Khmer Alphabet

 

 

 

 

 

 

Khmer Language Download

Cambodian or Khmer is the national language of Cambodia, spoken by over twelve million people within the country. Mutually intelligible dialects of Cambodian are also spoken by people living in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, Thailand, in the northeastern provinces of Surin, Buriram and Sisaket. Beyond South East Asia there are sizable communities in France and USA, most of whom fled Cambodia during the 1970's.

Cambodia belongs to the Mon-Khmer language family. Most of the languages of this family are spoken in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand although a few are found further afield. with the exception of Cambodian, they are minority languages, often spoken in only a few villages.

Cambodian is unique in enjoying the status of a national language and is one of the very few Mon-Khmer languages to have a written form and an established literary tradition.

Unlike neighboring Vietnamese, Lao and Thai, Cambodian is not a tonal language. It does, however, share many common grammatical features with other major South East Asian languages. Word order in Cambodian follows a familiar subject + verb + object pattern.

Native Cambodian words tend to consist of either one or two syllables; but a large number of foreign words have been borrowed from Sanskrit, Pali, Thai and French. For the western learner, perhaps the most notable feature of the language is the lack of verb and noun inflections; indeed, with neither complicated verb tenses nor singular and plural forms of nouns to memorize, Cambodian grammar can be absorbed relatively painlessly.

Useful Khmer (Cambodian) Phrases

A few Khmer phrases/words.... Khmer : pronounce k'mire (as in fire, hire,..), is the ethnicity of ~90% of Cambodians. Can be used interchangeably with 'Cambodian'. As a noun, it refers to a Cambodian or the Cambodian language; it can also be used as an adjective.

sur sdey ................................................hello, greeting, hi

auh kun .................................................thank you

som tus ................................................I am sorry, I appologize

Khmer ...................................................pronouce k'mire as in fire, hire

baht,jass ..............................................yes, for male and female, respectively

knyom ...................................................I, me

sok sa bye chea tae? ............................How are you?/How do you do?/etc..

baht, sok sa bye tae ...............................yes, [I am] fine (answer by male)

jass, sok sa bye chea tae? ...................yes, [I am] fine (answer by female)

knyom schmursh Sambat ......................My name is Sambat

knyom aught yault ...............................I don't understand

sala .....................................................school

wat .......................................................Buhdist temple

bes pick .............................................(fruit), harvest

dong ...................................................coconut

kandal ................................................center, middle, in the center, in the middle

bong ...................................................a term used to refered to someone who is older than you are

pros ....................................................man

srey ....................................................lady, women

somakum ...........................................association,organization

cour pum cour, appei tus .....................if inappropriat, forgive me; use to sign off in letters/correspondents etc.

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Names of newspapers in Cambodia

"Samleng Yuvachun Khmer" ...............Voice of Khmer Youth

"Sereipheap Thmei" ............................New Liberty

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somakum .........................................society

acna-kutt ...........................................future

krouk laeng ......................................rise, rise up

pon mann ........................................how much (?)

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Cambodian Dances:

rom vong,

saravann,

rom kabach,

kun soungkolbreay,

lam lieuv,

jouk kabeus,

rom=dance