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Lao vs Burmese


Lao
Burmese vs Lao


Countries

Countries
Laos   
Myanmar   

Total No. Of Countries
1   
14
1   
14

National Language
Laos, Northeastern Thailand   
Myanmar   

Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries   
Bangladesh, Burma   

Speaking Continents
Asia   
Asia   

Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries   
Mon   

Regulated By
Not Available   
Myanmar Language Commission   

Interesting Facts
  • 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.
  
  • 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.
  

Similar To
Thai Language   
Thai Language   

Derived From
Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer Languages   
Pali Language   

Alphabets

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

Alphabets
53   
32
33   
15

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
28   
20
12   
9

How Many Consonants
27   
17
33   
23

Scripts
Thai and Lao Braille   
Tangut   

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

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
6   
5
3   
2

Time Taken to Learn
44 weeks   
11
44 weeks   
11

Greetings

Hello
ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i)   
မင်္ဂလာပါ (maingalarpar)   

Thank You
ຂອບໃຈ (khàwp ja̖i)   
ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါသည် (kyaayyjuutainparsai)   

How Are You?
ສະບາຍດີບ (sába̖ai-di̖i baw?)   
နေကောင်းလား? (naykaungglarr?)   

Good Night
ໃນຕອນກາງຄືນ ທີ່ດີ (naitonkangkhun thidi)   
ကောင်းသောညပါ (kaunggsawnyapar)   

Good Evening
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ແລງ (sa bai di ton aelng)   
မင်္ဂလာညနေခင်းပါ (main g lar nyanayhkainn par)   

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

Good Morning
ສະ​ບາຍ​ດີ​ຕອນ​ເຊົ້າ (sa bai di ton sao)   
မင်္ဂလာနံနက်ခင်းပါ (main g lar nannaathkainnpar)   

Please
ກະລຸນາ (kaluna)   
ကျေးဇူးပြု (kyaayyjuupyu)   

Sorry
ຂໍອະໄພ (khooaphai)   
တောင်းပန်ပါတယ် (taunggpaanpartaal)   

Bye
Sôhk dii der   
နုတ်ဆက်ပါတယ် (notesaatpartaal)   

I Love You
ຂ້ອຍ​ຮັກ​ເຈົ້າ (khony hak chao)   
မင်းကိုချစ်တယ် (mainnkohkyittaal)   

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

Dialects

Dialect 1
Vientiane Lao   
Arakanese   

Where They Speak
Laos   
Bangladesh, India, Myanmar   

How Many People Speak
Not Available   
2,000,000.00   
24

Dialect 2
Northern Lao   
Tavoyan   

Where They Speak
Laos   
Myanmar   

How Many People Speak
Not Available   
440,000.00   
30

Dialect 3
Central Lao   
Intha   

Where They Speak
Laos   
Burma   

How Many People Speak
Not Available   
90,000.00   
30

Total No. Of Dialects
6   
6
5   
5

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
25.00 million   
40
43.00 million   
30

Speaking Population
Not Available   
0.50 %   
29

Native Speakers
25.00 million   
32
33.00 million   
28

Second Language Speakers
Not Available   
10.00 million   
23

Native Name
ພາສາລາວ (pháasaa láo)   
ဗမာစကား (bama saka)   

Alternative Names
Eastern Thai, Lào, Lao Kao, Lao Wiang, Lao-Lum, Lao-Noi, Lao-Tai, Laotian, Laotian Tai, Lum Lao, Phou Lao, Rong Kong, Tai Lao   
Bama, Bamachaka, Myanmar, Myen, myanma bhasa   

French Name
lao   
birman   

German Name
Laotisch   
Birmanisch   

Pronunciation
pʰáːsǎː láːw   
Not Available   

Ethnicity
Not Available   
Bamar people   

History

Origin
1283 CE   
1113 AD   

Language Family
Tai-Kadai Family   
Sino-Tibetan Family   

Subgroup
Tai   
Tibeto-Burman   

Branch
Not Available   
Not Available   

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
No Early forms   
Old Burmese, Middle Burmese, Burmese   

Standard Forms
Lao   
Modern Burmese   

Language Position
Not Available   
43   
32

Signed Forms
Not Available   
Burmese sign language   

Scope
Individual   
Individual   

Code

ISO 639 1
lo   
my   

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
lao   
mya   

ISO 639 2/B
lao   
bur   

ISO 639 3
lao   
mya   

ISO 639 6
Not Available   
Not Available   

Glottocode
laoo1244   
sout3159   

Linguasphere
No data available   
No data available   

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living   
Living   

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object   
Subject-Object-Verb   

Language Morphological Typology
Isolating   
Analytic, Isolating   

Countries >>
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Lao and Burmese Language History

Comparison of Lao vs Burmese language history gives us differences between origin of Lao and Burmese language. History of Lao language states that this language originated in 1283 CE whereas history of Burmese language states that this language originated in 1113 AD. 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 Lao and Burmese Language History.

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Lao and Burmese 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 Lao and Burmese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Lao and Burmese language. Lao word for "Hello" is ສະບາຍດີ (sába̖ai-di̖i) or Burmese word for "Thank You" is ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါသည် (kyaayyjuutainparsai). Find more of such common Lao Greetings and Burmese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Lao vs Burmese Difficulty

The Lao vs Burmese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Lao Alphabets and Burmese 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 Lao and Burmese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Lao and Burmese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Lao is 44 weeks while to learn Burmese time required is 44 weeks.

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