Tai-Kadai

As a family of languages, Tai-Kadai may be considered to have many significant roots. Altogether, however, Tai-Kadai is considered to have originated several thousand years ago in the region of southern China, where it is thought that Proto-Tai-Kadai languages set the precedent for the eventual formation of this language family.

Migration and expansion in the region spread the forming language family, eventually forming two significant branches of the family. The Kadai branch includes languages such as Be-Tai and Kam-Sui, and the Tai branch includes languages such as Shan, Thai, and Zhuang. Interaction with other neighboring languages, like Chinese and Khmer, would eventually mold this language family into the modern iteration that can be heard today.

Direct translations, whether with a regular online translation tool or a translator’s dictionary, are typically quick and cheap to perform—and also typically wrong. Languages form from their own contexts and, as a result, a language from one context may not be able to describe phenomena from another context as directly as we’d like.

These cultural nuances make careful and culturally sensitive translations not only useful, but necessary. It’s not only a way of respecting the respective cultures, but also a way to ensure that your message is being translated cohesively. Without the proper cultural understanding in your translation services, there’s no guarantee that your message will end up being even comprehensible at all.