An introductory study of tone and intonation in a Lao dialect

Abstract The Lao language belongs to the southwestern group of the Tai languages, which apart from Thai, the main language of Thailand, also includes several minority languages of Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China (e.g. Shan and Lu). Thai and Lao form a dialect continuum and the language of northeastern Thailand, although officially regarded as a Thai dialect, is very close to Lao (for a survey see Li 1977 or Svantesson 1991).