Is it Lao or Laos
 

There seems to be some controversy on how to pronounce Lao, with or with out the 's'

I know that the French changed it in 1893 to Laos from Lao, but what is the current and proper way for visitors to pronounce it, from those who have been there ?

Spell it 'Laos'

pronounce it 'Lao' .. L'Owwww

Okay, thanks Dogster, that is what I thought but then read that you pronounce is Louse, so thanks for clarifying.

Laos is pronounced Laos. Lao is pronounced Lao. The Lao people live in Laos. Two different words, with different meanings in different contexts.

okay, two different answers, back to the drawing board.......

I actualy thought the same as Michael that it was Laos (pronounced Lowse) for the country and Lao (pronounced L'Owww) as per Dogster said for the people etc

Are you speaking English or Lao?

lol lol lol - I shoulda known better...

The Thai language is similar to Lao and the Thai and Laotian can understand each other when speaking the native languages of each country. We call both the country Lao and the people Lao as well.

I could not find, from google, a sound file with the correct pronunciation but I did find this Laotian music video. Listen carefully around the 27 - 28 second counter and you can hear the proper way to say Lao from a Laotian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QisiE...eature=related

Or listen to the opening speech of the recent SEA game in Vientiane and that note of the way they say Lao: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYHWD...eature=related

Now you see why I asked the question.

Prima Donna is picky over who is seething and who isn't,typical

I understand the Lao people call both their country and themselves "Lao", and that they don't , say "Laos" because a) they have no final "s" sound in their language, and b) they feel Laos is a colonial hangover.

I just checked Wikipedia, and they say that the country was originally three Laotian kingdoms, so the French called it Laos as a plural.

I am guessing from the website for the Lao Embassy in the US at http://www.laoembassy.com/ that even they don’t know which they prefer, as both terms are used on the website. There seems to be a slight preference for “Lao” on the website, as it appears more often; but “Laos” also appears, esp. to describe the country geographically (i.e. ”Map of Laos” the “people of Laos”).

I also believe that whatever term we use in an English approximation of the actual Laotian language term, and so is not exact anyway.

In my experience, the Laotian people would not be offended by whatever term you use, and even if they were, would not dream of embarrassing you by correcting you. That would be a greater offense than whatever term you might use incorrectly.

THanks everyone.

Not sure what the comment made by downunderjack is all about?
Can you expand on that thought Jack?

I asked the staff at the Ethnicity Museum in Luang Prabang about the correct pronunciation. I figured that if anyone knew, it would be them. They said that the country is Loas (with the 's') and the people are Lao.

@melissa62 - the Eth Museum staff is both right and wrong. In English, the country is spelled 'Laos' but the people in Laos call their own country 'Lao'

As Hanumans posted previously, the Lao people call their country Lao (mid tone).

If you want to hear how Lao is pronounced, go to http://laolanguage.vislao.com/basic_...l/personal.htm and play the sound snippets "How long have you been in Laos?" and "I have been in Lao for two months" and you can hear the word Lao, with no 's'.

It really depends on what language you are speaking
e.g - French call themselves "Francais" - so have they got it wrong?

Some things about English...there are various versions and accompanying pronunciations and stresses.

E.G. British English and American English to name but two.
The next thing you need to bear in mind is that there is no GOVERNMENT CONTROL of English.....it comes from the people.

add to this that Laos is a small country that relatively few English speakers have ever herd of let alone needed to speak of, which leaves the pronunciation relatively open to variation.

I use "low" - to describe country, people and Language. I would spell the country "LAOS" and the other two LAO....however that still leaves LAOTIAN - i would say "low-shun". I have lived and worked in Laos and these pronunciations seem to communicate without any difficulty. In most Lao people I worked with don't seem to recognise the word "Laotian" at all.

It is worth remembering that in English we seldom use the names of any country, language and people in the same way their inhabitants do.

We're just home from Laos (correct spelling) two days ago. The pronunciation is "Lao" for the country, the Lao people, Beer Lao and the local moonshine, lao lao.

As I know, Laos is for country and Lao for people. Like England and English.

the only people I heard pronouncing the "s" on the end of "Laos" were someAmericans, who in my experience have a tendency to try to read any language according to their own phonetics conventions.....

I used to be highly amused by some of these attempts when taking US businessmen on trips around UK and Europe.

... Spent two weeks in northern Lao in September 2015, I was told by 3 expats from the USA, Britain & Australia who were running guest houses in different towns and were married to local girls from each a similar story that locals say they are Lao people who live in Lao and speak Lao ... When I protested that maps say Laos I was told that the French put the 's' on and the locals did not like it but they were much to polite to correct visitors ... That polite part I believe, don't know about the rest ... I found them to be a lovely sharing people with wonderful food, very low priced food, transport and accommodation, it's a beautiful safe country to visit. (well, safe apart from the mountain roads & old Chinese buses, but even those trips are a great experience)

When I was in Laos a few years ago I went off the beaten track, and came across a little village called llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch. Try as I could, I could work out whether the last two letters '...ch' were silent or not!

Why would you think that?

The country is Lao, the people are Lao. Laos is French.

Laos is now the English it would appear.

English pronunciation is with S sound. I have Lao language CDs and they say Laos with s when speaking English. It's like the French say Paree, English speakers say Paris. Also verified by Robert Cooper, who is fluent in Lao, has written 3 books on Laos, lives and owns a book store in Vientiene.

What you are forgetting is that Lao used to be a French colony and it is the French who added the "s".