"Thai peoples" redirects here. For the subgroup of the Tai, see Thai people
The Tai "Chinese 泰" ethnicity refers collectively to the ethnic groups of southern China and Southeast Asia, stretching from Hainan to eastern India and from southern Sichuan to Laos, Thailand, and parts of Vietnam, which speak languages in the Tai family and share similar traditions and festivals, including Songkran. Despite never having a unified nation-state of their own, the peoples also have historically shared a vague idea of a "Siam" nation, corrupted to Shan or Assam in some places, and most self-identify as "Tai".

Origin of the Tai

Linguist Laurent Sagart recently hypothesized that the proto-Kradai language originated as an Austronesian language migrants carried from Taiwan to mainland China which then was heavily influenced by local languages from the Sino-Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, or other families, borrowing much vocabulary and converging typologically.http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/09/09/06/PDF/THE_HIGHER_PHYLOGENY_OF_AUSTRONESIAN.pdf Sagart, L. 2004. The higher phylogeny of Austronesian and the position of Tai-Kadai. Oceanic Linguistics 43.411-440. Much closer to the present, some peoples speaking Tai languages migrated southward over the mountains into Southeast Asia, perhaps prompted by the coming of the Han Chinese to south China.

Linguistic heritage is not synonymous with genetic heritage, because of language shift where populations learn new languages. However, it is believed that the O1 Y-DNA haplogroup is associated with both the Austronesian people and the Tai. The prevalence of Y-DNA Haplogroup O1 among Austronesian and Tai peoples also suggests a common ancestry with the Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, and Hmong-Mien peoples some 35,000 years ago in China. Y-DNA Haplogroup O2a is also found at high frequency among most Tai peoples, which is a trait that they share with the neighboring Austroasiatic peoples. Y-DNA Haplogroups O1 and O2a are subclades of O Y-DNA haplogroup, which itself is a subclade of Y-DNA Haplogroup K, a genetic mutation that is believed to have originated 40,000 yeas ago, somewhere between Iran and Central China.
In addition to the ethnicities previously mentioned, the progenitor of Haplogroup K was probably the ancestor of nearly all modern Melanesian people, as well as the Mongols and the Native Americans. Haplogroup K, in turn, is a subclade of Y-DNA Haplogroup F, which is believed to have originated in Northern Africa or Southwest Asia some 45,000 years ago. Haplogroup F is believed to be associated with the second major wave of migration out of the African continent. In addition to the ethnicities previously mentioned, the progenitor of Haplogroup F was probably the ancestor of all Indo-Europeans.

Linguistic subdivisions

There are five established branches of the Kradai languages, which may not correspond to ethnicity:

• the nuclear Tai peoples of China(i-lao) and much of Southeast Asia (including most notably the Thai, Lao, Isan(Lao), Shan and Zhuang, and Saek people of Laos and Thailand)

• the Li (Hlai) and Cun people of China

• the Kra peoples of China and Vietnam (also known as the Geyan peoples)

• the Kam-Sui peoples (which may or not include the Biao people)

The Lakkia people of Guangxi Province of China (Tai Lakka in neighboring portions of Vietnam) are ethnically of Yao, but speak a Kra language called Lakkia. These Yao were likely in an area dominated by Tai speakers and assimilated an early Kradai language (possibly the language of the ancestors of the Biao people).

• The Lingao people in Hainan Province of China speak a Kradai language called Be or Lincheng, although the ethnicity of the Lingao traces back to the Han nationality.

Geographic distribution

The Tai have historically resided in China, India and continental Southeast Asia since the early Tai expansion period. Their primary geographic distribution in those countries is roughly in the shape of an arc extending from northeastern India through southern China and down to Southeast Asia. Recent Tai migrations have brought considerable numbers of Tai peoples to Sri Lanka, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina and North America as well. Greatest ethnic diversity within the Tai occurs in China, which is believed to be their prehistoric homeland.

Nuclear Tai peoples throughout China, India and Southeast Asia

Due to the great ethnic diversity among the nuclear Tai peoples in the countries of China, India and Southeast Asia, the geographical distribution of the individual Tai ethnic groups in these regions is discussed in three respective articles on the topic. Articles on each of the individual ethnic groups provide further detail as well.

