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I've edited the article to distinguish Lao from Isan language, as there are substantial differences between the two.
technically, there should probably a 'pasaa' before ລາວ .. if anyone can input it, go for your life! -- prat.
To be clear, I was referring to the name for Lao in Lao script, not the romanized form. prat 05:14, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Pali is a language, not a script. Babelfisch 07:04, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Where is a site that will allow me to install the Lao font so I can read the Laotian Wikipedia, and not just the standard boxes? Kaiser matias 21:58, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
Here is the site: [1]. -- Phillip J, 21:07 Friday 31 March 2006 (UTC).
At http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lao.htm there is a character which should be pronounced [k] or [kh] (the third from the left) which I don't find in http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/lao3.htm (nor in a book on Lao writing), but looks like a Thai character which is pronounced the same way. Apokrif 03:45, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
Would someone please put this text File:Laosnamestrip.jpg into the organization name on the article Scouting in Laos? I am just spitballing with ສກຖຈາລ as the transliteration, I honestly don't know and need help before the rabid deletionists remove the image this week. Thanks Chris 02:07, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
Cut the following:
..because it's clearly not about Lao language. If anyone thinks it's worth keeping, please put it into the correct article. It's not brilliantly written but looks relevant to History of Laos. Whoever inserted it, please don't be offended, but this really isn't the right content for this article. Leushenko 15:53, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Isan people are descended from ethnic Lao people, some villages were only recently settled by Lao migrants as late as a century ago, on territory that used to be part of Lan Xang. Considering that the Thai government considered Isan people an ethnic Lao people who speak the Lao language well into the 20th century, I see no reason why there should be such hooplah over how different they are. The differences between Isan and Lao can be no greater than the dialects of the north of Laos (with five tones) vs. those of the south (with six), not to mention the shared cultural traditions and vocabulary. It seems more political than linguistic. Nintala ( talk) 09:21, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
I've edited this page, introduced some grammar notes and Lao font everywhere. I think it does better for the Lao language page. Nintala ( talk) 04:06, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
Need Lao script at Lao Loum and Lao Lom. Badagnani ( talk) 16:32, 31 August 2008 (UTC)
Still need Lao script at Lao Lom. Badagnani ( talk) 01:15, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Need Lao script for "Hapkhanasouane" in the lead of Ravana. Badagnani ( talk) 01:15, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
The bit about English indicating questions by a rising tone and Spanish by changing "sentence order" is wrong. English questions often use "wh" questions words; who, what, where... or by add the word "do" in the case of yes or no questions (not in all instances, but more so than not.) Spanish on the other relies heavily on the rising tone eg. "Quieres venir con nosotros?" which would require no change of WORD order (not sentence order) to be turned into a statement. I am going to delete that whole part, unless somebody wants to polish it up. 68.9.180.20 ( talk) 16:49, 8 August 2009 (UTC)
I thought some readers without text Lao support might come here as well as the Lao script page so I wanted to mention how Lao, was compatible with Windows. I hope this will help out a few people if they don't know where to go and need this info.
Lao was not officially released for Windows until the 'Windows Vista' Microsoft Windows help page. Although user generated fonts are freely avalible online, requiring the user to download the fonts, place them into the "Windows", "Fonts", folder, and then open a "Internet Explorer" window and select the following; "Tools", "Internet Options", and on the 'General' tab, they need to click on the "Fonts" option and then select the font that they downloaded. AMERILAO.org site How to "Setup Internet Explorer to read Lao font". ( Floppydog66 ( talk) 20:21, 11 October 2009 (UTC))
According to Simmala & Becker's Lao for Beginners (1st ed.), "Some linguists have identified six tones in the Lao language and others say there are five. According to the Lao high school textbooks published by the Ministry of Education of Laos, there are six tones in the northern dialect and five tones in the central and southern regions. The people in the north tend to speak more slowly and draw out words."
