Chamberlain, James R.

English

The Australian National University

LANGUAGE STANDARD I SAT I ON I N  LAOS James R .  C hamb erlain The beginnings of language standardisation in Laos can perhaps be traced back t o  the National Educational Reform Act ( RLG 1 9 6 2 ) which declared that Lao was the Language of Educat ion , theoretically ending the use of French as a medium of instruct ion in the c lassroom . However ,  French cont inued t o  b e  used for somet ime thereafter and lit t le att ent ion was paid to the condition of the nat ional language unt il the creation of the Lao Royal Academy in 1 9 7 0  ( RLG 1 9 7 0 ) . During 1 9 7 2 , two Lao language research proj ects  were launched under the auspices of the Academy , one to trans lat e  basic s c ientific and te chnical vocabulary from French int o Lao , and the other to begin basic research on phonology , etymology , syntax ,  dialectology , and hist ory of Lao ( see Soulang etc . 1 9 72 ) . Today , the process of standardisat ion , though not yet formalised as such , i s  taking place in some interesting ways that s eem t o  fit the scoio-cultural environment of Laos . The first point most Lao scholars agree on is that promoting a stan­dard pronunciat ion is neither feasib le nor necessarily des irab le . Al­though Laos i s  small in size and in populat ion , a great many dialects  exist , and t onal variation from vi llage to village i s  especially rich . This dialect diversity does not cause great problems in communicat ion, due part ially without doubt to constant exposure to each other ' s  dia­lect s . Laotians working t ogether accept these regional dialects with litt le notice . This would s eem t o  be a highly desirab le s ituation ,  as it eliminat es s ocial prej udice which would accompany the choos ing of a ' standard ' pronunciat ion . Int erest ingly enough , the nature of the Lao writ ing system allows c omplet e ly for dialectal variat ion , even among the non-Lao Tai dialect s spoken in the country ( see Appendix I ) . Another benefit of this s ituation concerns the nation ' s  non-Lae speaking minorit ies ( which c onstitute half of the ent ire populat ion , 2 6 7  Chamberlain, J.R. "Language Standardisation in Laos". In Perez, A.Q., Santiago, A.O. and Nguyễn Đ.L. editors, Papers from the Conference on the Standardisation of Asian Languages, Manila, Philippines, December 16-21, 1974. C-47:267-274. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1978.   DOI:10.15144/PL-C47.267 ©1978 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.2 6 8  JAMES R .  CHAMBERLAIN over a hundred languages be longing to five linguistic families ) .  It is easier for a tribal student to learn the regional Tai tone system found in his part of the country , than it is for him to be t aught one of any number of tone systems to which he has never been exposed . For example , in training an Akha t eacher how to teach Lao , we have made use of the non-Lao Tai Lue tone system found in his region . This tone system, like all other Tai tone systems , is easily accommodated by the Lao orthography . For the lexicon , it has been proposed that regional vocabulary items from all dialect areas be collected and their use promoted throughout the country . Wherever possible this pract ice has been followed by the writers of the forthcoming Lao dictionary , who were purposely chosen from six different part s of the country . A more detailed collect ion has been proposed by Dr . Bounlieng Phommasouvanh as one of the obj ec­t ives of the Lao port ion of the SEAMEO-RELC regional socio-linguistic survey ( see Appendix I I ) . This decision to accept all regionalisms as standard ( as opposed to selecting the dialect of one region ) follows the spirit of the decision not to standardise pronunciation . There are , however , some areas where standardisation of vocabulary is ne ces sary . Three years ago , in the technical schools , the prolifer­at ion of commonly used technical t erms began to get confusing . The German Te chnical School ,  the French Technical