Skaw Karen Language Vitality in Ban Klang Community, Ban Dong Sub-district, Mae Moh District, Lampang Province

Abstract

The study entitled Skaw Karen Language Vitality in Ban Klang community, Ban Dong sub-district, Mae Moh district, Lampang is 1) to study about language usage and attitude for Shaw Karen native speaker in in Ban Klang community, Ban Dong sub-district, Mae Moh district, Lampang as well as 2) to study The existence of Shaw Karen language that is appeared in Ban Klang community, Ban Dong sub-district, Mae Moh district, Lampang. Additionally, it also aims to 3) study the factors impact on the validation of Shaw Karen language that is appeared in Ban Klang community, Ban Dong sub-district, Mae Moh district, Lampang.

               This research is in a quantitative and qualitative research which is performed by surveying and interviewing. The data are provided by 1) the group of 30 elderly people (55 – 65 years old), 2) the group of 30 adults or working-age people (35 – 45 years old), 3) the group of 30 adolescents (15 – 25 years old) and 4) the group of 5 community philosophers which are specifically collected. The equipment in this research is survey questionnaire and deeply-interviewed questionnaire. The information will be analyzed by explanation and descriptive analysis.         

The research is found that 1) the native speakers in all ranks of ages still use Shaw Karen language the most in daily life, as well as using it in the role inside and outside the community. Moreover, there are Shaw Karen language usages in the group conversation. The reason for using their own language is to represent the identity of ethnic, and they use standard Thai language or Northern-Thai language when they speak with the outsider of the group who use another native language.

          2) The existence of Shaw Karen language in Ban Klang community is appeared in 4 sides which are lyrics, religion, education and culture. the existence of the language is related with belief, way of life, and lifestyles of people in the community by connecting value, culture, tradition and relationship of people in the community. As a consequence, Shaw Karen people in Ban Klang community then bound together and pleasure about their own language as well as willing to preserve their own language to be valid in the social forever.

Having analyzed the current situation of language use within the village, language vitality of the Shaw Karen language in Ban Klang village is in level 6a (Vigorous) in the EGIDS scale. It is recommended that the villagers keep maintaining Shaw Karen orally to move the language up to level ๕ (Written) to reach a sustainable level of language.