[QUOTE=Monty]
No problem. Language is my bag (Linguistics major). Oddly enough, one of the things I find very interesting in that field is folk etymology.
[/QUOTE]
I still dislike the word “Laotian.” It just doesn’t sound right to me. I guess I’m too used to saying “Lao.”
BTW: “Lao” can mean “liquor” and it can mean “Laotian”; it’s just a matter of pronouncing the word with the proper tone. I remember one time trying to explain about Midori, that green melon liqeur from Japan. I was trying to say it was “lao kheeo” ( “a green liquor”, “liqueur” having no linguistic equivalent and indeed being a strange concept to the hard-drinking Thais), but I could not get the tone correct. They thought I was trying to tell them about some green Laotians. Since we were pretty well lit to begin with, the whole thing degenerated into massive laughter.