They don't quite specify which northern dialect (Luang Prabang or Xiengkhuang), but the statement contradicts what's written in the "Tones" section of the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.123.224.190 ( talk) 13:43, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
I've added a disclaimer to the Tones section that the experts disagree. See http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/LaoLanguage/LaoTones/lao_tones_fp.htm for some interesting charts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.123.224.190 ( talk) 14:28, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
"A silent ຫ (/h/) placed before certain consonants will produce place the other proceeding consonant in the high class." The bolded words are not a normal sequence in English. What does it mean? 4.249.63.217 ( talk) 19:52, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
It would be very good if somebody could add some information on tone sandhi in the Lao language, as resources are very difficult to find on the Internet. — Hippietrail ( talk) 16:14, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
Manuel de conversation franco-laotien
https://archive.org/details/ManuelDeConversationFranco-laotien
Dictionnaire français-laotien
https://archive.org/details/DictionnaireFranais-laotien
https://archive.org/details/DictionnaireFranais-laotien_546
Rajmaan ( talk) 15:25, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
I have grave doubts as to the handling of consonant clusters in the article.
- RichardW57 ( talk) 09:17, 2 February 2016 (UTC)
I am a linguist, and have been living in Vientiane for the past 8 months. I can tell you for a fact that the "labialized consonants" theory is junk. While the labialization does occur phonetically, it is in no way phonemic. It is always conditional based on the Lao labialized VOWELS (or vowel combinations) that are written into the word. Plain for all to see! I live in Sikhai village, and the "kh" in "Sikhai" uses the khaw-khuai (third letter of the Lao alphabet). This is NOT labialized. There is no u or o, or any combination of vowels using them. Therefore, it is not labialized. The difference between khaw-khai and khai-khua, thaw-thong and thaw-thung, phaw-pheung and phaw-phuu is TONE, NOT LABIALIZATION. The first of the pair usually takes lower tones depending on its environment, while the second takes higher tones. Isn't this textbook phonemics? The labialization ONLY occurs when a rounded/labialized vowel is in the same syllable. I've observed this over and over in my transcription data. Kandjrea ( talk) 05:27, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
It seems we have a hocus-pocus issue, not very different from the issues of long 'u' in (British) English words like 'tube' (which might be /tʃuːb/, but surfaces as [tjuːb] confusinɡly often). Is Kandjrea's 'labialised vowel' another way of analysing the situation? The clear fact is that the writing has 'medial' ວ, the phonetic fact seems to be that we have a vowel segment [u] which, just like vowel /u/, /u:/ and others, predictably rounds the initial consonant. There is then the phonotactic fact that this vowel segment only occurs between certain initial consonants and certain (main) vowels. Ignoring phonotactics seems to be a Wikipedia tradition, but simply deleting the labialised consonants would be an undesirable deletion of information. Calling /ku/ an initial consonant cluster does not, however, feel right. -- RichardW57 ( talk) 02:57, 13 July 2018 (UTC)
There is a small group of Lao speakers (mainly in Stung Treng province) in northern Cambodia. In the introduction of the article they are not mentioned. I think they should be named as well. Any ideas? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.1.31.44 ( talk) 16:01, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
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https://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/lao/ does not count Isan language speakers here, so they have few million speakers. But our article counts Isan speakers - and hence we have the 20+ million for the number of speakers. We need to decide which of those two numbers is right for this article. I think we should only list Lao speaker estimate here, with a note that Isan language is closely related. -- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 16:25, 10 July 2018 (UTC) I disagree. Lao and Isaan are the same language. See article of Britannica Encyclopedia, which explains the difference between isaan and lao is essentialy political. French university for eastern languages INALCO website count 30 million speakers for lao. -- Teyvada ( talk) 08:46, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
Article states that number of native lao speakers is "3-5 millions". This is not correct. Figures should include also native speakers of lao in Thailand. French university for eastern languages INCALCO website says Lao has thirty millions native speakers. I change numbers and I add this reference in the article --[-- Teyvada ( talk) 08:45, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
The phoneme /w/ have 1 allophone, that's "[ʋ]". Some dialect can hear "[ʋ]". Juidzi ( talk) 03:32, 22 April 2020 (UTC)
This
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I've edited the article to distinguish Lao from Isan language, as there are substantial differences between the two.
technically, there should probably a 'pasaa' before ລາວ .. if anyone can input it, go for your life! -- prat.
