Lao Basics

Description

Lao Basics is a concise, do-it-yourself guide to the Lao language teaching conversational Lao from the very beginning with an emphasis on reading and writing. Students of Thai will find Lao quite simple, as much of these two languages are the same or very similar. These languages are derived from Sanskrit and share many of the same consonants, vowels, vocabulary and grammar. Lao Basics is organised so that you first learn to read Lao, write Lao, speak Lao and comprehend the 26 consonants in their tonal classes.

Once you have mastered these, you will study the 28 vowels in subsets. Within each vowel grouping, you will learn vocabulary, conversational phrases, alphabetical order and sentence structure through exercises that grow more challenging as your vocabulary increases.

As you progress, vocabulary from previous lessons will regularly be repeated, and your command of the written and spoken language will steadily improve. And you can do all this on your own. Each chapter’s Lao words and exercises have been recorded on the accompanying MP3 audio CD, and all of the exercises answers are in the back of the book.

This book features:

• Review exercises with answer keys to help polish a learner’s skills;
• Vocabulary and phrases are written in Lao script, and are accompanied by pronunciations that help English speakers to say them accurately;
• The MP3 audio CD includes every vocabulary item, sample phrases and exercises so that you can learn from native speakers. All disc content is alternatively accessible on tuttlepublishing.com/downloadable-content.