William J. Gedney

Saek, a Northern Tai language spoken in villages in Nakhon Phanom province on the border of Northeast Thailand and Laos, is noted for its unique phonological features within the Tai language family. This lexicon, originally compiled by the late Tai linguist William J. Gedney in the 1970s and organized by rhyme, highlights those characteristics that identify the older generation of Saek speakers. Because of these features, linguists believe that Saek will play an important role in the reconstruction of the proto-language of the Tai family. To make the lexicon more accessible, an English-Saek section has been added, something that does not appear in other treatments of Saek.