Northern Thai people in the context of "Ngoenyang"

Tai peoples are the populations who speak (or formerly spoke) the Tai languages. There are a total of about 93 million people of Tai ancestry worldwide, with the largest ethnic groups being Dai, Thai, Isan, Lao, Shan, Ahom, Zhuang, Tày, Nùng, Táy, and some Northern Thai peoples.

The Tai are scattered through much of South China and Mainland Southeast Asia, with some (e.g. Tai Ahom, Tai Khamti, Tai Phake, Tai Aiton) inhabiting parts of Northeast India. Tai peoples are both culturally and genetically very similar and therefore primarily identified through their language.

The Lan Na kingdom or the Kingdom of Lanna (Northern Thai: ᩋᩣᨱᩣᨧᩢᨠ᩠ᨠ᩼ᩃ᩶ᩣ᩠ᨶᨶᩣ, pronounced [ʔāː.nāː.tɕǎk láːn nāː], "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; Thai: อาณาจักรล้านนา, RTGS: Anachak Lan Na, pronounced [ʔāː.nāː.tɕàk láːn nāː]), also known as Lannathai, was a kingdom centered in present-day Northern Thailand from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

The cultural development of the Northern Thai people had begun long before as successive kingdoms preceded Lan Na. As a continuation of the kingdom of Ngoenyang, Lan Na emerged strong enough in the 15th century to rival the Ayutthaya Kingdom, with whom wars were fought. However, the Lan Na Kingdom was weakened and became a vassal state of the Toungoo dynasty in 1558. Lan Na was ruled by successive vassal kings, though some enjoyed autonomy. The Burmese rule gradually withdrew but then resumed as the new Konbaung dynasty expanded its influence. In 1775, Lan Na chiefs left the Burmese control to join Siam, leading to the Burmese–Siamese War (1775–76).

Thai people, historically known as Siamese people, are an ethnic group native to Thailand. In a narrower and ethnic sense, the Thais are also a Tai ethnic group dominant in Central and Southern Thailand (Siam proper). Part of the larger Tai ethno-linguistic group native to Southeast Asia as well as Southern China, Thais speak the Sukhothai languages (Central Thai and Southern Thai language), which is classified as part of the Kra–Dai family of languages. The majority of Thais are followers of Theravada Buddhism.

Government policies during the late 1930s and early 1940s resulted in the successful forced assimilation of various ethno-linguistic groups into the country's dominant Central Thai language and culture, leading to the term Thai people to come to refer to the population of Thailand overall. This includes other subgroups of the Tai ethno-linguistic group, such as the Northern Thais and the Isan people, as well as non-Southeast Asian and non-Tai groups, the largest of which is that of the Han Chinese, who form a substantial minority ethnic group in Thailand.

Thailand is a country of some 70 ethnic groups, including at least 24 groups of ethnolinguistically Tai peoples, mainly the Central, Southern, Northeastern, and Northern Thais; 22 groups of Austroasiatic peoples, with substantial populations of Northern Khmer and Kuy; 11 groups speaking Sino-Tibetan languages ('hill tribes'), with the largest in population being the Karen; 3 groups of Austronesian peoples, i.e., the Malay, the majority ethnic group in the southernmost three provinces, together with the Moken and Urak Lawoi ('sea gypsies'); and both groups of Hmong-Mien. Other ethnic groups include longstanding immigrant communities such as the Chinese, Indians, Persian, and Portuguese.

Northern Thai (Thai: ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ), also called Kam Mueang (Northern Thai: ᨣᩴᩤᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ กำเมือง), Lanna or Tai Yuan, is the language spoken by the Northern Thai people of Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language. The language has approximately six million speakers, most of whom live in Northern Thailand, with a smaller community of speakers in northwestern Laos.

Speakers of this language generally consider the name "Tai Yuan" to be pejorative. They refer to themselves as Khon Mueang (ᨤᩫ᩠ᨶᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ, คนเมือง, [kʰon˧.mɯaŋ˧] – literally "people of Mueang" meaning "city dwellers"), Lanna, or Northern Thai. The language is also sometimes referred to as Phayap (พายัพ, Thai pronunciation: [pʰāː.jáp]), "Northwestern (speech)".