Lao Letter So Sung

It represents the consonant sound s, as in “sun.”

In ເສືອ, the Lao word for “tiger,” ສ supplies the opening consonant sound, though it is not the first written character.

ສ is a high-class consonant. In Lao, consonant class works with the vowel, ending consonant, and any tone mark to determine a syllable’s tone; this letter alone does not specify a whole syllable.

Why are there two Lao s letters?

ສ and ຊ represent the same s sound but belong to different classes.

ສ is high-class and ຊ is low-class. A Lao teaching example contrasts ສົງ with a rising tone and ຊົງ with a high tone. Follow the word’s spelling; the letters are not interchangeable.

Some Lao vowel signs are written before the consonant they follow in speech. The Unicode Standard stores these left-side vowels before the consonant too, so a vowel printed before ສ follows Lao spelling order.

How did Lao writing develop?

It developed as a way to write Lao across different settings.

Broad histories place written Lao in the 13th century. Some cave inscriptions near Luang Prabang are candidate early texts, with a style compared to 14th-century Sukhothai, a Thai kingdom, but they are not firm evidence. The first clear secular (nonreligious) Lao inscriptions date to 1497 and 1530.

In Lan Na, a northern Thai kingdom, the Fak Kham script, derived from Sukhothai writing, became a model for secular Lao writing in the 15th and 16th centuries; the Tham script served religious texts. Temple schools and palm-leaf manuscripts carried literature and religious teaching. By 1975, spelling reforms brought Lao closer to pronunciation and removed silent letters, a change traditionalists opposed.