Khmer script
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Ancient Khmer script engraved on stone. |
The
Khmer script (អក'ខរក'រមខេមរភាសា: âkkhârâkrâm khémâraphéasa) is used to write the
Khmer language which is the official language of
Cambodia. The oldest dated inscription in Khmer, found at Angkor Borei in Takev Province south of Phnom Penh, dates from 611 AD, but Khmer script was probably in use much earlier. Prior to the development of the Khmer script, a southern
indic script similar to that used to write (
Sanskrit) at the time, was in use for several hundred years. The Khmer script is thought to be the oldest writing system among
Southeast Asian cultures after the
Mon script. Mon script was developed around the 8th century and Thai script was established in the late 13th century (1292 AD). The Khmer script is also used in Cambodia to write a few minority languages that have no script of their own.
The Khmer alphabet has fewer symbols for
vowels than the language has vowel
phonemes. To account for this, each consonant belongs to one of two series, and the vowel produced depends on which series the consonant belongs to (making it an
abugida rather than a true
alphabet). Therefore, most vowel signs have two possible pronunciations, depending on which series the consonant belongs to. When no vowel sign is present, usually the inherent vowel of the consonant is used. Vowels signs can be divided into two groups: dependent vowel signs, which are written around a consonant letter, and independent vowel letters, which can stand alone. Dependent vowel signs are used more frequently than independent vowels and all independent vowel letters 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.
There are several styles of Khmer script which are used for different purposes.
*
'Âksâr chriĕng' refers to slanted (or italic) letters. Slanted letters do not serve the same purpose as italics in English, so entire bodies of text such as novels and other publications may be produced in 'âksâr chriĕng' .
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'Âksâr chhôr' refers to any style that is "standing" or upright. Upright letters were previously not as common as 'âksâr chriĕng', but now most computer fonts display Khmer text upright by default for ease of reading.
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'Âksâr mul' is a round style which is used for titles and headings in Cambodian documents, books, or currency, on shop signs or banners. Religious text on palm leaves can be entirely composed of this style of script. It is sometimes used to write royal names while the surrounding text remains plain. Several consonants and some subscripts in this style take on different forms than their counterparts in the standard orthography.
*
'Âksâr khôm' is a variation of 'âksâr mul', with only minor differences.
These last two styles, when handwritten, are usually pencil-line width. Most Khmer computer fonts depict neither style correctly; in fact, some may meld elements of 'âksâr mul' and 'âksâr khôm' into one style, so generally either is referred to as 'âksâr mul'.
There are 35 Khmer consonants symbols, although modern Khmer only uses 33, two having become obsolete. Subscript consonants are special forms used to form consonant clusters. Also sometimes referred to as "sub-consonants", subscript consonants often resemble the corresponding consonant symbol, only smaller. In Khmer, they are known as 'cheung âksâr' (ជើងអក'សរ), meaning the
foot of a letter. In forming consonant clusters, the second (and where necessary, the third) consonant sound of the cluster is written as a subscript which cancels the inherent vowel of the preceding consonant. Most subscript consonants are written directly below consonant which they follow, although subscript /r/ is written before while a few others have ascending elements which appear after.
Listed in the table below are the pronunciations of the consonants when recited. Although Khmer spelling is very regular, the pronunciation of some consonants may be slightly different from the recited version in a few words. This is especially true in loan words. The
IPA values given are for consonants in the initial or medial position. Because of Khmer phonology, in which final stops are
unreleased and possible finals are limited, word-final values may differ. For example, word-final /s/ is pronounced /h/ and word-final /r/ is silent. The inherent vowels of consonants in the final position are almost never pronounced. The two obsolete consonants are highlighted in gray.
| Consonants | Subscript form | Transliteration | IPA | | ក | 'ក | kâ | |
| ខ | 'ខ | khâ | |
| គ | 'គ | kô | |
| ឃ | 'ឃ | khô | |
| ង | 'ង | ngô | |
| ច | 'ច | châ | |
| ឆ | 'ឆ | chhâ | |
| ជ | 'ជ | chô | |
| ឈ | 'ឈ | chhô | |
| ញ | 'ញ | nhô | |
| ដ | 'ដ | dâ | |
| ឋ | 'ឋ | thâ | |
| ឌ | 'ឌ | dô | |
| ឍ | 'ឍ | thô | |
| ណ | 'ណ | nâ | |
| ត | 'ត | tâ | |
| ថ | 'ថ | thâ | |
| ទ | 'ទ | tô | |
| ' | '' | thô | |
| " | '" | nô | |
| " | '" | bâ | |
| ផ | 'ផ | phâ | |
| ព | 'ព | pô | |
| ភ | 'ភ | phô | |
| ម | 'ម | mô | |
| យ | 'យ | yô | |
| រ | 'រ | rô | |
| ល | 'ល | lô | |
| វ | 'វ | vô | |
| ឝ | 'ឝ | shâ | - |
| ឞ | 'ឞ | ssô | - |
| ស | 'ស | sâ | |
| ហ | 'ហ | hâ | |
| ឡ | 'ឡ* | lâ | |
| អ | 'អ | qâ | |
* The subscript for the consonant
lâ is included in Unicode even though it is never used in modern Khmer.