School , the Fa Ngum C omprehensive School and the College of Education were all developing separate sets of terms independe ntly of each other . The result was that t eachers of the same subj ect from different schools could not discuss their subj ect matter without falling back on French or English . This situat ion was rect ified by the creation of a Technical Terms Trans lat ion Committee . The needs soon became so great with the rise of the Laocisat ion movement , that s eparate committees were creat ed for each new subj ect . As a general rUle , foreign terms that are already in common use are retained and new t erms are created when necessary . At the present t ime , professors submit their vocabulary needs and the respect ive committees translate the terms at a rat e of approximate ly one hundred words per three hours . To date , terms have been trans lated to meet t eaching and other needs for biology , physics , mat h ,  meteorology , geography , law , library scienc e ,  military s cienc e ,  linguistic s , and economics .  Lao orthography has recent ly been the subj ect of much discussion for two reas ons . First , the spelling of Lao words themselves is not agreed upon . Second , a Ministerial Counci l  meeting on Apri l  2 ,  1 9 6 9  b anned the use of the roman alphabetical symbols for ethnic minority languages .  LANGUAGE STANDARDISATION IN LAOS 2 6 9  A great many lexical it ems i n  Lao are loan-words from Sanskrit and Pali . These language s have a rich supply of syllable final consonant s which do not exist as phonological possibilities in Lao . For instance , the Indic word r a j a i s  borrowed as ra : j , / r a : d , /  according to the historical value of the consonant s in the orthography , r a : s  in the modern orthography , but the actual pronunciation is / ra : 1 t / . In 1 9 4 9  Royal Ordinance Number 10 declared that · all words shall b e  writt en according t o  the way they sound . This eliminated such spelling irregu­larities as ka : l ,  ka : r ,  or ka : n  for the s ingle pronunciation / ka : n / ,  but other amb iguit ies remained , for example : / r a : 1 t s a s a p/ roy a L  vocabu Lary i s  spelled r a : s s a p  where the orthographic symbol s has the phonological realisat ion / - 1 t s a - / , the final / 1 t /  of the first syllable , the init ial / s /  of the second syllable , and the short vowel / a /  of the second syllab le ( which in c itat ion pronunciation becomes / a 1 /  increas­ing the phonological lead of the single symbol s to / - 1 t s a 1 - / ) . While the Vientiane faction of the c oalit i on government still retains the system j ust des cribed , the Neo Lae Hak Sat have followed a stricter interpretat ion of the Royal Ordinance , so  that / r a : 1 t s a s a p/ i s  indeed spelled unambiguously as r a : 1 t s a 1 s a p .  To dat e the two fact ions have not come to an agreement on the st andard spe lling , but s ome c onfron­tation on the i ssue is t o  be expected in the near future and a c ompro­mise reached . There are some purist s about who have not ac cepted the Royal Ordinance and still insist on spelling words according to their origin , a system obtuse in the extreme , especially for use in the c lassroom. Finally , concerning the minorit ies is sue , there is what amounts t o  a broader type o f  alphabetic standardisation .  All minority alphabet s must use the symbols of the Lao alphabet . The government feels this will give the minority peoples a great er sense of nat ional ident ity .  A b ilingual education programme for minorities in Laos i s  only in the experimental stage , but it is believed that standardisat ion of the symbols used will eliminat e needless disput es over alphab et s .  JAMES R. CHAMBERLAIN A PPENV IX I THE LAO WRI TING SYSTEM To begin wit h ,  Lao ( pract ically all dialects ) has the following phonemic system ( some phonetic details have been included , the symbols are IPA ) : INITIALS h p 1 p  b m f v VOWELS I , l l  l a  e , e e  CB , CBCB FINALS P m t n t h 1 t d n 5 w , ww wa y , y y  a , aa  k I) 1t � j J'I u , u u ua 0 , 00 0 , 0 0  1 w J ( y  only in LP)  TONE kh 1 k �multaneous . glottal release ) I) h All initials except those in the square have t wo realisat i ons in t he orthography . The first set i s  referred t o  as ' high c lass ' and the second set ' low c lass ' .  