Lao script

The Lao script derived locally from the Khmer script of Angkor[1] with additional influence from the Mon script. Both Khmer and Mon were ultimately derived from the Brahmi script of India. The Lao script was slowly standardized in the Mekong River valley after the various Tai principalities of the region was merged under Lan Xang in the 14th century. It has changed little since its inception and continued use in the Lao-speaking regions of modern-day Laos and Isan. Although the Thai script continued to evolve, both scripts still bear a resemblance.[2] However, this is less apparent today due to the communist party simplifying the spelling to be phonemic and omitting extra letters used to write words of Pali-Sanskrit origin.

In its earlier form, Lao would be considered an abugida, in which the inherent vowel is embedded in the consonant letters. With the spelling reforms by the communist Lao People's Revolutionary Party, all vowels are now written explicitly.[3] 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[4] 'to hold a ceremony, celebrate' contrasts with the new ສະເຫລີມ.[5]

The twenty-seven consonants of the Lao alphabet are divided into three tone classes—high (ສູງ [sǔːŋ]), middle (ກາງ [kaːŋ]), 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 an acrophonical 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.[18] A comprehensive dictionary published by a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Information and Culture did not include it.[19] 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.[20] The letter ຣ can also be found in Unit 14 (ບົດທີ 14 ຮ ຫ ຣ) of a textbook published by the government.[21] It is generally used as the first consonant of a syllable, or to follow a leading consonant, rarely as a final consonant.

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 saying sala (ສະຫລະ, [sáʔlāʔ]) before the vowel sign. Some vowels have unique names, and these are ໃ◌ (ໄມ້ມ້ວນ, mâj muân, rolled stem), ໄ◌ (ໄມ້ມາຽ, mâj máːj, unwound stem), ◌ົ (ໄມ້ກົງ, . mâj kòŋ, straight stem), ◌ັ (ໄມ້ກັນ, . mâj kàn, ear stem), ◌ຽ (ວິຣາມ, vī ráːm), and ◌ໍ (ນິກຄະຫິດ, nīk kʰā hǐt).[25]

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.[20] 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.

Linux has been available in Lao since 2005.[26]

Windows did not officially support Lao until Windows Vista.[27] User-generated fonts are freely available online.[28]

In December 2011, the Lao Ministry of Science and Technology, in cooperation with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, officially[29] authorized the use of Phetsarath OT[30] 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[31] the Phetsarath OT on mobile phones as well as tablet PCs using the mobile device operating system Android.

iOS supports Lao script on iPhones and iPads.

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 letter ສ is not in alphabetical order, since it occupies the same code-point as the Thai letter ส.

• Romanization of Lao
• Lao Braille
• Literature of Laos

• Lew, Sigrid. "A linguistic analysis of the Lao writing system and its suitability for minority language orthographies". Writing Systems Research ahead-of-print (2013): 1–16.Authors’s accepted manuscript
• Simmala, Buasawan and Benjawan Poomsan Becker (2003), Lao for Beginners. Paiboon Publishing. ISBN 1-887521-28-3

• Omniglot – Lao alphabet
• Google Translate
• http://www.stars21.com/translator/english_to_lao.html
• http://www.laosoftware.com/index.php
• The Lao Alphabet at SEAsite
• Laos – language situation by N. J. Enfield
• Numerals in many different writing systems, which includes Lao numerals. Retrieved 2008-11-12
• http://unicode-table.com/en/sections/lao/
• "The Unicode Standard 5.0 Code Charts" (PDF). (90.4 KB) Lao Range: 0E80 – 0EFF, from the Unicode Consortium
• Free Lao script for Windows and Mac OS X
• Phetasarth OT Information page
• New font drives IT development in Laos
• Vientiane Times article: Laos unveils first Tablet
• https://web.archive.org/web/20141204014809/http://asiansouls.com/laofonts/
• http://www.luangprabang-laos.com/Downloading-of-Lao-fonts
• http://www.seasite.niu.edu/lao/lao3.htm
• https://web.archive.org/web/20140531074308/http://clear-vu.com.hk/resources/lao_fonts.asp