ABSTRACT

A fter 300 years of subjugation, first to the Kingdom of Siam and then as a French colony, Laos became independent in 1954, and two years later Lao was adopted as the official language of the country. French is still widely used in governm ent and administration, but Lao is used exclusively in the media, press, radio, and television, and is increasingly the language of education. It is the spoken and written language of about 10 million people in Laos, with extensive spread into Thailand. There are three main dialectal groupings - North, C entral, and South - with a large nunjber of local variants. The main differences between these dialects lie in the tonal structure, some dialects having only five tones (against the six of standard Lao) while others have seven. As the most developed form of Lao, and the most readily accessible to speakers of other dialects, the Vientiane dialect was the natural choice for ‘standard’ status, which it duly received in 1962.