Great content showing the Lao culture! I will be in Vientiane at the end of September for a few months to visit my wife. Hopefully the wife and I will get to meet you in person.
Barry's back! He was MIA for a while there. I always enjoy the language lessons. Interesting that the word for water gets the "mai toh" marker in both Thai and Lao, but it's spoken with a high tone in Thai, but a high-falling tone in Lao. There is no low-falling tone in Thai, so when Thai speakers hear the Lao word for rice they match it to the closest tone in the Thai language which would be low tone. When they hear Lao speakers say "eat rice" it sounds like "eat knee" to them.
Missed you in the livestreams and finally got myself back behind the computer. Being out there on the ground is where I thrive. I did the same thing with that tone for the longest time. Sometimes you wonder why you're brain takes so long to register..yup, that's it's own tone not the Thai low tone. Still practicing it religiously it's so different with the creakiness shortening the word a bit and also with it on the long dead vowels takes some getting used to. Knew my prosody was slightly off so hitting this tone is actually what I'm really working on now. SOOO hard not to do Thai low tone that I'm used to. Appreciate you man, always fun nerding out on the languages.
@@LaoLegends I just caught the last quarter of the livestream today. Just as I tuned in you were talking about the tone system. I didn't catch what was said before, so didn't comment, but that's a subject I've been interested in years. The tone system in Lao is a challenge for most learners, but it's easier to learn than the Thai system. Anything written with "mai ek" in Lao is mid tone, and anything written with "mai toh" is a falling tone (though it could be high-falling or low falling). I've found it's better to dispense the English terms for the tones because they can be misleading. In Thai the so-called falling tone ("siang toh") rises before it drops. And it starts from a higher position than "high tone" ("siang dtree"). "Rising tone" ("siang jattawah") starts below mid tone, drops lower, then rises. And what's called a high tone in English actually rises and drops slightly at the end. Many people have explained the rising tone as the same way questions are asked in English. I wish I'd never read that, as it had me mispronouncing words for years. I couldn't think of the slang word you were trying to remember. As I wrote, new words are added every year. Most of them don't last long either. "Pbang" (ปัง) meaning "great" stands out. I've heard that one used on TV quite a bit, and some shops have used the word in the name of their business. Once a word reaches that stage it's going to be used for some time.
Thanks for the Lao lessons. Heading to Laos in September, where are you now? We’ll head to Thakek and then Luang Brabang. If you are in the area, maybe we can meet for coffee? I need to get more Lao learning books.
Blessings for you brother you did the right thing you give the offer for a monk very interesting hardly to see foreigner to do such thing maybe some Buddhism Temple in the city foreigners might do 🙏🙏🙏
You are the first person to comment saying this and I will not forget it. Thank you. This is why to me the subtitles are so important and I'd like to have them for English, Thai, Lao, and Chinese, but just the English takes all my time. Then everyone is able to learn languages together from seeing it used in everyday life, mistakes and all.:)
Right, next time I'm traveling with only a backpack on a remote island and someone invites me to the temple I'll make sure to rush to the nearest department store first. Doing my best to share Laos with what I got brother. Feel free to donate for some travel temple pants. ;)
