rmined 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 indicate et cetera.
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.
Indication of tones
Experts disagree on the number and nature of tones in the various dialects of Lao. According to some, most dialects of Lao and Isan have six tones, those of Luang Prabang have five. Tones are determined as follows:
|Tones||Long vowel, or vowel plus voiced consonant||Long vowel plus unvoiced consonant||Short vowel, or short vowel plus unvoiced consonant||Mai ek (ອ່)||Mai tho (ອ້)|
|High consonants||rising||low falling||high||mid||low falling|
|Mid consonants||low rising||low falling||high||mid||high falling|
|Low consonants||high||high falling||mid||mid||high falling|
A silent ຫ (/h/) placed before certain consonants will produce place the other proceeding consonant in the high class. This can occur before the letters ງ /ŋ/, ຍ /ɲ/, ຣ /r/, and ວ /v/ and combined in special ligatures (considered separate letters) such as ຫຼ /l/, ໜ /n/, and ໝ /m/. In addition to ອ່ (low tone) and ອ້ (falling tone), there also exists the rare ອ໊ (high) ອ໋ (rising) tone marks.
- ca. 20M Isan, 3M Laotian
- Lao language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Lao". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Northeastern Thai". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- "Lao | About World Languages". aboutworldlanguages.com. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
- Northern Lao is also spoken in large parts of Uttaradit Province and Phitsanulok, which are outside the Isan region.
- Northeastern Lao is sometimes considered a separate language, as it is traditionally spoken by Phuan tribal members, a closely related but distinct Tai group. Also spoken in a few small and scattered Tai Phuan villages in Sukhothai, Uttaradit, and Phrae.
- Southern Loa gives way to Northern Khmer in Si Sa Ket, Surin, and Buriram, and to Khorat Thai and, to some extant, Northern Khmer in Nakhon Ratchasima.
- The Western Lao dialect is not spoken in Laos.
เรืองเดช ปันเขื่อนขัติย์. (2531)
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- Blaine Erickson, 2001. "On the Origins of Labialized Consonants in Lao". Analysis based on T. Hoshino and R. Marcus (1981). Lao for Beginners: An Introduction to the Spoken and Written Language of Laos. Rutland/Tokyo: Tuttle. Accessed 2009-12-19.
- UCLA International Institute, (n.d.). "Lao". Accessed 2010-07-27.
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- ANSI Z39.35-1979, System for the Romanization of Lao, Khmer, and Pali; ISBN 0-88738-968-6.
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- Mollerup, Asger. Thai–Isan–Lao Phrasebook. White Lotus, Bangkok, 2001. ISBN 974-7534-88-6.
- Kerr, Allen. (1994). Lao–English Dictionary. White Lotus. ISBN 974-8495-69-8.
- Simmala, Buasawan and