Lexical Variations in Usage of Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) Dialect Verbs in Different Age Groups of Speakers in Je-Hay Sub-district, Tak-Bai District, Narathiwat Province

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze lexical variations and tendencies in usage of Tak-Bai
(Je-Hay) dialect verbs in different age groups of speakers. The population of the study was
speakers who used Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect as a mother-tongued language in Je-Hay village, Je-Hay
sub-district, Tak-Bai district, Narathiwat province. The purposive sampling method was used in
this research. The sample was divided into three age groups, in which each group consisted of
10 people. Therefore, the sample comprised 30 people altogether. The first group consisted of
elders aged 60 and above, the second group consisted of adults aged 35 to 50, and the third
group consisted of adolescents and young people aged 10 to 25. One hundred semantic units
of verbs were used in data collection. The results revealed that 1) the characteristics of lexical
variations in usage of Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect in different age groups of speakers were put into 5
categories: (1) the 11 semantic units which were old words that had been commonly used in all
three age groups, (2) the 44 semantic units which were also old words that had been used in the
first and the second age group, (3) the 38 semantic units which were old and new words that
had been used in the second and the third age groups, (4) the 5 semantic units which had been
used differently in each age group, and (5) the 3 semantic units which were new words that had
been commonly used in the second and the third age group; and 2) the tendencies in usage of
Tak-Bai (Je-Hay) dialect verbs in different age groups of speakers were divided into three aspects:
(1) some lexical items tended to be unchanged because all three age groups still commonly used
those old words, (2) some lexical items tended to change in the future because the second and
the third age groups used some new words with the old ones, or used some new words instead
of the old ones, and (3) some lexical items had already changed because the second and the
third age groups currently used the new words instead of the old ones.