Gong language

Vowels Consonants ==History==

The ethnic group was first known to Westerners in the 1920s, when the language was already considered in severe decline (Kerr 1927). In the 1970s, David Bradley began working on the language in the several areas where it was still used, by which time it was already extinct in two of the locations given by Kerr (1927) about 50 years earlier. The people were then forced from two of these villages when the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand built dams over the Kwae Yai and Khwae Noi River (Bradley 1989). Because of the displacement of the people of an already declining language, the language is considered especially vulnerable to extinction. The last children speakers were in the 1970s and the children now speak Thai as their first language. ==Classification==

The classification of Gong within Tibeto-Burman is uncertain, although Bradley (1989) suggests that it is a divergent Lolo-Burmese language that does not fit into either the Burmish or Loloish branches. Hsiu (2018) considers Gong to be a separate branch of Tibeto-Burman, rather than part of Lolo-Burmese. ==Dialects==

The Gong language consists of two dialects (Ethnologue). • Khok Khwai village, Uthai Thani province (moribund); documented by Rujjanavet (1986) • Kok Chiang village, Suphan Buri province (endangered and now dispersed); documented by Thawornpat (2006) and David Bradley Gong was once also spoken in western Kanchanaburi province, but is now extinct in that province (Ethnologue). Word lists of two Gong varieties (namely Lawa of Kwê Yai and Lawa of Kwê Noi) from Kanchanaburi have been collected by Kerr (1927). ==Distribution==

Gong families now live in the following 3 villages. • Lawa Wang Khwai village, Wang Yao Subdistrict (วังยาว), Dan Chang District, Suphanburi province (3 families) • Kok Chiang village, Huai Khamin Subdistrict (ห้วยขมิ้น), Dan Chang District, Suphanburi province (36 families) • Khok Khwai village (คอกควาย), Thong Lang Subdistrict (ทองหลาง), Huai Khot District, Uthai Thani province (15 families); reported as Baan Lawa village 3 in Wright, et al. (1991). It was reportedly spoken in locations including: ==Grammar==

Gong has SOV (verb-final) word order. ==See also==

• Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. ''Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 10. • Thawornpat, Mayuree. 2006. Gong: An endangered language of Thailand. Doctoral dissertation, Mahidol University. • Thawornpat, Mayuree. 2007. Gong phonological characteristics. Mon-Khmer Studies 37. 197–216. ==Further reading==