Lao

Lao is the official language of Laos, and is also spoken in parts of northeast Thailand and in the Xiangkhouang Province in central Laos. Lao is a tonal language, with six tones, and is closely related to Thai. Lao is written in the Lao script, which is an abugida, with 33 consonants and 12 vowels. tones are indicated with diacritics. Lao is the only language in the world to still use an abugida as its primary script. Lao has no gender, and there is no distinction between singular and plural. There are, however, a number of particles that are used to indicate respect. Lao is a mainly monosyllabic language, with words typically consisting of one or two syllables. Lao also has a number of polysyllabic words, often of Chinese origin. Lao grammar is relatively simple, with few rules and no conjugation. Lao words are generally made up of a root, which can be modified by a number of suffixes and prefixes. Lao vocabulary is mainly derived from Pali and Sanskrit, with significant loanwords from Chinese. Lao also has a number of words of Austronesian origin, due to the historic presence of Austronesian peoples in the region.