Abstract:
This study aims at analyzing and comparing lexical and tonal variation in the Song (Black Tai) language spoken in Amphoe Khao Yoi, Changwat Phetchaburi, by age-group and attitude toward the Song language. In this study there are 3 age-groups: 15-25, 35-45, and 55-65 years old. The attitude variable was divided into 3 bypes-positive, neutral, and negative-using a language attitude questionnaire. Data collection was carried out at Tambon Nong Prong, Amphoe Khao Yoi, which consists of 6 villages. Sixty informants were selected-20 per each age-group-with equal number of male and female in each group. The 70 semantic units selected for this study are used in everyday life by the Song speakers and are all represented by distinct Bangkok Thai and Song words. These semantic units were selected from previous lexical studies of Song and old Black Tai lexicon. To collect the total data, an analogous set of 9 monosyllabic words were used as the basis for constructing a word list consisting of 5 tokens of each word. These words represent the words that appear in the various slots of the tone box originated by William J. Gedney. The word list was elicited by the questioning method assisted by pictures and real objects. The lexical data were analyzed by counting the number of occurrences of the lexical items used by each group of speakers in the following four categories: Song, Bangkok Thai, Song and Bangkok Thai, and others. The resutls were then converted into percentage. The tonal data were auditorily analyzed to obtain the tone system and the pattern of tone split and tone merge. In addition, the fundamental frequency value of each word was analyzed acoustically using the Praat speech analysis program and shown as line graphs using Microsoft Excel. The results show that overall the Song speakers of Tambon Nong Prong, Amphoe Khao Yoi in every age-group and every attitude toward the Song language use the lexical items and the tone system of the Song language more than those of Bangkok Thai. Analysis of the influence of age-group and attitude shows that the 15-25 years old group uses the Song lexical items least. The 35-45 and the 55-over 65 age-groups use the same quantity of Song lexical items. This indicates that the younger the speakers are the more use of Bangkok Thai lexical items occur. Attitude influences lexical usage only in the 15-25 years old group. It is found that all of the speakers only use the Song tone system. The main phonetic characteristic of every tone is also predominantly Song. Very few non-Song characteristics appear in the data comparing with the Song ones. It may be concluded that change in lexical usage slowly begins to occur in the Song language of Tambon Nong Prong, Amphoe Khao Yoi. In the future there may be a tendency for change to occur as the Song speakers especially the 15-25 years old group have already adopted Bangkok Tahi words. Finally, it is shown in this study that lexical change occurs faster than tonal change.