It's Pronounced "Laos." But I Can See Why You Thought It Was "Lao."

2/6/2018

Last winter, during my annual epic multi-month trip, I ended up spending almost two weeks in Laos. It was totally never part of the plan, but ended up being one of the most meaningful and educational parts of my trip. But one thing I felt like I didn't quite learn... was the name of the country.

To me, it seemed like all the locals were calling it "Laos," with an -s... but lots of white people during and since that trip have referred to it as "Lao," with no -s.

So... which is it?

To make sure my memory wasn't just prone to the confirmation bias, I did some research.

According to Greg Rodgers from TripSavvy:

After hearing conflicting answers for years, even on my third visit to Laos, I decided to get to the bottom of the right way to pronounce the name of Southeast Asia's mountainous, landlocked country.

How to Pronounce Laos

Laos (rhymes with blouse; final "s" is sounded) -- correct

Lao (rhymes with cow; final "s" is silent) -- widespread but incorrect

All other pronunciations, including "Lay-ose," are incorrect.

I surveyed 10 Laotians (in Luang Prabang, Luang Mantha, and Vientaine) about how they prefer to have the name of their country pronounced. All answered that they want foreigners to say the final "s" but then added that they took no offense when it was left off of the word.

The correct way to say "Laos" is the same as "louse" (rhymes with blouse).

He adds that some locals will say "Lao" when talking to white people, because they're afraid of confusing them by pronouncing the -s.

Of course, "Lao" is still a word. It can be used interchangeably with the word "Laotian" -- in other words, to describe a person or object from or pertaining to Laos. A Lao/Laotian person. Lao/Laotian music. Lao/Laotian food.

In fact. Perhaps the reason so many people pronounce the country without the -s is because the official name of the country, in English, is the Lao People's Democratic Republic, or Lao PDR. Except, remember: "Lao" means "person/people from Laos."

But the name of the country is still Laos.

Another reason for the confusion is, of course, colonialism. French people elide words and often don't pronounce word endings, so they would have called it "Lao." When Laos gained its independence in 1953, only about half of the population actually spoke Lao (despite it being the official language).

But today, Wikipedia, dictionaries, and the Lao people all agree that the correct pronunciation is with an -s.

Now go have fun in LaoSSSSSSSSSS.

Biking Vang Vieng -- probably the best way to see this wonderful little party town.

Exploring a hill tribe village in Huay Palam during my Mekong Smile Cruise.

That Luang in Vientaine. This is the gold-covered stupa on all the currency.

Patuxai, literally meaning Victory Gate or Gate of Triumph. It's a war monument in the center of Vientiane, built between 1957 and 1968.

16 Comments

John I.

6/18/2018 04:55:41 pm

Sorry but you are incorrect. It is pronounced Lao. For sure the S is silent. I have been to Lao many times for extended periods of time. The Laotian people also pronounce it Lao.

Phet Indra

2/28/2020 09:55:42 am

The writer is right about the name pronouncing of our country. Our education in the past was mostly of French system (from Montpelliers). Talking with foreigners we use the word "Laos". This name had been accepted by the UN and the whole world. The "s" in French shows that the word is plural, thus because in the country collectively inhabit lot of different tribes, not only Lao tribe. The word "Lao" is more an adjective than a noun. You don't say "I am going to Lao", that's not correct. You can say "He is Lao or He is Khon Lao" where Khon (person) is the noun, and Lao adjective. We say in our language "We go to Meuang Lao or Pathet Lao", but never "to Lao" (Meuang/Pathet - country). That why you can hear "Lao" without S which connects to some nouns. Thai call our country "SoPoPo Lao" officially, always together, never Laos nor Lao. It's "Lao People Republic Democratic" and so on. Phet

Lao Guy

8/30/2018 08:51:16 am

Interesting... we have contradicting experiences. In my experience, it's usually the farangs that pronounce the "s" in Laos. I'm a Canadian born Laotian and all my Laotian born family, friends and relatives refer to Laos as Lao. When I went traveling in Laos to Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Pakse, every Laotian referred to the country, language and people as Lao. Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard a Laotian pronounce the "s". But that was 10 years ago so maybe things have changed. When I go back later this year I will see for myself.

