irrawaddy and Salween in Burma, the Chao Phraya in Thailand, and the Mekong and Red River in Vietnam (Spielvogel 328). The two oldest civilizations in Southeast Asia arose along the delta areas of the Mekong and Red Rivers: Funan and Vietnam. The mountains and dense forest restricted east west movement.  Contact among lowland people from other river deltas was limited as well as contact with upland mountain people (Spielvogel 328).  

            These geographical barriers caused distinct cultures to emerge. As a result there has never been a single unified government in this region as there has in China and India. Borrowing from the dominant cultures surrounding it, the people of Southeast Asia developed differing customs, clothes, religions, and languages. 

The Countries of Southeast Asia: Histories 

The Oldest Civilizations: Vietnam and Funan 

Two major civilizations flourished in Southeast Asia.  The Vietnamese civilizations emerged around the delta of the Red River in northern Vietnam.  The Funan civilization settled to the south around the delta of the Mekong River (Mapmaker).  The people of Funan are the ancestors of the Khmer people of Cambodia today. These two major groups, as well as a few others that migrated into the region at later times, were left to create some of the most unique and diverse cultures on the globe.  Up until the 1500s and despite 1000 years of Chinese overrule in Vietnam, these kingdoms remained relatively stable, each having its own ethnic, linguistic, and cultural style.  Because of this stable past, these cultures survived the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and other incursions during the Age of Exploration in the 1500s and the period of European colonization in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Vietnam 

The Vietnamese civilization dates back as far as 1000 BC and began state formation around 200 BC. They had little time to solidify as a culture before the Chinese overran the region.  Expansion of the Han Dynasty to the north in China left Vietnam under Chinese rule for the next 1000 years (Spielvogel 328).  

During this period, Vietnam followed a Chinese style of political rule and government.  Local rulers took civil service exams, which were administered in Chinese, to earn government positions. The region had a centralized government with local authorities.  The village was the basic unit of political division and each village had considerable autonomy (Farrah 352).    

The Vietnamese were exposed to the Chinese system of education as well as Chinese poetry and literature. The Vietnamese adopted the use of Chinese characters for writing (Spielvogel 337). Despite Chinese being the language of politics and power, the Vietnamese retained the use of their own language throughout this period. By AD 900, Vietnamese poetry and essays begin to appear (Spielvogel 337). They practiced a blended form of animism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism (Farrah 354). The Vietnamese retained their own dress and hairstyles (Spielvogel 328). 

After 1000 years of rule, the Chinese colonialism ultimately failed to affect the Vietnamese culture.  

The people are like birds and beasts; they wear their hair tied up and go barefoot, while for clothing they simply cut a hole in a piece of cloth for their head or they fasten their garments on the left side (in barbarian style).  It is useless to try to change them (Taylor 75).
 

Taking advantage of revolts in China during the Tang Dynasty, the Vietnamese launched an attack to regain control of the region from the Chinese. In the 900s, Vietnam entered into an agreement that it would pay tribute to China so long as China would not reinvade Vietnam (Farrah 354).

The Vietnamese kept the Chinese system of government while the villages remained basically independent but maintained Vietnamese culture in all other aspects (Spielvogel 330). Generally, the majority of the population lived in small villages. Vietnam limited the size of estates to prevent the growth of the aristocracy (Spielvogel 335).  

With success in pushing China out of the Red River region, the Dai Viet, “the Great Viet” turned their attention to the south.  Beginning in the 1300s, the Vietnamese began the “March to the South.”  Over the next 200 years, the Vietnamese pushed southward toward the Gulf of Siam forcing the Khmer people out of the Mekong delta region to the north and west (Spielvogel 330).   

Vietnam remained isolated and undisturbed during the age of exploration despite the Portuguese having found their way through the Straits of Malacca to China.  There were no major trade routes through the region and no perceived resources to be plundered (Spielvogel 331).  An emperor ruled Vietnam during this period with a government still based on the Chinese Confucian model.  Villages retained considerable freedom and independence.  Rule from one village to the next could vary widely (Spielvogel 507). 

While there was little threat from outside at this time, within Vietnam a political division occurred in the early 1800s in which north and south Vietnam had separate governments (Spielvogel 731). In 1858, the French took advantage of the chaos and under the guise of protecting the Christian missionaries there, launched an attack, taking the Mekong delta region and Saigon (Farrah 475).  By 1884, France had taken all of Vietnam and controlled it as a protectorate through indirect rule. The French remained in control of Vietnam into the 1900s, yet there was little cultural interaction between the majority of Vietnamese and French rulers.  Education was limited and the small middle class was predominately trained in western style schools in western languages (Spielvogel 731 and 733). As a result and just as with the Chinese rule, Vietnam’s own culture was not deeply influenced by the French.

Funan 

The Funan civilization arose in Southeast Asia sometime around AD 200. These people are the ancestors of the present day Khmer people of Cambodia.  They were a farming and trading society.  They were heavily influenced by the Indian culture, which they came in contact with through trade.   They worshipped Indian gods and styled their art and architecture after Indian models.  Sanskrit was the official language of Funan (Spielvogel 328).  

