Lao Letter Po

It begins a Lao syllable with a p and no puff of air. ປ belongs to the middle group of Lao's three consonant tone classes; that group helps determine a syllable's tone together with its vowels and tone marks. In the teaching example ປາ, the word means “fish.”

Lao lessons contrast ປ, made without a strong puff of air, with ຜ and ພ, which are pronounced with one. For spelling aloud, lessons use the mnemonic names “pOO paa” for ປ and “bOO bet” for ບ.

How do I type ປ?

Use a Lao keyboard layout or a phonetic Lao input method. Standard or typewriter layouts assign Lao letters to Lao-specific keys; phonetic input methods accept Latin sequences instead. The mapping varies, so no single English-key shortcut works everywhere.

A vowel that appears before a consonant may be stored before it even though it is pronounced after it. Follow the order your input method expects when entering a full syllable.

Where did ປ come from?

It is an inherited form in an older Lao writing tradition. An inscribed stone monument, or stele, at Thakhek is dated 17 April 1494 and described as the oldest genuine Lao-script example. The earliest known Tai Noi inscription is dated 1497; Tai Noi is an older regional form of Lao writing.

The development of modern Lao writing passes through Fak Kham and Lao Buhan, also called Tai Noi. The Lao and Thai scripts are closely related, though their letters belong to different spelling systems. Both belong to a wider South and Southeast Asian history of scripts descended from Brahmi-derived traditions.

Tai Noi, or Lao Buhan, was used for secular records, personal letters, signs, stories, poetry, and songs; related Tham scripts were generally used for religious writing. In Isan, northeastern Thailand, Tai Noi use was banned in 1871 and remained in informal monastic teaching into the 1930s before Thai schooling displaced it. In Laos, its descendant remained the modern Lao script.