| Lao ອັກສອນລາວ | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Time period | c. 1497AD – present[1] |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | Lao,Isan,Thai and others |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Laoo(356), Lao |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Lao |
| U+0E80–U+0EFF | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
| Brahmic scripts |
|---|
| TheBrahmi script and its descendants |
Lao script orAkson Lao (Lao:ອັກສອນລາວ[ʔák.sɔ̌ːnláːw]) is the primary script used to write theLao language and other minority languages inLaos. Its earlier form, theTai Noi script, was also used to write theIsan language, but was replaced by theThai script. It has 27consonants (ພະຍັນຊະນະ[pʰā.ɲán.sā.nāʔ]), 7 consonantal ligatures (ພະຍັນຊະນະປະສົມ[pʰā.ɲán.sā.nāʔpā.sǒm]), 33 vowels (ສະຫລະ/ສະຫຼະ[sā.láʔ]), and 4 tone marks (ວັນນະຍຸດ[wán.nā.ɲūt]).
The Lao abugida was adapted from theKhmer script, which itself was derived from thePallava script, a variant of theGrantha script descended from theBrāhmī 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 theThai 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 letters have no majuscule or minuscule (upper- and lowercase) differentiation.
The Lao script ultimately derived from a variant of theOld Khmer script ofAngkor, through theSukhothai 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 1960s, theLao People's Revolutionary Party has simplified the spelling to be phonemic and omitted extra letters used to write words of Pali-Sanskrit origin.[2][3]
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.[4] 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.[4] In 2019, the extended Indic characters were added toUnicode 12.[5]
The twenty-seven consonants of the Lao alphabet are divided into three tone classes—high (ສູງ[sǔːŋ]), middle (ກາງ[kàːŋ]), and low (ຕ່ຳ[tām])—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 anacrophonical 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.[6] A comprehensive dictionary published by a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Information and Culture did not include it.[7] 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.[8] The letter ຣ can also be found in Unit 14 (ບົດທີ 14 ຮ ຫ ຣ) of a textbook published by the government.[9] It is generally used as the first consonant of a syllable, or to follow a leading consonant, rarely as a final consonant.
The table below shows the Lao consonant, its name, its pronunciation according to theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as well as various romanization schemes, such as the French-based systems in use by both the USBoard of Geographic Names and the BritishPermanent Committee on Geographical Names (BGN/PCGN), the English-based system in use by the USLibrary of Congress (LC),Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) used in Thailand, and finally itsUnicode name. A slash indicates the pronunciation at the beginning juxtaposed with its pronunciation at the end of a syllable.
