Lao Alphabet & Letters

Lao (ພາສາລາວ, phasa lao) is written in its own script, a close relative of the Thai script: both grew out of older Tai writing that was itself adapted from the Khmer script, and through it they belong to the large family of Indian-derived alphabets. Lao's modern orthography is an alphabet, not an abugida: consonants represent consonant sounds, and vowels are written explicitly as letters or signs before, after, above or below them. There are no capital and small letters, and words are not separated by spaces; a space marks the end of a phrase or sentence instead.

The alphabet has 27 consonant letters, learned in a fixed order with a picture word for each, the way English children learn 'A for apple': ກ ໄກ່ chicken, ຂ ໄຂ່ egg, ຄ ຄວາຍ buffalo, ງ ງົວ ox, ຈ ຈອກ glass, ສ ເສືອ tiger, ຊ ຊ້າງ elephant, ຍ ຍຸງ mosquito, and so on to ຫ ຫ່ານ goose, ອ ໂອ bowl and ຮ ເຮືອນ house. Every letter belongs to one of three classes: high (ສູງ sung), middle (ກາງ kang) and low (ຕ່ຳ tam). That is why Unicode names pairs such as ຂ 'kho sung' and ຄ 'kho tam': both write kh, but one is high and one is low, and the class decides the tone of the syllable. The eight middle-class letters are ກ ຈ ດ ຕ ບ ປ ຢ ອ.

Some sounds have only a low-class letter. To give them a high-class version, Lao writes a silent ຫ in front: ຫງ, ຫຍ, ຫວ, and for l the ຫ carries a small ລ underneath, ຫຼ (as in ຫຼາຍ 'much, many'). Two of these pairs are written as single letters: ໜ for ຫ + ນ (ໜັງສື 'book', ໜ້າ 'face') and ໝ for ຫ + ມ (ໝາ 'dog'), which is why Lao schoolbooks often count 33 consonants instead of 27. ອ is the silent carrier of a vowel that starts a word (ອາຫານ 'food'), and ຣ (r) appears mainly in names and foreign words; most native words that once had it are now spelled with ລ.

Eight consonant letters can end a native Lao syllable, written ກ ງ ດ ນ ບ ມ ຍ ວ; a short-vowel syllable may also end in a glottal stop. Twentieth-century spelling reforms made Lao spelling largely follow pronunciation, so where Thai keeps many letters of Pali and Sanskrit origin that sound alike, Lao manages with far fewer. Unicode does have extra Lao letters for writing Pali, the language of Buddhist scripture (ຆ ຌ ຘ and others, added in 2019), Sanskrit-specific letters such as ຨ, and two letters for the Khmu language (ໞ ໟ); they are not part of everyday Lao and are left out of the grid.

Lao vowel signs: before, after, above and below

A Lao vowel is written around its consonant, and the order you read it in is not always the order you see it. ເ ແ ໂ ໄ ໃ are written before the consonant but sounded after it: ໄປ pai 'go', ແມວ maeo 'cat', ໂຊກ sok 'luck'. ະ າ ຳ follow it (ມາ 'come', ນ້ຳ 'water'), ິ ີ ຶ ື ັ ົ sit above it (ກິນ 'eat', ດີ 'good', ມື 'hand') and ຸ ູ hang below it (ຍຸງ 'mosquito', ພູ 'mountain'). Many vowels pair a short and a long form, and the difference matters for meaning and tone: ິ short i and ີ long i, ຸ short u and ູ long u.

Signs also combine. ເ joins others to make ເ-ັ (ເດັກ 'child'), ເ-ົາ (ເຈົ້າ 'you') and ເ-ືອ (ເຮືອນ 'house'); ຽ writes the ia vowel (ຮຽນ 'study', ສຽງ 'sound'). ັ (mai kan) is a short a inside a closed syllable (ກັນ 'together') and ົ (mai kon) a short o (ນົກ 'bird'). ໍ writes the open o of ຂໍ 'ask' and ບໍ່ 'not'. ໄ and ໃ both sound ai: ໃ is kept for a short list of common words such as ໃຈ 'heart', ໃໝ່ 'new' and ໃຫ້ 'give', and ໄ is used everywhere else.

When copying, keep the order the keyboard uses: the consonant first, then marks above or below it, then the tone mark. A sign that sits on the wrong letter, or a Thai sign that looks like the Lao one, is a different character to a computer, and search and spell-check will miss the word.

