Is it true to say that Lao script is a simplified version of the Thai script?

Unicode

The Unicode authors thought Lao was nearly-Thai. There are unfortunately some counterpoints against wholehearted acceptance of their expertise. Unicode was so Lao = Thai that they spaced out Lao letters to code-points mirroring Thai letters even if those code-points were not in alphabetical order in Lao. Furthermore, some letters were given the wrong name.

Character counter-examples

Lao does have some letters not present in Thai: ຍ is /ɲ/, as in ຍຸງ (mosquito). Modern Thai, which does not have a /ɲ/ sound, uses ยุง for mosquito, where the ย is a /j/. For that sound, Lao uses ຢ (note longer tail than ຍ).

Clarifying obsolete consonants

The previous answer counted 27 letters (the consonants, that is) in Lao, versus more for Thai, depending on "which letters are considered 'obsolete.'" I presume this refers to Lao having 14 additional obsolete consonants not included in the main Wikipedia consonant chart. This may be misleading, though, as Thai also has obsolete consonants that nonetheless remain in the alphabet even though they are not used.

posted 10 months ago

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10mo ago

Michael‭

31 reputation 0 3 3 5

I get the impression that the Lao script is simpler, at least in the sense that it has fewer letters.

• Lao script has 27 letters from my count of the letters chart in the Wikipedia article, while the Thai script contains about 39-44 letters. (It depends which letters are considered "obsolete.")
• In a quick check, I found its diacritical system very similar, if not identical, to that of Thai.
• Lao tone markers are essentially those in Thai script.
• I don't know if it's a matter of reforms (and if so, by whom) or of selective adoption / sharing.