Tai peoples
The group of the Tai peoples ethnic groups in Southeast Asia and South China are summarized, the languages of the Tai - Kadai language family speak and follow similar traditions and customs, such as the Songkran festival.
Tai peoples form the majority population in Thailand and Laos, where each eponymous peoples of the Thai or Lao dominate. Significant minorities of Tai peoples living in southern China, Burma, Vietnam and North East India. The largest populations are doing the Zhuang (mainly in the Guangxi Autonomous Region ), Bouyei ( Guizhou Province ) and Dai ( Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province ) in China, the Shan named after them in the Shan State of Burma, the Tay in North Vietnam and the Ahom in the Indian state of Assam. Overall it is estimated that the Tai peoples about 100 million citizens. Over time, the individual nations were severely affected by their neighbors or even assimilated, the Zhuang were sinicized in China.
- 4.1 language
- 4.2 Fixed
Subgroups of Tai peoples
The group of ethnicities include a number of nations in Southeast Asia. The term Tai peoples is not used uniformly:
- In the narrowest sense, only the ethnic groups with a language from the Tai branch of the Kam - Tai languages are called ( a branch of the Tai - Kadai language languages) as Tai peoples. These are often referred to as " actual Tai peoples " (English nuclear Tai peoples ). The main factors include the Thais, Laotians, Isan, Shan and Zhuang in Southeast Asia and South China.
- The Saek in Thailand and Laos also speak a language from the Tai branch of the Kam - Tai languages , but are not always attributed to the " actual Tai peoples ".
- In a broader sense, the Kam - Sui peoples and the Biao, added counted speak to a non- Tai branch belonging Kam - Tai language.
- In the broadest sense, the Li in China (also known as hlai ) and the Kadai peoples in China and Vietnam involved ( as Geyan known). Which, that all a Tai - Kadai language -speaking ethnic groups are referred to as Tai peoples.
There are also Tai - Kadai -speaking peoples who descended ethnically from other peoples:
- The Lakkia Autonomous Region Guangxi Zhuang ( PRC ), a subgroup of the Yao, who speaks the Tai - Kadai language Lakkia
- The Lingao in the Chinese province of Hainan, a subgroup of the Han, the Tai - Kadai speaking the language Lincheng.
Origin of the Tai
Research results of comparative linguistics suggests that the Tai peoples were a culture in southern China, who spoke a preform of Tai - Kadai and Austronesian the origin. Prior to her immigration to China proper, they probably lived in Taiwan and spoke a Proto - Austronesian dialect or a later form of it.
After the arrival of Sino - Tibetan speaking ethnic groups to Taiwan, migrated the Tai from China and attracted probably the pearl river where their language underwent a major change and their Austronesian character more and more in favor of a reference to the Sino - Tibetan and Hmong - Mien languages lost. The advent of the Han Chinese led to a new exodus of Tai, who now turned southward over the mountains to Southeast Asia. Also, they additionally have other explanations for the immigration of the Tai peoples in Southeast Asia exist, these operations are supported by the results of genetic analyzes.
Geographical distribution
The Tai peoples never lived in a unified nation-state. In several independent states, the population identified themselves as " Tai", such as in Siam.
The Tai peoples settled since their early migration history in China, India and the continental part of Southeast Asia. Their main geographical distribution can be thought of in the form of an arc that extends from northeastern India through southern China and down to Southeast Asia. Recent hikes brought a greater number of Tai to Ceylon, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, and North America. The largest ethnic diversity among the Tai peoples prevails in China, which is regarded as prehistoric homeland of the Tai.
The Thai Prime Minister and Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram sought during his reign in the 1930s and '40s to the creation of a state that would unite all the peoples of territories inhabited by Tai. This is reflected in the renaming of Siam in Thailand 1939 bill, as well as the annexation of parts of Laos under the French -Thai War in 1941 and the Shan States of Burma during the Second World War in 1942. Had to Thailand after the war to return the territories gained again.
Original settlements
There is great ethnic diversity among the actual Tai peoples in China, India and Southeast Asia. They colonize the biggest parts of Thailand ( over 60 million ) and Laos (3 million ), to the east of Burma (4 million Shan, mainly in the same Shan State ), the North and North West of Vietnam (3 million Tay and Thái ), the north and west of Cambodia ( about 100,000 Thai and Lao ) and the northern sultanates of Malaysia ( tens of thousands of Thai). In southern China live about 25 to 30 million members of Tai peoples: The most important among them are the Zhuang ( primarily in the Guangxi Autonomous Region ), Bouyei ( Guizhou Province ) and Dai ( mainly in the Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province ). The approximately 2 million Ahom in the Indian state of Assam have abandoned their original language during the 19th century and now speak Assamese, which is an Indo-European language, so that the assignment of this ethnic group to the Tai peoples is not unique. But there are also in Assam a few thousand smaller member Tai peoples still speak their original languages.
The Li settle primarily, if not exclusively, in the province of Hainan in China.
The Kadai peoples are summarized in the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Hainan, Guangxi Autonomous Region, as well as in the Vietnamese provinces of Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, Lào Cai and Son La.
The Kam - Sui peoples settled mainly in China and adjacent areas of Laos and Vietnam.
The most important settlement area Saek is the Mekong River in central Laos. A smaller community living near the border with Laos in the northeast of Thailand, Isan.
The Biao have their home in Guangdong Province in China.
Tai peoples in the Diaspora
In Ceylon is a big group of Shan who came to India there. The Thais have larger populations in Japan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.
The largest groups of Tai ( mostly Thais and Laotians ) settle in the UK, Germany, France and Switzerland.
There are a greater number of Thais, Laotians, Tai Kao, Isan, Phu Thai ( ชาว ภู ไท ), Tai Dam, Tay and Shan in the United States. In Canada, mainly Thais and Laotians move.
In Australia, a large number of Thais, while staying mostly members of ethnic groups of Isan in New Zealand.
More recently, a larger number of Laotians have emigrated to Argentina.
Culture
Language
The languages spoken by the Tai peoples languages are referred to as Tai - Kadai languages. The languages most commonly used are the Tai languages with Thai, the official language of Thailand, Lao, the official language of Laos, the Shan language in Burma and Zhuang, a language group in southern China. All these languages are tonal languages , a change in tone can change the meaning of a syllable ( a word).
Festivals
The Tai throughout Asia celebrate a number of common festivals, including Songkran, which originally announced the vernal equinox, but is nowadays celebrated between the 13th and 15th of April.