  the tai or zhuangâtaidiller, 2008. the taiâkadai languages. languages ( or , transliteration:  or ) are a branch of the taiâkadai language family. the tai languages include the most widely spoken of the taiâkadai languages, including standard thai or siamese, the national language of thailand; lao or laotian, the national language of laos; burma's shan language; and zhuang, a major language in the southern chinese province of guangxi. ==name== cognates with the name tai (thai, dai, etc.) are used by speakers of many tai languages. the term tai is now well-established as the generic name in english. several lao linguists have objected to this, advocating that siamese thai should be considered a lao language, but this has not made much headway in english usage. because tai is homophonous with thai, the national language of thailand, some linguists continue to use siamese for the latter. similarly, the terms dai and daic have fallen somewhat out of favor as the name for the entire family, with forms based on kadai now more common.diller (2008) many of the languages are called zhuang in china and nung in vietnam. ==history== citing the fact that both the zhuang and thai peoples have the same exonym for the vietnamese, kÉÉua1,a1 designates a tone. jerold a. edmondson of the university of texas, arlington posited that the split between zhuang (a central tai language) and the southwest tai languages happened no earlier than the founding of jiaozhi (äº¤å) in vietnam in 112 bce but no later than the 5thâ6th century.edmondson, jerold a. the power of language over the past: tai settlement and tai linguistics in southern china and northern vietnam. studies in southeast asian languages and linguistics, jimmy g. harris, somsonge burusphat and james e. harris, ed. bangkok, thailand: ek phim thai co. ltd. http://lin
Languages_of_Southeast_Asia Tai_languages