| Letter | Name | Initial position | Final position | Unicode | Tone Class | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | BGN/PCGN | LC | RTGS | IPA | BGN/PCGN | LC | RTGS | |||||
| ກ | ໄກ່ | [kāj],chicken | /k/ | k | /k/ | k | KO | Middle | ||||
| ຂ | ໄຂ່ | [kʰāj],egg | /kʰ/ | kh | – | – | KHO SUNG | High | ||||
| ຄ | ຄວາຍ | [kʰwáːj],water buffalo | /kʰ/ | kh | – | – | KHO TAM | Low | ||||
| ງ | ງົວ or ງູ | [ŋúa],ox or[ŋúː],snake | /ŋ/ | ng | /ŋ/ | ng | NGO | Low | ||||
| ຈ | ຈອກ orຈົວ | [tɕɔ̏ːk],glass or[tɕùa]Buddhist novice | /tɕ/ | ch | – | – | CO | Middle | ||||
| ສ | ເສືອ | [sɯ̌a],tiger | /s/ | s | – | – | SO SUNG | High | ||||
| ຊ | ຊ້າງ | [sâːŋ],elephant | /s/ | x | s | – | – | SO TAM | Low | |||
| ຍ | ຍຸງ | [ɲúŋ],mosquito | /ɲ/ | gn | ny | y | /j/ | y | i | NYO | Low | |
| ດ | ເດັກ | [dék],child | /d/ | d | /t/ | t | DO | Middle | ||||
| ຕ | ຕາ | [tàː],eye | /t/ | t | – | – | TO | Middle | ||||
| ຖ | ຖົງ | [tʰǒŋ],stocking,bag | /tʰ/ | th | – | – | THO SUNG | High | ||||
| ທ | ທຸງ | [tʰúŋ],flag | /tʰ/ | th | – | – | THO TAM | Low | ||||
| ນ | ນົກ | [nōk],bird | /n/ | n | /n/ | ne | n | NO | Low | |||
| ບ | ແບ້ | [bɛ̑ː],goat | /b/ | b | /p/ | p | BO | Middle | ||||
| ປ | ປາ | [pàː],fish | /p/ | p | – | – | PO | Middle | ||||
| ຜ | ເຜິ້ງ | [pʰɤ̏ŋ],bee | /pʰ/ | ph | – | – | PHO SUNG | High | ||||
| ຝ | ຝົນ | [fǒn],rain | /f/ | f | – | – | FO TAM[a] | High | ||||
| ພ | ພູ | [pʰúː],mountain | /pʰ/ | ph | – | – | PHO TAM | Low | ||||
| ຟ | ໄຟ | [fáj],fire | /f/ | f | – | – | FO SUNG[a] | Low | ||||
| ມ | ແມວ | [mɛ́ːw],cat | /m/ | m | /m/ | m | MO | Low | ||||
| ຢ | ຢາ | [jàː],medicine | /j/ | y | – | – | YO | Middle | ||||
| ຣ | ຣົຖ (ລົດ) orຣະຄັງ (ລະຄັງ) | [rōt] ([lōt]),car or[rā.kʰáŋ],bell | /r/,/l/ | r | /n/ | ne | n | LO LING[b] | Low | |||
| ລ | ລີງ | [líːŋ],monkey | /l/ | l | – | – | LO LOOT[b] | Low | ||||
| ວ | ວີ | [wíː],fan | /w/ | v | w | /w/ | o | WO | Low | |||
| ຫ | ຫ່ານ | [hāːn],goose | /h/ | h | – | – | HO SUNG | High | ||||
| ອ | ໂອ orອື່ງ | [ʔòː],bowl or[ʔɯ̄ːŋ]frog | /ʔ/ | – | – | – | O | Middle | ||||
| ຮ | ເຮືອນ orເຮືອ | [hɯ́an]house, or[hɯ́a],boat | /h/ | h | – | – | HO TAM | Low | ||||
Lao also usesdigraphs based on combinations of the silent (unpronounced) ຫ ຫ່ານ with certain other consonants, some of which also have specialligature forms that are optionally used.
In the Thai script, certain consonants are preceded bytone modifiers. This is because high consonants or low consonants cannot produce the full 5 tones of Thai. For instance, tone modifierห 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 /kʰ/, ສ and ຊ /s/). 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 (pʰ) + ຍ (ɲ), ສ (s) + ນ (n), and ມ (m) + ລ (l). In addition, consonant clusters that had the second component of ຣ (r) or ລ (l) were written with a special form ◌ຼ underneath the consonant.[10][11] Since these were not pronounced in Lao, they were removed during various spelling reforms, and this symbol only appears in the ligature ຫຼ.[12]
| Letter | Initial position | Unicode | Sample Word | Tone Class | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | BGN/PCGN | LC | RTGS | ||||
| ຫງ | /ŋ/ | ng | ng | ເຫງົາlonely | High | ||
