The Variation of Initial Consonant Blends /tr/ in Standard Thai as Spoken by Surat Thani Speech Community by social factors

Abstract

The objective of this research article is to study the phonological variation of the initial consonant blend /tr/ in Standard Thai as spoken by members of the Surat Thani speech community, according to the sociolinguistic factors of gender, age, and educational background. The data were collected from 20 informants selected through purposive sampling, all of whom were native speakers of the Surat Thani dialect residing in the urban area of Surat Thani. The research instrument was a wordlist containing 20 standard Thai words with the initial consonant blend /tr/. The variants produced by the informants were analyzed using frequency and percentage, followed by a discussion of the relationship between the variants and sociolinguistic factors.
The research findings indicated that the most frequently occurring variant was [tr], the standard form, accounting for 47.75%. The second most common variant is [tɻ] (30.5%), followed by [t] (7.25%), [kɻ] (6%), [tɾ] (4.75%), and [ts] (2.25%). The seventh most frequent variants were [tsr] and [tl], each occurring at a rate of 0.5%. The least frequently occurring variants were [kʰɻ] and [tsɻ], both at 0.25%. The sociolinguistic analysis revealed that females tended to use the standard variant more frequently than males, 
adolescents tended to use the standard variant more frequently than adults, and speakers with lower educational backgrounds tended to use the standard variant more frequently than those with moderate or high levels of education. These patterns reflect a tendency toward sound change in the phonological system of the Surat Thani dialect, influenced by sociolinguistic factors.