I'm not Lao, & I can only decipher a few words of written Lao. But I'm interested to know what happened to the alphabet 'R' in the Lao language. When exactly did it 'disappear'? & why?
Seems like younger generation Lao never knew that it existed, except for a monk or two who said they studied a bit of 'old Lao' for translating Pali. Some (older generation of educated Lao) said that it was 'removed' from 1975 onwards, some are not sure exactly when.
Some say that 'R' was used by people from the north, 'H' or 'L' by people further south?
the letter''ror''=r, that was removing since 1975. that time lao gov just want lao poeple to learn and can read lao, the majority of lao poeple can not pronounce letter"ror" and the old poeple can not read. that time lao gov forces every body go to school. even old poeple. they will teach you in the night time. after your workday. that time is tharn Phoumy Vongvichit was the head of ministry of education.
