TheGong language (also'Ugong,Ugong,Lawa orUgawng, withU- meaning 'person')^[2] is an endangeredTibeto-Burman language of WesternThailand, spoken in isolated pockets inUthai Thani andSuphanburi provinces.

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 theElectricity Generating Authority of Thailand built dams over theKwae Yai andKhwae 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 speakThai as their first language.

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 theBurmish orLoloish branches. Hsiu (2018) considers Gong to be a separate branch of Tibeto-Burman, rather than part of Lolo-Burmese.^[3]

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 westernKanchanaburi 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).

Gong families now live in the following 3 villages.^[2]

• 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).^[4]

There are around 500 ethnic Gong people and 50 speakers of the Gong language. There are also manyLao Krang people living in the Gong areas.

Gong used to be much more widespread, and was found in theKhwae Noi River,Khwae Yai River, and Bo Phloi River watersheds (Bradley 1989).^[5] It was reportedly spoken in locations including:^[5]

• Kanchanaburi province
  • Lat Ya (northwest of Kanchanaburi town)
  • Thong Pha Phum District (located along theKhwae Noi River)
  • Ban Lawa (located several kilometres downriver along theKhwae Noi River, from the former location ofSangkhlaburi near theThree Pagodas Pass)
  • Sao Hong, 10 kilometres south ofBo Phloi
  • Phanom Thuan District
  • Bo Phloi, Nong Pling, Lam Iso, Nong Li (หนองรี), andNong Plue
  • Khlot Khoi^[4]
• Suphanburi province
  • Tumakok,Dan Chang District, Suphanburi province (now an ethnic Karen township; originally settled by Gong people from Talao/Hin Hak during the 1800s)
  • Sanakphai, Suphanburi province
  • Wang Khwai (known in Ugong asKabe and in Lao asKapheun), Suphanburi province
• Uthai Thani province
  • Ban Bung (บ้านบึง),Ban Rai District (near district headquarters)
  • Thong Lang,Huai Khot District
  • Iphung, Cawat, and Huai Haeng (exact locations uncertain)

InKanchanaburi province, many Gong have intermarried withKaren andMon people.^[5] Sisawat and Sangkhlaburi have since been flooded by the construction of a dam, and the speakers have been dispersed to other places. As of 1991 in Kanchanaburi province, Gong has not been spoken for 20–30 years, with most Gong people speaking Thai or Karen instead.^[4]

Gong has SOV (verb-final) word order.

• Gong vocabulary lists (Wiktionary)

• Daniel Nettle andSuzanne 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.

• Bradley, David. 1993.Body Parts Questionnaire (Ugong). (unpublished ms. contributed to STEDT).
• Bradley, David (1989). "The disappearance of the Ugong in Thailand".Investigating Obsolescence. pp. 33–40.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511620997.006.ISBN 9780521324052.
• Bradley, David (1989). Dying to be Thai: Ugong in western Thailand.La Trobe Working Papers in Linguistics 2:19-28
• Kerr, A. F. G. 1927. "Two 'Lawā' vocabularies: the Lawā of the Baw Lūang plateau; Lawā of Kanburi Province."Journal of the Siam Society 21: 53–63.
• Rujjanavet, Pusit. (1986). The Phonology of Ugong in Uthaithani Province. M.A. Thesis in Linguistics, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Mahidol University.
• Thawornpat, Mayuree. "Gong phonological characteristics", inMon-Khmer Studies, Thailand, 2007.

• Proto-Gong reconstruction (Sino-Tibetan Branches Project)

• Languages of Thailand
• Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages
• Lolo-Burmese languages

• Language articles citing Ethnologue 25
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata