This study investigates directional constraints on diachronic tone chain shifts and their applicability to non-chain shifts. Twenty-eight chain shift changes from 12 Sino-Tibetan, Kra-Dai, Austronesian, and Otomanguean languages were compared to a sample of 118 non-chain shifts (including merger) from 54 Asian tone languages. Significant overlap was found: the reported chain
This article reevaluates the subgrouping of Southwestern Tai languages using early phonological innovations reflected in Old Thai and Old Lao inscriptions. By analyzing four shared consonantal changes, simplification of *kʰr-, coalescence of *ɓl-, aspiration of *ʰr- and occlusivization of *x-, the research results propose a “Peninsular Southwestern Tai” subgroup encompassing Thai, Lao, Southern Thai, and most of the so-called “PH” varieties. This proposal offers a more empirical analysis of the genealogical relationships among these languages and suggests a southward spread of Peninsular Southwestern Tai from northern Laos to southern Thailand.
In this study, we investigate an apparent discourse-based alternation between monosyllabic and disyllabic word-forms in Moklen, an Austronesian language spoken in Thailand. We explore whether factors of information structure condition the variable elision of the first syllable of certain disyllabic lexemes. Data was obtained through the implementation of a picture-based field stimulus to elicit a range of lexical material within narrow discourse contexts. Our results reveal that no single information status category (e.g., “given” or “new”) accounted for use of monosyllabic alternants overall. Applying a “bottom-up” approach to the study of information structure (Matić, 2022; Ozerov, 2018), we propose a shift to “topics” — information conveyed as mutual knowledge (Masia, 2022) — as one possible account for the observed changes in Moklen word-form. More generally, our study shows how information structure processes have the potential to contribute to contextual alternation between monosyllabic and disyllabic word-forms, a matter with implications for broader historical changes in word-form.
Pronouns are traditionally defined as a pro-form of an explicit antecedent. However, the pronoun mān in Thai sometimes occurs without any co-referring explicit nominal expression, leading previous studies to consider them as non-referential. This study argues that, despite the absence of an explicit antecedent, such instances of mān have implicit referents that are inferable from context. One thousand instances of mān functioning as subject or object from the Thai National Corpus were analyzed in a usage-based approach. They were categorized according to their referentiality using three criteria: explicitness of a nominal antecedent, concreteness of a antecedent, and inference of a referent. The analysis reveals that the referentiality of the pronoun mān is not dichotomous but instead lies on a continuum in which one end expresses semantic referentiality with an explicit antecedent with a higher level of referent concreteness, and the other expresses pragmatic referentiality with an implicit antecedent with a lower level of referent concreteness. Additionally, different types of referential expressions–verb phrases, clauses, and discourse–and ambiguous cases among them strongly support the notion of gradience of referentiality.
This Element provides a transregional overview of Pride in Asia, exploring the multifaceted nature of Pride in contemporary LGBTQIA+ events in Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This collaborative research that combines individual studies draws on linguistic landscapes as an analytical and methodological approach. Each section examines the different manifestations of Pride as a discourse and the ways in which affordances and limitations of how discourse facilitates social, political, and cultural projects of LGBTQIA+ people in Asia, illustrating both commonalities and specificities in Asian Pride movements. Analyzing a variety of materials such as protest signs, t-shirts, and media reports, each section illustrates how modes of semiosis, through practice, intersect notions of gender and sexuality with broader social and political formations. The authors thus emphasize the need to view Pride not as a uniform global phenomenon but as a dynamic, locally shaped expression of LGBTQIA+ solidarity.
Austroasiatic (AA) speakers constitute around 4% of the population of Thailand, while the majority (89.4%) speak Kra-Dai (KD) languages. Previous forensic and population genetic studies in various Thai populations have employed a limited number of short tandem repeats (STRs). This study aims to expand the investigation of the genetic makeup of AA populations in Thailand and their relationship to KD populations using a larger number of autosomal STRs with the VeriFiler™ Plus PCR Amplification Kit. We generated 593 new genotypes from AA-speaking groups and combined them with previously reported data from AA and KD groups. A total of 1,129 genotypes across 23 STR loci were used to construct the largest allelic frequency profile for Thai and Lao populations. However, several loci deviated from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, likely due to the reduced genetic diversity in some highland populations, which should be considered in forensic investigations. Beyond forensic applications, our findings reveal genetic differences between AA-speaking groups in Northern and Northeastern Thailand. The AA groups from Northeastern Thailand exhibit greater genetic homogeneity and diversity, likely due to population interactions. In contrast, reduced diversity and increased heterogeneity in AA groups from Northern Thailand are possibly driven by genetic drift and cultural and geographic isolation. In conclusion, we emphasize the usefulness of increasing the number of autosomal STRs in forensic and anthropological genetic studies. Additional Y-STR and X-STR data from various AA-speaking groups in Thailand would further enhance and strengthen forensic STR databases in the region.