Eva Glasrud link

8/30/2018 12:20:38 pm

Please do let me know. I did a decent amount of research on the changes in pronunciation over the years before writing this article, but there definitely seem to be a lot of conflicting opinions on the topic :P

Arrir

12/1/2018 12:36:07 am

Simple enough, you can see the actual name of the country in Lao language. Here it is : ປະເທດລາວ there is absolutely no letter for S in that word.

Unfortunately Google translate doesn't have a voice option for Lao language, but you can hear it saying Laos in Thai, which is a very similar language to Lao, and the country name is pronounced the same in both languages.

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto&tl=en&text=ประเทศลาว

Min Tot

12/7/2018 09:00:52 am

Errr... you could always ask a Lao person. The name of the country is pronounced Lao, leaving the S sound off. The demonym is pronounced the same way - Lao. It is NOT Laotian. It is not, it is not, it is just not. Saying that will make a Lao person's ears hurt.

Both the spelling of "Laos" and the awfully sounding demonym "Laotian" come from the French who colonized the country.

To recap: Pronunciation of the name of the country = "Lao". Person who comes from there = Lao. Ex: "I am a Lao person who comes from Muang Lao."

No S sound anywhere.

Kadyn Omlid

1/19/2019 10:31:22 pm

This is incorrect. The S is silent. Sorry

Todd Hales link

4/28/2019 01:46:02 am

I have to agree.....with the people who disagree with you. My wife has lived in Lao long enough to know. She is Lao. I used to call it Laos also, but after living here, the only people i hear say 'Laos', are foreigners. In their home country Laos maybe correct, but to the locals and people of Lao, it is Lao. Muang Lao. Lao P.D.R.
Considering there is no word in the Lao language that ends with 's', it kind of makes sense, hey?
The French tacked on the 's' after they merged the 3 kingdoms. There is also an 's' on the end of Paris, but how do they pronounce Paris?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmNP7yrbYxxqQ7ftuZn6ueg?view_as=subscriber

Bryce link

5/15/2019 12:06:15 pm

I am confused by your article. I spent a few weeks in Laos and never heard Laos pronounced with the S. Can you do an update to your article? Many people are reaseching this and your article does pop up on the first page of google. Thank you

Lao man

7/6/2019 06:23:20 pm

Wrong. Nobody in Lao speaks or pronounce with s at the end. Not even in any other word. In lao script. The spelling is law. The same spelling for country people or language

Jason

7/7/2019 02:17:10 am

From reading many threads I think the confusion over how to pronounce Laos can be explained with this example.

Imagine two English speaking people talking about European holidays.
Person 1 - Did you go to Germany?
Person 2 - no, Deutschland
Person 1 - Did you go to Italy?
Person 2 - no, Italia
Person 1 - What about Finland, Spain or Poland?
Person 2 - You mean, Suomi, Espana and Polska

Person 1 as a non-native is correct to refer to the countries as they had done. Person 2 is also correct in referring to the countries as their natives do, but not in the context of the conversation.

Neither side should be offended, in the same way that a German shouldn't mind non-natives referring to their country as 'Germany', or Poles minding when Polska is referred to as 'Poland'.

Referring back to Laos, this would suggest that non-Laotians are correct in pronouncing the 's', and Laotians are correct in not pronouncing the 's'.

Nick

12/18/2019 12:00:57 am

Seems it is Lao, from the previous comments. Also it's a bit pedantic but: the source you quoted asserting that it is pronounced "louse (rhymes with blouse" is bizarre. Louse doesn't rhyme with blouse. the former is a soft s and the latter is a harder z sound.

12/18/2019 12:03:42 am

gonna have people muddying the water further by calling it Laoz xD

Eva

12/18/2019 08:09:37 am

Just because a few people disagree, doesn't mean it's wrong. I didn't love that rhyme, either, but I kept it, because a lot of people also don't know that they're is a singular form of lice :)

Peter Tan

10/14/2020 08:53:31 pm

I am continuing to pronounce the <s> because I see it as the English pronunciation, which might differ from the local pronunciation. All English dictionaries, for instance, give the pronunciation with /s/. Same as how we say Belgium or Japan, rather than the French or Dutch or Japanese versions of those names.

Tom

2/5/2021 11:33:25 am

I and my Thai family live across the river from the Lao capital and have family there as well. Never have I heard the s pronounced. Where I live Thai, Isaan and the Lao language is spoken.

It's Pronounced "Laos." But I Can See Why You Thought It Was "Lao."

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