page_title: Isan language
section_title: Dialects
hierarchical_section_title: Isan language / Dialects
caption_attribution_description: Viewing Laos from Thailand
context_page_description: Isan or Northeastern Thai is a group of Lao varieties spoken in the northern two-thirds of Isan in northeastern Thailand, as well as in adjacent portions of northern and eastern Thailand. It is the native language of the Isan people, spoken by 20 million or so people in Thailand, a third of the population of Thailand and 80 percent of all Lao speakers, making it the second largest language in Thailand. The language remains the primary language in 88 percent of households in Isan. It is commonly used as a second, third, or fourth language by the region's other linguistic minorities, such as Northern Khmer, Khorat Thai, Kuy, Nyah Kur, and other Tai or Austronesian-speaking peoples. The Isan language has unofficial status in Thailand and can be differentiated as a whole from the Lao language of Laos by the increasing use of Thai grammar, vocabulary, and neologisms. Code-switching is common, depending on the context or situation. Adoption of Thai neologisms has also further differentiated Isan from standard Lao.
context_section_description: Although as a whole, the Isan dialects are grouped separately from Lao dialects in Laos by influences from the Thai language, dialectal isoglosses mirror the population movements from Lao regions. These regional varieties vary in tone quality and distribution and a small number of lexical items, but all are mutually intelligible. Up to fourteen regional variations can be found within Isan, but they can be grouped into five principal dialect areas:
caption: View of the left bank (Laos) from Ubon Ratchathani on the right bank (Isan).  Many varieties of Isan are more closely related to the Lao speech on the opposite side of the river than other Isan varieties upstream or downstream.  The Mekong River is the boundary between Thailand and Laos and Isan and Laotian Lao varieties of the language.
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