The Gong language (also '''Ugong'', ''Ugong'', ''Lawa'' or ''Ugawng'', with ''U''- meaning 'person') is an endangered

Tibeto-Burman language The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spe ...

of Western

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, spoken in isolated pockets in Uthai Thani and Suphanburi provinces.

History

The ethnic group was first known to Westerners in the 1920s, when the language was already considered in severe decline (Kerr 1927). In the 1970s, David Bradley began working on the language in the several areas where it was still used, by which time it was already extinct in two of the locations given by Kerr (1927) about 50 years earlier. The people were then forced from two of these villages when the

Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) ( th, การไฟฟ้าฝ่ายผลิตแห่งประเทศไทย; ) is a state enterprise, managed by the Ministry of Energy, responsible for electric power ge ...

built dams over the Kwae Yai and

Khwae Noi River The River Kwai (), more correctly Khwae Noi ( th, แควน้อย, , 'small tributary') or Khwae Sai Yok (, ), is a river in western Thailand. It rises to the east of the Salween in the north-south spine of the Bilauktaung range near, bu ...

(Bradley 1989). Because of the displacement of the people of an already declining language, the language is considered especially vulnerable to extinction. The last children speakers were in the 1970s and the children now speak Thai as their first language.

Classification

The classification of Gong within Tibeto-Burman is uncertain, although Bradley (1989) suggests that it is a divergent Lolo-Burmese language that does not fit into either the Burmish or

Loloish The Loloish languages, also known as Yi in China and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of fifty to a hundred Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of China. They are most closely related to Burmese and its relat ...

branches.

Dialects

The Gong language consists of two dialects (''Ethnologue''). *Khok Khwai village,

Uthai Thani Province Uthai Thani ( th, อุทัยธานี, ), one of Thailand's seventy-six provinces (''changwat'') lies in lower northern Thailand. Neighbouring provinces are (from north clockwise) Nakhon Sawan, Chai Nat, Suphan Buri, Kanchanaburi and ...

(moribund); documented by Rujjanavet (1986) *Kok Chiang village, Suphan Buri Province (endangered and now dispersed); documented by Thawornpat (2006) and David Bradley Gong was once also spoken in western Kanchanaburi Province, but is now extinct in that province (''Ethnologue''). Word lists of two Gong varieties (namely Lawa of Kwê Yai and Lawa of Kwê Noi) from Kanchanaburi have been collected by Kerr (1927).

Distribution

Gong families now live in the following 3 villages.Mayuree, Thawornpat. 2006. ''Gong: An endangered language of Thailand''. Doctoral dissertation, Mahidol University. *Lawa Wang Khwai village, Wang Yao Subdistrict (วังยาว), Dan Chang District, Suphanburi Province (3 families) *Kok Chiang village, Huai Khamin Subdistrict (ห้วยขมิ้น), Dan Chang District, Suphanburi Province (36 families) *Khok Khwai village (คอกควาย), Thong Lang Subdistrict (ทองหลาง), Huai Khot District,

(15 families); reported as Baan Lawa village 3 in Wright, et al. (1991). There are around 500 ethnic Gong people and 50 speakers of the Gong language. There are also many Lao Krang people living in the Gong areas.

Former locations

Gong used to be much more widespread, and was found in the

, Khwae Yai River, and Bo Phloi River watersheds (Bradley 1989).Bradley, David (1989). Dying to be Thai: Ugong in western Thailand. La Trobe Working Papers in Linguistics 2:19-28. It was reportedly spoken in locations including: * Kanchanaburi Province **Lat Ya (northwest of Kanchanaburi town) ** Thong Pha Phum District (located along the

) **Ban Lawa (located several kilometres downriver along the

, from the former location of Sangkhlaburi near the

Three Pagodas Pass Three Pagodas Pass ( Phlone ; my, ဘုရားသုံးဆူ တောင်ကြားလမ်း, ''Paya Thon Zu Taung Za Lang'', ; th, ด่านเจดีย์สามองค์, , ) is a pass in the Tenasserim Hills on the ...

) **Sao Hong, 10 kilometres south of Bo Phloi ** Phanom Thuan District ** Bo Phloi, Nong Pling, Lam Iso, Nong Li (หนองรี), and Nong Plue **Khlot Khoi * Suphanburi Province **Tumakok, Dan Chang District, Suphanburi Province (now an ethnic Karen township; originally settled by Gong people from Talao/Hin Hak during the 1800s) **Sanakphai, Suphanburi Province **Wang Khwai (known in Ugong as ''Kabe'' and in Lao as ''Kapheun''), Suphanburi Province *

**Ban Bung (บ้านบึง), Ban Rai District (near district headquarters) **Thong Lang, Huai Khot District **Iphung, Cawat, and Huai Haeng (exact locations uncertain) In Kanchanaburi Province, many Gong have intermarried with Karen and

Mon people The Mon ( mnw, ဂကူမည်; my, မွန်လူမျိုး‌, ; th, มอญ, ) are an ethnic group who inhabit Lower Myanmar's Mon State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Region, the Irrawaddy Delta, and se ...

. Sisawat and Sangkhlaburi have since been flooded by the construction of a dam, and the speakers have been dispersed to other places. As of 1991 in Kanchanaburi Province, Gong has not been spoken for 20-30 years, with most Gong people speaking Thai or Karen instead.Wright, Sue; Audra Phillips; Brian Migliazza; Paulette Hopple; and Tom Tehan. 1991. ''SIL Working Summary of Loloish Languages in Thailand''. m.s.

Grammar

Gong has SOV (verb-final) word order.

Notes and references

*Daniel Nettle and

Suzanne Romaine Suzanne Romaine (born 1951) is an American linguist known for work on historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. From 1984 to 2014 she was Merton Professor of English language at the University of Oxford. Background and career Romaine was bo ...

. ''Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 10. *Thawornpat, Mayuree. 2006. ''Gong: An endangered language of Thailand''. Doctoral dissertation, Mahidol University. *Thawornpat, Mayuree. 2007. Gong phonological characteristics. The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal 37. 197-216.

External links

Proto-Gong reconstruction
(Sino-Tibetan Branches Project) {{Lolo-Burmese languages Languages of Thailand Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages Lolo-Burmese languages