Around AD 800, the Funan civilization collapsed as a result of invasions by the Angkor Empire to the west.  Under the rule of Jayavarman, the god-king, the capital was moved to Angkor Thom. Jayavarman modeled the government on Indian forms including a hereditary monarchy.  The empire’s wealth was based predominantly on farming, but also included some trade with India and China (Spielvogel 331).  Society was structured on a caste system, much like India, and the majority of people lived in villages at a subsistence level (Spielvogel 334).  

Jayavarman continued to worship Hindu gods as the Funan had and he commissioned the building of Angkor Wat, a massive Hindu temple. Buddhism also spread into Southeast Asia from India and was practiced in Angkor (Farrah 352). 

For several hundred years Angkor became the major power in Southeast Asia.  Jayavarman expanded the empire in all directions.  They gained territory to the north and west from Burma and the Thai people who had been migrating out of China as well as pushing east and north into Vietnam (Spielvogel 331).   

Unfortunately, the expense of building Angkor Wat, in-fighting among the royal family members, and rebellions within the empire weakened it.  In the 1300s, the Thai people migrating south from China invaded and successfully overtook the northern region of Angkor, which is now part of modern day Thailand.  By 1432, the Thais had overtaken Angkor Thom forcing the Khmer people to move their capital to Phnom Penh (Spielvogel 331). By 1500, the Vietnamese had finished the March to the South and had retaken the Mekong delta region all the way west to the Gulf of Siam.  Finally, by 1800, the Khmer monarchy was virtually gone (Spielvogel 503).  In 1880, France extended a direct colonial rule over Cambodia (Spielvogel 732-3).  

Thailand 

The people of Thailand were frontier people that migrated south from China from AD 500 to 700. Pressure from Mongol invasions from the north in the 1100s forced the Thais to continue to move southward into Southeast Asia and settle areas formally controlled by the Khmer (Spielvogel 331).    King Sukhothai in north central Thailand established a formal kingdom in 1238.  During the rule of King Ramkhamhaeng from 1275 to 1317, the Thais adapted a writing system for their language based on the Khmer writing system (Farrah 355).  

The Thais moved down the Chao Phraya Valley over the next several hundred years and finally conquered Angkor in 1432.  The capital city was located further south in Ayuthaya.  The kingdom further expanded into Burma and the Malay Peninsula (Farrah 355).   

During this period, the Thais created a unique culture based on Chinese origins and eventually dominated by Indian influences.  The Thais adopted an Indian form of government (Spielvogel 331).  Thailand had a centralized government with civil and military branches.  There was a rigid class system.  Society was structured around nuclear families with women unable to own land. While they adopted Buddhism from India, they also practiced forms of Hinduism and Animism (Farrah 475). Generally, they had an agricultural society (Spielvogel 505). 

By the 1500s, Thailand had achieved a stable kingdom with its own cultural and linguistic characteristics.    In 1767, the Thais moved the capital further south to Bangkok as a result of invasions from Burma (Spielvogel 503). Eventually the Thais successfully repelled and defeated the Burmans to the west and renamed the country Siam (Farrah 475).  

There was limited interaction between the Thais and the Portuguese and later the Dutch and English during the age of exploration.  The Thais closed their doors to missionaries and foreign trade with Europe in 1612 and did not allow the doors to reopen until 1826.  By the 1890s, Thailand, which managed to remain free throughout the period of colonization in Southeast Asia, began a period of western contact and education (Spielvogel 732). Thailand had ended slavery, founded schools, built roads, and encouraged foreign travel (Farrah 475).  Currently four-fifth of all people in Thailand are ethnic Thais (Farrah 355).  

Burma 

The Mon people settled the southern area of present-day Myanmar around 200 BC to 100AD.  In the northern region, the Tibeto-Burmans migrated into Southeast Asia from the Tibetan highlands to escape the Chinese army around AD 500. The Burmans dominated the region pushing the Mon people further to the south and establishing a capital at Pagan (Farrah 354).            

By 1100, the Burmans had established the first state of Pagan.  They modeled their government after India’s and adopted Theravada Buddhism.  By 1200, Pagan became a Buddhist center for learning in Southeast Asia (Farrah 354). At the time, Pagan took an active role in sea trade between India and China as well as posing an active threat to its neighbors to the east, Thailand and Angkor (Spielvogel 332). While pastoral at first, the Burmans became an agricultural society. A caste system was instituted in their society and organized around nuclear families (Spielvogel 331-2). 

In the 1200s, the Mongols successfully invaded northern Pagan forcing the Burmans to move the capital city south.  The Burmans did not regain the territory taken by the Mongols until the 1500s (Farrah 354). Within the next 100 years, Pagan began an invasion into Thai territory taking its capital and forcing the Thais to relocate in Bangkok (Spielvogel 503).  

The Burmese, like the Thais, had limited contact with European traders and thus survived the age of exploration relatively intact (Spielvogel 505). Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the colonization period of the 1800s.  Britain colonized Burma in the 1850s ending the Burmese kingdom (Farrah 731).

Malaysia 

In the 600s two distinct political groups existed in Malaysia: Sri Vijaya around the Straits of Malacca and Sailendra located in Eastern Java. Sri Vijaya was a trading society while Sailendra was a farming society.   In the late 1200s Sailendra conquered Sri Vijaya and created a new kingdom called Singhasari.  This kingdom was influenced by India, which it had come into contact with through trade (Spielvogel 334).     