For some phonemes in
loanwords, the Khmer writing system has 'created' supplementary consonants. Most of these consonants are created by stacking a subscript under the character for. The consonant for , however, is created by using the diacritical sign called
musĕkâtônd over the consonant for . These additional consonants are mainly used to represent sounds in French and Thai loanwords.
| Supplementary consonants | Transliteration! IPA | | ហ'គ | gâ | |
| ហ'" | nâ | |
| "៉ | pâ | |
| ហ'ម | mâ | |
| ហ'ល | lâ | |
| ហ'វ | fâ, wâ | , |
| ហ'ស | žâ | |
There are 23 dependent vowel symbols, however this number varies depending on the source, some of which count certain diacritics, and their combination with basic vowel symbols, as unique vowel symbols. Dependent vowels are known in Khmer as
srăk nissăy (ស'រៈ"ិស'ស័យ) or
srăk phsâm (ស'រៈផ'សំ). Dependent vowels always have to be combined with a consonant in
orthography. For most vowel symbols, there are two
phones. The phone used depends on the series (or the inherent vowel) of the dominant consonant in a syllable cluster. Some vowel symbols may even have a regular third or fourth phone after certain consonants.
Dependent
vowels | Transliteration | IPA | | a-series | o-series | a-series | o-series |
|---|
| ា | a | éa | | |
| ិ | ĕ | ĭ | | |
| ី | ei | i | | |
| ឹ | ŏe | | |
| ឺ | " | | |
| ុ | ŏ | ŭ | | |
| ូ | o | u | | |
| ួ | uŏ | | | |
| ើ | aeu | eu | | |
| ឿ | eua | |
| ៀ | iĕ | |
| េ | é | | |
| ែ | ê | | | |
| ៃ | ai | ey | | |
| ោ | aô | oŭ | | |
| ៅ | au | ŏu | | |
| ុំ | om | ŭm | | |
| ំ | âm | um | | |
| ាំ | ăm | ŏâm | | |
| ះ | ăh | eăh | | |
Independent vowels are vowels that do not have to be paired with a consonant in a syllable, hence the name. In Khmer they are called
srăk penhtuŏ (ស'រៈពេញតួ) which means
complete vowels.
Independent
vowels | Transliteration! IPA | | ឣ | â | |
| ឤ | a | |
| ឥ | ĕ | |
| ឦ | ei | |
| ឧ | ŏ | |
| ឨ | | |
| ឩ | ŭ | |
| ឪ | ŏu | |
| ឫ | rŏe | |
| ឬ | r" | |
| ឭ | lŏe | |
| ឮ | l" | |
| ឯ | é | |
| ឰ | ai | |
| ឱ, ឲ | aô | |
| ឳ | âu | |
| Diacritics | Name! Notes | | ំ | nĭkkôhĕt ("ិគ'គហិត) | nasalizes dependent or inherent vowels, see anusvara, sometimes used to represent [aɲ] in Sanskrit |
| ះ | reăhmŭkh (រះមុខ) | adds final aspiration to dependent or inherent vowels, usually omitted, corresponds to the visarga diacritic, it maybe included as dependent vowel symbol |
| ៈ | yŭkôleăkpĭntŭ (យុគលពិ"'ទុ) | adds final glottalness to dependent or inherent vowels, usually omitted, a relatively new diacritic |
| ៉ | musĕkâtônd (មូសិកទ"'ដ) | used to convert some o-series consonants to the a-series |
| ៊ | trei sâpt (ត'រីសព'ទ) | used to convert some a-series consonants to the o-series |
| ុ | kbiĕh kraôm (ក'"ៀសក'រោម) | used in place when the two diacritics above interfere with superscript vowels |
| ់ | bântăk (""'តក់) | used to shorten some vowels |
| ៌ | rôbat (រ"ាទ), répheăk (រេផៈ) | behaves similarly to the tôndâkhéat, corresponds to the Devanagari diacritic 'repha', however it lost its original function |
| ៍ | tôndâkhéat (ទណ'ឌឃាដ) | used to render some letters as unpronounced |
| ៎ | kakâbat (កាក"ាទ) | more a punctuation mark than a diacritic; used in writing to indicate the rising intonation of an exclamation or interjection; often placed on particles such as /na/, /n/, /n/, /vj/, and the feminine response /cah/ |
| ័ | sanhyoŭk sannha (សំយោគសញ'ញា) | represents a short inherent vowel in Sanskrit and Pali words, usually omitted |
| ៑ | vĭréam (វិរាម) | a mostly obsolete diacritic, corresponds to the virama |
| ' | cheung (ចើង) | a.w. coeng; a sign developed for Unicode to input subscript consonants, appearance of this sign varies among fonts |
The Khmer script uses several unique punctuation marks as well as some borrowed from the Latin script such as the
question mark. The period in the Khmer language """ resembles an
eighth rest in music writing.
