Countries
Laos
Hong Kong, Macau
National Language
Laos, Northeastern Thailand
China, Guangdong
Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
Speaking Continents
Asia
Asia
Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Hawaii
Regulated By
Not Available
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division
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.
- Cantonese have lot of slangs, many of them include words that do not make sense at all and some also have English in them.
- Even though Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese, Cantonese has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4.
Similar To
Thai Language
Chinese Language
Derived From
Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer Languages
Not Available
Alphabets in
Lao-Alphabets.jpg#200
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200
Scripts
Thai and Lao Braille
Chinese Characters and derivatives
Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom
Hello
ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i)
您好
Thank You
ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i)
谢谢
How Are You?
ສະບາຍດີບ (sába̖ai-di̖i baw?)
你好吗？
Good Night
ໃນຕອນກາງຄືນ ທີ່ດີ (naitonkangkhun thidi)
晚安
Good Evening
ສະບາຍດີຕອນແລງ (sa bai di ton aelng)
晚上好
Good Afternoon
ສະບາຍດີຕອນສວາຍ (sa bai di ton suaai)
下午好
Good Morning
ສະບາຍດີຕອນເຊົ້າ (sa bai di ton sao)
早上好
Sorry
ຂໍອະໄພ (khooaphai)
遗憾
I Love You
ຂ້ອຍຮັກເຈົ້າ (khony hak chao)
我爱你
Excuse Me
ຂໍໂທດ (kho othd)
原谅我
Dialect 1
Vientiane Lao
Guangzhou
Where They Speak
Laos
outside mainland China
Dialect 2
Northern Lao
Xiguan
Where They Speak
Laos
Hong Kong
Dialect 3
Central Lao
Hong Kong
Where They Speak
Laos
Hong Kong
Speaking Population
Not Available
Native Name
ພາສາລາວ (pháasaa láo)
Kwang Tung Wa
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
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese
French Name
lao
Not Available
German Name
Laotisch
Not Available
Pronunciation
pʰáːsǎː láːw
Not Available
Ethnicity
Not Available
Not Available
Origin
1283 CE
17th century
Language Family
Tai-Kadai Family
Sino-Tibetan Family
Subgroup
Tai
Not Available
Branch
Not Available
Not Available
Early Forms
No Early forms
No early forms
Standard Forms
Lao
Standard Cantonese
Signed Forms
Not Available
Not Available
Scope
Individual
Not Available
ISO 639 1
lo
No data available
ISO 639 2/T
lao
Not Available
ISO 639 2/B
lao
Not Available
ISO 639 3
lao
No data available
ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
Glottocode
laoo1244
cant1236
Linguasphere
No data available
No data available
Language Type
Living
Not Available
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object
Not Available
Language Morphological Typology
Isolating
Not Available
Lao and Cantonese 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 Cantonese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Lao and Cantonese language. Lao word for "Hello" is ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i) or Cantonese word for "Thank You" is 谢谢. Find more of such common Lao Greetings and Cantonese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Lao vs Cantonese Difficulty
The Lao vs Cantonese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Lao Alphabets and Cantonese 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 Cantonese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Lao and Cantonese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Lao is 44 weeks while to learn Cantonese time required is 88 weeks.