Editing Lao language (section)

====Indication of tones====
Experts disagree on the number and nature of tones in the various dialects of Lao. According to some, most dialects of Lao and Isan have six tones, those of [[Luang Prabang]] have five. Tones are determined as follows:

{| class="wikitable"
! Tones
! Long vowel, or vowel plus voiced consonant
! Long vowel plus unvoiced consonant
! Short vowel, or short vowel plus unvoiced consonant
! Mai ek ({{lang|lo|◌່}})
! Mai tho ({{lang|lo|◌້}})
|-
! High consonants
| rising
| low falling
| high
| mid
| low falling
|-
! Mid consonants
| low rising
| low falling
| high
| mid
| high falling
|-
! Low consonants
| high
| high falling
| mid
| mid
| high falling
|}

A silent {{lang|lo|ຫ}} ({{IPA|/h/}}) placed before certain consonants will place the proceeding consonant in the high class tone. This can occur before the letters {{lang|lo|ງ}} {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, {{lang|lo|ຍ}} {{IPA|/ɲ/}}, {{lang|lo|ຣ}} {{IPA|/r/}}, and {{lang|lo|ວ}} {{IPA|/w/}} and combined in special ligatures (considered separate letters) such as {{lang|lo|ຫຼ}} {{IPA|/l/}}, {{lang|lo|ໜ}} {{IPA|/n/}}, and {{lang|lo|ໝ}} {{IPA|/m/}}. In addition to {{lang|lo|ອ່}} (low tone) and {{lang|lo|ອ້}} (falling tone), there also exists the rare {{lang|lo|ອ໊}} (high) {{lang|lo|ອ໋}} (rising) tone marks.