A Phonemically Comprehensive, ASCII-Only Romanization Scheme for Thai and Lao: Systematic Cross-Lingual Correspondence and Chinese-User-Friendly Design
Zijie Zhang, Tan Lee
Abstract
This paper proposes a phonemically comprehensive, ASCII-only romanization scheme for Thai and Lao, treating the two closely related languages as a unified cross-lingual design problem. The scheme represents segmental contrasts, vowel length, and lexical tone while maintaining one-symbol-one-phoneme transparency and systematic correspondence between Thai and Lao. The scheme prioritizes synchronic phonetic correspondence, including correspondence with Pinyin and Jyutping where applicable, while preserving historical-phonological correspondence where it does not conflict with phonetic transparency. Tone uses a compact single-digit default notation, supplemented by optional tone-value and historical tone-category representations. The resulting scheme provides a readable, keyboard-friendly, and machine-processable phonemic representation for language learning and cross-lingual speech processing.