Language
The Thai language is tonal, with a change in pitch or accent
capable of completely altering the meaning of a word creating
a rather bewildering effect upon those who do not understand
it. Over centuries the Thai language has evolved by absorbing
words from Khmer, Mon, Chinese and Malay, and borrowing elements
from Sanskrit and Pali. It was King Ramkamhaeng who first
introduced the Thai alphabet in 1283, modelling it upon an
Indian base with Khmer characters. The modern Thai alphabet
consists of forty-four consonants, twenty-four vowels, and
four diacritical tone markers. The language is written from
left to right, and words are strung together with only occasional
breaks. Punctuation, upper or lower case lettering, prefixes
or suffixes, noun genders, plurals, and verb conjugation are
all absent from the language's grammer and sentence structure.
In Bangkok and the central plains, Standard Thai is spoken,
and is considered the main dialect for business and the civil
service. However there are three dialect variations in the
north, north east (Isaan), and south, which, although they
share most of the same words sound distinctly different. English
is widely understood in Bangkok, where it is the major commercial
language, and is spoken brokenly near beach resorts and tourist
destinations, however off the beaten track English is rarely
a language that is of any use.
Religion
Theravada Buddhism is the religion of over 95% of Thais.
However, there are a small number of Muslims (4%) mainly in
the south of the country. Christians make up another 1% with
a smattering of other religions.
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