Romanization of Lao

Last updated

Lao romanization systems are transcriptions of the Lao script into the Latin alphabet.

Contents

Tables

Consonants

The table below shows the Lao consonant letters and their transcriptions according to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), BGN/PCGN romanization (1966 system), LC (US ALA-LC romanization), and Royal Thai General System of Transcription (1999 version) used in Thailand, as well as the transcriptions used in the Unicode names of the letters, and in official Lao government usage.

CharacterInitial positionFinal position
IPABGNLCRTGSIPABGNLCRTGS
/k/k/k/k
/kʰ/kh
/kʰ/kh
/ŋ/ng/ŋ/ng
/tɕ/ch
/s/s
/s/xs
/ɲ/gnnyy/j/yi
/d/d/t/t
/t/t
/tʰ/th
/tʰ/th
/n/n/n/nen
/b/b/p/p
/p/p
/pʰ/ph
/f/f
/pʰ/ph
/f/f
/m/m/m/m
/j/y
/r/,/l/r
/l/l
/w/vv, ww/w/wo
/h/h
/ʔ/
/h/h

Vowel nuclei

The table below shows the Lao vowel nuclei, combined with the consonant ກ.

IPABGNLCRTGSUnicodeIPABGNLCRTGSUnicodeIPABGNLCRTGSUnicodeIPABGNLCRTGSUnicode
ກະ/ກັກ/a/aaaaກາ/aː/aāaaa
ກິ/i/iiiiກີ/iː/iīiiiເກັຽະ/ເກັຍ/iaʔ/iaiaiaເກັຽ/ເກຍ/ກຽກ/ia/iaīaia
ກຶ/ɯ/uưueyກື/ɯː/uư̄ueyyເກຶອ/ɯaʔ/uaưaueaເກືອ/ɯa/uaư̄auea
ກຸ/u/ouuuuກູ/uː/ouūuuuກົວະ/uaʔ/ouauauaກົວ/ ກວກ/ua/ouaūaua
ເກະ/ເກັກ/e/éeeເກ/eː/éēee
ແກະ/ແກັກ/ɛ/èæaeແກ/ɛː/èǣaeei
ໂກະ/ກົກ/o/ôooໂກ/oː/ôōoo
ເກາະ/ກັອກ/ɔ/ooກໍ/ກອກ/ɔː/oō̜o
ເກິ/ເກິະ/ɤ/euœoeເກີ/ɤː/euœ̄oe
ໄກ/ໃກ/ກັຍ/aj/aiaiaiai/ayກາຍ/ກາຽ/aːj/aiāiaiai
ເກົາ/aw/aoaoaoao
ກໍາ/am/amamamam

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R</span> 18th letter of the Latin alphabet

R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ar, plural ars, or in Ireland or.

Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters in predictable ways, such as Greek ⟨α⟩⟨a⟩, Cyrillic ⟨д⟩⟨d⟩, Greek ⟨χ⟩ → the digraph ⟨ch⟩, Armenian ⟨ն⟩⟨n⟩ or Latin ⟨æ⟩⟨ae⟩.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brahmic scripts</span> Family of abugida writing systems

The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India and are used by various languages in several language families in South, East and Southeast Asia: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, and Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order (gojūon) of Japanese kana.

The Thai script is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself has 44 consonant symbols, 16 vowel symbols that combine into at least 32 vowel forms, four tone diacritics, and other diacritics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanization</span> Transliteration or transcription to Latin letters

In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both. Transcription methods can be subdivided into phonemic transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision.

The Burmese alphabet is an abugida used for writing Burmese. It is ultimately adapted from a Brahmic script, either the Kadamba or Pallava alphabet of South India. The Burmese alphabet is also used for the liturgical languages of Pali and Sanskrit. In recent decades, other, related alphabets, such as Shan and modern Mon, have been restructured according to the standard of the Burmese alphabet

The following tables of consonants and vowels (jamo) of the Korean alphabet (Hangul) display the basic forms in the first row and their derivatives in the following row(s). They are divided into initials, vowels (middle), and finals tables.

Lao script or Akson Lao is the primary script used to write the Lao language and other minority languages in Laos. Its earlier form, the Tai Noi script, was also used to write the Isan language, but was replaced by the Thai script. It has 27 consonants, 7 consonantal ligatures, 33 vowels, and 4 tone marks.

Khmer script is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official language of Cambodia. It is also used to write Pali in the Buddhist liturgy of Cambodia and Thailand.

The romanization of Ukrainian, or Latinization of Ukrainian, is the representation of the Ukrainian language in Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, which is based on the Cyrillic script. Romanization may be employed to represent Ukrainian text or pronunciation for non-Ukrainian readers, on computer systems that cannot reproduce Cyrillic characters, or for typists who are not familiar with the Ukrainian keyboard layout. Methods of romanization include transliteration and transcription.

The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai words in the Latin alphabet. It was published by the Royal Institute of Thailand in early 1917, when Thailand was called Siam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanization of Arabic</span>

The romanization of Arabic is the systematic rendering of written and spoken Arabic in the Latin script. Romanized Arabic is used for various purposes, among them transcription of names and titles, cataloging Arabic language works, language education when used instead of or alongside the Arabic script, and representation of the language in scientific publications by linguists. These formal systems, which often make use of diacritics and non-standard Latin characters and are used in academic settings or for the benefit of non-speakers, contrast with informal means of written communication used by speakers such as the Latin-based Arabic chat alphabet.

The romanization of Khmer is a representation of the Khmer (Cambodian) language using letters of the Latin alphabet. This is most commonly done with Khmer proper nouns, such as names of people and geographical names, as in a gazetteer.

There are many systems for the romanization of the Thai language, i.e. representing the language in Latin script. These include systems of transliteration, and transcription. The most seen system in public space is Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS)—the official scheme promulgated by the Royal Thai Institute. It is based on spoken Thai, but disregards tone, vowel length and a few minor sound distinctions.

New Tai Lue script, also known as Xishuangbanna Dai and Simplified Tai Lue, is an abugida used to write the Tai Lü language. Developed in China in the 1950s, New Tai Lue is based on the traditional Tai Tham alphabet developed c. 1200. The government of China promoted the alphabet for use as a replacement for the older script; teaching the script was not mandatory, however, and as a result many are illiterate in New Tai Lue. In addition, communities in Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam still use the Tai Tham alphabet.

ISO 11940 is an ISO standard for the transliteration of Thai characters, published in 1998 and updated in September 2003 and confirmed in 2008. An extension to this standard named ISO 11940-2 defines a simplified transcription based on it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tai Tham script</span> Abugida script

Tai Tham script is an abugida writing system used mainly for a group of Southwestern Tai languages i.e., Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün and Lao; as well as the liturgical languages of Buddhism i.e., Pali and Sanskrit. It is historically known as Tua Tham. In Thailand and Myanmar, the script is often referred to as Lanna script in relation to the historical kingdom of Lan Na situating in the Northern region of modern day Thailand and a part of Shan state in Myanmar. Local people in Northern Thailand also call the script as Tua Mueang in parallel to Kam Mueang, a local name for Northern Thai language. In Laos and Isan region of Thailand, a variation of Tai Tham script, often dubbed Lao Tham, is also known by the locals as To Tham Lao or Yuan script. Tai Tham script is traditionally written on a dried palm leaf as a palm-leaf manuscript.

Kha is the second consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, kha is derived from the Brahmi letter , which is probably derived from the Aramaic ("Q").

Ga is the third consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, ga is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter , which is probably derived from the Aramaic letter after having gone through the Gupta letter .

Ja is the eighth consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, ja is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter .