Since the French were the colonial powers, their language influences can be seen in all three Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The capitol city of Laos is Vientiane for Pete's sake.
So, one thing: the "Khmer". When I was a kid I would pronounce this "KY-mer". I've heard it pronounced closer to the conjunctive command "C'mere" in recent years. But, in the natural way of things, hearing Khmer people speak it themselves, it sounds much closer to "k'-MAY".
The "-er" at the end of the occasional French word gives it what in English is called the "hard A" sound, like "pay". Sometimes "Khmer" even turns into "k'-MAY-r", rounding out the hard A to end in an 'r' sound.
The next thing I wanted to mention was Lao vs Laos and Lao vs Laotian.
Who remembers what the 's' on the end of French words sounds like? Think of Illinois and rendezvous... There is similar evidence to suggest that the people of the country would pronounce their own country's name like "Lao", with no 's' sound on the end.
Saying the country's name like "Laos" instead of "Lao" is not greeted with scorn and happens enough, mostly because of the plethora of English and German speaking tourists who pronounce the 's' sound.
One thing you'll never hear in Southeast Asia is the term "Laotian". People will speak of the Lao language, the Lao currency (the Kip), and the people as being Lao. The people aren't referred to as Laotian, they don;t use Laotian money, and their language isn't Laotian. That term remains acceptable in the US, and is found on the CIA World Factbook.
Using "Laotian" more than once will likely get you a few head turns, but, really, being a white traveler in Lao means you are a special kind of traveler, and the likelihood that you're an ugly American jackoff is pretty low.
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