The word "tlou" is a Tswana word meaning "elephant." It is spelled using the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɬɔu/. The first sound represented by the symbol /tɬ/ is a voiceless alveolar lateral affricate, which is a combination of a voiceless "t" sound and a "ɬ" sound, similar to the Welsh "ll" sound. The second sound, represented by /ɔu/, is a diphthong meaning that there are two vowel sounds, with the first being an open-mid back vowel /ɔ/ and the second sound being a close back rounded vowel /u/.
The word tlou comes from the Tswana language, which is spoken in Southern Africa. In Tswana, tlou means elephant.