This kingdom was threatened by a Mongol invasion in the 1300s.  The Malaysians eventually repelled the Mongols and founded a new kingdom in the region, Majapahit. This new kingdom had little peace before the influx of Muslims along the trade routes in the 1400s.  The Muslims created settlements along the Straits of Malacca and took control of the mainland, thus allowing the new Sultan of Malacca to control the trade routes of Southeast Asia.   Majapahit remained in the eastern part of Malaysia with an Indian influenced culture while the Muslims practiced Islam and were influenced by the cultures of the Middle East and Northern India (Spielvogel 334).   

In the major cities along the coast, the economy was based on trade and became a leading power in the region as well as a major Islamic influence (Spielvogel 504). In the rural areas, people generally subsided on farming, roads were poor with most travel occurring along rivers, trade was generally done locally, and society was organized around extended families (Spielvogel 334).  

Beginning in the 1500s, the Portuguese defeated the Muslims and took control of Malacca and the coastal areas of Malaysia building forts along the way.  Their reign was also short lived as the English and then Dutch successively came into and dominated the region.  The English controlled Sumatra while the Dutch controlled all other coastal areas. Eventually the Dutch came to control Sumatra as well by 1620 (Spielvogel 504-5).  During the period of colonization in Southeast Asia, Malaysia remained under indirect rule by the Dutch.  In 1819, the British agreed to give up all interests in the East Indies in exchange for control of Singapore, which the Dutch had controlled up to that point (Spielvogel 731).  

Laos 

Laos was settled by a group of Mon peoples moving westward out of Vietnam as a result of expansion in Champa in the 400s. The Mon kingdom of Candapuri is the earliest name for the present-day capital of Vientiane. The Funan civilization also dominated part of what is now central Laos. This new kingdom, Nan-chao, gained power by dominating the southern Silk Road and other major trade routes.  This was a poly-ethnic and military dominated state, which brought Tantric Buddhism of Bengal to Southeast Asia (Library Of Congress, Power Centers 1).  Nan-chao expanded its territory so that by the 700s it had taken control of some of the areas to the south that had been Khmer.  Up until the 1200s Nan-chao struggled with its neighbors for control of the region (Library Of Congress, Power Centers 2).  

In 1253, the Mongols defeated Nan-chao and made it a province of their empire and named it Yunnan (Library Of Congress, Mongol Influence 1). Mongol rule was unpopular and led to a series of uprisings it the region.  With the help of the Khmer army, the Mongols were ousted from Southeast Asia in the mid-1300s. A new kingdom of Lan Xang was established that included Thais, Laotians, and hill tribes and lasted for the next 300 years (Library Of Congress, Founding of Lan Xang 1).   

In the late 1600s, rivals for the throne caused the kingdom to be split into three areas: Louangphrabang, Vientiane, and Champasak.  At this time Lan Xang had established a relationship with Vietnam.  The Vietnamese named Vientiane Vientiane Van Tuong, “the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Elephants” (Library Of Congress, The Hold of Siam 1). While they coexisted with Vietnam, this was not the case with its neighbors to the west and east.  Siamese and Burmese attacked and succeeded in taking Vientiane and Louangphrabang in 1778.  Vientiane was destroyed in 1827 after a rebellion against the Siamese.  This lead to a period of direct rule by Siam in this region.  Later in the 1800s, the Hmong migrated into the Southeast Asian area of Laos (Library Of Congress, The Division of Lan Xang 1).  

French explorers also found their way to this region to find that the Siamese and Vietnamese were fighting for control of the territory (Library of Congress, Developments in the 19^th Century 1). In 1883, the French government forced Siam to relinquish all control of lands west of the Mekong River. The following year, the French colonized Vietnam and Laos (Library Of Congress, The Eviction of Siam 1). The French initially split Laos into two regions with separate governments, but shortly thereafter reintegrated the country under the rule of one administrator. As a result of the French colonization, Laos was a single political entity extending from China in the north, the Cambodian border to the south, and the Mekong River to the west, and owed allegiance to neither the Siamese nor Vietnamese (Library Of Congress, Laos Under the French 1).     

The lowland Laotians, Lao Loum, make up the majority of the population, at sixty-six percent. These peoples comprise a variety of different ethnic groups that began moving into the southern region 1000 years ago (Library Of Congress, Ethnic Diversity 1-2).  The Lao Loum lived in independent villages located near rivers and led by a village chief. Generally, the economy was based on rice cultivation. Society was organized around nuclear families, which were about six to eight people in size (Library Of Congress, Lowland Lao Society 1-3). 

The Lao Theung, midland peoples, constitute about twenty-four percent of the population and are thought to have originated in the southern area but were displaced by the lowland peoples.   The midland Laotians are culturally and linguistically more diverse than the other groups within Laos (Library Of Congress, Ethnic Diversity 1-2).    Generally, they lived in villages that were smaller than those of the lowland. They subsist predominantly on rice cultivation, but also engage in hunting and gathering in the forest surrounding the villages. A village chief that acts as intermediary between the village and the national government heads the local government (Library Of Congress, Midland Lao Society 1-4). 