Most consonants, including a few of the subscripts, form
ligatures with all dependent vowels that contain the symbol used for the vowel
a (ា). A lot of these ligatures are easily recognizable, however a few may not be. One of the more unrecognizable is the ligature for the
bâ and
a which was created to differentiate it from the consonant symbol
hâ as well as the ligature for
châ and
a. It is not always necessary to connect consonants with the dependent vowel
a.
Examples of ligatured symbols:
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Khmerligatures1.gif |
Ligatured consonant subscript and vowel combination:
 |
Khmerligatures2.gif |
Khmer has its own set of numerals derive from Indian numerals, which is also used by the Thais.
Arabic numerals are used to a lesser extent.
| Khmer numerals | ០ | ១ | ២ | ៣ | ៤ | ៥ | ៦ | ៧ | ៨ | ៩ | | Arabic numerals | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|
| | | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
| 1780 | | ក | ខ | គ | ឃ | ង | ច | ឆ | ជ | ឈ | ញ | ដ | ឋ | ឌ | ឍ | ណ | ត |
| 1790 | | ថ | ទ | ' | " | " | ផ | ព | ភ | ម | យ | រ | ល | វ | ឝ | ឞ | ស |
| 17A0 | | ហ | ឡ | អ | ឣ | ឤ | ឥ | ឦ | ឧ | ឨ | ឩ | ឪ | ឫ | ឬ | ឭ | ឮ | ឯ |
| 17B0 | | ឰ | ឱ | ឲ | ឳ | ឴ | ឵ | ា | ិ | ី | ឹ | ឺ | ុ | ូ | ួ | ើ | ឿ |
| 17C0 | | ៀ | េ | ែ | ៃ | ោ | ៅ | ំ | ះ | ៈ | ៉ | ៊ | ់ | ៌ | ៍ | ៎ | ៏ |
| 17D0 | | ័ | ៑ | ' | " | " | ៕ | ៖ | ៗ | ៘ | ៙ | ៚ | ៛ | ៜ | ៝ | | |
| 17E0 | | ០ | ១ | ២ | ៣ | ៤ | ៥ | ៦ | ៧ | ៨ | ៩ | | | | | | |
| 17F0 | | ៰ | ៱ | ៲ | ៳ | ៴ | ៵ | ៶ | ៷ | ៸ | ៹ | | | | | | |
| 19E0 | | ᧠ | ᧡ | ᧢ | ᧣ | ᧤ | ᧥ | ᧦ | ᧧ | ᧨ | ᧩ | ᧪ | ᧫ | ᧬ | ᧭ | ᧮ | ᧯ |
| 19F0 | | ᧰ | ᧱ | ᧲ | ᧳ | ᧴ | ᧵ | ᧶ | ᧷ | ᧸ | ᧹ | ᧺ | ᧻ | ᧼ | ᧽ | ᧾ | ᧿ |
The alphabetical sorting order for Khmer is as follows:
Consonants:
កខគឃងចឆជឈញដឋឌឍណតថទ'""ផពភមយរឫឬលឭឮវសហឡអ
Vowels: ័៉៏៌់ឥឦឧឩឪឯឰឱឳាិីឹឺុូួើឿៀេែៃោៅុំំាំះុះេះោះ
Symbols: ᧠᧡᧢᧣᧤᧥᧦᧧᧨᧩᧪᧫᧬᧭᧮᧯᧰᧱᧲᧳᧴᧵᧶᧷᧸᧹᧺᧻᧼᧽᧾᧿*Dictionnaire Cambodgien, Vol I & II, 1967, L'institut Bouddhique (Khmer Language)
*Huffman, Franklin. 1970. Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300013140
*Jacob, Judith. 1974. A Concise Cambodian-English Dictionary. London, Oxford University Press.* Khmer language
* Brahmic family*FAQ and Resources on Khmer in Unicode
*Enabling Khmer Unicode
*How to Install Khmer Unicode on your Windows XP Computer
*Omniglot entry on Khmer
*Geonames Khmer Alphabet Chart
*Khmer Romanization Table (PDF)
*Evolution of the Khmer script
*Authentic Khmer Online (common phrases in Khmer script with audio file examples)
