The majority of all ethnic Lao live in northeastern Thailand and their mother tongue is the Lao language. But Thai government prohibited the usage of the name “Lao” and forced to call the Lao language as the Isan language and ethnic Lao as Isan.

This study discusses young Lao's linguistic recognition about the Thai language, the Isan language and the Lao language. In 1999, I conducted a survey of young Lao's linguistic recognition on 438 college students in the northeastern Thailand.

In this study, I propose the idea of “distance between two languages” to analize the difference of languages. I also apply this idea to three languages used in the northeastern Thailand, that is, the Thai language, the Isan language and the Lao language.

The conclusion is that young Lao regard the distance between the Thai language and the Isan language as the inbetween of the same language and different languages. They also regard the distance between the Isan language and the Lao language as the inbetween of the same language and different languages. And they regard the Thai language and the Lao language are different languages.

I also came to the conclusion that which language each ethnic group use depends on the difference of the status they are in the northeastern Thailand. Lao is bilingual of the Thai language and the Lao language, and under the state of diglossia. Khmer is trilingual of the Khmer language, the Thai language and the Lao language. Khorat is bilingual of the Khorat language and Thai language.

　Asia differs substantially among and within its regions populated by diverse ethnic groups with different cultures and unique diets. Asian Microbiome Project, which is a consortium research project participated by ten Asian countries, is investigating on the gut microbiome diversity which may link with these diverse diets. Thus far, we found country-specific features as well as enterotype-like global variations in the Asian microbiomes. Notably, Japanese have unique features such as less alpha- and beta-diversities, low abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria groups and high abundance of Bifidobacterium. This may reflect unique Japanese life and dietary styles. Regarding enterotypes, majority of southeast Asian populations carry the Prevotella-type (P-type) in reflection of high consumption of rice. However, a cross-sectional study on the gut microbiota of school-age children on Leyte island in Philippines showed the enterotype-shift from P-type to Bacteroides/Bifidobacterium-type (BB-type), which associated with dietary Westernization. Another cross-sectional study on Thai children further indicated decrease of short chain fatty acid concentration in the feces of children in urban city, who consumed much less vegetables compared with children in rural city. Altogether, although Asian people have evolved their gut microbiomes in association with their unique diets, current urbanization hampers their structure and function. It warrants further studies on the impact of altered gut microbiomes on the health of Asian people.