Lao Basics. Sam Brier
vocabulary increases.
As you progress through Lao Basics, vocabulary from previous lessons will be repeated regularly and your command of the written and spoken language will steadily improve.
And you can do all of this on your own. Each chapter's Lao words and exercises have been recorded on the accompanying CD, and all of the exercise answers are in the back of the book.
How to Use This Book
The Lao alphabet may look formidable, but it contains clear rules, which make learning to read and spell in Lao much easier than in English. For example, consonants and vowels are read as they are written and vice versa, as in Spanish; i.e., pronunciation does not change. And even though vowel placement may look confusing to the novice, vowels do not change location. The logical design of the written language greatly helps to learn the spoken language, and Lao Basics takes advantage of this in its layout.
In Lao Basics, the 26 Lao consonants are broken down into three classes rather than taught in alphabetical order. This follows the traditional teaching format of Lao, and we also follow this method because each grouping references a tonal category.
To use Lao Basics effectively, plan to move on to the next chapter only after you are confident that you have mastered the previous one. Practice writing each letter as you say it until you are 75% sure that you can recognize, say and write each correctly from memory; then move on to the exercises for reinforcement. And don't forget to listen to the audio CD for correct pronunciation. The answers to all exercises are at the back of the book.
Like English, Lao is read left to right and follows the Subject-Verb-Object word order. Additionally, most Lao letters are pronounced just like sounds that exist in English.
Lao differs from English in other ways, however. Lao has relatively little grammar, no plurals, few articles, and regularly leaves out the subject pronoun (I, He, She...) at the beginning of sentences when the context is understood. In this sense Lao can be much easier to learn than other languages.
Other aspects are more difficult to get used to. For example, there are no spaces between words in the written language; a special word is added to the end of sentences (baw), rather than inflection, that turns statements into questions; some vowel sounds are unfamiliar to the English speaker, and certain vowels are placed to the left of consonants, while other vowels are placed to the right, above and below. But, have no fear—unlike English, the rules are easy to follow, and each vowel combination is only pronounced one way.
A note on writing Lao script: Most consonants and some vowels start with a small loop. In order to write the letter correctly, start with the loop at one end of the letter and follow the letter through to the other end. Here is an example:
Each chapter contains explanations where necessary to make your learning experience more enjoyable, so let's leave it at that and get started.
The Tones
To Download the audio files, please click here.
Consonant/Tonal Groupings
This chapter gives a brief overview of the Lao tones, and we recommend that you work with both the accompanying audio CD and a Lao language teacher to master them.
Lao Basics divides each consonant into one of the three traditional groupings (or classes): Mid, Low, or High. The consonants in each particular grouping follow the same rules when accompanied by various combinations of ending consonants, vowels (short, long or nasal), and tonal marks. For example, all eight Mid consonants follow the same rules, whereas Low consonants have their own rules. And High consonants have their own rules. Sometimes, rules do overlap groups, but rules rarely cover all groups.
It can be very difficult to memorize a chart with all of these peculiarities, and for that reason Lao Basics takes a different path. Instead of memorizing a chart, you will learn to read, write, comprehend and say each consonant, each vowel, each word and each sentence in this book; in short you will learn by doing.
Listen closely to the pronunciation on the CD, and if possible, work with a native Lao speaker to master these sounds.
Tone Marks
There are four tonal marks that are placed over some Lao vowels from time to time, but only two are regularly used, and we have attempted to teach you mostly words without tone marks for the first part of the vowel section.
The first tonal symbol is called mai eik (pronounced "my ehk"). It looks like a short number "1" placed over a letter [' ] and causes the sound of all words that contain this tone mark to take on a middle (slightly high) pitch. Here are some examples:
(There is an audio element present at this location that is not compatible with your reader. Please download.)
The second tonal symbol is called mai too. You will learn later in the vowel section that mai is a short sound and too is a long sound, pronounced "my toe." Since English is rarely consistent in pronunciation, however, we use a different transliteration system, which you will learn as you progress through the book. Mai too looks like a tiny, squiggly number "2" with a long tail [
(There is an audio element present at this location that is not compatible with your reader. Please download.)
The third tonal symbol is mai jat dta waa or "my jaht dtah wah" [
The Consonants
LESSON 1
Mid Consonants (Part I)
To Download the audio files, please click here.
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