Lao language

Lao (ພາສາລາວ, phasa Lao; [pʰáː.sǎː láːw]), sometimes referred to as Laotian, is a Southwestern Tai language and the official language of Laos. It is also spoken in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand, where it is usually called the Isan language. The political split of the Lao-speaking population along the Mekong River resulted from the Franco-Siamese crisis of 1893. Lao is written in the Lao script, an abugida that evolved from early Tai scripts. Lao is a tonal and analytic language, characteristics shared with other Kra-Dai languages as well as nearby Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic languages. It features high mutual intelligibility with Thai and Isan, enabling direct communication between speakers despite differences in their respective writing systems. The Vientiane dialect serves as the de facto standard. In addition to being the sole official language of Laos, Lao serves as a lingua franca among the country's ethnically and linguistically diverse population. It is also spoken by diaspora communities, primarily in the United States, France, and Australia.