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Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:03 pm by hoaithu92
Hello lao translation servics
The official language of the LPDR is Lao as spoken and written in Vientiane. As an official language, it has successfully become the lingua franca between all Lao and non-Lao ethnic groups in Laos. Of course, native Lao is spoken with differing tonal accents and with slightly differing vocabularies as you move from one part of the country to the next, especially in a north to south direction. But it is the Vientiane dialect that is most widely understood.
Hello lao translation servics
Modern Lao linguists recognize five basic dialects within the country: Vientiane Lao; northern Lao (spoken in Sainyabuli, Bokeo, Udomxai, Phongsali, Luang Nam Tha and Luang Prabang): north-eastern Lao (Xieng Khuang and Hua Phan), central Lao (Khammuan and Bolikhamxui); and finally southern Lao (Champasak, Savannakhet, Salavun, Attapeu and Sekong). Each of these can he further divided into various subdialects; the differences between the Lao spoken in the neighbouring provinces of Xieng Khuang and Hua Phan, for example, is readily apparent to those who know Lao well.
Hello lao translation servics
Lao vietnamese translation, Lao translation services, English Lao translation services
All dialects of Lao are members of the Thai half or the Thai-Kadai family of languages and are closely related to languages spoken in Thailand, northern Myanmar and pockets of China’s Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces. Standard Lao is indeed close enough to standard Thai (as spoken in central Thailand) that, for native speakers, the two are mutually intelligible. In Fact, virtually all of the speakers of Lao west of the Annamite Chain can easily understand spoken Thai, since the bulk of the television and radio they tune in to is broadcast From Thailand.
Hello lao translation servics
Lao translation services
Among educated Lao, written Thai is also easily understood, in spite of the fact that the two scripts differ (to about the same degree that the Greek and Roman scripts differ). This is because many of the text hooks used at the college and university level in Laos are actually Thai texts.
Even more similar to Standard Lao arc Thailand’s northern and north-eastern Thai dialects. In fact there arc more Lao speakers living in Thailand than in Laos. Hence if you are travelling to Laos after a spell in Thailand (especially the north-cast) you should be able to put whatever you learned in Thailand to good use in Laos. (It doesn’t work as well in the opposite direction; native Thais can’t always understand Lao since they’ve had less exposure to it.)
Script
Hello lao translation servics
Prior to the consolidation of the various Lao meuang (principalities) in the 14th century, there was little demand for a written language. When a written language was deemed necessary by the Lan Xang monarchy, Lao scholars based their script on an early alphabet devised by the Thais (which in turn had been created by Khmer scholars who used south Indian scripts as models!). The alphabet used in Laos is closer to the original prototype; the original Thai script was later extensively revised (which is why Lao looks ‘older’ than Thai, even though it is newer as a written language).
Hello lao translation servics
Before 1975 at least four spelling systems were in use. Because modern printing never really got established in Laos (most of the advanced textbooks being in Thai, French, or Vietnamese before the Revolution), Lao spelling wasn’t standardized until after the Pathet Lao takeover. The current system has been highly simplified by transliterating all foreign loan words according to their sound only, and not their written Form. Lao script can therefore be learned much more quickly than Thai or Khmer, both of which typically attempt to transcribe foreign borrowings letter. For letter no mailer what the actual pronunciation is.
One peculiarity of the post-1975 system is that it forbade the use of the Lao letter ‘r’ in words where it was more commonly pronounced as an ‘I’, reportedly because of the association of the ‘r’ with classical Thai although the ‘r’ was virtually lost in Laos (converting to ‘h’ in some cases and to ‘I’ in others), in many parts of Thailand it is still quite strong. Hence the names of former Lao kings Setthathirat and Phothisarat came to be rendered as Setthathilat and Phothisalat in post-1975 Lao script. In the last two or three years the government has loosened its restrictions’ and although the nasty ‘r’ is not taught in the school system, it is once again permitted in signage and in historical documents. Other scripts still in use include lao tham(dhamma Lao), used for’ writing Pali scriptures, and various Thai tribal scripts, the most popular and widespread being that of the Thai Neua (which has become standardized via Xishuangbanna, China).
