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Writing Systems Technical Resources

Unicode Status for Lao

In The Unicode Standard, Lao script implementation is discussed in Chapter 16: Southeast Asia-I — Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam.

Blocks

Section titled “Blocks”

The Lao script was encoded in The Unicode Standard version 1.0. The script is encoded in the following block:

BlocksCharacter RangeAdded in Unicode VersionUnicode Chart
Lao0E80..0EFF1.0U0E80.pdf

Characters

Section titled “Characters”

Subsequent to version 1.0, the following characters have been added to the Lao script:

CharactersUnicode VersionDocumentation
0EDE..0EDF6.1n3893R.pdf/L2/10-335

Documentation refers to ISO Working Group and Unicode proposals

Proposals and documents

Section titled “Proposals and documents”

A number of proposals for its inclusion were submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee and WG2:

  • 1998-02-27 KIP SIGN - Laotian Currency Sign — V.S. Umamaheswaran (WG2 N1720.doc, L2/98-061)
  • 2000-01-06 Row 0E – LAO (collection 26) — Sato, WG2 (WG2 N2162.doc, L2/00-054)
  • 2001-03-23 Lao Script - inquiry — Boualoykhong Chansavat (L2/01-132)
  • 2002-01-14 Character Properties for avagrahas, etc. — Kenneth Whistler (L2/02-017)
  • 2003-06-12 Thai and Lao collation weighting rules — Kent Karlsson (L2/03-185)
  • 2004-03-09 Ordering rules for Khmer, Thai, and Lao; CTT suggestion — Kent Karlsson (WG2 N2717.doc, L2/04-110)
  • 2004-03-09 Ordering rules for Khmer, Thai, and Lao; suggestions for annex C.2 changes and a new annex B.5 — Kent Karlsson (WG2 N2718.doc, L2/04-111)
  • 2005-10-30 Note on Lao Character Names — Andrew West (L2/05-357)
  • 2006-07-27 Re: document Sk vs Lm vs C — Martin Hosken (L2/06-243)
  • 2009-08-03 Grapheme break changes, especially for Thai and Lao — Peter Edberg (L2/09-265)
  • 2010-09-17 Proposal to change UAX#29 in response to Thai, Lao, Tai Dam user needs — Martin Hosken (L2/10-460)
  • 2010-10-05 Proposal to add minority characters to Lao script (revised; WG2 N3893R) — Martin Hosken (WG2 N3893, L2/10-335)
  • 2011-04-18 Proposal to change grapheme extending properties of various characters — Martin Hosken (L2/11-114)
  • 2017-07-20 Proposal to Encode Lao Characters for Pali (revised) — Vinodh Rajan, et al (L2/17-106)
    • Recommendations to UTC #152 July-August 2017 on Script Proposals (L2/17-255) (See point 6.)
    • UTC #152 Minutes (L2/17-222) (See D.4 for decision and action items)
  • 2017-08-02 Comments on the encoding of Lao Letters Pali JHA and NYA — Weizhe Zheng, Yihua Wang (L2/17-285)
  • 2021-04-21 Proposal to Encode Lao Yamakkan — Vinodh Rajan, Jayasāro Bhikkhu (L2/21-093)
    • Recommendations to UTC #167 April 2021 on Script Proposals (L2/21-073) (See point 11.)
    • UTC #167 Minutes (L2/21-067) (See B.1 for decision and action items)
    • Recommendations to UTC #168 July 2021 on Script Proposals (L2/21-130) (See point 16a.)
    • UTC #168 Minutes (L2/21-123) (See B.1 for decision and action items)
  • 2021-07-14 Response to Comments on Lao Yamakkan — Vinodh Rajan (L2/21-143)
    • Recommendations to UTC #168 July 2021 on Script Proposals (L2/21-130) (See point 16b.)
    • UTC #168 Minutes (L2/21-123) (See B.1 for decision and action items)
  • 2022-06-14 Response to PRI 451 — Asmus Freytag (L2/22-114)
    • UTC #172 Minutes (L2/22-121) (See F.3 for decision and action items)