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Thai is spoken by roughly 25 million people living in Thailand. Small pockets of Thai speakers can also be found in the Midway Islands, Singapore and the United States.
Thai belongs to the Thai language family, which incorporates many languages of Southeast Asia. Standard modern Thai is based on the dialect of Bangkok and the surrounding areas. The dialects of Thailand can be divided in the following ways:
- Northeastern: Ubon Ratchathani and Khon Kaen, which are similar to dialects spoken in Laos.
- Northern: Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
- Southern: Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Thai has borrowed many words from other languages, like Chinese, Sanskrit, Khmer and most recently English.