The Lao script today consists of 30 consonants (formed from 20 basic sounds) and 28 vowels and diphthongs (15 individual symbols used in varying combinations). Complementing the consonant. and vowel symbols are four tone marks, only two of which are commonly used in creating the six different tones (in combination with all the other symbols). Written Lao proceeds from left to right, though vowel-signs may appear in a number of positions relative to consonants: before, after, above, below or ‘around’ (ie before, above and after).
Although learning the alphabet isn’t difficult, the writing system itself is fairly complex, so unless you are planning to have a lengthy stay in Laos you should perhaps make learning to speak the language your main priority.
Tones
Hello lao translation servics
Basically, Lao is a monosyllabic, tonal language, like the various dialects of Thai and Chinese. Borrowed words from Sanskrit, Pali, French and English often have two or more syllables, however. Many identical phonemes or vowel-consonant combinations are differentiated by their tone only. The word sao, for example, can mean ‘girl’, ‘morning’, ‘pillar’ or ‘twenty’ depending on the tone. For people from non-tonal language backgrounds, it can be very hard to learn at first. Even when we ‘know’ the correct tone, our tendency to denote emotion, emphasis and questions through tone modulation often interferes with uttering the correct tone. So the first rule in learning and using the tone system is to avoid overlaying your native intonation patterns onto the Lao language.
Vientiane Lao has six tones (compared with five used in standard Thai, four in Mandarin and nine in Cantonese). Three of the tones are level (low, mid and high) while three follow pitches inclines (rising, high falling and low falling). All six variations in pitch are relative to the speaker’s natural vocal range, so that one person’s low tone is not necessarily the same pitch as another person’s. Hence, keen pitch recognition is not a prerequisite for learning a tonal language like Lao. A relative distinction between pitch contours within your own voice is all that is necessary. Pitch variation is common to all languages – non tonal languages such as English also use intonation, just in a different way.
On a visual curve the tones might look like this:
Low Tone Produced at the relative bottom of your conversational tonal range – usually flat level, eg, du, ‘good’. Note, however, that not everyone pronounces it flat and level – some Vientiane natives add a slight rising tone to the end.
Mid Tone Flat like the low tone, but spoken at the relative middle of the speaker’s vocal range. No tone mark is used, eg, het, ‘do’.
High Tone Flat again, this time at the relative top of your vocal range, eg, heua, ‘boat’.
Rising Tone Begins a bit below the mid tone and rises to just at or above the high tone, eg, saam, ‘three’.
High Falling Tone Begins at or above the high tone and falls to the mid level, eg, sao, ‘morning’.
Low Falling Tone Begins at about the mid level and falls to the level of the low tone, cg, khao, ‘rice’.
Transliteration
The rendering of Lao words into Roman script is a major problem, since many of the Lao sounds, especially certain vowels, do not occur in English. The problem is compounded by the fact that because of Laos’s colonial history, transcribed words most commonly seen in Laos are based on the old colonial French system of transliteration, which bears little relation to the way an English speaker would usually choose to write a Lao word.
A prime example is the capital of Laos, Vientiane. The Lao pronunciation, following a fairly logical English-Roman transliteration, would he Wieng Chan or Vieng Chan (some might hear it more as Wieng Jan). Since the French don’t have a written consonant that corresponds to ‘w’, they chose to use a ‘v’ to represent all ‘w’ sounds, even though the ‘v’ sound in Lao is closer to an English ‘w’. The same goes for ‘ch ‘ (or ‘j’ J, which for the French: was best rendered ‘ti-”; hence Wieng Chan (which means Sandalwood City) finishes up as ‘Vientiane’ in the French transliteration. The ‘c’ is added so that the final ‘n’ sound isn’t partially lost, as it is in French words ending with ‘n’ .This latter phenomenon also happens with words like laan (million) as in Lan Xung, which most French speakers would write as ‘Lane’, a spelling that leads most English speakers to pronounce this word like the ‘lane’ in ‘Penny Lane’ (which is far from accurate). Many standard place names in Roman script use an ‘x’ for what in English is ‘s’. This ‘x’ stands for a Lao letter that historically was pronounced ‘ch’ but eventually became’s’ in the Lao sound system. There’s no difference in the pronunciation of the two; pronounce all instances of ‘x’ as’s’.
