Khorat Thai or Korat Thai (Thai: ไทยโคราช) people refers to an ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

 named by their main settlement area which is in Nakhon Ratchasima province

Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Nakhon Ratchasima or , often shortened to Korat or Khorat , is one of the north-eastern provinces of Thailand...

, unofficially called “Korat”, of Thailand. Korat Thai people call themselves Tai Berng (ไทยเบิ้ง), Tai Derng (ไทยเดิ้ง), or Tai Korat (ไทยโคราช). Other tribes in Northern Thailand also refer to them by those names.

The proposed theories of the origin of the name Tai Berng are:

1. From its meaning, Berng means some or few. Tai Korat people live in three major Kingdoms; the Kingdoms of Central Thai (Ayutthaya, Thonburi and Bangkok), Lao Kingdom and Cambodia Kingdom. People who live in the Korat area are from different origins; e.g. Thai, Lao, Khmer, Kui, etc., and blend their cultures and beliefs together into their own culture.
2. It may be from their commonly used word, Berng is a word unique to the Tai Korat people, and it is frequently used in their conversation.

Tai Korat people have their own traditions and cultures called Korat Culture, which is similar to the culture of Thai people

Thai people

The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...

 in Central plain, but their own unique words, dialect, costume, songs and beliefs are different from the rest of the Tai

Tai languages

The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages are a branch of the Tai–Kadai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including standard Thai or Siamese, the national language of Thailand; Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos; Burma's Shan language;...

-speaking peoples. Some say Tai Korat people speak a dialect which is halfway between Thai

Thai language

Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...

 and Isan

Isan language

Isan language is the collective name for the dialects of the Lao language as they are spoken in Thailand. It is spoken by approximately 20 million people, which is nearly one-third of the entire population of Thailand, predominantly in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand. There are also large...

 (Lao

Lao language

Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for...

.)

Population

There are 524,000 Khorat Thai in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

.

Tai Korat people settlement areas are in Nakhon Ratchasima and adjacent provinces:

1. Nakhon Ratchasima province
   Nakhon Ratchasima Province
   Nakhon Ratchasima or , often shortened to Korat or Khorat , is one of the north-eastern provinces of Thailand...
   
   : all districts, except for Northern part e.g. Non Sung, Bua Yai, etc.
2. Sara Buri province: Wangmuang district
3. Lop Buri province: Pattana Nikom, Chai Badal, Kok Samrong and Sra Bot district
4. Petchaboon province: Srideph and Vichianburi district
5. Chaiyabhum province: Chaturat and Bamnej Narong district
6. Buriram province: Meung, Nang Rong, Laharn Sai, Nong Kee and Lam Plai Mart district

History

The Khorat Thai can be traced back at least to the late 18th Century, when King Narai

Narai

Somdet Phra Narai or Somdet Phra Ramathibodi III was the king of Ayutthaya from 1656 to 1688 and arguably the most famous Ayutthayan king. His reign was the most prosperous during the Ayutthaya period and saw the great commercial and diplomatic activities with foreign nations including the...

 of the Ayutthaya Kingdom

Ayutthaya kingdom

Ayutthaya was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese , Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the...

 ordered a new city built as the eastern fortress of his kingdom. This was the origin of Nakhon Ratchasima city

Nakhon Ratchasima

Nakhon Ratchasima or is a city in the north-east of Thailand and gateway to Isan. It is the capital of the Nakhon Ratchasima Province and Nakhon Ratchasima district...

. The city thus marked the boundary between Ayutthaya and the Lao regions.

The Khorat Thai are closely related to the Thai

Lao people

The Lao are an ethnic subgroup of Tai/Dai in Southeast Asia.-Names:The etymology of the word Lao is uncertain, although it may be related to tribes known as the Ai Lao who appear in Han Dynasty records in China and Vietnam as a people of what is now Yunan Province...

people. Some claim they are descended from Thai soldiers who married Khmer women, though evidence to prove this is lacking.