Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Thai is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand''s dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Kradai language family. The Kradai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively link the Kradai languages to any other language family. Many words in Thai are borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer. It is a tonal and analytic language. Thai also has a complex orthography and relational markers. Thai is mutually intelligible with Lao.