Li people

The Li reside primarily, if not completely, within the Hainan Province of China.

Kra peoples

The Kra peoples are clustered in the Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Hainan Provinces of China, as well as the Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Lao Cai and Son La Provinces of Vietnam.
for detailed geographic distribution

Kam-Sui peoples

The Kam-Sui peoples are clustered in China as well as neighboring portions of northern Laos and Vietnam.
for detailed geographic distribution

Saek people

The center of the Saek population is the Mekong River in central Laos. A smaller Saek community makes its home in the Isan region of northeast Thailand, near the border with Laos.

Biao people

The Biao people are clustered in the Guangdong Province of China.

Lakkia people

The Lakkia are an ethnic group clustered in the Guangxi Province of China and neighboring portions of Vietnam, whose members are of Yao descent, but speak a Kradai language called Lakkia. These Yao were likely in an area dominated by Tai speakers and assimilated an early Kradai language (possibly the language of the ancestors of the Biao people).

Lingao people

The Lingao people are an ethnic group clustered in the Hainan Province of China who speak a Kradai language called Lincheng. They are categorized as Han Chinese under China's system of ethnic classification.

Population in China

In southern China, people speaking Kam–Tai (Zhuang-Dong) languages are mainly found in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, and Hainan. According to statistics from the fourth census taken in China in 1990, the total population of these groups amounted to 23,262,000. Their distribution is as follows:
Zhuang is the largest of these languages and also the largest ethnic minority in China, with a population of 15,489,630. The Zhuang live mainly in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. In addition, there are some Zhuang scattered throughout Lianshan Zhuang-Yao Autonomous County in Guangdong Province, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province and Jianghua Yao Autonomous County in Hunan Province (Zhao Jia 1994).

The Buyi people are mostly found in the south and southwest of Guizhou Province, where there are two autonomous prefectures and three autonomous counties designated for the Buyi and the Miao. There are also Buyi living in the suburban areas of Guiyang (the capital of Guizhou Province), Liupanshui District, Luoping and Maguan counties of Yunnan Province and Ningnan County of Sichuan Province. According to statistics collected in 1990, the total number of Buyi is 2,545,059 (Zhou Guomao et al. 1994).

The Kam (Dong) have a population of 2,514,014, found mainly in counties such as Liping, Rongjiang, Congjiang, Jingping, Sanshui, Tianzhu, Jianhe, Zhenyuan, Chengong of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Yuping, Jiangkou of Tongren Prefecture in Guizhou Province, Xinhuang, Tongdao, Chengbu, Zhijiang, Jingxian, Huitong and Shining etc. in Hunan Province; Sanjiang, Longsheng, Rongshui in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Enshi Xuan'en, Xianfeng in Hubei Province (Yang Quan et al. 1994).
Hlai (Li), with a population of 1,110,900, is found mainly in the following counties and districts in Hainan Province: Ledong, Dongfang, Baisha, Lingshui, Changjiang, Baoting, Qiongzhong, Sanya, and Tongzha. A few are also scattered throughout Wanning, Tunchang, Chengmai and Ding'an (Wen Mingying 1994).
Dai have a population of 1,025,128, mainly inhabiting Yunnan Province. Most them live in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and such autonomous counties as Gengma, Menglian, Yuanjiang, and Xinping. The rest are scattered throughout many districts of Yunnan province (Zhang Gongjin 1994).
Sui (Shui) have a population of 345,993 and live mainly in Sandu Shui Autonomous County of Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province in some other areas in the counties and districts nearby, such as Libo, Dushan, Rongjiang and Congjiang etc., as well as in Ringshui County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Liu Rirong 1994).
Mulam (Mulao) have a population of 159,328, 80% of which lives in Luocheng Mulam Autonomous County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The rest are scattered throughout Xincheng, Yishan, Liucheng, Du'an huanjiang, Hechi, Rongshui and Rong'an etc. in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Qin Xiaohang 1994)
Maonan have a population of 71,968, mainly living in Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Guangxi Autonomous Region, while the rest are scattered throughout Hechi Nandan, Yishan and Du'an etc. in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Che Rushan 1994). In the early 1990s, about thirty thousand T'en (Yanghuang) people in Pingtang, Huishui, Dushan in Guizhou Province identified themselves as ethnic Maonan (Zhang Min 1991).
Lin'gao, according to statistics from the early 1980s, there are about 500,000 speakers of the Lin'gao language. They live in Lin'gao, Qiongshan, Chengmai, Danxian counties, and the suburban districts of Haikou city in Hainan Province, but at this stage have not been recognized as an individual ethnic group (Ni Dabai 1990).

