Code-Switching Between the Thai and Isan Language

Abstract

The Code-switching phenomenon prominently spreads to communities around the globe according to the multilingual increasing including Thailand. People in each region have their native language while Standard Thai or Bangkok language as a national language plays a crucial role in the daily speech of locals in all domains. This research is a sociocultural linguistic perspective focusing on code-switching is taking place in rural villages in the northeastern region. The qualitative method by recording broadcast tower announcements, language observation, and purposing key interviews are used for data collection. The fieldwork is in 3 rural villages in Udonthani province where the Isan language is major and home language. The research finding shows that code-switching between the Thai language and Isan language involves interlocutors, place, situation, and age. The Thai language is widely used in government contents and formal situations or speak to strangers while the Isan language is used in local cultural contents, informal situations, familiar interlocutors, and daily speech. The Isan language does function to deeply explain the government's contents, meeting, particularly the covid-19 situation reported. Code-switching occurs in variously language use domains. In terms of speaker’s age reveals that worker groups rather switch languages than a teenager and elder groups. The finding discloses the Thai language's influence on its dialects even though speakers live in a remote area. The code-switching phenomenon should have been studied in other regions to understand how multilingualism and code-switching between the Thai language and its dialects of Thailand are taking place.