Editing Lao language (section)

===Central Lao===
Central Lao represents a transitional variety, with northern varieties closer to Vientiane Lao and southern varieties, roughly south of the confluence of the Xé Noi river with the Mekong, the speech varieties begin to approach Southern Lao. Some linguists, such as Hartmann, place Vientiane Lao and Central Lao together as a singular dialect region.<ref>Hartmann, J. (2002). 'Spoken Lao—A regional approach.' SEASITE Laos. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University.</ref> More Vientiane-like speech predominates in the Isan provinces of [[Bueng Kan Province|Bueng Kan]], [[Sakon Nakhon Province|Sakon Nakhon]], most of [[Nakhon Phanom Province|Nakhon Phanom]] and some areas of [[Nong Khai Province|Nong Khai]] provinces and on the Laotian side, portions of eastern and southern [[Bolikhamxai Province|Bolikhamxai]] and [[Khammouane Province|Khammouan]] provinces. More Southern Lao features are found in the speech of [[Mukdahan Province|Mukdahan]] and southern [[Nakhon Phanom Province|Nakhon Phanom]] provinces of Thailand and [[Savannakhet Province|Savannakhét Province]] of Laos.

Nevertheless, the tones of the southern Central varieties, such as spoken in Mukdahan, Thailand and Savannakhét, Laos have a tonal structure more akin to Vientiane Lao, sharing certain splits and contours. These areas do, however, exhibit some Southern features of their lexicon, such as the common use of ''se'' ({{lang|lo|ເຊ}} ''xé'', {{IPA|/sêː/}}), 'river', which is typical of Southern Lao as opposed to ''nam'' ({{lang|lo|ນ້ຳ}}, {{IPA|/nȃːm/}}), which is the more common word and also signifies 'water' in general. Mukdahan-Savannakhét area speakers also understand ''maethao'' ({{lang|lo|ແມ່ເຖົ້າ}}, {{IPA|/mɛ́ː.tʰȁw/}}) as a respectful term for an 'old lady' (as opposed to Vientiane 'mother-in-law') and use ''pen sang'' ({{lang|lo|ເປັນສັງ}}, {{IPA|/pȅn sȁŋ/}}) instead of Vientiane ''pen yang'' ({{lang|lo|ເປັນຫຍັງ}}, {{IPA|/pèn ɲăŋ/}}), 'what's wrong?', as is typical of Southern Lao.

{| class="wikitable"
|-----bgcolor="#eeeeee"
|+ Central Dialect Tone Distribution (Savannakhét)<ref>Hmong Research Group (2009). [http://hmongrp.wisc.edu/IPPL%20Lao/inetpub/wwwroot/ipa/lao/orthography_Savtone.html Central Lao Tones (Savannakhét).] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100614174348/http://hmongrp.wisc.edu/IPPL%20Lao/inetpub/wwwroot/ipa/lao/orthography_Savtone.html |date=2010-06-14 }} Madison: University of Wisconsin.</ref>
||'''Tone Class'''||'''Inherent Tone'''||'''Mai ek ({{lang|lo|◌່}})'''||'''Mai tho ({{lang|lo|◌້}})'''||'''Long Vowel'''||'''Short Vowel'''
|----- bgcolor="#ffffff"
! High
| style="background-color:#34ff34;" | Rising
| style="background-color:#f8ff00;" | Middle
| style="background-color:#3dbaaf;" | Low-Falling
| style="background-color:#34ff34;" | Rising
| style="background-color:#3dbaaf;" | Low-Falling
|----- bgcolor="#ffffff"
! Middle
| style="background-color:#6200c9;" | High-Falling
| style="background-color:#f8ff00;" | Middle
| style="background-color:#10f9c6;" | Rising-Falling
| style="background-color:#34ff34;" | Rising
| style="background-color:#3dbaaf;" | Low-Falling
|----- bgcolor="#ffffff"
! Low
| style="background-color:#6200c9;" | High-Falling
| style="background-color:#f8ff00;" | Middle
| style="background-color:#10f9c6;" | Rising-Falling
| style="background-color:#6200c9;" | High-Falling
| style="background-color:#f8ff00;" | Middle
|}