Lao weaver
The Lao are an ethnic subgroup of Tai/Dai in Southeast Asia. The vast majority of Lao people live in Laos and the Isan region of Thailand. The etymology of the word Lao is uncertain, although it may be related to tribes known as the Ai Lao who appear in Han Dynasty records in China and Vietnam as a people of what is now Yunan Province. Tribes descended from the Ai Lao included the Tai tribes that migrated to Southeast Asia. The English word Laotian, used interchangeably with Lao in most contexts, comes from French laotien/laotienne. The Lao people, like many other Tai peoples also refer to themselves as Tai and more specifically Tai Lao In Thailand, the local Lao people are differentiated from the Lao of Laos and by the Thais by the term Thai Isan a Sanskrit-derived term meaning northeast, but 'Lao' is still used. The Lao language is the official language of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and its official script is the Lao alphabet. As the dominant language of most of the Lao Loum and therefore most of the Lao population, the language is enshrined as the dominant language of education, government, and official use. Numerous minority languages are spoken by roughly half the population, and include languages of the Austro-Asiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian and Hmong-Mien language families. Although spelling is not fully uniform, despite several reforms to move the language closer to phonetical systems, it has helped stabilise the language. No official standard exists, but the dialect of Vientiane is considered de facto official.
Size: 5108px × 3399px
Location: Laos, Vientiane province
Photo credit: © Alexey Gnilenkov / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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