Lao script or Akson Lao ( ) is the primary script used to write the Lao language and other languages in Laos. Its earlier form, the Tai Noi script, was also used to write the Isan language, but was replaced by the Thai script. It has 27 consonants ( ), 7 consonantal ligatures ( ), 33 vowels (/ ), and 4 tone marks ( ).
The Lao abugida was adapted from the Khmer script, which itself was derived from the Pallava script, a variant of the Grantha script descended from the Brāhmī script, which was used in southern India and South East Asia during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Akson Lao is a sister system to the Thai script, with which it shares many similarities and roots. However, Lao has fewer characters and is formed in a more curvilinear fashion than Thai.
Lao is written from left to right. Vowels can be written above, below, in front of, or behind consonants, with some vowel combinations written before, over, and after. Spaces for separating words and punctuation were traditionally not used, but space is used and functions in place of a comma or period. The script is unicameral, i.e. the letters have no majuscule or minuscule (upper- and lowercase) differentiation.
History
The Lao script ultimately derived from a variant of the Old Khmer script of Angkor, through the Sukhothai script. By the late 15th century, a form of the Sukhothai script had reached the Mekong River basin, after which the script developed differences between its Thai and Lao variants.
In the 1930s, Maha Sila Viravong, a Buddhist scholar, backed by the Buddhist Institute in Vientiane and the Buddhist Academic Council, added an additional set of Lao characters to support Pali and Sanskrit, thereby filling the missing gaps in the existing script. While the Buddhist Institute published books that utilised these extended Indic characters, they did not see widespread usage, and fell out of usage by 1975. In the 1960s, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party simplified the spelling to be phonemic and omitted extra letters used to write words of Pali-Sanskrit origin.Daniels, Peter T. & Bright, William. (Eds.). (1996). The World's Writing Systems (pp. 460–461). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
In 2019, the extended Indic characters were added to Unicode 12.
Consonants The twenty-seven consonants of the Lao alphabet are divided into three tone classes—high (ສູງ ), middle (ກາງ ), and low (ຕ່ຳ )—which determine the tonal pronunciation of the word in conjunction with the four tone marks and distinctions between short and long vowels. Aside from tone, there are twenty-one distinct consonant sounds that occur in the Lao language. Each letter has an acrophonical name that either begins with or features the letter prominently, and is used to teach the letter and serves to distinguish them from other, homophonous consonants. The letter ອ is a special null consonant used as a mandatory anchor for vowels, which cannot stand alone, and also to serve as a vowel in its own right.
The letter ຣ (r) is a relatively new re-addition to the Lao alphabet. It was dropped as part of a language reform because most speakers pronounced it as "l", and had an ambiguous status for several decades. A 1999 dictionary does not include it when listing the full alphabet but does use it to spell many country names. A comprehensive dictionary published by a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Information and Culture did not include it.. However, as the Lao vocabulary began to incorporate more foreign names (such as Europe, Australia, and America) it filled a need and is now taught in schools. The letter ຣ can also be found in Unit 14 (ບົດທີ 14 ຮ ຫ ຣ) of a textbook published by the government.ກະຊວງສຶກສາທິການ ແລະ ກິລາ (Ministry of Education and Sports), & ສະຖາບັນຄົ້ນຄວ້າວິທະຍາສາດການສຶກສາ (Research Institute for Educational Sciences). (2019). ແບບຮຽນ ພາສາລາວ ຊັ້ນປະຖົມສຶກສາ ປີທິ1 ເຫຼັ້ມ1. Retrieved 12 May 2020 from http://www.moes.edu.la/dge/primary-textbooks-grade-1.php It is generally used as the first consonant of a syllable, or to follow a leading consonant, rarely as a final consonant.
Consonant chart The table below shows the Lao consonant, its name, its pronunciation according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as well as various romanisation schemes, such as the French-based systems in use by both the US Board of Geographic Names and the British Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (BGN/PCGN), the Anglo-based system in use by the US Library of Congress (LC), Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) used in Thailand, and finally its Unicode name. A slash indicates the pronunciation at the beginning juxtaposed with its pronunciation at the end of a syllable.
