Kammüang was formerly written in its own script, which is still preserved for some religious and cultural purposes, but most northerners who want to write anything now do so in Standard Thai Kammuang and Standard Thai are not mutually intelligible although most northerners have learned at least enough standard Thai to follow simple discourse in that language. Few people from outside the north can follow any extended discourse clearly in Kammuang although they will get the drift of some of it. The languages are readily learnable, however. Speakers from other parts of the country could adjust to understanding and speaking Kammluang simply by interacting with it over a period of time, but speakers of Standard Thai rarely do this. Speakers of Kammuang do quickly learn Standard Thai or Thaiklang if they spend extended periods of time in central Thailand, however. This non-reciprocal learning pattern is a manifestation of the language hierarchy(fig. II.1) In spite of significant structural differences between Standard Thai and Kammuang, and the lack of mutual intelligibility, speakers of Kammuang identify with the nation as well as with the northern region, and consider Standard Thai to be the language of the nation even if they do not speak it well.