There is no official method of transliterating the Lao language (the government is incredibly inconsistent in this respect, though they tend to follow the old French methods). This book follows the transliteration system which is used in Lonely Planet’s Thailand guide, since Thai and Lao have virtually identical phonetic systems. The only exceptions are where there may be confusion with transliterations that are already in common use (eg, Vientiane vs Wiellg Chan, Luang Probang vs Luang Phabang).
The public and private sectors in Laos are gradually moving towards a more internationally recognizable system along the lines of the Royal Thai General Transcription (which is fairly readable across a large number of language types). This can also be problematic, however, such as when an ‘r’ is written where an ‘h’ or ‘I’ would be heard, simply because the Lao symbols for these sounds look-so much like tire Thai ‘I’ (modern spoken Lao has no ‘r’ sound).
Recent government maps have finally started using the spelling ‘Luang Phabang’ rather than ‘Luang Prabang’. At the same time the government has begun allowing the use of the once-banned written ‘r’ for historical Lao names, such as ‘Sakkarin’ rather than ‘Sakkalin’, or ‘Phothisarat’ instead of ‘Phothisalat ‘.
Books for Language Study
Lonely Planet publishes a pocket-sized Lao phrasebook which has a complete guide to Lao grammar and pronunciation, along with several chapters designed to make travel in the country easier and more enjoyable, eg, ‘Around Town’, ‘Accommodation’, ‘Food’, ‘Small Talk’ and ‘Emergencies’. Lao script and Roman transliteration accompanies all lists of words and phrases. It is available wherever Lonely Planet books are distributed, and it can occasionally be bought in Vientiane at the Vientiane Book Centre and at the Vientiane Department Store.
The English-Lao, Lao-English Dictionary by Russell Marcus (Charles Tuttle Co, Suido 1-chorne, 1-6 Bunkyo-chu, Tokyo, Japan) is a handy book to have in Laos. You may not be able to read the Lao-English section, but the English-Lao definitions are fairly extensive and the transliteration is more or less consistent. Transliterated Lao words are also accompanied by tone marks (in this case numbers are used for the six tones).
The same company also publishes Lao for Beginners: An Introduction to the Spoken and Written Language of Laos by Tatsuo Hoshino and Russell Marcus. This 200-page primer is organized according to situation (eg, ‘Coming & Going’, ‘Touring Vientiane’, and ‘Bargaining at the Market’), so the lessons are mostly relevant to everyday needs. The book uses the same transliteration system as the dictionary described above, so the two go together nicely.
A newer and more complete dictionary is the 950-page Modem English-Lao, Lao-English Dictionary by Bounmy Soukbandith (contact PO Box 40021, San Diego, CA 92164, USA.
For more serious students, little else is available. Probably the most complete text is the US Foreign Service Institute’s Lao Basic Course. Volumes 1 & 2 (Superintendent of Documents, Washington, DC 20402, USA, 1971) Volume 1 takes students step by step through the rudiments of Lao pronunciation, grammar and writing. Volume 2 is a Lao reader (all in Lao script with no translation) for more advanced students. Both books are oriented towards pre-1975 Laos, with many references to the monarchy and so on.
Most of the books listed above can be purchased in Bangkok at Asia Books, Sukhumvit Rd Soi 15 (and at several other locations).
Not much is available in Laos itself. In Vientiane’s Phimphone Market you can find the little blue English-Lao Dictionary published by the State Printing Office. This pocket-sized tome contains over 10,000 entries; the Lao entries appear in script only.
A draft copy of the Lao Language Competencies for Peace Corps Volunteers in the LPDR by Xamini de Abrew and Thong Khamphasinovanh was distributed in Vientiane in December 1991, just before the short-lived US Peace Corps experiment was shut down before it really got started. Only 30 copies were originally made, but a few photocopies are available here and there. You might also try directing inquiries to the USPC (CHPTO/PACEM, 1990 K St, Washington, DC 20026, USA). This text contains a good selection of structures and vocabulary but some tones are marked incorrectly and there are some minor vocabulary errors.
In Vientiane’s government bookshops you can also buy children’s first-language primers, which aren’t a bad way to start for those who will be staying a long time in Laos and want to attempt to master the written language.
