Khmer language
Khmer is the official language of Cambodia. It is spoken by the Khmer people, who live in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and many other countries. Its script was the base for the Thai script, although Thai does not use subscript consonants.
| Khmer | |
|---|---|
| Cambodian ភាសាខ្មែរ | |
| Pronunciation | pʰiːəsaː kʰmaːe |
| Native to | Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, USA, France, Australia |
| Ethnicity | Khmer |
| Native speakers | 16 million (2007)[1] 1 million L2 speakers[2] |
| Language family | Austro-Asiatic
|
| Dialects | Battambang
Phnom Penh
Northern Khmer (Khmer Surin)
Khmer Krom (Southern Khmer)
|
| Writing system | Khmer script (abugida) |
| Official status | |
| Official language in |  Cambodia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | km |
| ISO 639-2 | khm |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: khm – Central Khmer kxm – Northern Khmer |
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This article contains Khmer text. Without the correct software, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Khmer script. |
One thing that makes it particularly difficult for many foreigners to learn is that Khmer words are not separated in a sentence and the sounds are quite hard for foreigners to replicate. But still each word in the sentence can be distinguished. Also, there is not much material on Khmer, although this situation is changing.
Writing
The Khmer script is based on an ancient Indian alphabet. It is written from left to right. There are 35 consonants, some of which can be written under other consonants (2 consonants are not used anymore). Vowels are combined with the consonants to make a sound. For example, the "t" sound ត can be combined with the "-ah" sound ា to make the word តា (tah, which means grandfather).
The Khmer writing script also has its own special way of writing numbers. The Khmer numerals are ០១២៣៤៥៦៧៨៩.
Grammar
The language has a subject-verb-object order, just like English.
Pronouns change based on who you are speaking to. For example, if you are not a monk and you are speaking to a monk, you would call him "ព្រះតេជព្រះគុណ".
Examples
ខ្ញុំមិនចង់បានទេ
"I don't want it"
អ្នកចង់ទៅលេងសៀមរាបទេ
"Do you want to go to Siem Reap?"
Khmer Language Media
The approximate locations where various dialects of Khmer are spoken
A stone carved in Old Khmer
Vowel Diagram (Monophthongs)
An example of modern Khmer script at the Cambodian Embassy in Berlin
Reading the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Khmer.
References
- ↑ Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
- ↑ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Entry for Khmer
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Khmer language edition. |