The c onsonant s in the square have only one phonological representat ion and they are called ' middle c lass ' .  2 7 0  LANGUAGE STANDARDISATION IN LAOS 2 7 1  There are five t one c lasse s , A , B , C  for smooth syllab les ( with c on­t inuant final or open ) and DL and DS for checked syllables ( with final stops and Long and Short vowel s  respectively ) .  The initial c onsonant c lasses combine with the t one classes to allow for a maximum of s even or a minimum of four tone contrast s for c lasses ABC . C lass DL usually combines with c lass C and the t ones in DS are so short as to b e  c on­sidered separat e , though severely restricted in distribut i on . Thus , the following paradigm i s  born : Consonant C lass High Mid Low SYLLABLE STRUCTURE Tone C lass A B C  DL DS Each syllable i s  comprised of an init ial with an opt i onal c luster of C + w ,  a vowe l , and perhaps a fina l ,  and a tone . Following a short vowel a final c onsonant is  obligat ory ( although final glottal s t op i s  realised i n  orthography only by the short vowel symbol ) .  After a long vowel the final is opt ional . The t one restrict ions have been discussed above . This structure has t he formula : C ( w )  ( Where LAO ORTHOGRAPHY High Clas s :  h p r.l Middle C las s : ? p  tJ j V V :  C = t t h k h 'Il I! ? t  t1 Low C las s : h t h k h P III D'I iI r Cn ( l Ct s t op and s f II rJ ? t c  ? k  '" Jl s f 1/ rJ OJ + DS ! + {H + DL C c ont inuant ) n v n Jl m r I) PJ D'I� D'l1l D'lo D'l1I D'lG D'I:l b d j ? U C1 tI g v n Jl A1 r I) � 1J V 11 S :l 272 JAKES R. CHAMBERLAIN Vowe l s : S L S L S L 0 Q • • x' x w x x u x x • • 0 Q 0 tx:: 'tx e ,x:: c;x y c;x c;x II a x:: . :> • lEX:: II:x' )C,� c;x�:: x' .. l a  • ua  R c;x� c;xg xo ua  \ • aJ  t ay  R aw c;x"l .. Tone : A = 16 ,  B x ,  C = x DL, DS = 16 ( c ondit ioned by syl lab le structure ) Sample Tone System ,  Vient iane : A B C DL DS High I It Ir I h.. I r I Mid 1\., 1  Low � r LANGUAGE STANDARDISATION IN LAOS A PPENVIX 1 1  PROPOSALS FOR SOC I O - L INGU I S T I C  SURVEY PROJECT FOR LAOS (Drafted by Boun l i eng Phommasouvanh) 1 .  A study of language and language learning att itudes . 2 .  Language educat ion ( Lao and ethnic languages ) for ethnic minorit ies . Thi s  may involve c ontrast ive linguistic  studie s  between Lao and ethnic languages that will eventually aid language learning for Laot ians . 3 .  Survey of ethnic language s and maj or Lao dialec t s  ( lexical it ems for the Lao dialec t s  for example ) .  4 .  Study of the role of foreign languages in Laos : function and ext ent of use including who uses it and where . 5 .  C omparat ive and c ontrast ive studies of foreign languages and re­spect ive cultures of their speakers . "JAMES R. CBAKBERLAIN B I BL I OGRAPffY LAE ROYAL ACADEMY 1972 L exique F�4nC4� - L40 . 9 vo1s . [ Te chnical Terms ] Vientiane . RLG ( ROYAL LAO GOVERNMENT) 1962 The N�on41 Educ4tio n R e 6 0�m Act . The Ministry or Educat ion . Vient iane . 19 70 L ' 0�din4nce RO Y41 NO 7 2 ,  23  Flv�ie� , pO�4nt c�e4tion du R4j bandit S4ph4 L40 [ Ro yal L40 AC4demy] .  SOULANG DEJVENGSA, PRACHIT SOULISAK , PHONE KHOXAYO , James R. CHAMBERLAIN 1972 L40 L4ngu4g e R e4 e4�ch .  Vientiane . 2 7 4  Chamberlain, J.R. "Language Standardisation in Laos". In Perez, A.Q., Santiago, A.O. and Nguyễn Đ.L. editors, Papers from the Conference on the Standardisation of Asian Languages, Manila, Philippines, December 16-21, 1974. C-47:267-274. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1978.   DOI:10.15144/PL-C47.267 ©1978 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.

Language Standardisation in Laos

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Language Standardisation in Laos

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