A Study On The Yunnanese Chinese Dialects Of Mae Salong Northern Thailand

The history of migration of Chinese from Yunnan to Southeast Asia via"Cha Ma Ancient Route"can be traced back to the remote past. Because of geographical, economical and political reasons, large amounts of Yunnanese entered Northern Thailand via Burma, and later into the Middle and Southern parts of Thailand. Northern Thailand is the major location of Yunnanese settlement with 76 Yunnanese migrant villages, and Mae Salong is the biggest one. Before 1961, Mae Salong was still a piece of primitive forest inhibited by only a few minority families. In 1961, remnants of the 63th Division of the Kuomindang army and their family members, plus some merchants and refugees, totaling to about 500, became the first group of migrants to live there. Most of these inhabitants originate from Yunnan.After 46 years, Mae Salong has now a population of about 6000. They are still keeping the traditional Chinese tradition and established the best Chinese school in Northern Thailand– The Xinghua Middle School. Most of the inhabitants are still speaking the Yunnan dialect. The schools are bilingual, teaching them both Chinese and Thai.According to our investigation, there are currently three dialects spoken here: the Mae Salong Lancang dialect, the Mae Salong Tengchong dialect and the Mae Salong Guogan dialect. The field study focused on these three dialects to study their phonology, vocabulary and grammar, and then a comparative study among themselves. For the inter-dialectal comparison, the three Yunnanese dialects were compared for their phonology, vocabulary and grammar. This includes an internal comparison (1) the descriptive comparison of their phonology, vocabulary and grammar, (2) the comparison of the feeling, attitude and the difference in the domains of usage, and an external comparison: (1) comparison with Putonghua to evaluate the difference between them and the standard Chinese language, (2) comparison with Western Yunnanese dialects to observe their changes outside Yunnan since almost 50 years.The study consists of four parts: Chapter 1 introduces the general situation and distribution of Yunnan immigrants in Chiang Rai Province of Northern Thailand, the general description of Mae Salong and the content, method and significance of this study.Chapter 2 describes the three Yunnanese dialects; comparison of the three dialects in a synchronic and a diachronic manner on their phonology, and a comparison between them and the Yunnan dialects in Yunnan. Some differences were observed, and it is found that the spoken form prevailing in Mae Salong is a mixture formed by mixing Western Yunnan dialects.Chapter 3 studies the vocabulary and grammar of the Yunnanese dialect in Mae Salong, which shares most of the characteristics of Yunnan dialect. Because of Language contact, they also borrowed a few Thai and Burmese words. Although the amount of borrowing is small in extent, it adds a special point of interest to the dialect.Chapter 4 is the comparison of language feeling and language attitude in Mae Salong. According to our investigation and interpretation, the language activity, feeling, attitude and the domains of usage of all three generations there are quite different.This study to some extent fills the blank of language activity study of Chinese in Southeast Asia. In the past, the study of Chinese outside of China focused on Minnan, Chaozhou, Hakka and Cantonese, ignoring the use of Mandarin dialects overseas. This study stresses on the characteristics of the Yunnanese dialects spoken in Mae Salong. Through the study of the Yunnan dialects in Mae Salong, new material is provided for Chinese dialectology, and adds significance and value to overseas Chinese dialect studies.