Lao People
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (> 3.8 million (est.; excluding Isan)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Laos
|
3.6 million |
 United States
|
232,130 |
 France
|
120,000 |
 Cambodia
|
55,000 |
 Canada
|
22,090 |
 Burma
|
21,000 |
 Thailand
|
20,000 |
 Vietnam
|
14,928 (2009) |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Tai peoples (e.g. Black Tai people, Shan people, Dai people, Ahom people) | |
The Lao (Lao: ລາວ, Thai or Isan: ลาว, IPA: láːw) are an ethnic group native to Laos and northeastern Thailand (where they are known as Isan), they belong to the family of Tai peoples.
The etymology of the word Lao is uncertain, although it may be related to tribes known as the Ai Lao (Lao: ອ້າຽລາວ, Isan: อ้ายลาว, Chinese: 哀牢; pinyin: Āiláo, Vietnamese: ai lao) who appear in Han Dynasty records in China and Vietnam as a people of what is now Yunnan Province. Tribes descended from the Ai Lao included the Tai tribes that migrated to Southeast Asia.
According to Michel Ferlus (2009), ethnonym and autonym of the Lao people (ລາວ); nationality of the inhabitants of Laos is formed by the monosyllabization of the Austroasiatic etymon for 'human being' *k.raw. The peoples named Lao (lǎo 獠), supposed to be the ancestors of Lao and some other Tai-Kadai populations, settled in the upper Tonkin and in parts of Yúnnán and Guìzhōu during the Táng times.
lǎo 獠 < MC lawX < OC *C-rawʔ [C.rawˀ]
This reconstruction of the pronunciation for the phonogram 獠 confirms that ‘Lao’ originates in the etymon *k.raːw.
The English word Laotian, used interchangeably with Lao in most contexts, comes from French laotien/laotienne. The dominant ethnicity of Northeastern Thailand who descend from the Lao are differentiated from the Lao of Laos and by the Thais by the term Isan people or Thai Isan (Lao: ໄທ ອີສານ, Isan: ไทยอีสาน, Thai pronunciation: [iː sǎ:n]), a Sanskrit-derived term meaning northeast, but 'Lao' is still used.
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