Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ - Pheasa Khmer)
Spoken in:	Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, USA, France, Australia
Total speakers:	7 million native + 1 million learners
Ranking:	102
Genetic classification:	Austroasiatic  Mon-Khmer   Eastern Mon-Khmer    Khmer
Official status
Official language of:	Cambodia
Regulated by:	?
Language codes
ISO 639-1	km
ISO 639-2(B)	khm
ISO 639-2(T)	khm
SIL	KMR

Khmer is one of the main Austroasiatic languages, and has had considerable influence from Sanskrit and Pali. These influences come from the influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on Khmer culture; while other influences from Thai and Laotian are the result of linguistic contact and geographic proximity.

The Cambodian language is somewhat unusual among its neighboring countries' languages of Thai, Lao and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language.

Dialects are sometimes quite marked; notable variations are found in speakers from Phnom Penh (the capital city) and Battambang (Pronounced by Khmers as Battambong) which is the countryside.

A notable characteristic of the Phnom Penh accent is a tendency toward slang and laziness in pronunciation, much like American urban slang. For instance, "Phnom Penh" will sometimes be shortened to "m'Penh". Another characteristic of the Phnom Penh accent is observed in words with an "r" subconsonant in the first syllable (that is, where r is the second consonant, as in the English word "bread"). The r is not pronounced, the first consonant is pronounced harder than usual, and the syllable is spoken with a dipping tone much like the "hoi" tone in the Vietnamese language. For example, some people pronounce "dreey" (meaning "fish") as "te"; the "d" becomes a "t", and the vowel (long A) begins low and rises in tone. Another example is when pronuncing Orange, it is pronounced Kroich (the correct form) by those in the countryside but simply pronounced to as Koich (with the r) by those in the city. The later is the a somewhat lazier version then the previous.

Written Cambodian is alphabetic like English (and unlike Chinese). Khmer alphabet consists of two separate categories — consonants and vowels. Pronunciation is given here in the traditional form (you will need a computer with Khmer fonts to see the letters below). It is also notable that the Cambodian script has fewer vowel symbols than the language has vowel phonemes. Instead, each consonant belongs to one of two series and the vowel produced depends on which series the consonant belongs to (incidentally making Khmer script an abugida rather than a true alphabet). Therefore, most vowels have two different possible pronunciations, depending on which series the consonant belongs to. When no vowel is present, usually the inherent vowel of the consonant is used. Vowels can be divided into two groups: dependent vowels, which depend on a consonant, and independent vowels, which can stand alone. Dependent vowels are used more frequently than independent vowels and all independent vowels can be phonetically rendered with a dependent vowel. Khmer also has a number of diacritics, which can change the series of the consonant or change the pronunciation of the vowel.

Contents

1 Consonants 1.1 Vowels 2 Numbers 3 See also 4 External links

Consonants

List of Khmer consonents with pronounciation, starting from left to right.

Letter	Sound	Letter	Sound	Letter	Sound	Letter	Sound	Letter	Sound
ក	kah	ខ	khah	គ	koh	ឃ	khoh	ង	ngoh
ច	čah	ឆ	chah	ជ	čoh	ឈ	choh	ញ	nyoh/ñoh
ដ	dah	ឋ	tah	ឌ	dhoh	ឍ	thoh	ណ	nah
ត	tah	ថ	thah	ទ	toh	ធ	thoh	ន	noh
ប	bah	ផ	pah	ព	boh	ភ	poh	ម	moh
យ	yoh	រ	roh	ល	loh	វ	voh	ឝ	šah
ឞ	ṣoh	ស	sah	ហ	hah	ឡ	lah	អ	ah

Vowels

aa/Ea, Ay/EE, A/E, ew/ew, eww/eww, OO/UU O/U

Numbers

Value in Khmer	Value in English	Word Form	Pronunciation
០	0	សូន្យ	sohn
១	1	មួយ	muoy
២	2	ពីរ	pi
៣	3	បី	bei
៤	4	បួន	buon
៥	5	ប្រាំ	pram
៦	6	ប្រាំមួយ	pram muoy
៧	7	ប្រាំពីរ	pram pi
៨	8	ប្រាំបី	pram bei
៩	9	ប្រាំបួន	pram buon
១០	10	ដប់	dop
១១	11	ដប់‌មួយ	dop muoy
២០	20	ម្ភៃ	ma'pei
៣០	30	សាម‌សិប	sam sep
៤០	40	សែ‌សិប	sai sep
៥០	50	ហា‌សិប	ha sep
៦០	60	ហុក‌សិប	hok sep
៧០	70	ចិត‌សិប	chet sep
៨០	80	ប៉ែត‌សិប	baet sep
៩០	90	កៅ‌សិប	kao sep
១០០	100	មួយ‌រយ	muoy roy
១០១	101	មួយ‌រយ‌មួយ	muoy roy muoy
២០០	200	ពីរ‌រយ	pi roy
២៥៧	257	ពីររយហាសិបប្រាំពីរ	pi roy ha pram pi (two-hundred fifty-seven)
៥០០	500	ប្រាំរយ	pram roy
១០០០	1,000	មួយ‌ពាន់	muoy pon
២៨៦៧	2,867	ពីរពាន់ប្រាំបីរយហុកសិបប្រាំពីរ	pi pon, pram bei roy, hok sep, pram pi (two-thousand, eight-hundred, and sixty-seven)
១០០០០	10,000	មួយម៉ឺន	muoy meurn (ten thousand)
១០០០០០	100,000	មួយសែន	muoy saen (one-hundred thousand)
១០០០០០០	1,000,000	មួយលាន	muoy lean (one million)
១០០០០០០០	10,000,000	ដប់លាន	dop lean (ten million)

See also

• Khmer alphabet

External links

• Khmer language Wikipedia
• FAQ and Resources on Khmer in Unicode
• Enabling Khmer Unicode
• Ethnologue entry on Khmer
• Omniglot entry on Khmer
• Geonames Khmer Alphabet Chart