History in China

In China, Kadai languages are mainly distributed in a radial area from the western edge of Yunnan Province to Guangdong and Hainan Provinces. Most speakers live in compact communities. Some of them are scattered among the Han Chinese or other ethnic minorities. The Yue people, who covered a large area in South China in ancient times, were their common ancestors.

The use of name Zhuang for the zhuang people today first appeared in a book named A History of the Local Administration in Guangxi written by Fan Chengda during the Southern Song Dynasty. From then on, Zhuang would usually be seen in Han Chinese historical books together with Lao. In Guangxi, until the Ming Dynasty, the name Zhuang was generally used to refer to those called Li (originating from Wuhu Man) who lived in compact communities in Guigang (the present name), the Mountain Lao in Guilin and the Tho in Qinzhou. According to A History of the Ming Dynasty - Biography of Guangxi Ethnic Minority Hereditary Headman "In Guangxi, most of the people were the Yaos and the Zhuangs, ...the other small groups were too numerous to mention individually." Gu Yanwu ( a Chinese scholar in the Ming Dynasty) gave the correct explanation of this point, saying the "The Yao were Jing Man (aborigines from Hunan), and the Zhuang originated from the ancient Yue."

The Chinese character Zhuang had several variant written forms in the ancient Han historical books. It was short form of Buzhuang, which was the name the ancestors of the Zhuang people living in the northeast of Guangxi, the south of Guizhou and the west of Guangdong used to refer to themselves. Later this name was gradually accepted by those who had different names, and finally became the general name for the whole group (Ni Dabai 1990).

The Buyi, who lived in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau since ancient times, were called Luoyue, Pu, Puyue, Yi, Yipu, Lao, Pulao, Yilai, etc., in the Qin and Han Dynasties. Since the Yuan Dynasty, the name Zhong, which appeared in the historical book later than Zhuang was used to refer to the Buyi. It was originally a variant form of Zhuang, referring to both the Zhuang and the Buyi in Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou. Later, it referred to the Buyi only, and always appeared in the historical books as Zhongjia, Zhongmiao, and Qingzhong, until the early 1950s. Like Zhuang, Zhong may also be the short form of Buzhuang, which Zhuang people use to refer to themselves, as the pronunciation of Zhong and Zhuang is similar, and Zhong was once a variant form of Zhuang in the Han Chinese historical books. But today, Buyi people never use Buzhuang or Buzhong to refer to themselves, therefore, the use of Zhong as the name of Buyi may have something to do with the common origin of these two groups of peoples, or the mass migration by Zhuang into Buyi areas (Zhou Guoyan 1996)

Hlai (黎) people living on Hainan island were called Luoyue (雒越) during the western Han Dynasty. During the period from the Sui to the Tang Dynasty, Li began to appear in the Han historical books. Li (黎) was frequently used in the Song Dynasty, ans sometimes Lao was also used. Fan Chengda wrote in History of Local Administration in Guangxi: "On the island (Hainan island) there is a Limu Mountain; different groups of aborigines lived around it, calling themselves Li."

The Kam lived in compact communities in neighboring areas across the Guizhou and Hunan Provinces, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region until the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the name Dong and Dong-Man began to be recorded, In the Qing Dynasty, they were called Dong Miao, Dong Min and Dong Jia. Much earlier, during the period of the Qin and the Han Dynasty, they were called Wulin Man or Wuxi Man. Later the name Lao, Laohu, and Wuhu were used to refer to a group of people who might be the ancestors of the Kam.

As suggested by some scholars, the ancestors of the Sui were a group of Luoyue (雒越) who were forced to move to the adjacent areas of Guangxi and Guizhou from the Yonjiang River Valley, tracing a path along the Longjiang River because of the chaos of war during the Qin Dynasty. The name Sui first appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Before that, the Sui had been included in the Baiyue, Man and Lao groups.