LetterNameInitial positionFinal positionUnicodeTone ClassIPABGN/PCGNLCRTGSIPABGN/PCGNLCRTGSກໄກ່, chickenkkKOMiddleຂໄຂ່, egg, kh––KHO SUNGHighຄຄວາຍ, water buffalo, kh––KHO TAMLowງງົວ or ງູ , ox or , snake ng ngNGOLowຈຈອກ or ຈົວ , glass or Buddhist novicech––COMiddleສເສືອ, tigers––SO SUNGHighຊຊ້າງ, elephantxs––SO TAMLowຍຍຸງ, mosquito gnnyyyiNYOLowດເດັກ, childdtDOMiddleຕຕາ, eyet––TOMiddleຖຖົງ, stocking, bagth––THO SUNGHighທທຸງ, flagth––THO TAMLowນນົກ, birdnnenNOLowບແບ້, goatbpBOMiddleປປາ, fishp––POMiddleຜເຜິ້ງ, beeph– –PHO SUNGHighຝຝົນ, rainf––FO TAMHighພພູ, mountainph––PHO TAMLowຟໄຟ, firef––FO SUNGLowມແມວ, catmmMOLowຢຢາ , mediciney––YOMiddleຣຣົຖ (ລົດ) or ຣະຄັງ (ລະຄັງ) (), car or , bell, rnenLO LINGLowລລີງ, monkeyl––LO LOOTLowວວີ, fanvwoWOLowຫຫ່ານ, gooseh––HO SUNGHighອໂອ or ອື່ງ, bowl or frog–––OMiddleຮເຮືອນ or ເຮືອ house, or , boath––HO TAMLow
Notes
Consonantal digraphs and ligatures Lao also uses digraphs based on combinations of the silent letter (unpronounced) ຫ ຫ່ານ with certain other consonants, some of which also have special ligature forms that are optionally used.
In the Thai script, certain consonants are preceded by tone modifiers. This is because high consonants or low consonants cannot produce the full 5 tones of Thai. For instance, tone modifier ห can turn low consonants into high ones. This also explains why the Lao script reserved consonants with the same sounds (e.g. ຂ and ຄ , ສ and ຊ ). Both high and low consonants are needed to produce full five (or six) tones of Lao.
Such design also exists in Lao. Sonorants ງ, ຍ, ນ, ມ, ລ, ວ are originally low consonants, but when they're preceded by ຫ, they become high consonants.
The older versions of the script also included special forms for combinations of ພ + ຍ , ສ + ນ , and ມ + ລ . In addition, consonant clusters that had the second component of ຣ or ລ were written with a special form ◌ຼ underneath the consonant.Ronnakieat, N.Davis, Garry W. (2015). The story of Lao r: Filling in the gaps. Journal of Lao Studies 2, 97–109. Retrieved from http://www.laostudies.org/system/files/subscription/Davis.pdf Since these were not pronounced in Lao, they were removed during various spelling reforms, and this symbol only appears in the ligature ຫຼ.Ivarsson, Søren. (2008). Creating laos: the making of a lao space between indochina and siam, 1860–1945. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Inst of Asian Studies. LetterInitial positionUnicodeSample WordTone ClassIPABGN/PCGNLCRTGS ຫງ ngngເຫງົາ lonelyHigh ຫຍ gnnyynyຫຍ້າ grassHigh ໜ or ຫນ nnໜູ ratHigh ໝ or ຫມ mmໝາ dogHigh ຫຼ or ຫລ llຫຼັງ backHigh ຫວ vwwແຫວນ ringHigh
Phonetic Lao characters in initial position (several letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation). Labial Alveolar Alveolo-palatal Palatal Velar Glottal plain lab.Nasal Plosive voiced voiceless aspirated Fricative Affricate Trill Approximant * In Luang Prabang dialect. ** Depends on the dialect.
Lao characters in final position. In the old documents, the letter ຽ could be found in place of ຍ. Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar plain lab.Nasal Plosive Approximant
Vowels In its earlier form, Lao would be considered a full abugida, in which the inherent vowel is embedded in the consonant letters. The 1975 spelling reform by the Lao government shallows the orthography: the main vowels are now written explicitly, but the rest of vowel diacritics still apply.Unicode Consortium. (2019). Lao. In The Unicode Standard Version 12.0 (p. 635). Mountain View, CA: Unicode Consortium. However, many Lao outside of Laos, and some inside Laos, continue to write according to former spelling standards. For example, the old spelling of ສເຫຼີມAllen Kerr, with the assistance of Sing Bourommavong, Houmpheng Phetmongkhonh, Samreung Singhavara, and Somsangouane Loungsisomkham, "Lao-English Dictionary" (1972, Catholic University Press, reprinted 1992 by White Lotus Co., Ltd., Bangkok) "to hold a ceremony, celebrate" contrasts with the new ສະເຫລີມ/ສະເຫຼີມ.William L. Patterson and Mario E. Severino, "Lao-English Dictionary" (1995, Dunwoody Press)
Vowels are constructed from only a handful of basic symbols, but they can be combined with other vowel forms and semi-vowels to represent the full repertoire of diphthongs and triphthongs used in the language. Vowels cannot stand alone or begin a syllable, so the silent consonant ອ, which can function as a vowel in its own right, is used as a base when spelling a word that begins with a vowel sound.
