---
language: lo
tags:
  - tokenizer
  - nlp
  - lao
  - maximal-matching
license: mit
library_name: transformers
dependencies:
  - laonlp
  - transformers
  - tokenizers
---

# Lao Tokenizer

A dictionary-based tokenizer for the Lao language, compatible with `laonlp` for POS tagging.

## Usage

Download the tokenizer file `lao_tokenizer.json` and use it with the `PreTrainedTokenizerFast` class from the `transformers` library. The tokenizer is built with a dictionary-based maximal matching approach.

```python
from transformers import PreTrainedTokenizerFast
from laonlp_enhanced import tokenize, pos_tag 

# Direct HF tokenizer (for encoding, less relevant here)
tokenizer = PreTrainedTokenizerFast(tokenizer_file="lao_tokenizer.json")
# Use laonlp-enhanced for actual tokenization
tokens = tokenize("ສະບາຍດີ 2025")
print(tokens) 
print(pos_tag(tokens))  
```
## Reference
- [laonlp](Wannaphong Phatthiyaphaibun. (2022). LaoNLP: Lao language Natural Language Processing. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6833407)


## License
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.