The Mixing of Thai and English: Communicative Strategies in Internet Chat Rooms

Abstract

     The study systematically described the characteristics of mixing Thai, by Thai speakers, with Englishbased discourses in the Internet chat rooms. The possible functions of mixing, the factors involved, and the new textual identities built by language mixing were also explored. Data were collected from 60 textual chat extracts in international and English chat rooms on the Sanook and Pantip websites. The findings revealed that shifting to Thai was done by means of (1) Thai word insertion, (2) word translation, (3) word quotations, (4) word repetition, (5) specialized features expression, and (6) net culture switching. Shifting occurred mainly as a result of the Thai chatters' non-proficiency in English, the habitual use of Thai cultural terms, and the causal, synchronous nature of the non-visual interactions, while the individual linguistic styles as well as emotional drivers were to help build a shared understanding between Thais and at the same time express their cultural identities.