The names of the vowels are just as easy as saying sala (ສະຫຼະ, ) before the vowel sign. Some vowels have unique names, and these are ໃ◌ (ໄມ້ມ້ວນ, , "rolled stem"), ໄ◌ (ໄມ້ມາຍ, , "unwound stem"), ◌ົ (ໄມ້ກົງ, . , "straight stem"), ◌ັ (ໄມ້ກັນ, . , "ear stem"), ◌ຽ (ວິລາມ, ), and ◌ໍ (ນິກຄະຫິດ, ).Southeast asian language resource lao dictionary. (2005). Retrieved from http://sealang.net/lao/dictionary.htm
Although a dotted circle ◌ is used on this page to represent the consonant, in standard Lao orthography a small x symbol is used for this purpose. Traditionally this was a simple, stylized, sans-serif x and it was included in Lao fonts before Unicode became widespread. Unicode does not make it available as part of the Lao alphabet set, and a lower-case sans-serif x is often used instead.
Some vowels change their forms depending on whether they appear in the final or medial position.
Short and long vowels Short vowels Long vowelsLetterIPABGN/PCGNLCRTGSUnicodeLetterIPABGN/PCGNLCRTGSUnicodeFinalMedialFinalMedial◌ະ◌ັ◌, aa◌າaāaaa◌ິii◌ີiīiii◌ຶuưuey◌ືuư̄ueyy◌ຸouuuu◌ູouūuuuເ◌ະເ◌ັ◌, éeeເ◌éēeeແ◌ະແ◌ັ◌, èæaeແ◌èǣaeeiໂ◌ະ◌ົ◌, ôooໂ◌ôōooເ◌າະ◌ັອ◌, oǫo◌ໍ◌ອ◌oǭoເ◌ິeuœoeເ◌ີeuœ̄oeເ◌ັຍ—iaເ◌ຍ◌ຽ◌iaīaiaເ◌ຶອ—uaưaueaເ◌ືອuaư̄auea◌ົວະ—ouauaua◌ົວ◌ວ◌ ouaūaua
Special vowels LetterIPABGN/PCGNLCRTGSUnicodeOld Alternativeໄ◌, ໃ◌*aiai or ay◌ັຍເ◌ົາao ◌ັວ◌ໍາam◌ັມ
* In the Northern (Luang Prabang) dialect of Lao, ໃ◌ is pronounced as rather than ; similarly, in the Northeastern (Houaphanh) dialect, ໃ◌ is pronounced as .
As in the neighboring Thai script, ◌ະ is used to represent a glottal stop after a vowel.
Punctuation Lao is traditionally not written with spaces between words. Spaces are reserved for ends of clauses or sentences. Periods are not used, and questions can be determined by question words in a sentence. Traditional punctuation marks include ◌໌, an obsolete mark indicating silenced consonants; ໆ, used to indicate repetition of the preceding word; ຯ, the Lao ellipsis that is also used to indicate omission of words; ฯ, a more or less obsolete symbol indicating shortened form of a phrase (such as royal names); and ฯລฯ, used to indicate et cetera.
In more contemporary writing, punctuation marks are borrowed from French, such as exclamation point !, question mark ?, parentheses (), and «» for quotation marks, although "" is also common. Hyphens (-) and the ellipsis (...) are also commonly found in modern writing.
Numerals
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20Lao Numerals ໐ ໑ ໒ ໓ ໔ ໕ ໖ ໗ ໘ ໙ ໑໐ ໒໐ Lao Names ສູນ ໜຶ່ງ ສອງ ສາມ ສີ່ ຫ້າ ຫົກ ເຈັດ ແປດ ເກົ້າ ສິບ ຊາວ Thai Numerals ๐ ๑ ๒ ๓ ๔ ๕ ๖ ๗ ๘ ๙ ๑๐ ๒๐ RTGS sun nueng song sam si ha hok chet paet kao sip sao Transliterationsounnungsongsamsihahokchetpètkaosipxao
Other languages in Lao script