Countries
Myanmar
  
Laos
  
National Language
Myanmar
  
Laos, Northeastern Thailand
  
Second Language
Bangladesh, Burma
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Speaking Continents
Asia
  
Asia
  
Minority Language
Mon
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Regulated By
Myanmar Language Commission
  
Not Available
  
Interesting Facts
- The naming of people in Burmese is strange. There is no last name, often name is rhymed such as Ming Ming, Mo Mo or Jo Jo.
- It appears as odd language to many people because it has peculiar pitch register, tonal form as language.
  
- There is no space left between words, only between phrases or sentences in Lao language.
- The Lao alphabets has been reformed many times over the past 50 years.
  
Similar To
Thai Language
  
Thai Language
  
Derived From
Pali Language
  
Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer Languages
  
Alphabets in
Burmese-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Lao-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Phonology
  
  
Scripts
Tangut
  
Thai and Lao Braille
  
Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
  
Hard to Learn
  
  
Hello
မင်္ဂလာပါ (maingalarpar)
  
ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i)
  
Thank You
ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါသည် (kyaayyjuutainparsai)
  
ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i)
  
How Are You?
နေကောင်းလား? (naykaungglarr?)
  
ສະບາຍດີບ (sába̖ai-di̖i baw?)
  
Good Night
ကောင်းသောညပါ (kaunggsawnyapar)
  
ໃນຕອນກາງຄືນ ທີ່ດີ (naitonkangkhun thidi)
  
Good Evening
မင်္ဂလာညနေခင်းပါ (main g lar nyanayhkainn par)
  
ສະບາຍດີຕອນແລງ (sa bai di ton aelng)
  
Good Afternoon
မင်္ဂလာနေ့လည်ခင်းပါ (main g lar naelaihkainn par)
  
ສະບາຍດີຕອນສວາຍ (sa bai di ton suaai)
  
Good Morning
မင်္ဂလာနံနက်ခင်းပါ (main g lar nannaathkainnpar)
  
ສະບາຍດີຕອນເຊົ້າ (sa bai di ton sao)
  
Please
ကျေးဇူးပြု (kyaayyjuupyu)
  
ກະລຸນາ (kaluna)
  
Sorry
တောင်းပန်ပါတယ် (taunggpaanpartaal)
  
ຂໍອະໄພ (khooaphai)
  
Bye
နုတ်ဆက်ပါတယ် (notesaatpartaal)
  
Sôhk dii der
  
I Love You
မင်းကိုချစ်တယ် (mainnkohkyittaal)
  
ຂ້ອຍຮັກເຈົ້າ (khony hak chao)
  
Excuse Me
ဆင်ခြေဆင်လက် ငါ့ကိုအ (Sainhkyaysainlaat ngarko a)
  
ຂໍໂທດ (kho othd)
  
Dialect 1
Arakanese
  
Vientiane Lao
  
Where They Speak
Bangladesh, India, Myanmar
  
Laos
  
How Many People Speak
2,000,000.00
  
24
Not Available
  
Dialect 2
Tavoyan
  
Northern Lao
  
Where They Speak
Myanmar
  
Laos
  
How Many People Speak
Not Available
  
Dialect 3
Intha
  
Central Lao
  
Where They Speak
Burma
  
Laos
  
How Many People Speak
Not Available
  
How Many People Speak?
43.00 million
  
30
25.00 million
  
40
Speaking Population
Not Available
  
Native Speakers
33.00 million
  
28
25.00 million
  
32
Second Language Speakers
10.00 million
  
23
Not Available
  
Native Name
ဗမာစကား (bama saka)
  
ພາສາລາວ (pháasaa láo)
  
Alternative Names
Bama, Bamachaka, Myanmar, Myen, myanma bhasa
  
Eastern Thai, Lào, Lao Kao, Lao Wiang, Lao-Lum, Lao-Noi, Lao-Tai, Laotian, Laotian Tai, Lum Lao, Phou Lao, Rong Kong, Tai Lao
  
French Name
birman
  
lao
  
German Name
Birmanisch
  
Laotisch
  
Pronunciation
Not Available
  
pʰáːsǎː láːw
  
Ethnicity
Bamar people
  
Not Available
  
Origin
1113 AD
  
1283 CE
  
Language Family
Sino-Tibetan Family
  
Tai-Kadai Family
  
Subgroup
Tibeto-Burman
  
Tai
  
Branch
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Language Forms
  
  
Early Forms
Old Burmese, Middle Burmese, Burmese
  
No Early forms
  
Standard Forms
Modern Burmese
  
Lao
  
Language Position
Not Available
  
Signed Forms
Burmese sign language
  
Not Available
  
Scope
Individual
  
Individual
  
ISO 639 1
my
  
lo
  
ISO 639 2
  
  
ISO 639 2/T
mya
  
lao
  
ISO 639 2/B
bur
  
lao
  
ISO 639 3
mya
  
lao
  
ISO 639 6
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Glottocode
sout3159
  
laoo1244
  
Linguasphere
No data available
  
No data available
  
Types of Language
  
  
Language Type
Living
  
Living
  
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb
  
Subject-Verb-Object
  
Language Morphological Typology
Analytic, Isolating
  
Isolating
  
Burmese and Lao Greetings
People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Burmese and Lao greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Burmese and Lao language. Burmese word for "Hello" is မင်္ဂလာပါ (maingalarpar) or Lao word for "Thank You" is ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i). Find more of such common Burmese Greetings and Lao Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Burmese vs Lao Difficulty
The Burmese vs Lao difficulty level basically depends on the number of Burmese Alphabets and Lao Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Burmese and Lao are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Burmese and Lao, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Burmese is 44 weeks while to learn Lao time required is 44 weeks.