Hello lao translation servics
For information on language courses, see the Courses section of the Facts for the Visitor ch
The official language of the LPDR is Lao as spoken and written in Vientiane. As an official language, it has successfully become the lingua franca between all Lao and non-Lao ethnic groups in Laos. Of course, native Lao is spoken with differing tonal accents and with slightly differing vocabularies as you move from one part of the country to the next, especially in a north to south direction. But it is the Vientiane dialect that is most widely understood.
Hello lao translation servics
Modern Lao linguists recognize five basic dialects within the country: Vientiane Lao; northern Lao (spoken in Sainyabuli, Bokeo, Udomxai, Phongsali, Luang Nam Tha and Luang Prabang): north-eastern Lao (Xieng Khuang and Hua Phan), central Lao (Khammuan and Bolikhamxui); and finally southern Lao (Champasak, Savannakhet, Salavun, Attapeu and Sekong). Each of these can he further divided into various subdialects; the differences between the Lao spoken in the neighbouring provinces of Xieng Khuang and Hua Phan, for example, is readily apparent to those who know Lao well.
Hello lao translation servics
Lao vietnamese translation, Lao translation services, English Lao translation services
All dialects of Lao are members of the Thai half or the Thai-Kadai family of languages and are closely related to languages spoken in Thailand, northern Myanmar and pockets of China’s Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces. Standard Lao is indeed close enough to standard Thai (as spoken in central Thailand) that, for native speakers, the two are mutually intelligible. In Fact, virtually all of the speakers of Lao west of the Annamite Chain can easily understand spoken Thai, since the bulk of the television and radio they tune in to is broadcast From Thailand.
Hello lao translation servics
Lao translation services
Among educated Lao, written Thai is also easily understood, in spite of the fact that the two scripts differ (to about the same degree that the Greek and Roman scripts differ). This is because many of the text hooks used at the college and university level in Laos are actually Thai texts.
Even more similar to Standard Lao arc Thailand’s northern and north-eastern Thai dialects. In fact there arc more Lao speakers living in Thailand than in Laos. Hence if you are travelling to Laos after a spell in Thailand (especially the north-cast) you should be able to put whatever you learned in Thailand to good use in Laos. (It doesn’t work as well in the opposite direction; native Thais can’t always understand Lao since they’ve had less exposure to it.)
Script
Hello lao translation servics
Prior to the consolidation of the various Lao meuang (principalities) in the 14th century, there was little demand for a written language. When a written language was deemed necessary by the Lan Xang monarchy, Lao scholars based their script on an early alphabet devised by the Thais (which in turn had been created by Khmer scholars who used south Indian scripts as models!). The alphabet used in Laos is closer to the original prototype; the original Thai script was later extensively revised (which is why Lao looks ‘older’ than Thai, even though it is newer as a written language).
Hello lao translation servics
Before 1975 at least four spelling systems were in use. Because modern printing never really got established in Laos (most of the advanced textbooks being in Thai, French, or Vietnamese before the Revolution), Lao spelling wasn’t standardized until after the Pathet Lao takeover. The current system has been highly simplified by transliterating all foreign loan words according to their sound only, and not their written Form. Lao script can therefore be learned much more quickly than Thai or Khmer, both of which typically attempt to transcribe foreign borrowings letter. For letter no mailer what the actual pronunciation is.
One peculiarity of the post-1975 system is that it forbade the use of the Lao letter ‘r’ in words where it was more commonly pronounced as an ‘I’, reportedly because of the association of the ‘r’ with classical Thai although the ‘r’ was virtually lost in Laos (converting to ‘h’ in some cases and to ‘I’ in others), in many parts of Thailand it is still quite strong. Hence the names of former Lao kings Setthathirat and Phothisarat came to be rendered as Setthathilat and Phothisalat in post-1975 Lao script. In the last two or three years the government has loosened its restrictions’ and although the nasty ‘r’ is not taught in the school system, it is once again permitted in signage and in historical documents. Other scripts still in use include lao tham(dhamma Lao), used for’ writing Pali scriptures, and various Thai tribal scripts, the most popular and widespread being that of the Thai Neua (which has become standardized via Xishuangbanna, China).