| ຫຍ | /ɲ/ | gn | ny | y | ny | ຫຍ້າgrass | High |
| ໜor ຫນ | /n/ | n | n | ໜູrat | High | ||
| ໝor ຫມ | /m/ | m | m | ໝາdog | High | ||
| ຫຼor ຫລ | /l/ | l | l | ຫຼັງback | High | ||
| ຫວ | /w/ | v | w | w | ແຫວນring | High | |
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 | [m] ມ | [n] ນ | [ɲ] ຍ | [ŋ] ງ | ||||
| Plosive | voiced | [b] ບ | [d] ດ | |||||
| voiceless | [p] ປ | [t] ຕ | [k] ກ | [ʔ] ອ | ||||
| aspirated | [pʰ] ຜ, ພ | [tʰ] ຖ,ທ | [kʰ] ຂ, ຄ | |||||
| Fricative | [f] ຝ, ຟ | [s] ສ, ຊ | [x] ຂ, ຄ* | [h] ຫ, ຮ | ||||
| Affricate | [tɕ] ຈ | |||||||
| Trill | [r] ຣ | |||||||
| Approximant | [ʋ] ວ** | [l] ລ | [j] ຢ | [w] ວ** | ||||
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 | [m] ມ | [n] ນ,ຣ | [ŋ] ງ | ||
| Plosive | [p̚] ບ | [t̚] ດ | [k̚] ກ | ||
| Approximant | [j] ຍ | [w] ວ | |||
In its earlier form, Lao would be considered a fullabugida, in which theinherent vowel is embedded in the consonant letters. The spelling reforms by the communistLao People's Revolutionary Party shallows the orthography: the main vowels are now written explicitly, but the rest of vowel diacritics still apply.[13] However, many Lao outside of Laos, and some inside Laos, continue to write according to former spelling standards. For example, the old spelling of ສເຫຼີມ[14] "to hold a ceremony, celebrate" contrasts with the new ສະເຫລີມ/ສະເຫຼີມ.[15]
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 sayingsala (ສະຫຼະ,[sā.lāʔ]) before the vowel sign.Some vowels have unique names, and these are ໃ◌ (ໄມ້ມ້ວນ,/mâjmûan/, "rolled stem"), ໄ◌ (ໄມ້ມາຍ,/mâjmáːj/, "unwound stem"), ◌ົ (ໄມ້ກົງ, ./mâjkòŋ/, "straight stem"), ◌ັ (ໄມ້ກັນ, ./mâjkàn/, "ear stem"), ◌ຽ (ວິລາມ,/wīʔláːm/), and ◌ໍ (ນິກຄະຫິດ,/nīkkʰāʔhǐt/).[16]
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.[8]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 vowels | Long vowels | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | IPA | BGN/PCGN | LC | RTGS | Unicode | Letter | IPA | BGN/PCGN | LC | RTGS | Unicode | |||
| Final | Medial | Final | Medial | |||||||||||
| ◌ະ | ◌ັ◌ | /aʔ/,/a/ | a | a | ◌າ | /aː/ | a | ā | a | aa | ||||
| ◌ິ | /i/ | i | i | ◌ີ | /iː/ | i | ī | i | ii | |||||
| ◌ຶ | /ɯ/ | u | ư | ue | y | ◌ື | /ɯː/ | u | ư̄ | ue | yy | |||
| ◌ຸ | /u/ | ou | u | u | u | ◌ູ | /uː/ | ou | ū | u | uu | |||
| ເ◌ະ | ເ◌ັ◌ | /eʔ/,/e/ | é | e | e | ເ◌ | /eː/ | é | ē | e | e | |||
| ແ◌ະ | ແ◌ັ◌ | /ɛʔ/,/ɛ/ | è | æ | ae | ແ◌ | /ɛː/ | è | ǣ | ae | ei | |||
| ໂ◌ະ | ◌ົ◌ | /oʔ/,/o/ | ô | o | o | ໂ◌ | /oː/ | ô | ō | o | o | |||
| ເ◌າະ | ◌ັອ◌ | /ɔʔ/,/ɔ/ | o | ǫ | o | ◌ໍ | ◌ອ◌ | /ɔː/ | o | ǭ | o | |||
| ເ◌ິ | /ɤʔ/ | eu | œ | oe | ເ◌ີ | /ɤː/ | eu | œ̄ | oe | |||||
| ເ◌ັຍ | /iaʔ/ | ia | ເ◌ຍ | ◌ຽ◌ | /ia/ | ia | īa | ia | ||||||
| ເ◌ຶອ | /ɯaʔ/ | ua | ưa | uea | ເ◌ືອ | ເ◌ືອ◌ | /ɯa/ | ua | ư̄a | uea | ||||
| ◌ົວະ | /uaʔ/ | oua | ua | ua | ◌ົວ | ◌ວ◌ | /ua/ | oua | ūa | ua | ||||
| Letter | IPA | BGN/PCGN | LC | RTGS | Unicode | Old Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ໄ◌, ໃ◌* | /aj/ | ai | aior ay | ◌ັຍ | ||
| ເ◌ົາ | /aw/ | ao | ||||
| ◌ໍາ | /am/ | am | ◌ັມ | |||
As in the neighboringThai script,◌ະ is used to represent aglottal stop after a vowel.
