Lao Alphabet Article Index for
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Lao Alphabet




  languages Lao Language and other
  fam1 Aramaic Alphabet <sup>1</sup>
  fam2 Brāhmī Script
  fam3 Pallava Script
  fam4 Khmer Script
  fam5 Thai Alphabet
  type Abugida
  unicode U+0E80&ndashU+0EFF
  iso15924 Laoo
  footnotes <sup>1</sup>The link between Brāhmī and Aramaic is somewhat controversial, being the best-supported of several uncertain hypotheses


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

The Lao alphabet is very similar to the Thai Alphabet , but Lao's spelling system is simpler and more phonetic, partially due to a spelling reform carried out in the 1960s.


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.


VOWEL NUCLEI


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

  • indicates variations no longer used in the reformed spelling



LAO IN UNICODE


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













































































































































































0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0E8
0E9
0EA
0EB ຿
0EC
0ED
0EE
0EF ໿

Table cells with gray backgrounds represent reserved code points.



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