The Lao people are a Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia, who speak the Lao language of the Kra–Dai languages. They are the majority ethnic group of Laos, making up 53.2% of the total population. The majority of Lao people adhere to Theravada Buddhism. They are closely related to other Tai people, especially (or synonymous) with the Isan people, who are also speakers of Lao language, native to neighboring Thailand.
In Western historiography, terms Lao people and Laotian have had a loose meaning. Both terms have been irregularly applied both to all natives of Laos in general, aside from or alongside ethnic Lao during different periods in history. Since the end of French rule in Laos in 1953, Lao has been applied solely to the ethnic group while Laotian refers to any citizen of Laos regardless of their ethnic identity. Certain countries still conflate the terms in their statistics.
Names
The etymology of the word Lao is uncertain, although it may be related to tribes known as the Ai Lao (Lao: , Thai: อ้ายลาว, , Vietnamese: Ai Lao) who appear in Han Dynasty records in China and Vietnam as a people of what is now Yunnan Province. Tribes descended from the Ai Lao included the Tai tribes that migrated to Southeast Asia.
According to Michel Ferlus (2009), ethnonym and autonym of the Lao people (ລາວ); nationality of the inhabitants of Laos is formed by the monosyllabization of the Austroasiatic etymon for 'human being' *k.raw. The peoples named Lao (lǎo 獠), supposed to be the ancestors of Lao and some other Tai-Kadai populations, settled in the upper Tonkin and in parts of Yúnnán and Guìzhōu during the Táng times:
This reconstruction of the pronunciation for the phonogram 獠 confirms that 'Lao' originates in the etymon *k.raːw.
The English word Laotian, used interchangeably with Lao in most contexts, comes from French laotien/laotienne. The dominant ethnicity of Northeastern Thailand who descend from the Lao are differentiated from the Lao of Laos and by the Thais by the term Isan people or Thai Isan (Lao: , Isan: ไทยอีสาน, ), a Sanskrit-derived term meaning northeast, but 'Lao' is still used.
Subdivisions of the Lao people
In Laos, little distinction is made between the Lao and other closely related Tai peoples with mutually intelligible languages who are grouped together as Lao Loum or 'Lowland Lao' (Lao: láːu lūm , Thai: ลาวลุ่ม, IPA: laːw lum). Most of these groups share many common cultural traits and speak dialects or languages that are very similar, with only minor differences in tones, vocabulary, and pronunciation of certain words, but usually not enough to impede conversation, but many of these groups, such as the Nyaw and Phuthai consider themselves distinct, and often have differences in clothing that distinguish them.
History
Tai Migration Period
Early Chinese records used the term Yue to describe the non-Chinese people south of the Yangtze. In the spring and autumn period (770-475 BC) the term was applied to a state on the southeast coast which was destroyed in 334 BC as the Han Chinese moved across the Yangtze into the south. Subsequently, the term “Hundred Yue” was applied generically to the subjugated peoples in the south, with modifiers to denote groups in different locations or with some other distinguishing characteristics (Phomphan 1988). The term Yue fades from usage around 0AD as the Chinese gained more knowledge of the southern peoples and began using other descriptors (Barlow 2001, chs. 1–2; Taylor 1983, 41–4). None of the modern terms used for Tai groups can be detected in these descriptors except Lao or Ai Lao people, which was applied to a variety of groups, mostly Hill-dwellers (Taylor 1983, 172; Cholthira 2001, 22–4).
This indicates that the Lao are at the very least a Proto-Tai group; perhaps even that all Tai groups are actually subgroups of these ancient Lao people, as there are no descriptors to indicate the existence of any group called Tai living south of the Yangtze, subsequently the first references of a group called Tai appeared in the 13th centuries, no such references of a group called or calling themselves Tai seem to exist.