Lao language

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Lao
ພາສາລາວ phaasaa laao

Spoken in: Laos, Thailand, U.S., France, Canada, China

Total speakers: 3,188,577 (1991)

Language family: Tai-Kadai
Kam-Tai
Be-Tai
Tai-Sek
Tai
Southwestern Tai
Lao-Phutai
Lao

Official status

Official language of: Laos

Regulated by: no official regulation

Language codes

ISO 639-1: lo

ISO 639-2: lao

ISO/FDIS 639-3:

lao

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Lao (ພາສາລາວ phaasaa laao) is the official language of Laos. It is a tonal language of the Tai family, and is so closely related to the Isan language of the northeast region of Thailand that the two are often classed as one language. The writing system of Lao is an abugida (a writing system composed of signs denoting consonants with an inherent following vowel) and is closely related to the writing system used in Thai.

The Lao language can be divided into five main dialects :

Vientiane Lao
Northern Lao (Luang Prabang)
North-Eastern Lao (Xieng Khouang)
Central Lao (Khammouan)
Southern Lao (Champasak)

Vientiane Lao, the predominant dialect due to its use in the capital (whence it gets its name), is widely understood throughout the country, and all the dialects are for the most part mutually intelligible.

1 Tones
2 Script
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Tones

Vientiane Lao has six tones: Low, Mid, High, Rising, High Rising and Low Falling. Pitch levels vary from the speaker's ethnicity and geographic location. Luang Prabang residents use five tones: Mid Falling Rising, Low Rising, Mid, High Falling and Mid Rising.

[edit] Script

Lao has traditionally been written in two scripts: Lao and Tham.

The Lao alphabet is based on the same script as the Thai alphabet. It made its way into Laos from Sinhalese Buddhists. It is made up of 33 consonants and 28 vowels representing respectively 21 and 27 original sounds, written left to right. It is simpler and thus easier to learn than its Thai and Khmer counterparts. Lao is written phonetically using this script. The script contains a number of redundant consonants that are no longer distinguished in written and spoken Lao.

The Tham script is derived from the script used in Lan Na prior to the standardization of the Thai alphabet, which is itself derived from the Khmer script. Tham script is most commonly employed in both Thailand and Laos in religious inscriptions, and in reading older religious texts.

Both scripts used to write Lao are technically abugidas, each consonant having an inherent vowel, with vowel changes indicated through additional markings. Lao is written left to right, without spaces between words. The recent spelling reforms introduced the full writing of vowel signs in the Lao script, making it no longer an abugida.