LAO YNAW

4 months ago - 7/2/2009 @ 12:33 PM
10 comments

I now know what Lao Ynaw is. Last night I heard one of the hommies speak Lao to me in his Lao Ynaw accent and I'm like...wtf? Sounds just like MY accent. But my mom is from northern Laos. Nowhere NEAR northern Cambodia where it is said Lao Ynaw comes from. So it really had me confused. 

So apparently Lao Ynaw are the Lao people living in northern Cambodia. They can speak Lao and Khmer and kinda mix the languages. But why did my friend sound just like me and I speak a northern Lao accent?

My grandma says that apparently back in the day when Laos was warring with Thailand and then decades later when France was splitting up Laos, alot of people fled their native villages and went elsewhere. Some to Thailand, some to Vietnam, and some to Cambodia.

According to her, alot of people from the Xieng Khouang province in northern Laos (which is the province my mother's family is from) fled to the Lao-Khmer borderline and went to Cambodia. So yea...that's why my friend sounded just like me I guess.

That also kinda explains why when my great grandmother spoke Lao, there were some khmer words in there too. Maybe she's Lao Ynaw? But it doesn't make sense. If she's Lao Ynaw then why did she go back to the northern Laos province of Xieng Khouang?

I'm confused. haha. Oh well. At least I know what Lao Ynaw is now.
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Last Updated: 7/7/2009 @ 2:53 AM

10 Comments so far...

zoe33
zoe33 wrote
4 months ago - 7/2/2009 @ 1:16 PM
Hmm,I should ask my mom about this too. My mom tells me growing up she spoke laos, but when she wed my dad all she spoke after that was cambodian. Now she hardly remembers hwo to speak but only to understand thai/laos cambo. How sad is that.
ahzo
ahzo wrote
4 months ago - 7/2/2009 @ 1:40 PM
I'm usually on top of history and culture and stuff. It's intriguing. I'm totally stumped on this though. It's nice to have a new thing to learn though. Let me know what you find out okay? Thanks. I'm zO by the way =] hi
VanLoc
VanLoc wrote
4 months ago - 7/2/2009 @ 2:38 PM
if i can speak laos and thai as fluently as i speak khmer. that be awsome =)
ahzo
ahzo wrote
4 months ago - 7/2/2009 @ 3:31 PM
It's confirmed. I spoke Lao for PON to hear and it sounds like his Lao too. SO THERE MUST BE A CONNECTION between people in northern Laos and people who are hundreds and hundreds of miles away in northern Cambodia! very...very interesting.
watmilop
watmilop wrote
4 months ago - 7/2/2009 @ 4:57 PM
cool
himnameisbilly
himnameisbilly wrote
4 months ago - 7/2/2009 @ 5:07 PM
laos nyaw ?? im half laos and i never heard of that before ... thanx for thee little history tho ..
lbjunior1
lbjunior1 wrote
4 months ago - 7/6/2009 @ 11:12 AM
Really. Honestly. ZO you jerk. You spelled it WRONG. It's LAO YNAW. Like OMG. Why you trying to clown on my CULTURE. And most of YNAW people came from BATTABONG.
ahzo
ahzo wrote
4 months ago - 7/6/2009 @ 6:54 PM
Stop ur crying before I get Chan on you. Happy?
lbjunior1
lbjunior1 wrote
4 months ago - 7/9/2009 @ 2:35 PM
haha. REALLY happy. All chan going to do is GRAB my ass. THAT homo
martialartis
martialartis wrote
3 months ago - 8/11/2009 @ 7:46 AM
Yes there are Lao people scattered everywhere and still some in Burma I think the "Sipsong panna" region is there and they definitely speak the Laotian dialect with a different tone. I didn't know the region between Lao and Cambodia had a tone that sounded like "Lao Neua" accent. But as far as Lao Nyaw, maybe I've heard of it before but I don't recall. I have the southern Lao accent since my parents are from Savannhakhet. And because of that, I have to listen closely to what a person from northern Lao might be saying. Very closely. =/
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