Maintenance of Mother Tongue: Patterns of Language Choice at the Malaysian-Thai Border

Language use or choice at the border often presents a multitude of patterns. The language chosen is often determined by the participants in the communicative act. At the Malaysia-Thai border, where most of the population are Malay but of Thai and/or Malaysian nationalities, the language choices of the speakers present an interesting pattern. This paper aims to present the language choice at the Malaysia-Thai border via questionnaires, interviews and observations. The findings show that there might be a geographical demarcation line separating the respondents but the language they use in both domains is determined by their ethnicity.