Lao tone marks and the six tones

Lao as spoken in Vientiane has six tones, and changing the tone changes the word: ມາ ma 'come', ມ້າ ma 'horse', ໝາ ma 'dog'. The tone of a syllable is worked out from four things: the class of its first consonant, whether the syllable is 'live' (a long vowel or ending in a sonorant) or 'dead' (a short vowel or ending in k, t or p), the vowel length, and the tone mark if there is one. That is why ມາ and ໝາ, with the same sounds and no tone mark, are said differently: ມ is low class and ໝ high.

The four tone marks sit above the consonant, or above its vowel sign: ່ mai ek (ບໍ່ 'not', ສີ່ 'four'), ້ mai tho (ມ້າ 'horse', ນ້ຳ 'water'), and the rare ໊ mai ti and ໋ mai chattawa, met mainly in words borrowed from other languages. The names come from the order of the marks, not from the tone they make, which depends on the class of the letter they sit on.

Lao numbers, punctuation and the kip sign ₭

Lao has its own digits: ໐ ໑ ໒ ໓ ໔ ໕ ໖ ໗ ໘ ໙, said ສູນ sun, ໜຶ່ງ nueng, ສອງ song, ສາມ sam, ສີ່ si, ຫ້າ ha, ຫົກ hok, ເຈັດ chet, ແປດ paet, ເກົ້າ kao, with ສິບ sip for ten, written ໑໐. They appear in official and traditional writing, while everyday prices, phone numbers and clocks mostly use the digits 0 to 9.

Lao punctuation is light. The traditional marks are ໆ, which repeats the word before it (ຫຼາຍໆ lai lai 'very much', ຂອບໃຈຫຼາຍໆ 'thank you very much'), and ຯ, which shortens a long name or title, as ฯ does in Thai. ໌, the cancellation mark, was used in older spelling to silence letters in some borrowed words. Modern Lao also uses the full stop, comma, question mark, exclamation mark and quotation marks of Western writing, while the space between phrases still does much of the work a comma does in English.

The Lao currency is the kip (ກີບ, code LAK), and its sign is ₭, a K with a horizontal stroke through it (U+20AD). Prices are often written with the word ກີບ or as LAK, but ₭ is the sign to use in print and online. See the Laos collection for the flag 🇱🇦 and the country's emoji.

How to type Lao letters on a keyboard and phone

Windows: Settings, Time & language, Language & region, Add a language, Lao; switch keyboards with Windows + Space. Mac: System Settings, Keyboard, Input Sources, add Lao. The Lao layout is not phonetic: each key has its own Lao letter or sign, so it takes some practice or a set of keyboard stickers. You type in the order the computer stores the text: the consonant, then any vowel sign above or below it, then the tone mark. For vowels written before the consonant, ເ ແ ໂ ໄ ໃ, you type the sign first, as you see it.

Phones: Gboard on Android offers a Lao keyboard under Languages, and keyboard apps with Lao are available for iPhone. In Word type a Unicode code and press Alt+X: 0E81 Alt+X gives ກ, 0EC6 Alt+X gives ໆ, 20AD Alt+X gives ₭. In HTML use numeric references, for example ກ for ກ and ₭ for ₭. Windows numeric Alt codes do not reach Lao letters.

Lao on computers went through years of non-Unicode fonts, and old documents can turn into gibberish when opened today. For new text use Unicode Lao fonts such as Phetsarath OT, the government's standard font, or Noto Sans Lao and Noto Serif Lao. Watch two things when you copy: Thai letters look much like Lao ones but are different characters (Thai ก is U+0E01, Lao ກ is U+0E81), and ໜ ໝ are sometimes typed as two letters, ຫນ ຫມ, which look the same in many fonts but do not match in search.

Where Lao is spoken: Laos, Isan and Lao communities abroad

Lao is the official language of Laos 🇱🇦, where CLDR estimates about 5.5 million speakers; it is also the common language between the country's many ethnic groups, such as the Hmong and the Khmu. Across the Mekong, the Lao varieties of northeastern Thailand, known as Isan, are spoken by more people than live in Laos itself, but there they are written in the Thai script; see the Northeastern Thai collection. Lao communities that left after 1975 live above all in the United States, France and Australia.

Lao belongs to the Tai family and is closely related to Thai, but understanding is asymmetric: Isan speakers commonly understand standard Thai through schooling and media, while Central Thai speakers with little exposure may struggle with Lao varieties in Isan. Its neighbours Khmer, Burmese and Vietnamese are not related to it, though Khmer, like Lao, writes with a script of Indian origin. Smaller Tai languages of Laos and Vietnam, such as Tai Dam, have scripts of their own.