Language

The vast majority of Thai Chinese people speak Thai, also known as Central Thai, which is a Tai language belonging to the Kra-Dai language family. It is Thailand's sole official tongue. Out of the more than 60 languages spoken in Thailand, Thai has the greatest number of native speakers and total speakers. Pali, Sanskrit, Mon, and Old Khmer are the sources of more than half of its lexicon. Similar to Chinese and Vietnamese, it is a tonal, analytical language.

Thai has a sophisticated orthography and relational marker system. Depending on basic sociolinguistic variables including age, gender, class, geographic proximity, and urban/rural difference, spoken Thai can be somewhat understood by speakers of Lao, Isan, and some other Thai topolects. Although these languages have slightly distinct writing systems, they are linguistically related and collectively form a dialect continuum.

Since the middle to late Ayutthaya period, Thai has been widely adopted as a second language by the nation's minority ethnic groups despite being the dominant language in all spheres of life in Thailand. Nowadays, the majority of ethnic minorities speak Thai combined with their native tongue or dialect.