Can A Language of A Million Speakers Be Endangered? Language Shift and Apathy Among Northern Khmer Speakers in Thailand

Abstract

AbstractNorthern Khmer is a variety of Khmer spoken in several provinces of northeastern Thailand. With over a million speakers, it is not normally regarded as an endangered language. However, the effectiveness of Thai state penetration into the countryside, Thai language policy, changing modes of production in rural villages, the rise of mass media, and increased social mobility are leading speakers to shift to the national language, Thai. This shift is exacerbated by an apathetic attitude towards Khmer identity, which arose in part as a cultural reaction to the troubled political history of neighboring Cambodia. Given current trends in Northern Khmer language use and broader sociocultural forces, it is argued that even a language with as many speakers as Northern Khmer may prove to be more endangered than generally assumed.