The linguistic landscape of central Thailand prior to the 13th century was radically different from today. It is generally believed that the area was pre-dominantly Mon-Khmer speaking. O’Connor (1995) suggests that the Tai migration into Southeast Asia started in the first millennium A.D. Diller (2000) similarly suggests that the southwest-ward migration of Tai speakers started in the 10th century. In this talk Joe Pittayaporn (associate professor of linguistics at Chulalongkorn University) discusses when and how Old Thai, the language attested in 14th-15th century inscriptions, came to replace aboriginal languages of the area.