The Lao Sung, highlands people, make up the last ten percent of the population and migrated into Laos from China. The Hmong are the most numerous within the highland group (Library Of Congress, Ethnic Diversity 1-2). The Hmong migrated into Laos in the 1800s from China.  Most groups in the highlands are considered migratory. Village government is centered around an administrative committee, but clan elders are also consulted in important decisions (Library Of Congress, Upland Lao Society 5).  

Of the ethnic groups in Laos, only the lowland peoples had formal education and the only group with a written form of their language.  Until the mid 1900s, the major centers for learning were the Buddhist temples.  During colonization by France, the French started schools that taught in French.  This affected only a small elite within Laos (Library Of Congress Education, 1).  

Only fifteen percent of Laos is currently living in urban areas. The only major city is Vientiane with a population currently of over 250,000.  Only three other cities have populations over 20,000: Louangphrabang is one (Library Of Congress, Urban Centers 1).   

The Languages of Southeast Asia 

Migration and Language Change 

Southeast Asia was subject to one of the greatest migrations of humans in prehistory.  This migration began as an expansion of China and lead to the peopling of almost every island in the Pacific (Ruhlen 177–180). Language was carried along with this human migration from the north to southern regions of Southeast Asia.  This included the Sino-Tibetan, Austroasiatic, and Austronesian language families. Early migrations from India also brought Dravidian languages into the region. Dravidian language speakers were displaced when Proto Indo European speaking peoples migrated into India. 

            Languages change for a variety of reason.  Migration leads to loss of contact with the original language allowing for change.  Isolation of a group of language speakers can cause a different dialect to emerge. Humans also have a tendency to simplify for ease of articulation. Sometimes a new word is needed and it is either created or borrowed.  Another theory is that humans simply like change and language is a dynamic system that changes to reflect human tendencies (Ruhlen 29-30).  Finally, the Age-Area hypothesis would suggest that the longer a language is in an area the greater the possibility for dialects to develop (Ruhlen 173). 

Vietnam

Vietnam has fifty-four official ethnic communities and has ninety-four languages.  Of these ninety-four languages all are living except one. Vietnamese is the dominant language in the country spoken by eighty-four percent of the population.  The other languages represent a variety of Austronesian, Tibeto-Burman, and Daic languages.  The non-surviving language in Vietnam is Tay Boi, a French pidgin used predominantly in major ports (Lang. Of the World, Vietnam 1).  

            Vietnamese is classified as belonging to the Austro-Asiatic, Mon-Khmer, Viet Muoung, and Vietnamese language family. Several regional dialects are spoken in Vietnam: Northern, Central, and Southern (Lang. of the World, Vietnam 14).  The distribution of the various dialects within Vietnam reveal a large dialect cluster in the northern and southern parts of the country with several smaller clusters in the center (Grimes 761).            

            The Vietnamese language is composed of a Mon-Khmer substratum with a Sino-Tibetan influence superimposed on it. The Vietnamese languages began using a tonal system similar to the Tai language around AD 100 (Campbell 1435).  

            Until around AD 1000, Vietnamese used a Chinese script and pronunciation. During the Medieval Period from 1300 to 1600, the Vietnamese writing adopted a dual graph system in which the graph used for pronunciation was Chinese and the one for meaning was Vietnamese.  With the influx and influence of the Catholic missionaries, the Vietnamese began using Roman script in the 1600s. Finally, the current writing system, Quoc Ngur, which is the Roman script with added diacritic marks for vowels reflecting five of six tones used in the language. Quoc Ngur is considered to be the national script (Campbell 1435-6). 

            Vietnamese is a tonal language with six different tones: mid level, low falling, low broken, high rising, high broken, and low rising (Campbell 1436).  It is predominantly a monosyllabic language with polysyllabic words formed by hyphens.  The lexicon makes use of many loan words from Chinese, French, English, and Russian (Vuong 6). There is no inflection in Vietnamese; thus, word order is important. Verbs are not marked for tense. Pronouns reflect social status. Typical sentence word order is subject, verb, object, but can also be object, subject verb (Campbell 1439). 

Cambodia 

Cambodia has nineteen living languages of which Central Khmer is the dominant language. Central Khmer is spoken by ninety-four percent of the population.  Central Khmer is classified as part of the Austro-Asiatic, Mon-Khmer, Eastern Mon-Khmer, Khmer language family (Lang. of the World, Cambodia 1). The written form of the language is based on a script borrowed from India (Campbell 256). 

The other six percent of Cambodians speak a variety of Austronesian, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Lao languages.  Austronesian speakers are located predominantly along the coastal areas of the Gulf of Siam, while the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Lao speakers are located along the various borders that Cambodia shares with these countries (Grimes 747).  

Cambodian is a non-tonal language that generally stresses the last syllable of a word. The language has an abundance of vowel sounds, over 30.  Nouns and verbs are not inflected. Pronouns are determined by status (Campbell 257). The style of language used is determined by social status as well. A particular style is used for writing and formal occasions, one for royalty and Buddhist clergy, one for inferiors addressing superiors, one for superiors addressing inferiors, one that shows contempt, one for intimates, and even one for those of equal social status (Sos Introduction).            