To be clear, I was referring to the name for Lao in Lao script, not the romanized form. prat 05:14, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Pali is a language, not a script. Babelfisch 07:04, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Where is a site that will allow me to install the Lao font so I can read the Laotian Wikipedia, and not just the standard boxes? Kaiser matias 21:58, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
Here is the site: [1]. -- Phillip J, 21:07 Friday 31 March 2006 (UTC).
At http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lao.htm there is a character which should be pronounced [k] or [kh] (the third from the left) which I don't find in http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/lao3.htm (nor in a book on Lao writing), but looks like a Thai character which is pronounced the same way. Apokrif 03:45, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
Would someone please put this text File:Laosnamestrip.jpg into the organization name on the article Scouting in Laos? I am just spitballing with ສກຖຈາລ as the transliteration, I honestly don't know and need help before the rabid deletionists remove the image this week. Thanks Chris 02:07, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
Cut the following:
..because it's clearly not about Lao language. If anyone thinks it's worth keeping, please put it into the correct article. It's not brilliantly written but looks relevant to History of Laos. Whoever inserted it, please don't be offended, but this really isn't the right content for this article. Leushenko 15:53, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
Isan people are descended from ethnic Lao people, some villages were only recently settled by Lao migrants as late as a century ago, on territory that used to be part of Lan Xang. Considering that the Thai government considered Isan people an ethnic Lao people who speak the Lao language well into the 20th century, I see no reason why there should be such hooplah over how different they are. The differences between Isan and Lao can be no greater than the dialects of the north of Laos (with five tones) vs. those of the south (with six), not to mention the shared cultural traditions and vocabulary. It seems more political than linguistic. Nintala ( talk) 09:21, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
I've edited this page, introduced some grammar notes and Lao font everywhere. I think it does better for the Lao language page. Nintala ( talk) 04:06, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
Need Lao script at Lao Loum and Lao Lom. Badagnani ( talk) 16:32, 31 August 2008 (UTC)
Still need Lao script at Lao Lom. Badagnani ( talk) 01:15, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Need Lao script for "Hapkhanasouane" in the lead of Ravana. Badagnani ( talk) 01:15, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
The bit about English indicating questions by a rising tone and Spanish by changing "sentence order" is wrong. English questions often use "wh" questions words; who, what, where... or by add the word "do" in the case of yes or no questions (not in all instances, but more so than not.) Spanish on the other relies heavily on the rising tone eg. "Quieres venir con nosotros?" which would require no change of WORD order (not sentence order) to be turned into a statement. I am going to delete that whole part, unless somebody wants to polish it up. 68.9.180.20 ( talk) 16:49, 8 August 2009 (UTC)
I thought some readers without text Lao support might come here as well as the Lao script page so I wanted to mention how Lao, was compatible with Windows. I hope this will help out a few people if they don't know where to go and need this info.
Lao was not officially released for Windows until the 'Windows Vista' Microsoft Windows help page. Although user generated fonts are freely avalible online, requiring the user to download the fonts, place them into the "Windows", "Fonts", folder, and then open a "Internet Explorer" window and select the following; "Tools", "Internet Options", and on the 'General' tab, they need to click on the "Fonts" option and then select the font that they downloaded. AMERILAO.org site How to "Setup Internet Explorer to read Lao font". ( Floppydog66 ( talk) 20:21, 11 October 2009 (UTC))
According to Simmala & Becker's Lao for Beginners (1st ed.), "Some linguists have identified six tones in the Lao language and others say there are five. According to the Lao high school textbooks published by the Ministry of Education of Laos, there are six tones in the northern dialect and five tones in the central and southern regions. The people in the north tend to speak more slowly and draw out words."