The ancestors of the Dai in Yunnan were the Dianyue (滇越) group mentioned in the Records of a Historian by Sima Qian. In Records of the Later Han Dynasty, they were called shan, and in Records of the Local Countries in Southern China, they were called Dianpu. In the Tang Dynasty, they were mentioned as Black Teeth, and as Face-Tattooed in a book names A Survey of the Aborigines by Fan Chuo. These monikers were given based on their customes of tattooing and teeth decoration. In the Song Dynasty, they were called Baiyi Man, and in the Yuan Dynasty were called Jinchi Baiyi. Until the Ming Dynasty, they were generally called Baiyi and after the Qing Dynasty, they were called Baiyi. Thus we can see clearly that the modern Dai people can be traced back to Dianyue, a subgroup among the ancient Baiyue groups.

Other Tai populations throughout Asia

There is a large Shan community within Sri Lanka which settled in Sri Lanka from mainland India. In other parts of Asia, substantial Thai communities can be found in Japan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

Tai of North America

The United States is home to a significant population of Thai, Lao, Tai Kao, Isan, Lu, Phutai, Tai Dam, Tay and Shan people. There are a significant number of Thai and Lao people living in Canada as well.

Tai of Europe

The most significant communities of Tai peoples in Europe are in the Lao communities of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland, the Isan communities of the United Kingdom and Iceland, the Thai communities of Finland, Iceland and Norway, the Tai Dam and Tay communities of France, and the Southern Thai community of the United Kingdom.

Thai of Oceania

There is a sizable Thai community in Australia, as well as a Northeastern Thai community in New Zealand.

Lao of Argentina

In recent times, large numbers of Lao have migrated to Argentina.

Common culture

Language

The languages spoken by the Tai people are classified in a Tai language family. They are the most widely spoken of the Kradai languages, and include Thai, the national language of Thailand; Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos; Burma's Shan language; and Zhuang, a group of languages of southern China. These languages are tonal languages, meaning variations in tone of a word can change that word's meaning.

Festivals

The Tai throughout Asia celebrate a number of common festivals, including a holiday known as Songkran,'' which originally marked the vernal equinox, but is now celebrated on the 14th of April every year.

Genetic structure of Daic as revealed by Y chromosomes

Y-chromosome polymorphisms are powerful tools in delineating the genetic structure of human populations. A large number of populations in China have been studied in the last several
years and 17 Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) haplotypes have been found in them, some of which are specific to East Asians. Major ethnic groups tend to have their own characteristic
profiles reflected by their respective Y haplotype distribution. Daic, an ethnic group dispersing from Assam to Taiwan is a diverse group and yet its genetic structure shows a distinctive profile, different from those of the other groups in East and Southeast Asia, although some resemblance between Daic and Austronesian groups, especially Taiwanese aborigines, is noticeable.

The distribution of Y-chromosome SNP haplotypes in 30 Daic populations were studied.
Among the 19 SNPs studied, M119, M110, M95, and M88 are most informative in delineating the genetic structure of Daic. Linguistic and cultural classification are in general concordance with the
genetic classification although it may be transgressed due to the apparent gene flow between the major branches of Daic. For example, some populations of Kadai, a major branch of Daic, are more similar to the populations Kam-Sui, another major branch. This phenomenon may be the result of the unitary self-identification and geographic assimilation of Daic system. The geographic distribution of the three principal components (PCs) were generated by superimposing
the loading coefficients of each population on to a map, respectively.

The distribution first PC suggested a possible single origin of all the Daic populations. The second PC indicated a deep division of the Daics into two: east group and west group. The center of the east group is in Zhejiang, China, and that of the west one is on the border between China and Burma. The third PC implies the migration routes southern China towards northeast, northwest and southwest
during the relocation of Daic populations. The gene flow between Daic and populations of other ethnic groups are noticeable. Han Chinese in Zhejiang and Shanghai have the highest concentration of Daic types of Y haplotypes among all the Han populations in China, suggesting a possible expansion of Daic people from southern China to Zhejiang via Jiangxi. Daic in Zhejiang and Fujian might have come by different routes, as suggested by the difference of their profiles.
A diphyletic genetic structure was found in Taiwan Aborigines. The West Daic, Tai, Thai, Ahom and so on emigrated from southern China rather late. It might have happened one to two thousand years ago.