Lao alphabet

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The Lao alphabet is used mainly to write the Lao language.

The minority languages of Laos are also written in the Lao alphabet, and officially it's the only alphabet to write them in Laos, but many speakers of Hmong prefer the latin alphabet.

Contents

Consonants

The table below shows the Lao consonant letters with their phonetic value in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and transcriptions according to the US Board on Geographic Names and the British Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (BGN/PCGN), the US Library of Congress (ALA/LC) and the transcriptions used in the Unicode names of the letters.

character IPA BGN/PCGN ALA/LC Unicode
k k k/k k
kh kh/k kh
kh kh/k kh
ŋ ng ng/ng ng
ʧ ch ch/t c
s s s/t s
s x s/t s
ɲ gn/y ny/— ny
d d/t d/t d
t t t/t t
th th/t th
th th/t th
n n n/n n
b b/p b/p b
p p p/p p
ph ph/p ph
f f/p f
ph ph/p ph
f f f/p f
m m m/m m
j y y y
l r r l
l l l l
w v/o v w
h h h h
o
h h h h

Vowel nuclei

The table below shows the Lao vowel nuclei, combined with the consonant ກ. (provisional version)

IPA BGN LC Unicode IPA BGN LC Unicode IPA BGN LC Unicode IPA BGN LC Unicode
ກະ/ກັກ a a a a ກາ a ā aa
ກິ i i i i ກີ i ī ii ເກັຽະ/ກັຽກ ia ia ເກັຽ/ກຽກ ia īa
ກຶ ɯ u ư y ກື ɯː u ư̄ yy ເກຶອະ/ເກຶອກ ɯə ua ưa ເກືອ ua ư̄a
ກຸ u ou u u ກູ ou ū uu ກົວະ/ກັວກ oua ua ກົວ/ ກວກ oua ūa
ເກະ/ເກັກ e é e ເກ é ē e
ແກະ/ແກັກ ɛ è æ ແກ ɛː è ǣ ei
ໄກະ/ກົກ o ô o ໄກ ô ō o
ເກາະ/ກັອກ ɔ o ǫ ກໍ/ກອກ ɔː o ǭ
ເກິະ/ເກິກ ɤ eu œ ເກີ/ ເກືກ ɤː eu œ̄
ໂກ/ໃກ/ກັຢ ai ai ai ai/ay ກາຢ/ກາຽ ai āi
ເກົາ au ao ao
ກໍາ am am am am

Lao in Unicode

The Unicode range for Lao is U+0E80 ... U+0EFF.

  0123456789ABCDEF
E80 
E90 
EA0 
EB0 ຿
EC0 
ED0 
EE0 
EF0 ໿

External links

See also:

ja:ラーオ文字