Thailand 

Thailand has seventy-five languages spoken in the country. Thai is the dominant language spoken by ninety-three percent of the population. Thai is a language that is distinctly different for those around it such as Burmese, Cambodian, and Malay (Smyth 1). Thai has four different dialects: Northeast, Northern, Southern, and Thai (Lang. Of the World, Thailand 1).  The Northeast and Thai dialects are the dominant forms of the language in Thailand. Bangkok Standard constitutes the dialect of education and the media (Smyth 1). Thai belongs to the Tai family of languages along with Lao, Shan, and Yuan. From the 1100s to 1900 the language was called Siamese to reflect the change in the name of the country (Campbell 1341).   

The rest of the population in Thailand speaks various dialects of Austronesian, Tibeto-Berman, and Hmong languages (Lang. of the World, Thailand 1). Austronesian language speakers are found along the coastal areas, the Tibeto-Burman speakers in the northwest corner, Hmong speakers in the central region, and some Khmer speakers concentrated along the southeastern border (Grimes 746).  

Thai script is based on Khmer, which was borrowed form India. Vowels can be placed above or below the line and there are no spaces between words.  Thai is tonal with 5 different patterns: low, middle, high, low-falling, and rising.   For instance, the word Kao in a low tone means “news,” in a rising tone it means “white,” and in a falling tone it means “rice” (Smyth 1).   Nouns and verbs tend to be monosyllabic. Nouns are classified into categories such as people, books, and plants that will then govern different syntactic collocations of a noun and classifier. Sentences generally follow subject, verb, object word order (Campbell). 

Myanmar/Burma 

Myanmar currently has 108 language groups in the country.  Of these 107 are alive and one is dead. Burmese is the dominant language spoken in Myanmar with seventy-eight percent of the population speaking some dialect of it. Burmese is classified as a Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Lolo-Burmese, Burmese, Southern language. Other speakers in the country use a variety of Austro-Asiatic, Hmong-Mien, and Daic languages. The one extinct language is Pali from the Indo European family (Lang. of the World, Myanmar 1). Many of the spoken languages in Myanmar have eastern and western dialects and Burmese follows this pattern (Lang. of the World, Myanmar 8).  

            Tibeto-Burmese languages came from the southwestern region of China and are closely related to Yi, a language still spoken in China.  By AD 900, the language had blended with Mon-Khmer with Mon-Khmer supplying the substratum and writing system. There are three major dialects: Central, the formal and literary dialect; Arakanese; and Tavoli. Spoken Burmese appears to be influencing the more formal and written dialect of Burmese so that it reflects the spoken version (Campbell 241).  

The Indic script is derived from Mon-Khmer. The script includes 43 graphs: 11 vowels and 32 consonants.   Eleven of the graphs are coded for tone and all others may be diacritically marked. Long vowels have short and long pronunciations. They re represented by a double vowel script. All syllables must have a vowel in Thai (Campbell 241).   

Thai is a tone language with three contours: level, heavy falling, and creaky tone.  Nouns are not marked for grammatical gender and subjectless sentences abound. Derivation of verbs is achieved in an agglutinized manner before the verb.  New words are created through compounding.  For instance, the terms nya, ne, and saung are put together to mean afternoon.  The literal translation is “night,” “sun,” and “to lean.” Sentences typically follow the subject, verb, object word order (Campbell 242).  

Malaysia/Singapore 

Malaysia has thirty-nine languages spoken on the Malay Peninsula. Malay, in the Austronesian family, is the largest language with forty-seven percent of the population speaking it.  A variety of Chinese dialects make up about twenty-five percent of the languages in Malaysia. Baba Malay is a Chinese Malay Creole that only has about 1000 speakers left. The rest of the people of Malaysia speak a variety of Austro-Asiatic languages and Tamil.            

Malay is classified as belonging to the Astronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Sundic, Malayic, Malayan, Local Malay family group. There are many dialect groups that have only a few hundred to a few thousand speakers (Lang. Of the World, Malaysia 1-3).  

In the 1100s, Malay was mixed with Hindi to form a pidgin called Bazaar Malay, which was an administrative language and used to facilitate trade in the ports. This language remained in use during the rule of the Sultan of Malacca. Eventually the Dutch came into power in Malaysia and Dutch almost became the language for administration and trade. Instead, as nationalism swelled in Malaysia, Malay became the national language and today it is the most widely understood language in Indonesia. Malay uses a Roman script, but is also written in Rumi and has been translated in Arabic for religious texts.  

            Malaysian is not a tonal language, unlike many of its neighboring countries to the north.  Stress is generally placed on the penultimate syllable. Nouns are not marked for gender or number and verbs are not marked for tense. There are both formal and informal pronouns and there are classifiers for categories such as humans, animals, and things, but use of this system is becoming optional in the spoken language. New words are often created by blending the first syllables of the component root words.  For instance, Jatim is the combination of Jawa, “east,” and Timur, “Timor” (Campbell 615-7). 

