Lexical Variations in Usage of Tak-Bai (Je-Hay)
Dialect Verbs in Different Age Groups of Speakers in
Je-Hay Sub-district, Tak-Bai District, Narathiwat Province
Received 01/04/2019
Revised 25/05/2019 Warid Charoenrad1
Accepted 27/05/2019
Abstract
This research aimed to analyze lexical variations and tendencies in usage of Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect verbs in different age groups of speakers. The population of the study was speakers who used Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect as a mother-tongued language in Je-Hay village, Je-Hay sub-district, Tak-Bai district, Narathiwat province. The selective sampling method was used in this research. The sample was divided into three age groups, in which each group consisted of 10 people. Therefore, the sample comprised 30 people altogether. The first group consisted of elders aged 60 and above, the second one consisted of adults aged 35 to 50, and the third one consisted of adolescents and young people aged 10 to 25. One hundred semantic units of verbs were used in data collection. The results revealed that 1) the characteristics of lexical variations in usage of Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect in different age groups of speakers were put into 5 categories: (1) the 11 semantic units which were old words that had been commonly used in all three age groups; (2) the 44 semantic units which were also old words that had been used in the first and the second age group; (3) the 38 semantic units which were old and new words that had been used in the second and the third age groups; (4) the 5 semantic units which had been used differently in each age group; and (5) the 3 semantic units which were new words that had been commonly used in the second and the third age group, and 2) the tendencies in usage of Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect verbs in different age groups of speakers were divided into three aspects: (1) some lexical items tended to be unchanged because all three age groups still commonly used those old words; (2) some lexical items tended to change in the future because the second and the third age groups used some new words with the old ones, or used some new words instead of the old ones; and (3) some lexical items had already changed because the second and the third age groups currently used the new words instead of the old ones.
Keywords : lexical variations,verbs,Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect
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1 Lecturer, Doctor of Philosophy, Thai Language Program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dhonburi Rajabhat University
e-mail: yusof_lee@hotmail.com
