Lao (Lao: ພາສາລາວ , [pʰáː.sǎː láːw] ), sometimes referred to as Laotian , is the official language of Laos and a significant language in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language . Spoken by over 3 million people in Laos and 3.7 million in all countries, it serves as a vital link in the cultural and social fabric of these areas. It is written in the Lao script , an abugida that evolved from ancient Tai scripts.
22-462: The Lao Loum ( Lao : ລາວລຸ່ມ ; Thai : ลาวลุ่ม , RTGS : Lao Lum , pronounced [lāːw lûm] ) is an official Lao People's Democratic Republic designation for lowland dwelling Tai peoples , including the majority Lao people . The Lao Loum, literally meaning 'lowland Lao', are the inhabitants of the river valleys and lowlands along the Mekong River and make up over 68% of
44-843: A mixture of Northern and Central Tai features. Johnson (2011) distinguishes four distinct Zhuang languages in Wenshan Prefecture , Yunnan : Nong Zhuang , Yei Zhuang , Dai Zhuang , and Min Zhuang , all of which are Southern Zhuang varieties except for Yei Zhuang, which is Northern Zhuang. Min Zhuang is a recently discovered Southern Zhuang variety that has never been described previous to Johnson (2011). ( See also Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture#Ethnic groups ) Pyang Zhuang and Myang Zhuang are recently described Southern Zhuang (Central Tai) languages spoken in Debao County , Guangxi, China. The Zhuang languages have been written in
66-565: A word can alter its meaning, and is analytic , forming sentences through the combination of individual words without inflection. These features, common in Kra-Dai languages , also bear similarities to Sino-Tibetan languages like Chinese or Austroasiatic languages like Vietnamese . Lao's mutual intelligibility with Thai and Isan , fellow Southwestern Tai languages, allows for effective intercommunication among their speakers, despite differences in script and regional variations. In Laos, Lao
88-488: Is not only the official language but also a lingua franca , bridging the linguistic diversity of a population that speaks many other languages. Its cultural significance is reflected in Laotian literature, media, and traditional arts. The Vientiane dialect has emerged as the de facto standard, though no official standard has been established. Internationally, Lao is spoken among diaspora communities , especially in countries like
110-535: Is now southeastern China, specifically what is now Guangxi and northern Vietnam where the diversity of various Tai languages suggests an Urheimat . The Southwestern Tai languages began to diverge from the Northern and Central branches of the Tai languages, covered mainly by various Zhuang languages , sometime around 112 CE, but likely completed by the sixth century . Due to the influx of Han Chinese soldiers and settlers,
132-551: The Southwestern branch of Tai languages. Lao (including Isan) and Thai, although they occupy separate groups, are mutually intelligible and were pushed closer through contact and Khmer influence, but all Southwestern Tai languages are mutually intelligible to some degree. The Tai languages also include the languages of the Zhuang , which are split into the Northern and Central branches of
154-824: The Summer Institute of Linguistics has indicated that some of these are themselves multiple languages that are not mutually intelligible without previous exposure on the part of speakers, resulting in 16 separate ISO 639-3 codes. Northern Zhuang comprises dialects north of the Yong River , with 8,572,200 speakers ( Northern Zhuang [ ccx ] prior to 2007): In east-central Guangxi, there are isolated pockets of Northern Zhuang speakers in Zhongshan (14,200 Zhuang people), Pingle (2,100 Zhuang people), Zhaoping (4,300 Zhuang people), Mengshan (about 5,000 Zhuang people), and Hezhou (about 3,000 Zhuang people) counties. These include
176-400: The "Northern Zhuang dialect", is considered to be the " standard " or prestige dialect of Zhuang, developed by the government for certain official usages. Although Southern Zhuang varieties have aspirated stops, Northern Zhuang varieties lack them. There are over 60 distinct tonal systems with 5–11 tones depending on the variety. Zhang (1999) identified 13 Zhuang varieties. Later research by
198-466: The 5th century AD, when the Tai who remained in China began to take family names. Zhāng Jūnrú's (張均如) Zhuàngyǔ Fāngyán Yánjiù ( 壯語方言研究 [A Study of Zhuang dialects]) is the most detailed study of Zhuang dialectology published to date. It reports survey work carried out in the 1950s, and includes a 1465-word list covering 36 varieties of Zhuang. For the list of the 36 Zhuang variants below from Zhang (1999),
220-611: The Tai languages. The Tai languages form a major division within the Kra-Dai language family , distantly related to other languages of southern China, such as the Hlai and Be languages of Hainan and the Kra and Kam-Sui languages on the Chinese Mainland and in neighbouring regions of northern Vietnam. The ancestors of the Lao people were speakers of Southwestern Tai dialects that migrated from what
242-799: The Tai migrants that followed the Mekong River . As the Southwestern Tai-speaking peoples diverged, following paths down waterways, their dialects began to diverge into the various languages today, such as the Lao-Phuthai languages that developed along the Mekong River and includes Lao and its Isan sub-variety and the Chiang Saen languages which includes the Central Thai dialect that is the basis of Standard Thai. Despite their close relationship, there were several phonological divergences that drifted
