The Kuy are an indigenous ethnic group of mainland Southeast Asia. The native lands of the Kuy range from the southern Khorat Plateau in Northeast Thailand east to the banks of the Mekong river in southern Laos and south to northern central Cambodia. The Kuy are an ethnic minority in all three countries, where they live as "hill tribes" or Montagnards. Their language is classified as a Katuic language of the Mon-Khmer language family and, as such, is related to the Khmer language of Cambodia. The Thais, Lao and Khmer traditionally recognize the Kuy as the aboriginal inhabitants of the region and refer to them as Khmer Boran (Khmer) or Khamen Boran (Thai and Lao), meaning "ancient Khmer". The word kuy in the Kuy language means "people" or "human being"; alternate English spellings include K