The Lao script today consists of 30 consonants (formed from 20 basic sounds) and 28 vowels and diphthongs (15 individual symbols used in varying combinations). Complementing the consonant. and vowel symbols are four tone marks, only two of which are commonly used in creating the six different tones (in combination with all the other symbols). Written Lao proceeds from left to right, though vowel-signs may appear in a number of positions relative to consonants: before, after, above, below or ‘around’ (ie before, above and after).
Although learning the alphabet isn’t difficult, the writing system itself is fairly complex, so unless you are planning to have a lengthy stay in Laos you should perhaps make learning to speak the language your main priority.
Tones
Hello lao translation servics
Basically, Lao is a monosyllabic, tonal language, like the various dialects of Thai and Chinese. Borrowed words from Sanskrit, Pali, French and English often have two or more syllables, however. Many identical phonemes or vowel-consonant combinations are differentiated by their tone only. The word sao, for example, can mean ‘girl’, ‘morning’, ‘pillar’ or ‘twenty’ depending on the tone. For people from non-tonal language backgrounds, it can be very hard to learn at first. Even when we ‘know’ the correct tone, our tendency to denote emotion, emphasis and questions through tone modulation often interferes with uttering the correct tone. So the first rule in learning and using the tone system is to avoid overlaying your native intonation patterns onto the Lao language.
Vientiane Lao has six tones (compared with five used in standard Thai, four in Mandarin and nine in Cantonese). Three of the tones are level (low, mid and high) while three follow pitches inclines (rising, high falling and low falling). All six variations in pitch are relative to the speaker’s natural vocal range, so that one person’s low tone is not necessarily the same pitch as another person’s. Hence, keen pitch recognition is not a prerequisite for learning a tonal language like Lao. A relative distinction between pitch contours within your own voice is all that is necessary. Pitch variation is common to all languages – non tonal languages such as English also use intonation, just in a different way.
On a visual curve the tones might look like this:
Low Tone Produced at the relative bottom of your conversational tonal range – usually flat level, eg, du, ‘good’. Note, however, that not everyone pronounces it flat and level – some Vientiane natives add a slight rising tone to the end.
Mid Tone Flat like the low tone, but spoken at the relative middle of the speaker’s vocal range. No tone mark is used, eg, het, ‘do’.
High Tone Flat again, this time at the relative top of your vocal range, eg, heua, ‘boat’.
Rising Tone Begins a bit below the mid tone and rises to just at or above the high tone, eg, saam, ‘three’.
High Falling Tone Begins at or above the high tone and falls to the mid level, eg, sao, ‘morning’.
Low Falling Tone Begins at about the mid level and falls to the level of the low tone, cg, khao, ‘rice’.
Transliteration
The rendering of Lao words into Roman script is a major problem, since many of the Lao sounds, especially certain vowels, do not occur in English. The problem is compounded by the fact that because of Laos’s colonial history, transcribed words most commonly seen in Laos are based on the old colonial French system of transliteration, which bears little relation to the way an English speaker would usually choose to write a Lao word.
A prime example is the capital of Laos, Vientiane. The Lao pronunciation, following a fairly logical English-Roman transliteration, would he Wieng Chan or Vieng Chan (some might hear it more as Wieng Jan). Since the French don’t have a written consonant that corresponds to ‘w’, they chose to use a ‘v’ to represent all ‘w’ sounds, even though the ‘v’ sound in Lao is closer to an English ‘w’. The same goes for ‘ch ‘ (or ‘j’ J, which for the French: was best rendered ‘ti-”; hence Wieng Chan (which means Sandalwood City) finishes up as ‘Vientiane’ in the French transliteration. The ‘c’ is added so that the final ‘n’ sound isn’t partially lost, as it is in French words ending with ‘n’ .This latter phenomenon also happens with words like laan (million) as in Lan Xung, which most French speakers would write as ‘Lane’, a spelling that leads most English speakers to pronounce this word like the ‘lane’ in ‘Penny Lane’ (which is far from accurate). Many standard place names in Roman script use an ‘x’ for what in English is ‘s’. This ‘x’ stands for a Lao letter that historically was pronounced ‘ch’ but eventually became’s’ in the Lao sound system. There’s no difference in the pronunciation of the two; pronounce all instances of ‘x’ as’s’.