            Singapore, at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, has twenty-one languages. It has four official languages: Bengali, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, and English, which is the language of instruction. There is a smattering of other languages in Singapore including Indonesian, Hindi, Thai, Korean, and Philipino. One of the smaller Austro-Asiatic dialect groups, Kensui, overlaps the border into Thailand.  The name means “debt slave” in Khmer and is the word for “aborigine” in Malay (Lang. of the World, Singapore 1). 

Laos 

There are eighty-two languages spoken in Laos and Lao is the official language of the country.  Lao constitutes the largest group of speakers with about seventy percent of the population. Along the border there are Austro-Asiatic speakers of Vietnamese and Khmer that constitute about twenty-five percent of the population (Lang. Of the World, Laos 1). Along the north is a small group of Tibeto-Burmese (Grimes 655).  Laos belongs to the Tai-Kadi, Kam-Tai, Be-Tai, Tai-Sek, Tai, Southwestern, East Central, Lo-Phati language family.   

The are several dialects of Lao including Tai Nua with 120,000 speakers and Puko that is spoken in only two villages in Central Laos (Lang. of the World, Laos 6-8). The north, central, and southern dialects differ mostly in tonal structure with some having from five to seven tones. Standard Laos has six. The standard dialect is spoken in Vientiane (Campbell 789).  

            Lao script, called Tua Lao, was derived from Thai script in the 1500s.  The language has no inflection and pronouns are selected by status. Classifiers follow the noun so a direct translation of Lao might read “Elephants three bodies” for three elephant bodies in English. The normal sentence structure is subject, verb, object (Campbell 790-2).       

Language Inferences 

Vietnam 

The Chinese, despite 1000 years of domination, failed to deeply influence the Vietnamese culture, as the retention of a Mon-Khmer substratum would suggest.  North Vietnam has the greatest number of dialects as a result of the Age-Area theory.  The civilization started in the northern area and this region has the greatest diversity in language.  Various dialects of Vietnamese occur from north to south as a result of geography and isolation. Vietnamese is a resilient language that has managed to borrow from all cultures that have come into contact with it: Chinese lexicon, Khmer substratum, Tai tonal system, and Roman script. That Tay Boi died as a language reflects the French’s failure to fully colonized Vietnam and change the culture in any meaningful way. It was a language of convenience that was disposed of shortly after the French left.

Cambodia 

The relatively old age and long periods of stability allowed the Khmer people to develop a strong language that dominates in the region.  There are influences along all the borders with Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand, and the presence of dialects of these languages indicates the continued fluidity of those borders.  The influences from India show up in Khmer script as well as other aspects of their culture including religion and architecture. Physical geography affected the languages and dialects found there in that Cambodia has a large central plain area between river systems allowing Khmer to develop in isolation.  

Thailand 

The Thais migrated into the region from China and established their own country and language.  This suggests that they were powerful and dominating peoples.  The other languages found in Thailand are predominantly around the border areas and reflect the normal conditions found when migration occurs between countries. Thai is well established and has had time to spread throughout the country and develop into a variety of dialects with large numbers of users. 

Burma/Myanmar 

These are migrants from China and it is hardly surprising that they speak a Sino-Tibetan language.  This is the second country in Southeast Asia that has created a new language by blending it with Mon-Khmer.  Both instances, Vietnamese and Burmese, are examples of territory being taken from the Khmer and being settled by invaders.  Khmer would seem to be a hardy language. This is also supported by the use of a Khmer writing system.   

Malaysia/Singapore 

Malay language use and the variety of languages used in the region reflect its location along the trade routes between India and China.  The fact that Dutch almost became an official language clearly reflects the influences of the age of exploration and later colonization on Malaysia.  As usual, these were not lasting effects. When it comes to a battle between the native language and an administrative language, the native language will prevail when the colonization of the country is not too deep or prolonged. The languages and writing system reflect a worldly outlook.  Malaysia was not isolated and the Malaysians used Chinese, Tamil, and Roman script.  

Singapore also truly reflects the worldly nature of the city, especially in light of the choices for national languages.  The use of languages from India, China, and Southeast Asia reflect its important geographic location along the trade routes. That there is a dialect called “debt slave” is also indicative of the effects of trade. 

Laos 

Laos was a nation carved out of territories held by others and claimed at a late date compared to other countries surrounding it. It is almost surprising under this pressure that they have their own language.   It is not surprising at all that the other groups that were displaced and pushed back by the Laotians continue to exist along the border areas speaking the languages of the countries to the east and south. Laos is closer linguistically and culturally to Thailand than to Vietnam.  French colonization had some impact on the language of Laos, but it has not been a lasting impact. 

Implementation 

New Mexico Social Studies Standards and Benchmarks for Tenth Grade 

History Content Standard I: Students are able to identify important people and events in order to analyze significant patterns, relationships, themes, ideas, beliefs, and turning points in New Mexico, United States, and world history in order to understand the complexity of the human experience. 

Benchmark I-D—Skills: Use critical thinking skills to understand and communicate perspectives of individuals, groups, and societies from multiple contexts. 

Geography Content Standard II: Students understand how physical, natural, and cultural processes influence where people live, the ways in which people live, and how societies interact with one another and their environments. 

Benchmark II-A: Analyze and evaluate the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools, knowledge, skills, and perspectives, and apply them to explain the past, present, and future in terms of patterns, events, and issues. 

