OK, I know this is a Thai language forum, but I think my question is on-topic, due to the similarities between Thai and Lao.

I understand the Thai rules/tone rules etc, and can apply these when I'm reading Thai. But when I read Lao, although the word is spelt the same as the equivalent Thai word, (using Lao script of course), and although the word has the same meaning as the Thai word, the tone to use often differs between the two languages. So if I try to apply Thai tone rules, I end up pronouncing the Lao word incorrectly.

As an example, consider the Thai word for already - แล้ว - which has a high tone (ie rising at the end of the word).

The equivalent word in Lao is ແລ້ວ (not sure if that Lao font will display correctly), and according to my Lao dictionaries, it is pronounced with a falling tone (starting high and then falling at the end of the word).

So the same word has an opposite tone in these 2 languages!

This is very confusing to me. I am not particularly interested in speaking advanced Lao, since spoken Thai is widely understood. But it's useful for trips into Laos to be able to read written Lao, and know how to pronounce those words with the correct tones.

Can someone clarify the tone rules? Is there a way to apply the Thai tone rules (with modification) for Lao words? If not, where can I locate concise details about Lao tone rules?

Thanks

Simon

Wikipedia to the rescue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_language#Indication_of_tones

And according to their chart, indeed ແລ້ວ would be falling tone because of low-class consonant + mai-tho.

By the way, I can see the script fine, but that's because I recently installed it.

Anyone interested to install Lao script on their computer can get it here: http://www.laoscript.net/

LazyYogi, thanks for that Wiki page link - very useful.

By the way, in order to view Lao fonts, I just added Lao to my windows Regional Language/Keyboard settings - I did not have to download any extra font files

Simon