 the tai ()  ethnicity refers collectively to the ethnic groups of southern china and southeast asia, stretching from hainan to eastern india and from southern sichuan to laos, thailand, and parts of vietnam, which speak languages in the tai-kadai language family, and share similar traditions and festivals, such as songkran.there is some ambiguity as to the use of the term tai peoples, as some of the peoples speaking languages in branches of the taiâkadai language family other than the tai languages may also call themselves tai. therefore the term nuclear tai peoples is used when discussing speakers of tai languages. despite never having a unified nation-state of their own, the peoples also have historically shared a vague idea of a "siam" nation, corrupted to shan or assam in some places, and most self-identify as "tai" . ==linguistic subdivisions== there are five established branches of the taiâkadai languages, which may not correspond to ethnicity: * the nuclear tai peoples of china and much of southeast asia (including most notably the thai, lao, isan, shan and zhuang, and saek people of laos and thailand) * the li (hlai) and cun people of china * the kra peoples of china and vietnam (also known as the geyan peoples) * the kamâsui peoples (which may or not include the biao people) the lakkia people of guangxi autonomous region of china (tai lakka in neighboring portions of vietnam) are ethnically of yao, but speak a taiâkadai language called lakkia.lakkia on ethnologue these yao were likely in an area dominated by tai speakers and assimilated an early taiâkadai language (possibly the language of the ancestors of the biao people). * the lingao people in hainan province of china speak a taiâkadai language called be or lincheng, although the ethnicity of the lingao traces back to the han nationality.lingao on ethnologue ==geographic distribution== the tai have historically resided in china, india and continental southeast asia 
Ethnic_groups_in_Asia Ethnic_groups_in_Burma Ethnic_groups_in_China Ethnic_groups_in_Laos Ethnic_groups_in_Southeast_Asia Ethnic_groups_in_Thailand Ethnic_groups_in_Vietnam History_of_Thailand Tai_history Tai_peoples