Home
Languagevs


Lao vs Burmese


Lao
Burmese vs Lao


Countries

Countries
Laos  
Myanmar  

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
1  
14

National Language
Laos, Northeastern Thailand  
Myanmar  

Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
Bangladesh, Burma  

Speaking Continents
Asia  
Asia  

Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
Mon  

Regulated By
-  
Myanmar Language Commission  

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.
  
  • 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.
  

Similar To
Thai Language  
Thai Language  

Derived From
Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer Languages  
Pali Language  

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Lao-Alphabets.jpg#200  
Burmese-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
53  
32
33  
15

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
28  
20
12  
9

How Many Consonants
27  
17
33  
23

Scripts
Thai and Lao Braille  
Tangut  

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
6  
5
3  
2

Time Taken to Learn
44 weeks  
17
44 weeks  
17

Greetings

Hello
ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i)  
မင်္ဂလာပါ (maingalarpar)  

Thank You
ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i)  
ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါသည် (kyaayyjuutainparsai)  

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

Good Night
ໃນຕອນກາງຄືນ ທີ່ດີ (naitonkangkhun thidi)  
ကောင်းသောညပါ (kaunggsawnyapar)  

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

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

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

Please
ກະລຸນາ (kaluna)  
ကျေးဇူးပြု (kyaayyjuupyu)  

Sorry
ຂໍອະໄພ (khooaphai)  
တောင်းပန်ပါတယ် (taunggpaanpartaal)  

Bye
Sôhk dii der  
နုတ်ဆက်ပါတယ် (notesaatpartaal)  

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

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

Dialects

Dialect 1
Vientiane Lao  
Arakanese  

Where They Speak
Laos  
Bangladesh, India, Myanmar  

How Many People Speak
3,000,000.00  
99+
2,000,000.00  
99+

Dialect 2
Northern Lao  
Tavoyan  

Where They Speak
Laos  
Myanmar  

How Many People Speak
3,000,000.00  
99+
440,000.00  
99+

Dialect 3
Central Lao  
Intha  

Where They Speak
Laos  
Burma  

How Many People Speak
3,000,000.00  
99+
90,000.00  
99+

Total No. Of Dialects
6  
6
5  
5

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
25.00 million  
40
43.00 million  
30

Speaking Population
0.22 %  
99+
0.50 %  
31

Native Speakers
25.00 million  
32
33.00 million  
28

Second Language Speakers
3.00 million  
99+
10.00 million  
99+

Native Name
ພາສາລາວ (pháasaa láo)  
ဗမာစကား (bama saka)  

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  
Bama, Bamachaka, Myanmar, Myen, myanma bhasa  

French Name
lao  
birman  

German Name
Laotisch  
Birmanisch  

Pronunciation
pʰáːsǎː láːw  
[bəmɛ̀]  

Ethnicity
Lao people  
Bamar people  

History

Origin
1283 CE  
1113 AD  

Language Family
Tai-Kadai Family  
Sino-Tibetan Family  

Subgroup
Tai  
Tibeto-Burman  

Branch
-  
-  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
No Early forms  
Old Burmese, Middle Burmese, Burmese  

Standard Forms
Lao  
Modern Burmese  

Language Position
43  
40
43  
40

Signed Forms
Lao Sign Language  
Burmese sign language  

Scope
Individual  
Individual  

Code

ISO 639 1
lo  
my  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
lao  
mya  

ISO 639 2/B
lao  
bur  

ISO 639 3
lao  
mya  

ISO 639 6
lao  
mya  

Glottocode
laoo1244  
sout3159  

Linguasphere
No data available  
No data available  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object  
Subject-Object-Verb  

Language Morphological Typology
Isolating  
Analytic, Isolating  

Countries >>
<< All

Lao and Burmese Language History

Comparison of Lao vs Burmese language history gives us differences between origin of Lao and Burmese language. History of Lao language states that this language originated in 1283 CE whereas history of Burmese language states that this language originated in 1113 AD. 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 Lao and Burmese Language History.

Compare Most Difficult Languages

Lao and Burmese 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 Lao and Burmese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Lao and Burmese language. Lao word for "Hello" is ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i) or Burmese word for "Thank You" is ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါသည် (kyaayyjuutainparsai). Find more of such common Lao Greetings and Burmese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Lao vs Burmese Difficulty

The Lao vs Burmese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Lao Alphabets and Burmese 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 Lao and Burmese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Lao and Burmese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Lao is 44 weeks while to learn Burmese time required is 44 weeks.

Most Difficult Languages

Most Difficult Languages

» More Most Difficult Languages

Compare Most Difficult Languages

» More Compare Most Difficult Languages