Basically, Lao is a monosyllabic, tonal lan­guage, like the various dialects of Thai and Chinese. Borrowed words from Sanskrit, Pali, French and English often have two or more syllables, however. Many identical phonemes or vowel-consonant combina­tions are differentiated by their tone only. The word sao, for example, can mean 'girl', 'morning', 'pillar' or 'twenty' depending on the tone. For people from non-tonal lan­guage backgrounds, it can be very hard to learn at first. Even when we 'know' the cor­rect tone, our tendency to denote emotion, emphasis and questions through tone mod­ulation often interferes with uttering the correct tone. So the first rule in learning and using the tone system is to avoid over­laying your native intonation patterns onto the Lao language.

Vientiane Lao has six tones (compared with five used in standard Thai, four in Mandarin and nine in Cantonese). Three of the tones are level (low, mid and high) while three follow pitch inclines (rising, high falling and low falling). All six varia­tions in pitch are relative to the speaker's natural vocal range, so that one person's low tone is not necessarily the same pitch as another person's. Hence, keen pitch rec­ognition is not a prerequisite for learning a tonal language like Lao. A relative distinc­tion between pitch contours within your own voice is all that is necessary. Pitch variation is common to all languages; non-tonal languages such as English also use intonation, just in a different way.

Low Tone

Produced at the relative bottom of your conversational tonal range - usually flat level, eg dli (good). Note, however, that not everyone pronounces it flat and level - some Vientiane natives add a slight rising tone to the end.

Mid Tone

Flat like the low tone, but spoken at the £J   relative middle of the speaker's vocal range. No tone mark is used, eg het (do)

High Tone

Flat again, this time at the relative top of your vocal range, eg heua (boat).

Rising Tone

Begins a bit below the mid tone and rises to just at or above the high tone, eg saam (three).

High Falling Tone

Begins at or above the high tone and falls to the mid level, eg s&o (morning).

Low Falling Tone

Begins at about the mid level and falls to the level of the low tone, eg kh&o (rice).