They don't quite specify which northern dialect (Luang Prabang or Xiengkhuang), but the statement contradicts what's written in the "Tones" section of the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.123.224.190 ( talk) 13:43, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
I've added a disclaimer to the Tones section that the experts disagree. See http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/LaoLanguage/LaoTones/lao_tones_fp.htm for some interesting charts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.123.224.190 ( talk) 14:28, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
"A silent ຫ (/h/) placed before certain consonants will produce place the other proceeding consonant in the high class." The bolded words are not a normal sequence in English. What does it mean? 4.249.63.217 ( talk) 19:52, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
It would be very good if somebody could add some information on tone sandhi in the Lao language, as resources are very difficult to find on the Internet. — Hippietrail ( talk) 16:14, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
Manuel de conversation franco-laotien
https://archive.org/details/ManuelDeConversationFranco-laotien
Dictionnaire français-laotien
https://archive.org/details/DictionnaireFranais-laotien
https://archive.org/details/DictionnaireFranais-laotien_546
Rajmaan ( talk) 15:25, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
I have grave doubts as to the handling of consonant clusters in the article.
- RichardW57 ( talk) 09:17, 2 February 2016 (UTC)
I am a linguist, and have been living in Vientiane for the past 8 months. I can tell you for a fact that the "labialized consonants" theory is junk. While the labialization does occur phonetically, it is in no way phonemic. It is always conditional based on the Lao labialized VOWELS (or vowel combinations) that are written into the word. Plain for all to see! I live in Sikhai village, and the "kh" in "Sikhai" uses the khaw-khuai (third letter of the Lao alphabet). This is NOT labialized. There is no u or o, or any combination of vowels using them. Therefore, it is not labialized. The difference between khaw-khai and khai-khua, thaw-thong and thaw-thung, phaw-pheung and phaw-phuu is TONE, NOT LABIALIZATION. The first of the pair usually takes lower tones depending on its environment, while the second takes higher tones. Isn't this textbook phonemics? The labialization ONLY occurs when a rounded/labialized vowel is in the same syllable. I've observed this over and over in my transcription data. Kandjrea ( talk) 05:27, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
It seems we have a hocus-pocus issue, not very different from the issues of long 'u' in (British) English words like 'tube' (which might be /tʃuːb/, but surfaces as [tjuːb] confusinɡly often). Is Kandjrea's 'labialised vowel' another way of analysing the situation? The clear fact is that the writing has 'medial' ວ, the phonetic fact seems to be that we have a vowel segment [u] which, just like vowel /u/, /u:/ and others, predictably rounds the initial consonant. There is then the phonotactic fact that this vowel segment only occurs between certain initial consonants and certain (main) vowels. Ignoring phonotactics seems to be a Wikipedia tradition, but simply deleting the labialised consonants would be an undesirable deletion of information. Calling /ku/ an initial consonant cluster does not, however, feel right. -- RichardW57 ( talk) 02:57, 13 July 2018 (UTC)
There is a small group of Lao speakers (mainly in Stung Treng province) in northern Cambodia. In the introduction of the article they are not mentioned. I think they should be named as well. Any ideas? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.1.31.44 ( talk) 16:01, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Lao language. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
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source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 15:40, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
https://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/lao/ does not count Isan language speakers here, so they have few million speakers. But our article counts Isan speakers - and hence we have the 20+ million for the number of speakers. We need to decide which of those two numbers is right for this article. I think we should only list Lao speaker estimate here, with a note that Isan language is closely related. -- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 16:25, 10 July 2018 (UTC) I disagree. Lao and Isaan are the same language. See article of Britannica Encyclopedia, which explains the difference between isaan and lao is essentialy political. French university for eastern languages INALCO website count 30 million speakers for lao. -- Teyvada ( talk) 08:46, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
Article states that number of native lao speakers is "3-5 millions". This is not correct. Figures should include also native speakers of lao in Thailand. French university for eastern languages INCALCO website says Lao has thirty millions native speakers. I change numbers and I add this reference in the article --[-- Teyvada ( talk) 08:45, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
The phoneme /w/ have 1 allophone, that's "[ʋ]". Some dialect can hear "[ʋ]". Juidzi ( talk) 03:32, 22 April 2020 (UTC)