Franco-Thai Lan Na

The Linguistic Landscape of Chiang Mai and Lan Na

Cooperation Project between the University of Lyon 2 and Chiang Mai University 2024-2025

Located on the main trade routes between Yunnan, central Southeast Asia, and the Bay of Bengal, Chiang Mai has been a hub and crossroads for peoples and languages for centuries, a fact that is reflected in its present-day linguistic landscape. The proposed project aims to survey the languages presently used in Chiang Mai by long-time residents as well as more recent arrivals. Among the latter, recent immigrants from Myanmar play an important role. Due to the continuing oppression by the junta in Myanmar, large numbers of people from all parts of the country have been migrating to Chiang Mai, resulting in a thriving and growing diaspora community. Besides Standard Thai, the official language used in education and administration, the local variety Kam Mueang (Lan Na, Northern Thai) is still used in informal contexts, though losing ground. Large numbers of Shan speakers, both long-time residents and newer immigrants, are present in Chiang Mai, together with increasing numbers of people from other parts of Myanmar. Other communities include Chinese (mostly Yunnanese), Karen, Hmong, Lisu, Lahu, Pa’O, Khuen, Lue, and what is commonly called Lua or Lawa, a term originally designating Austroasiatic (Palaungic) peoples, but now used more generally to different ethnic groups.

The main questions to be addressed in this project are

• What language(s) do different segments of the society use in which situations?

• What status do non-Thai languages have in the different populations? Of special interest here are Shan and Burmese, the former a long-established language of Chiang Mai, the latter a more recent addition to the picture.

• To what extent are the languages used in Chiang Mai different from related varieties spoken outside the area?

• What features can be attributed to contact-induced changes?

• What are the tendencies of language retention and accommodation/shift in the different populations?