Lao is a tonal language, which means that the tone a speaker gives to a word will determine its meaning. The dialect of Lao spoken in Vientiane, which has been deemed the official language of Laos, has six tones. Thus, depending on its tone, the word sang can mean either "elephant" "craftsman" "granary" "laryngitis" a species of bamboo, or "to build". Since it is impossible to learn the six tones properly without actually hearing them, try getting a speaker of Vientiane Lao to recite numbers one to nine in Lao to you, since all six tones feature in these numbers . Number one is a mid tone (unmarked) and since the mid and low tones are so similar, the beginner may pronounce these two tones identically. Number two is a rising tone (~), number five is a low-falling tone (`), number six is a high tone (´), and number nine is a high-falling tone (^).