Khmer, Northern
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A language of Thailand
1,400,000 (2006 Mahidol University), decreasing. Very few monolinguals.
Surin, Buriram, Chanthaburi, Sisaket, and Ubon Ratchathani provinces.
5* (Developing).
Buriram, Surin, Sisaket. Different from Khmer [khm]. Dialects mutually intelligible. Many local varieties.
SVO; prepositions; genitives, modifiers, relatives after noun heads; 1 prefix; CV, CVC, CCV; nontonal.
Vigorous in towns; replaced by Northeastern Thai [tts] and Thai [tha] in cities. A few Chinese shopkeepers speak it. Education, media, religious services, commerce. Positive attitudes. Also use Khmer [khm]. Also use Northeastern Thai [tts]. Also use Thai [tha] (Ungsitipoonporn and Laparporn 2019). Used as L2 by Kuay [kdt].
Literacy rate in L2: 50%–75%. 1,000 can read Northern Khmer, 100 can write it. Bible: 2003.
Buddhist, Christian.