I would like to find a list of languages in Thailand (perferablly in the last 15 years) with population estimates. (I already know about the Ethnologue and Wikipedia mentions the 2000 census data).
The website of that National Statistical Office of Thailand says the 2010 census data is online. Have you tried searching there?
Ethnologue is quite good
Also shows the status of the language and area its spoken, family etc. It's compiled by linguists for linguists
Nathaniel,
Actually I'm trying to find resources to update the Ethnologue's populations figures. Some of the populations listed are old, and I'd like to find better numbers for the Ethnologue....but yes it's a good resources.....just trying to make it better.
Okay,
Right. then that's tricky
Have you spoken to SIL in Thailand?
they tend to have numbers here and there. Another good place to start is with the original academics. Perhaps David Bradley at La Trobe Uni (Melbourne, Australia) might be able to point you in the direction of the SIL section heads in those areas.
Also,
although I am a little jaded about talking about this, the missionaries in the area might have completed census. They might have data that they could pass on. I'm not sure what you would need to do in order to gather data from them, but its another source.
Ultimately, it sounds like you have a accuracy issue, so all of these are second hand numbers anyway. You kinda need people on the ground to do a head count. Tricky, but doable (if you know the people on the ground). Again, SIL will have people in place in each area (northern Thailand for example).
I just remembered, Wycliffe: bible translators, may have affiliates there as well (but they tend to be associatied with SIL). Tim and Sharon (Queensland, AUS) regional office phone numbers are:
TIM: 0419708007
Sharon: 0407476129
(these are the only contacts that I have there)
Thanks for your help Nathaniel.
Actually I'm with SIL, and I serve as SIL's Ethnologue Field Contributor for Thailand. I've been in communication with David Bradley, and we'd like to use census data from Thailand to help improve some of the Ethnologue language entries for Thailand.
I did a quick check online, but couldn't easily get populations estimates from the Thai census data. They could be there, but I'm not sure where to look.
Anyway, hopefully we can make many positive edits to the Ethnologue data in coming years.
Have you contacted John Draper at COLA Khon Kaen University? He might be able to help you.
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