The ethnic group was first known to Westerners in the 1920s, when the language was already considered in severe decline (Kerr 1927).
In the 1970s, David Bradley began working on the language in the several areas where it was still used, by which time it was already extinct in two of the locations given by Kerr (1927) about 50 years earlier.
The people were then forced from two of these villages when the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand built dams over the Kwae Yai and Khwae Noi River (Bradley 1989).
The classification of Gong within Tibeto-Burman is uncertain, although Bradley (1989) suggests that it is a divergent Lolo-Burmese language that does not fit into either the Burmish or Loloish branches.
[5] It was reportedly spoken in locations including:[5] In Kanchanaburi province, many Gong have intermarried with Karen and Mon people.