Besides the fact that written Lao comes with a multitude of beautiful curlicues, it offers a multitude of words with many meanings. Lao is tonal, which in this case means that the same word means something entirely different, depending upon the way it is said. There are low, mid-range and high tones, plus ascending and descending tones. Each word has potentially five meanings. Low-tone "nam" means water, but mid-range "nam" means beautiful. Watch out or the pretty girl will wonder why you think she's all wet.
The language isn't guttural as I expected, but is interesting and pleasant to the ear. I especially love it when the speaker makes a sustained higher tone, then clucks. It sounds as though something is either in need of reproach or wonderfully provocative. It is fun to speculate which but, unless you're a Lao linguist, probably best to keep that speculation to yourself.
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Sounds fascinating! Must be difficult to understand. I guess English is really difficult, too. But we don't have to worry about the tone.
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