Lao

Laotian (Lao) is spoken in Laos, as well as in some Northeastern areas of Thailand (Issan). Laotian and Thai share more than a few similarities, and most Laos people can speak and understand Thai. However, this is certainly not true the other way around. Most Thais do not understand Laotian because of a lack of exposure to the language. The dialect spoken in Vientiane is considered the official one, and the written form is based on this dialect as well.

Laotian is a tonal language with 6 distinct tones. The tone of every syllable is determined by a combination of syllable type, consonant class, tone marker, and vowel length (long or short). When writing Laotian, there are no spaces between words. When spaces are used, they indicate the end of a sentence or paragraph.

And as in Thai, the Laotian alphabet also has more than one letter that can be used for the same consonant sound. The different sounds used to be more distinct, but over many years became less and less so, such that today they are instead used to represent different tonal sounds.

Lao Consonants:

Lao Vowels (Diacritics):

Lao Numerals:

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Photo Credits: Omniglot