Thursday, July 21, 2016

Laomagination: Building a speculative vocabulary in the Lao community


The Lao language, like any language is constantly growing and adapting. As we come into new ideas, we need new terms, either by repurposing existing language or inventing something that reasonably follows the established precedents.

Lao American speculative literature is just starting to take off so our question becomes, what terms will we use as our preferred terms in fantasy, science fiction, horror, and works of a similar nature?

Here are a few initial words for science fiction that may come in handy. Alternate spellings and romanization are possible:

Alien: ມະນຸດຕາງດາວ Ma noud tang dao
Astronaut: ນັກອາວະກາດ Nak ava kad
Planet: ດາວເຄາະ Dao khoc
Robot: ຫຸ່ນຍົນ Houn yon
Rocket: ຈະຫຼວດ Ja luad

What other words would you like to see or suggest?

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