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About Lao Language

Lao


Countries

Countries
Laos

Total No. Of Countries
1 14

National Language
Laos, Northeastern Thailand

Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents
Asia

Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries

Regulated By
-

Interesting Facts
  • There is no space left between words, only between phrases or sentences in Lao language.
  • The Lao alphabets has been reformed many times over the past 50 years.

Similar To
Thai Language

Derived From
Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer Languages

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Lao-Alphabets.jpg#200

Alphabets
53 32

Phonology

How Many Vowels
28 20

How Many Consonants
27 17

Scripts
Thai and Lao Braille

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels
6 5

Time Taken to Learn
44 weeks 17

Greetings

Hello
ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i)

Thank You
ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i)

How Are You?
ສະບາຍດີບ (sába̖ai-di̖i baw?)

Good Night
ໃນຕອນກາງຄືນ ທີ່ດີ (naitonkangkhun thidi)

Good Evening
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ແລງ (sa bai di ton aelng)

Good Afternoon
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ສວາຍ (sa bai di ton suaai)

Good Morning
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ເຊົ້າ (sa bai di ton sao)

Please
ກະລຸນາ (kaluna)

Sorry
ຂໍອະໄພ (khooaphai)

Bye
Sôhk dii der

I Love You
ຂ້ອຍ​ຮັກ​ເຈົ້າ (khony hak chao)

Excuse Me
ຂໍ​ໂທດ (kho othd)

Dialects

Dialect 1
Vientiane Lao

Where They Speak
Laos

How Many People Speak
3,000,000.00 51

Dialect 2
Northern Lao

Where They Speak
Laos

How Many People Speak
3,000,000.00 51

Dialect 3
Central Lao

Where They Speak
Laos

How Many People Speak
3,000,000.00 44

Total No. Of Dialects
6 6

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
25.00 million 40

Speaking Population
0.22 % 46

Native Speakers
25.00 million 32

Second Language Speakers
3.00 million 54

Native Name
ພາສາລາວ (pháasaa láo)

Alternative Names
Eastern Thai, Lào, Lao Kao, Lao Wiang, Lao-Lum, Lao-Noi, Lao-Tai, Laotian, Laotian Tai, Lum Lao, Phou Lao, Rong Kong, Tai Lao

French Name
lao

German Name
Laotisch

Pronunciation
pʰáːsǎː láːw

Ethnicity
Lao people

History

Origin
1283 CE

Language Family
Tai-Kadai Family

Subgroup
Tai

Branch
-

Language Forms

Early Forms
No Early forms

Standard Forms
Lao

Language Position
43 40

Signed Forms
Lao Sign Language

Scope
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1
lo

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T
lao

ISO 639 2/B
lao

ISO 639 3
lao

ISO 639 6
lao

Glottocode
laoo1244

Linguasphere
No data available

Types of Language

Language Type
Living

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology
Isolating

Summary >>
<< Code

Know Alphabets in Lao

When you start learning to write in any language the Alphabets form a skeleton of any language. Let's talk About Lao Language, where you will learn the number of letter in Lao Alphabets. Every language has its own set of alphabets or characters so it is necessary to know alphabets in Lao. Lao phonology gives Lao vowels and Lao consonants. There are 28 vowels and 27 consonants in Lao language. Based upon the number of alphabet, vowels and consonants in the language we can check if Lao is one of the Most Difficult Languages. All about Lao language is given in detail in this section.

Most Difficult Languages

All Lao countries

Want to explore all Lao countries? About Lao language serves you with all Lao Speaking Countries. Countries that use Lao as official language are called as Lao countries.

  • Countries that use Lao as their National Language are: Laos, Northeastern Thailand.

Second language indicates to any language which the person learns in addition to first or native language.

  • Countries that use Lao as second language are: Lao is not spoken as second language in any of the countries.

You can also go through all European Languages and explore more about their speaking population, alphabets, greetings, dialects and many more.

Compare Most Difficult Languages

Learn Lao greetings

Languages are used by every human being to communicate. And communication begins with the greetings. First step to form any interaction is to learn Lao Greetings. Whenever you are travelling to new country where in you don’t know the local language of that country then you should at least be familiar with some greetings to start any formal or informal conversion. When we talk about Lao language, we are always interested in learning useful phrases in Lao language.Learn Lao greetings that can be used in formal situations:

  • Hello: ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i)
  • Thank you: ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i)
  • Good Morning: ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ເຊົ້າ (sa bai di ton sao)
  • Good Evening: ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ແລງ (sa bai di ton aelng)
  • Good Afternoon: ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ສວາຍ (sa bai di ton suaai)

All Lao Language Codes

Get to know all Lao language codes here. There are several languages spoken all over the world where in most of the languages have alternate names which come from diverse sources. All Lao Language Codes are assigned with unique code. There is usually two or three letters code for each language. In most of the applications, these language codes are used where it is tedious to use language names.

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