Benchmark II-B: Analyze natural and man-made characteristics of worldwide locales; describe regions, their interrelationships, and patterns of change. 

Benchmark II-C: Analyze the impact of people, places, and natural environments upon the past and present in terms of our ability to plan for the future. 

Benchmark II-E: Analyze and evaluate how economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, and their interdependence, cooperation, and conflict. 

New Mexico Language Arts Standards and Benchmarks for Tenth Grade 

Reading and Listening for Comprehension Content Standard I: Students will apply strategies and skills to comprehend information that is read, heard, and viewed. 

Benchmark I-A: Listen to, read, react to, and analyze information. 

Benchmark I-B: Synthesize and evaluate information to solve problems across the curriculum. 

Benchmark I-C: Demonstrate critical thinking skills to evaluate information and solve problems. 

Benchmark I-D: Apply knowledge of reading process to evaluate print, non-print, and technology-based information. 

Strand: Writing and Speaking for Expression Content Standard II: Students will communicate effectively through speaking and writing. 

Benchmark II-A: Communicate information in a coherent and persuasive manner using verbal and non-verbal language 

Benchmark II-B: Apply grammatical and language conventions to communicate. 

Benchmarks II-C: Demonstrate competence in the skills and strategies of the writing process to inform and persuade 

Materials 

1. World History Textbook, Note Taking Grids, and Internet and Library Access for Research.

2. Physical and Political Maps are available through National Geographic’s Mapmaker web site.  Language and dialect maps are available through the Ethnologue web site.  Both sites allow students to download and use maps without violating copyrights.

3. Computers, Power Point, and Projection System for Slide Shows 

Procedure 

Week One 

Monday: Begin the Southeast Asia unit with a review of the geography of the region (See the Geography section above). This should be a teacher-led whole class discussion and include use of the textbook, note taking grid (See Handout One below), and a physical map of Southeast Asia.  Next, the History of Southeast Asia research project should be discussed.  Students can be divided into groups and assigned countries.  Their task is to fill in the grid with specific information about the country that will then be shared with the class.  At the end of the project each student should end up with a completed grid based information presented by each group (See The History of SE Asia Rubric below).  Allow students time to work with their groups, assign tasks within the group, and begin reading the World History textbook section on ancient civilizations in Southeast Asia from the dawn of civilization through AD 500.   

Tuesday:  Begin class with a whole class reading and discussion of the Chinese invasion of Vietnam (Spielvogel 329).  Allow groups time to read the World History textbook and research their country from AD 500 to 1500 filling in the next column on the note-taking grid. End the class with a discussion of the architecture of Southeast Asia and Angkor Wat, which includes both Indian and Chinese influences as well as native characteristics, which mirrors the religion and languages of Southeast Asia (Spielvogel 338). 

Wednesday: Begin class by reminding students that ultimately they will be focusing on the languages spoken in the assigned country.  Start the class with a discussion of the reasons that languages spread and change (See the Language Change and Migration section above). Allow students time to finish the last two sections of the note-taking grid and begin discussing predictions regarding the languages used in their assigned country (See the Language Inferences section above).   

Thursday: Review the previous day’s reading about the cultures and historical events in Southeast Asia. Time should be allotted for groups to work on their Power Point presentations.  Presentations should include information for each of the boxes in the note-taking grid, should be accurate and complete, include a map of the country, and conclude with predictions about languages and the reasoning behind the prediction. Review the presentation rubric and the project requirements with the class (See Presentation Rubric below). 

Friday: Each group will be allotted ten to fifteen minutes to make their presentations.  At the end of class, each group should submit a hard copy of the Power Point slide show, an electronic copy saved to the class folder, and a completed note-taking grid for the History of Southeast Asia. 

Week Two 

Monday: Assign Languages of Southeast Asia project.  Students will research the specific language families represented in the country and the variety of dialects (See the Countries, Languages, and Dialects section above). Students will prepare a presentation of the dominant languages groups and dialects, the historical influences on language and dialect development, offer logical predictions about the future of regional dialects, play an audio sample of the language and provide a written sample, and a dialect map (See the Languages of SE Asia Project Rubric below). Groups will be responsible for sharing information through a presentation that will allow the class the complete the entire note-taking grid for Languages (See Handout 2 below).   Groups should be given access to the Internet or the library and time for research.  

Tuesday: Research time will be required on Tuesday as well.  Work with groups to check progress and offer guidance.  Remind students to focus on incorporating the historical influences that affect language usage. 

Wednesday: Groups will need time to prepare for presentations.  Review that presentation rubric and the project requirements with the class.  Allow students access to the library, Internet, and Power Point as needed.  

Thursday:  Each group will be allotted ten to fifteen minutes to make their presentations.  At the end of class, each group should submit a hard copy of the Power Point slide show, an electronic copy saved to the class folder, and a completed note-taking grid for the Languages of Southeast Asia. 

Friday: Students will complete a short essay exam to assess their understanding of the history and languages of Southeast Asia.  Students will select one of the dominant language groups of Southeast Asia and discuss its origin, changes, historical and modern influences, and future. 