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#1732844373969264-506: The United States, France, and Australia, reflecting its global diasporic presence. The Lao language falls within the Lao-Phuthai group of languages, including its closest relatives, Phuthai (BGN/PCGN Phouthai , RTGS Phu Thai ) and Tai Yo . Together with Northwestern Tai—which includes Shan , Ahom and most Dai languages of China, the Chiang Saen languages—which include Standard Thai, Khorat Thai, and Tai Lanna —and Southern Tai form
286-488: The ancient sawndip script for over a thousand years, possibly preceded by the sawgoek script. Sawndip is based on Chinese characters , similar to Vietnamese chữ Nôm . Some sawndip logograms were directly borrowed from Han characters, whereas others were created locally from components of Chinese characters. It has been used for writing songs, and more recently in public communications encouraging people to follow official family planning policy. There has also been
308-509: The end of the Chinese occupation of Vietnam, the fall of Jiaozhi and turbulence associated with the decline and fall of the Tang dynasty led some of the Tai peoples speaking Southwestern Tai to flee into Southeast Asia, with the small-scale migration mainly taking place between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The Tais split and followed the major river courses, with the ancestral Lao originating in
330-635: The face of Chinese expansion. Noting that both the Zhuang and Thai peoples have the same exonym for the Vietnamese , kɛɛu , from the Chinese commandery of Jiaozhi in northern Vietnam, Jerold A. Edmondson posited that the split between Zhuang and the Southwestern Tai languages happened no earlier than the founding of Jiaozhi in 112 BC. He also argues that the departure of the Thai from southern China must predate
352-568: The following varieties named after administrative villages that are documented by Wei (2017). Southern Zhuang dialects are spoken south of the Yong River , with 4,232,000 speakers ( Southern Zhuang [ ccy ] prior to 2007): The Tày and Nùng language complex in Vietnam is also considered one of the varieties of Central Tai and shares a high mutual intelligibility with Wenshan Dai and other Southern Zhuang dialects in Guangxi . The Nùng An language has
374-1270: The languages apart with time such as the following examples: *mlɯn 'slippery' → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } ມື່ນ muen /mɯ̄ːn/ → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } ลื่น luen /lɯ̂ːn/ {} {} ມື່ນ {} ลื่น {} {} muen {} luen *mlɯn → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } /mɯ̄ːn/ → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } /lɯ̂ːn/ 'slippery' {} {} {} {} *raːk 'to vomit' → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } ຮາກ hak /hâːk/ → {\displaystyle \rightarrow } ราก rak /râːk/ Zhuang languages The Zhuang languages ( / ˈ dʒ w æ ŋ , ˈ dʒ w ɒ ŋ / ; autonym : Vahcuengh , Zhuang pronunciation: [βa˧ɕuːŋ˧] , pre-1982: Vaƅcueŋƅ , Sawndip : 話僮, from vah , 'language' and Cuengh , 'Zhuang'; simplified Chinese : 壮语 ; traditional Chinese : 壯語 ; pinyin : Zhuàngyǔ ) are
396-429: The more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adjacent parts of Yunnan and Guangdong . The Zhuang languages do not form a monophyletic linguistic unit, as northern and southern Zhuang languages are more closely related to other Tai languages than to each other. Northern Zhuang languages form a dialect continuum with Northern Tai varieties across
418-627: The name of the region (usually county) is given first, followed by the specific village. The phylogenetic position of each variant follows that of Pittayaporn (2009) (see Tai languages#Pittayaporn (2009) ). The Zhuang language (or language group) has been divided by Chinese linguists into northern and southern "dialects" (fāngyán 方言 in Chinese), each of which has been divided into a number of vernacular varieties (known as tǔyǔ 土語 in Chinese) by Chinese linguists (Zhang & Wei 1997; Zhang 1999:29-30). The Wuming dialect of Yongbei Zhuang, classified within
440-599: The occasional use of a number of other scripts, including pictographic proto-writing . In 1957, a hybrid script based on the Latin script and expanded with Cyrillic- and IPA-derived letters was introduced to write Standard Zhuang . In 1982, it was updated to use only Latin letters. These are referred to as the 'old' and 'new' Zhuang, respectively. Bouyei is written in Latin script. B b D d G g C c By by Ƃ ƃ Ƌ ƌ Gv gv Y y Gy gy M m N n Ŋ ŋ Ny ny My my F f S s H h Ŋv ŋv V v L l R r A
462-505: The population of Laos, of whom half are of the Lao ethnic group. Other members categorised as Lao Loum are the other large Tai groups, such as the Phuan and Phu Thai and other closely related members of Tai ethnic groups. This article about an ethnic group in Asia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Lao language Lao is a tonal language , where the pitch or tone of
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#1732844373969484-704: The provincial border in Guizhou , which are designated as Bouyei , whereas Southern Zhuang languages form another dialect continuum with Central Tai varieties such as Nung , Tay and Caolan in Vietnam . Standard Zhuang is based on the Northern Zhuang dialect of Wuming . The Tai languages are believed to have been originally spoken in what is now southern China, with speakers of the Southwestern Tai languages (which include Thai , Lao and Shan ) having emigrated in
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