Lexical Variation of Tai Yuan Dialect in Chiang Rai Province by Age Group

Abstract

This research aimed to study lexical variation of the Tai Yuan dialect in Chiang Rai Province by age group. The researcher collected the data using 80 semantic units, by interviewing the informants who were divided into three age groups: the first group was 60 years old or older, the second group was 35-50 years old, and the third group was 15-25 years old. The results showed that lexical usage variations could be divided into 2 groups: 1. the same lexicon was used across three generations and 2. the lexicon was only used by two generations. The informants in the first group used the most Tai Yuan lexical items, while those in the third group used a mix of Tai Yuan lexical items and vocabulary from other sources. Regarding morphological variation, it was found that there were variations in consonant and vowel sounds, lexical borrowing, creation of new words, morphological modification, semantic variation and lexical loss.