Talk:Nyaw people
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Sources
The literature on the Nyaw is mostly in Thai and mostly about single places: Saeng Badan in Kalasin (Mulha and Pimkaew 2022), Ban Tha Khon Yang in Maha Sarakham (Chantawarit and others 2022), Tha Uthen in Nakhon Phanom (Nankhantee and others 2016), the town of Sakon Nakhon (Thongthip and others 2019; Tansinpon and Sakham 2026) and Ban Khlong Nam Sai in Sa Kaeo (Rojsanga 2020). The one linguistic study read in full, Pacquement (2018), documents the Nyaw of Kut Kho Kan in Yasothon and summarises earlier classifications. Statements about one village are kept to that village in the article. Passages from Thai-language sources are paraphrased from the Thai text.
Several statements reach the page at second hand. The views of J. Marvin Brown (1965) and James R. Chamberlain (1975, 1984), the Laos village names and the 2018 Ethnologue entry come through Pacquement. Prince Damrong's note on the Nyaw of Tha Uthen comes through Maswanna and Hongsuwan, who quote a 2013 reprint. The Kham Koet account of Ban Tha Khon Yang comes through Chantawarit and others, who quote Narongrit Sumali (2005) and Bunyong Ketthet (1991).
The PDF of Nankhantee and others (2016) uses a legacy Thai font whose text cannot be read by machine; the article uses only the Thai abstract on the journal's landing page, which carries no page numbers.
Where the sources disagree
- Where the Tha Khon Yang Nyaw came from. Chantawarit and others (2022) name Mueang Kham Koet, which they place in Luang Prabang. The Saeng Badan account in Mulha and Pimkaew (2022) has one of three kin groups from Mueang Khammuan going on to Tha Khon Yang. The article gives both.
- Saeng Badan: Phu Thai or Nyaw. Mulha and Pimkaew (2022) describe the people of Saeng Badan in Somdet District as Nyaw who came from Khammuan under Phra Kham Daeng. Chareerak and Wongpinunwatana (2023) list Muang Saeng Badan, raised from Ban Bueng Kradan for settlers from Khammuan with Phra Kham Daeng as its first ruler, among the Phu Thai towns, and describe the Saeng Badan group of Somdet as Phu Thai mixed with Nyaw. The article reports both.
- Date of the crossing. Chareerak and Wongpinunwatana place the Nyaw among the peoples moved after the defeat of Anouvong in 1828; Failai (2019) gives 1833–1845 for the removal from 15 left-bank towns; Chantawarit and others quote 1826 for the taking of the Kham Koet Nyaw by Anouvong's army and about 1845 for the raising of Tha Khon Yang; Rojsanga (2020) quotes 1826 for the Nyaw of Aranyaprathet; Timsuksai and Rambo (2016) give the early 19th century; Prince Damrong records a return to Tha Uthen in the reign of Rama III. The article reports each.
- Damrong's place name. The quotation of Prince Damrong in Maswanna and Hongsuwan (2021) prints the Nyaw's earlier home as "เมืองลพบุรี", near Tha Uthen. A town of that name near Tha Uthen is not otherwise known, and the original text was not compared; the article says only that they had lived near Tha Uthen.
- Language or dialect. Brown (1965, as reported by Pacquement) classed Nyaw as a dialect group of Lao. Ethnologue and Glottolog list it under its own code, nyw. Luksanawong (2010) groups it with Lao and Yoy by vocabulary; Pittayaporn (2025) groups it with Yoy and Kaloeng by sound change. The article reports each.
- Nyaw and the Tai Yo. The name Yo is shared with the Tai Yo of Nghệ An and other groups in Vietnam. Pacquement (2018) and the sources he cites treat the Tai Yo as a different language of another branch. The English Wikipedia page "Nyaw language" redirects to "Tai Yo language"; that page is not used.
Cannabis
None of the sources read connects the Nyaw with cannabis. The texts gathered for the page were searched for "cannabis", "ganja", "marijuana", "hemp", กัญชา and กัญชง. No study of Nyaw plant use was found; the only plant named in a Nyaw source is the tot ma vine used in rice crackers at Saeng Badan. A 2022 study of how licensed growers in Sakon Nakhon tell male from female cannabis plants (Hongsuwan and others, cited on the page on the Phu Phan range) does not name the ethnic group of its six informants. The page therefore has no cannabis section.
Not used, and why
- Population figures. No source read gives a count of the Nyaw with a year and a counting body. The provincial statistical report for Sakon Nakhon lists districts only. Figures on the English Wikipedia page and in mission databases rest on mission reports and are not used.
- James R. Chamberlain, "Mene: a Tai dialect originally spoken in Nghe An" (Journal of the Siam Society, 1991). Read; it notes that the name Yo is applied to linguistically distinct Tai dialects, links the Nyaw of Tha Uthen to the Mene and Pao dialects through one word, and lists Nyaw villages at Khammouan, Tha Veng and Phiat Xay in the Kham Keut area of Laos. The PDF carries no printed page numbers, and the point on the name is made on the page through Pacquement.
- James R. Chamberlain, "The Tai dialects of Khammouan Province" (1984) and Thananan Trongdee, "The Lao-speaking Nyo in Banteay Meanchey Province of Cambodia" (2014). Not obtained; both are known here only through Pacquement.
- Yutthaphichai Wannasang and Sarapee Khowdee (2026), on the names of ikat patterns in Sakon Nakhon. It finds that the Nyaw of Ban Klang in Khok Si Suphan District give patterns short names with direct meanings. It adds pattern names only.
- Timsuksai and Rambo (2016), Table 1. The table locates its Nyaw village in Phon Na Kaeo District, but the village name is not legible in the text layer, so the article does not name it.
- Studies known only from abstracts in the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre database (Maleelai 2017, on Phu Thai, Nyaw and Kaloeng villages of Khok Si Suphan District) and studies of lullabies and astrology across several peoples of the basin (Phakmaruk 2015 and 2017) are not used: they add no statement about the Nyaw beyond what the page carries.
- A list of the peoples of Isan in Appamaraka and others (2023) gives the Nyaw the further name "Yo-Ngiao". No other source read uses it, and it is not used.
Open content questions
- No count of the Nyaw of Thailand or Laos with a stated year and method has been found.
- Nyaw villages in Nakhon Phanom beyond Tha Uthen, and the Nyaw of Prachinburi named in older word lists, are not described in any source read.