There is no official method of transliterating the Lao language (the government is incredibly inconsistent in this respect, though they tend to follow the old French methods). This book follows the transliteration system which is used in Lonely Planet’s Thailand guide, since Thai and Lao have virtually identical phonetic systems. The only exceptions are where there may be confusion with transliterations that are already in common use (eg, Vientiane vs Wiellg Chan, Luang Probang vs Luang Phabang).
The public and private sectors in Laos are gradually moving towards a more internationally recognizable system along the lines of the Royal Thai General Transcription (which is fairly readable across a large number of language types). This can also be problematic, however, such as when an ‘r’ is written where an ‘h’ or ‘I’ would be heard, simply because the Lao symbols for these sounds look-so much like tire Thai ‘I’ (modern spoken Lao has no ‘r’ sound).
Recent government maps have finally started using the spelling ‘Luang Phabang’ rather than ‘Luang Prabang’. At the same time the government has begun allowing the use of the once-banned written ‘r’ for historical Lao names, such as ‘Sakkarin’ rather than ‘Sakkalin’, or ‘Phothisarat’ instead of ‘Phothisalat ‘.
Books for Language Study
Lonely Planet publishes a pocket-sized Lao phrasebook which has a complete guide to Lao grammar and pronunciation, along with several chapters designed to make travel in the country easier and more enjoyable, eg, ‘Around Town’, ‘Accommodation’, ‘Food’, ‘Small Talk’ and ‘Emergencies’. Lao script and Roman transliteration accompanies all lists of words and phrases. It is available wherever Lonely Planet books are distributed, and it can occasionally be bought in Vientiane at the Vientiane Book Centre and at the Vientiane Department Store.
The English-Lao, Lao-English Dictionary by Russell Marcus (Charles Tuttle Co, Suido 1-chorne, 1-6 Bunkyo-chu, Tokyo, Japan) is a handy book to have in Laos. You may not be able to read the Lao-English section, but the English-Lao definitions are fairly extensive and the transliteration is more or less consistent. Transliterated Lao words are also accompanied by tone marks (in this case numbers are used for the six tones).
The same company also publishes Lao for Beginners: An Introduction to the Spoken and Written Language of Laos by Tatsuo Hoshino and Russell Marcus. This 200-page primer is organized according to situation (eg, ‘Coming & Going’, ‘Touring Vientiane’, and ‘Bargaining at the Market’), so the lessons are mostly relevant to everyday needs. The book uses the same transliteration system as the dictionary described above, so the two go together nicely.
A newer and more complete dictionary is the 950-page Modem English-Lao, Lao-English Dictionary by Bounmy Soukbandith (contact PO Box 40021, San Diego, CA 92164, USA.
For more serious students, little else is available. Probably the most complete text is the US Foreign Service Institute’s Lao Basic Course. Volumes 1 & 2 (Superintendent of Documents, Washington, DC 20402, USA, 1971) Volume 1 takes students step by step through the rudiments of Lao pronunciation, grammar and writing. Volume 2 is a Lao reader (all in Lao script with no translation) for more advanced students. Both books are oriented towards pre-1975 Laos, with many references to the monarchy and so on.
Most of the books listed above can be purchased in Bangkok at Asia Books, Sukhumvit Rd Soi 15 (and at several other locations).
Not much is available in Laos itself. In Vientiane’s Phimphone Market you can find the little blue English-Lao Dictionary published by the State Printing Office. This pocket-sized tome contains over 10,000 entries; the Lao entries appear in script only.
A draft copy of the Lao Language Competencies for Peace Corps Volunteers in the LPDR by Xamini de Abrew and Thong Khamphasinovanh was distributed in Vientiane in December 1991, just before the short-lived US Peace Corps experiment was shut down before it really got started. Only 30 copies were originally made, but a few photocopies are available here and there. You might also try directing inquiries to the USPC (CHPTO/PACEM, 1990 K St, Washington, DC 20026, USA). This text contains a good selection of structures and vocabulary but some tones are marked incorrectly and there are some minor vocabulary errors.
In Vientiane’s government bookshops you can also buy children’s first-language primers, which aren’t a bad way to start for those who will be staying a long time in Laos and want to attempt to master the written language.
Hello lao translation servics
For information on language courses, see the Courses section of the Facts for the Visitor ch
