Center of Excellence in Southeast Asian Linguistics

Language, gender, and sexuality in Thai society

Gender and sexuality are studied by scholars in various fields. In linguistics, the relationship between language and gender/sexuality is of interest in areas such as sociolinguistics, pragmatics, (critical) discourse studies, corpus linguistics and semiotic landscapes. Adopting various approaches, we explore how various linguistic elements in the Thai language contribute to the construction of diverse gender/sexual identities. Our interests include the issues of labels, representation and social meanings relating to gender, and sexuality more generally.

Researchers: Pavadee Saisuwan

Selected Publications

Santos, J. A. L., & Saisuwan, P. (2023). “Dream Boy” and “Hotmale”: The Semiotic Landscape of Queer Space in Bangkok. Manusya: Journal of Humanities, 26(1), 1-22.

Phattanan, H. & Jitwiriyanont, S. (2021). Trans Woman’s Voice: A Study of Correlation between Voice Onset Time in Thai Plosive Consonants and Gender Construction. Manutsayasat Wichakan, Vol. 28, No. 1.

Saisuwan, P. (2017). Conversational dominance in Thai male and female speech. In A. Prasithrathsint (Ed.), A collection of research papers in sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics (pp. 299-330). Bangkok: ASP.

Saisuwan, P. (2016). Kathoey and the linguistic construction of gender identity in Thailand. In E. Levon, and R. Mendes (Eds.), Language, sexuality and power: Studies in intersectional sociolinguistics (pp.189-214). Oxford: Oxford University Press.