Lanna language

Lanna (Northern Thai: ᨽᩣᩈᩣᩃ᩶ᩣ᩠ᨶᨶᩣ, Thai: ภาษาล้านนา), also called Kam Mueang (Northern Thai: ᨣᩴᩤᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ กำเมือง, Thai: คำเมือง), Tai Yuan (Northern Thai: ᨽᩣᩈᩣᨴᩱᨿ᩠ᩅᩁ ภาษาไตยวน, Thai: ภาษาไทยวน), or Northern Thai (Thai: ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ), is the language spoken by the Lanna people of Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language. The language has approximately six million speakers, most of whom live in Northern Thailand, with a smaller community of speakers in northwestern Laos. Speakers of this language generally consider the name "Tai Yuan" to be pejorative. They refer to themselves as Khon Mueang (ᨤᩫ᩠ᨶᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ, คนเมือง, [kʰon˧.mɯaŋ˧] – literally "people of Mueang" meaning "city dwellers"), Lanna, or Northern Thai. The language is also sometimes referred to as Phayap (พายัพ, Thai pronunciation: [pʰāː.jáp]), "Northwestern (speech)". The term Yuan is still sometimes used for Lanna's distinctive Tai Tham alphabet, which is closely related to the old Tai Lue alphabet and the Lao religious alphabets. The use of the Tua Mueang, as the traditional alphabet is known, is now largely limited to Buddhist temples, where many old sermon manuscripts are still in active use. There is no active production of literature in the traditional alphabet, and when used in writing standard Thai script is invariably used. The modern spoken form is called Kam Mueang.