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Burmese vs Lao


Lao
Lao
Lao vs Burmese


Countries

Countries
Myanmar  
Laos  

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
1  
14

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

Alphabets in
Burmese-Alphabets.jpg#200  
Lao-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
33  
15
53  
32

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
12  
9
28  
20

How Many Consonants
33  
23
27  
17

Scripts
Tangut  
Thai and Lao Braille  

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
3  
2
6  
5

Time Taken to Learn
44 weeks  
11
44 weeks  
11

Greetings

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)  
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ແລງ (sa bai di ton aelng)  

Good Afternoon
မင်္ဂလာနေ့လည်ခင်းပါ (main g lar naelaihkainn par)  
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ສວາຍ (sa bai di ton suaai)  

Good Morning
မင်္ဂလာနံနက်ခင်းပါ (main g lar nannaathkainnpar)  
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ເຊົ້າ (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)  
ຂ້ອຍ​ຮັກ​ເຈົ້າ (khony hak chao)  

Excuse Me
ဆင်ခြေဆင်လက် ငါ့ကိုအ (Sainhkyaysainlaat ngarko a)  
ຂໍ​ໂທດ (kho othd)  

Dialects

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
440,000.00  
30
Not Available  

Dialect 3
Intha  
Central Lao  

Where They Speak
Burma  
Laos  

How Many People Speak
90,000.00  
30
Not Available  

Total No. Of Dialects
5  
5
6  
6

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
43.00 million  
30
25.00 million  
40

Speaking Population
0.50 %  
29
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  

History

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
43  
32
Not Available  

Signed Forms
Burmese sign language  
Not Available  

Scope
Individual  
Individual  

Code

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  

Countries >>
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Burmese and Lao Language History

Comparison of Burmese vs Lao language history gives us differences between origin of Burmese and Lao language. History of Burmese language states that this language originated in 1113 AD whereas history of Lao language states that this language originated in 1283 CE. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Burmese and Lao Language History.

Compare Most Spoken Languages

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.

Most Spoken Languages

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