Languages Spoken In Laos

Lao is the official language of the country- the language predominant in the capital, Vientiane. However, it isn’t the only language used- Laos has a number of ethnic groups (including Hmong, Mon-Khmer and others), and nearly all of them have their own dialects and sub-dialects. Many of these are actually so different from each other that they would be unintelligible to anyone not a speaker of that particular dialect. Most of the dialects are related to dialects and languages common in neighbouring countries such as China, Myanmar and Thailand.

The only foreign language that is used to some degree is French - a result of the French occupation of the country, but even this is restricted to Vientiane’s elite.