Evaluation 

Answers will vary in the essays and the note-taking grids, and will be based on the information presented in different textbooks and resources available from the library. These assignments may be evaluated based on completeness and accuracy.  The writing may be assessed using the 6-trait writing system: content/ideas, tone, mechanics, word choice, audience/purpose, and sentence fluency. 

Overall Project Rubric

Activity	Possible Points
Notes Taking Grid: History	15
Presentation: History	10
Language Predictions Essay	15
Notes Taking Grid	15
Presentation: Languages	10
Languages of SE Asia Essay	25
Daily Participation	10
Total Points	100

The History of Southeast Asia Rubric: Week One

Activity	Possible Points
Geography Notes	25
Notes for each country and time period in the Note taking grid	50
Language Inferences Essay	25

The Languages Of SE Asia Project Rubric: Week Two

Activity	Possible Points
Major Language Family Description and Map	15
Dialects Number of Speakers, and Spread	15
Historical Influences	15
Audio Recording and Sample of the Written Version	15
Chart of Basic Terms: One-Ten, Man, I, Hand, Left, Child, Son, Daughter, Water, Bird, and Go	15
Predictions for the Future Essay	15
Mechanics, Accuracy, Creativity	10

Handouts  

A sample of the basic grid for the note-taking handout is shown below.  The size of the boxes has been reduced for the purpose of this paper: however, students may make their own or a larger version can be created using Tables.  

Handout 1: History of Southeast Asia Grid: Take notes into the grid below after reading Chapters 11.3 and 4, 16.3, and 21.1 (Spielvogel).  Fill in general information on the geography of Southeast Asia.  Then, complete notes about the economy, society, politics, religion, language, and other achievements of the civilizations in Southeast Asia.

Geography of Southeast Asia
Culture/ Time Period	Beginning of Civilization to AD 500	AD 500 to 1500	AD 1500 to 1800	AD 1800 to 1900
Vietnam
Khmer/Cambodia
Thailand
Burma/Myanmar
Laos
Malaysia

Handout 2: Languages of Southeast Asia: Using the Internet and language books from the library, fill information about the various languages and dialects spoken in Southeast Asia.

Culture/ Language	Language Families	Dialects and Cultural Groups/ Number of Speaker	Major Characteristics of the Language/Written Forms	Spread and Influence
Vietnam
Khmer/Cambodia
Thailand
Burma/Myanmar
Laos
Malaysia

Handout 3: Presentation Rubric

Content - Writing
8	All your information is well researched, well written, well organized and in your own voice.
4	All flaws pointed out by the instructor and/or peer advisors in drafts have been corrected.
10	Material shows strong understanding of major ideas and displays critical thinking in placement of text, sequencing of pages, and page composition.
3	Presentation has a title page.
5	Presentation has a bibliography that follows the MLA citation rules.
Content – Technical
6	The presentation visually depicts material and appeals to audience.
9	The presentation includes a minimum of 10 slides.
6	The presentation includes a variety of text fields, graphics, sounds and transitions.
6	The presentation has a professional look with an overall graphical theme that appeals to the audience, complements the information, and each slide is visually neat incorporating a variety of layouts.
6	Each slide uses text, graphics, sounds and transitions that communicate and compliment information being shared.
Communication
3	Did you use a different form to communicate to the group during your presentation other than simply screen reading?
10	All material is in publishable form; that is, it is thoroughly proofread and without careless errors.
3	You maintained eye contact with group and modulated your voice in addition to your visual on-screen sharing.
3	At conclusion of your sharing you checked for understanding via questions or oral quiz, etc.
3	You utilized your allotted time effectively.
3	Presentation has a title page.
Technical Organization
4	You have saved your presentation to the class folder with a back-up copy on disk.
4	Each member of the audience has been given a handout of your presentation that includes an area to take notes.
Total Points: 100          Group Score__________

Documentation   

Works Cited  

Campbell, George. Compendium of the World’s Languages. N.Y.: Routledge, 1991. 

Farrah, Mounir A. and Andrea Berens Karls. World History: the Human Experience. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.

Grimes, Barbara, ed. Ethnologue, Languages of the World. 12^th ed. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1992. 

Hoshino, Tatsuo and Russell Marcus. Lao for Beginners.  Rutland, VT:  Tuttle Company Publishers, 1995. 

Languages of the World. “Southeast Asia”. June 2002 <www.ethnologue.com> 

Laos. “Countries of the World”. June, 2002  

Mapmaker. “Physical Maps”. June, 2002 www.nationalgeographic.com 

Southeast Asia. “Mapmaker”. June 2002, http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine

Ruhlen, Merritt. The Origin of Language.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994. 

Sos, Kem, Lim Hak Kheang, and Madeline E. Ephram, eds. Cambodian-English Dictionary. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1990. 

Southeast Asia. “Languages of the World”. June 2002 <www.ethnologue.com> 

Spielvogel, Jackson. World History: The Human Odyssey. New York: West Publishing Company, 1998.

Smyth, David. Thai: A Complete Course for Beginners. Chicago: NTC Publishers, 1995. 

Taylor, Keith W. The Birth of Vietnam. Berkeley, CA: 1983. 

Vuong, Tuan Duc and John Moore. Colloquial Vietnamese. New York: Routledge, 1994.