Lao-Tai Language
Lao is the official language of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Lao is spoken by the political majority, the Lao Loum or Lowland Lao, and by other ethnic groups as a second language. The Lao Loum are composed of the Tai Lao, primarily occupying river valleys, and upland Tai groups, together making up 68 percent of the 5.4 million inhabitants of Laos (1999). Other Tai groups in Laos include the Tai Lue, Tai Daeng, Tai Dam, Phu Thai, and Saek.
Lao is a monosyllabic, tonal language, and its structure is based on the initial consonant, vowel nucleus, optional final consonant, and tone. Lao has six tones: low, mid, rising, high, low falling, and high falling. Polysyllabic words found in Lao have been borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit, and French. Lao has also borrowed from Vietnamese, especially since 1975.
There are many regional dialects of Lao, such as Luang Prabang dialect, Xieng Khouang dialect, and Vientiane dialect. These regional dialects vary in phonology, tones, and vocabulary. Vientiane dialect, the language spoken in the capital, may be considered the national standard, but its use is not enforced. Lao has its own written script originating from the Khmer script, consisting of thirty-three consonants and twenty-eight vowels.
The socialist regime has attempted to standardize the written language. Phoumi Vongvichit, a Pathet Lao revolutionary and a strong supporter of Lao identity and culture, wrote the book Lao Grammar in 1967 prior to the revolution and influenced the standardization of Lao grammar and spelling. His work also simplified the language to facilitate literacy efforts and eliminated feudalistic aspects of the language associated with Lao royalty to affirm the revolution's egalitarianism.
Lao is a member of the Southwestern Tai language group in the Tai-Kadai ethnolinguistic family. Tai languages range west from Assam province in India, with the written Ahom language, east to Hainan Island in China, inhabited by the Li. Tai speakers are found in northern Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam, and southern China. Tai-speaking peoples began to inhabit Laos and other parts of Southeast Asia a thousand years ago after migrating from the area around southern China and northern Vietnam and established autonomous political entities two hundred years later.
The Lao government claims that the country's literacy rate (reading and writing at a fourth-grade level) is 85 percent. However, other agencies, including the World Bank and UNESCO, set the adult (age fifteen and over) illiteracy rate at about 44 percent, with the male adult (age fifteen and over) illiteracy rate 30 percent and the female adult illiteracy rate 50 percent. Ethnic minorities of the Lao Thoeng and Lao Soung ethnic categories experience lower literacy rates due to the lack of formal educational institutions in their villages and because they speak a different native language.
Further Reading
Enfield, N. J. (1999) "Lao as a National Language." In Laos:
Culture and Society, edited by Grant Evans. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 259–313.
Hudak, Thomas John. (1997) William Gedney's Tai Dialect Studies: Glossaries, Texts, and Translation. Michigan Paper on South and Southeast Asia, no. 45. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan.
Kerr, Allen D. (1972) Lao-English Dictionary. Bangkok, Thailand: White Lotus.
UNESCO. (1998) "UNESCO World Education Report, 1998: Teachers and Teaching in a Changing World." Retrieved 7 February 2002, from: http://www.litserver.literacy.upenn.edu /explorer/stats-basic.html.
World Bank. (2001) "World Bank Group." Retrieved 7 February 2002, from: http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/reg ions.html.
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