Blackwell Reference Online

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Derived from pāli writing and closely related to khmer writing , the Lao script belongs to the northern branch of Brāhmī descendants. Its relation with the Thai script is uncertain. Mutual derivations have been claimed. As an independent system the Lao script emerges in the thirteenth century ce . The Old Lao script had a simple grapheme inventory of 22 letters of the common Indian C + a type with inherent V and four independent V letters ( table 3 ). Since Lao belongs to the Tai subgroup of Sino-Tibetan languages, its sound system differs markedly from that of Indo-European Pāli. Hence, a number of Pāli letters were not needed for Lao, especially those for retroflex Cs. Modern Lao writing was given its present form in a reform carried out in 1960. Many irregularities of the old system, such as silent letters in Pāli loan words, have been abolished, and the spelling system has been adjusted more closely to Laotian phonology ( table 4 ). Table 3 The Old Lao script Table 4 The modern Lao script Lao is a tone language. The writing system marks tones with four superscript diacritics placed over the C graphemes and on top of V diacritics, if any. C graphemes are divided into three classes, high, middle and low. In combination with the tone marks they determine the tone of a written syllable. The inherent V is phonetically realized as [ ] or [å]. Other Vs are indicated by diacritic ... log in or subscribe to read full text