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 indicateet cetera.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
| Part ofa series on | ||||
| Numeral systems | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| List of numeral systems | ||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lao 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 |
| Transliteration | soun | nung | song | sam | si | ha | hok | chet | pèt | kao | sip | xao |
According to Article 89 of the 2003 Amended Constitution of theLao People's Democratic Republic, the Lao alphabet, though originally used solely for transcribing the Lao language, is also used to write several minority languages.[17][clarification needed]
Some minority languages use other writing systems. For example, theHmong adopted theRomanized Popular Alphabet to spell theHmong languages.
Linux has been available in Lao since 2005.[27]
Windows did not officially support Lao untilWindows Vista.[28] User-generated fonts are freely available online.[29]
In December 2011, the Lao Ministry of Science and Technology, in cooperation with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, officially[30] authorized the use of Phetsarath OT[31] as the standard national font.
The Phetsarath OT font was already adopted by the government in 2009; however, Lao users were unable to use it, as international software manufacturers did not include the font in their software systems. Mobile devices were not able to use or show Lao language. Instead, mobile phone users had to rely on Thai or English as language.
The Laos Ministry of Post and Telecommunications asked local technicians to develop a software system of international standard that would enable the Phetsarath OT font to be like other font systems that local users could access.
In March 2011, the Lao company XY Mobile presented[32] the Phetsarath OT on mobile phones as well as tablet PCs using the mobile device operating systemAndroid.
iOS supports Lao script oniPhones andiPads.
The consonant letters below are obsolete, due to spelling reforms. Characters for these obsolete letters are added in later versions of Unicode. For additional details, see the Thai script page's sections for thealphabetic table andusage for Sanskrit and Pali.
| Letter | Unicode | Similar Thai Letter |
|---|---|---|
| ຆ | PALI GHA | ฆ |
| ຉ | PALI CHA | ฉ |
| ຌ | PALI JHA | ฌ |
| ຎ | PALI NYA | ญ |
| ຏ | PALI TTA | ฏ |
| ຐ | PALI TTHA | ฐ |
| ຑ | PALI DDA | ฑ |
| ຒ | PALI DDHA | ฒ |
| ຓ | PALI NNA | ณ |
| ຘ | PALI DHA | ธ |
| ຠ | PALI BHA | ภ |
| ຨ | SANSKRIT SHA | ศ |
| ຩ | SANSKRIT SSA | ษ |
| ຬ | PALI LLA | ฬ |
The Unicode block for the Lao script is U+0E80–U+0EFF, added in Unicode version 1.0. The first ten characters of the row U+0EDx are the Lao numerals 0 through 9. Throughout the chart, grey (unassigned) code points are shown because the assigned Lao characters intentionally match the relative positions of the corresponding Thai characters. This has created the anomaly that the Lao letterສ is not in alphabetical order, since it occupies the same code-point as the Thai letterส.
| Lao[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+0E8x | ກ | ຂ | ຄ | ຆ | ງ | ຈ | ຉ | ຊ | ຌ | ຍ | ຎ | ຏ | ||||
| U+0E9x | ຐ | ຑ | ຒ | ຓ | ດ | ຕ | ຖ | ທ | ຘ | ນ | ບ | ປ | ຜ | ຝ | ພ | ຟ |
| U+0EAx | ຠ | ມ | ຢ | ຣ | ລ | ວ | ຨ | ຩ | ສ | ຫ | ຬ | ອ | ຮ | ຯ | ||
| U+0EBx | ະ | ັ | າ | ຳ | ິ | ີ | ຶ | ື | ຸ | ູ | ຺ | ົ | ຼ | ຽ | ||
| U+0ECx | ເ | ແ | ໂ | ໃ | ໄ | ໆ | ່ | ້ | ໊ | ໋ | ໌ | ໍ | ໎ | |||
| U+0EDx | ໐ | ໑ | ໒ | ໓ | ໔ | ໕ | ໖ | ໗ | ໘ | ໙ | ໜ | ໝ | ໞ | ໟ | ||
| U+0EEx | ||||||||||||||||
| U+0EFx | ||||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
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