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Burmese
Burmese

Lao
Lao



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Burmese
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Lao

Burmese vs Lao

Lao
Lao
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Countries

Countries

Myanmar
Laos

Total No. Of Countries

11
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Myanmar
Laos, Northeastern Thailand

Second Language

Bangladesh, Burma
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Asia
Asia

Minority Language

Mon
Not spoken in any of the countries

Regulated By

Myanmar Language Commission
-

Interesting Facts

  • The naming of people in Burmese is strange. There is no last name, often name is rhymed such as Ming Ming, Mo Mo or Jo Jo.
  • It appears as odd language to many people because it has peculiar pitch register, tonal form as language.
  • 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
Thai Language

Derived From

Pali Language
Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer Languages

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

3353
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

1228
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

3327
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Tangut
Thai and Lao Braille

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal
Left-To-Right, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

36
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks44 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

မင်္ဂလာပါ (maingalarpar)
ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i)

Thank You

ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါသည် (kyaayyjuutainparsai)
ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i)

How Are You?

နေကောင်းလား? (naykaungglarr?)
ສະບາຍດີບ (sába̖ai-di̖i baw?)

Good Night

ကောင်းသောညပါ (kaunggsawnyapar)
ໃນຕອນກາງຄືນ ທີ່ດີ (naitonkangkhun thidi)

Good Evening

မင်္ဂလာညနေခင်းပါ (main g lar nyanayhkainn par)
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ແລງ (sa bai di ton aelng)

Good Afternoon

မင်္ဂလာနေ့လည်ခင်းပါ (main g lar naelaihkainn par)
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ສວາຍ (sa bai di ton suaai)

Good Morning

မင်္ဂလာနံနက်ခင်းပါ (main g lar nannaathkainnpar)
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ເຊົ້າ (sa bai di ton sao)

Please

ကျေးဇူးပြု (kyaayyjuupyu)
ກະລຸນາ (kaluna)

Sorry

တောင်းပန်ပါတယ် (taunggpaanpartaal)
ຂໍອະໄພ (khooaphai)

Bye

နုတ်ဆက်ပါတယ် (notesaatpartaal)
Sôhk dii der

I Love You

မင်းကိုချစ်တယ် (mainnkohkyittaal)
ຂ້ອຍ​ຮັກ​ເຈົ້າ (khony hak chao)

Excuse Me

ဆင်ခြေဆင်လက် ငါ့ကိုအ (Sainhkyaysainlaat ngarko a)
ຂໍ​ໂທດ (kho othd)

Dialects

Dialect 1

Arakanese
Vientiane Lao

Where They Speak

Bangladesh, India, Myanmar
Laos

How Many People Speak

2,000,000.003,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Tavoyan
Northern Lao

Where They Speak

Myanmar
Laos

How Many People Speak

440,000.003,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Intha
Central Lao

Where They Speak

Burma
Laos

How Many People Speak

90,000.003,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

56
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

43.00 million25.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.50 %0.22 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

33.00 million25.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

10.00 million3.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

ဗမာစကား (bama saka)
ພາສາລາວ (pháasaa láo)

Alternative Names

Bama, Bamachaka, Myanmar, Myen, myanma bhasa
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

birman
lao

German Name

Birmanisch
Laotisch

Pronunciation

[bəmɛ̀]
pʰáːsǎː láːw

Ethnicity

Bamar people
Lao people

History

Origin

1113 AD
1283 CE

Language Family

Sino-Tibetan Family
Tai-Kadai Family

Subgroup

Tibeto-Burman
Tai

Branch

-
-

Language Forms

Early Forms

Old Burmese, Middle Burmese, Burmese
No Early forms

Standard Forms

Modern Burmese
Lao

Language Position

4343
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Burmese sign language
Lao Sign Language

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

my
lo

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

mya
lao

ISO 639 2/B

bur
lao

ISO 639 3

mya
lao

ISO 639 6

mya
lao

Glottocode

sout3159
laoo1244

Linguasphere

No data available
No data available

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Object-Verb
Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology

Analytic, Isolating
Isolating

Burmese vs Lao Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare Burmese vs Lao speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak Burmese or Lao language.

  • Burmese is spoken as a national language in: Myanmar.
  • Lao is spoken as a national language in: Laos, Northeastern Thailand.

You will also get to know the continents where Burmese and Lao speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Burmese language is 43 and position of Lao language is 43. Find all the information about these languages on Burmese and Lao.

Burmese and Lao Language History

Comparison of Burmese vs Lao language history gives us differences between origin of Burmese and Lao language. History of Burmese language states that this language originated in 1113 AD whereas history of Lao language states that this language originated in 1283 CE. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Burmese and Lao Language History.

Burmese and Lao Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Burmese and Lao greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Burmese and Lao language. Burmese word for "Hello" is မင်္ဂလာပါ (maingalarpar) or Lao word for "Thank You" is ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i). Find more of such common Burmese Greetings and Lao Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Burmese vs Lao Difficulty

The Burmese vs Lao difficulty level basically depends on the number of Burmese Alphabets and Lao Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Burmese and Lao are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Burmese and Lao, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Burmese is 44 weeks while to learn Lao time required is 44 weeks.