Language code: lao

Technical information about ISO 639 language code lao

The table below provides technical details for the Lao language, designated by the lao code from the ISO 639-2 standard.

Code

lao

Name

Official

Lao

Native

ພາສາລາວ

Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Vientiane LaoNorthern LaoNortheastern LaoCentral LaoSouthern Lao
Related languages
Standard ThaiIsanNorthern Thai (Kam Mueang)Tai LueShan
Key facts
Has six phonemic tonesWritten with the Lao script, an abugida derived from Old KhmerCore vocabulary shows strong influence from Pali and Sanskrit due to BuddhismUses distinct registers for everyday, religious, and royal contextsBasic clause order is subject–verb–object.
Sample phrase

ສະບາຍດີ, ເຈົ້າສະບາຍດີບໍ?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

The Lao language, identified by the code lao, falls under the 'Individual' category in terms of its scope and is classified as 'Living' by its type.

Tired of manually editing translation files?

Our platform streamlines software localization for you.

Copyrights 2025 © Localizely