What you name?
and where is the bathroom?
It all started in India
thousands of years ago. And came to Cambodia at least 1,300 years
ago. We know this from examining the writings on the temples of the
Angkor Wat complex. Also, the sounds of the current Khmer alphabet are
very similar to the modern day Hindi alphabet and several words sound
similar.
Since those times, the writing has been made much more complex (and
difficult to read) by adding letters and extra swirls and lines to the
the letters.
This original Hindi language is one of the root languages, not only
of Khmer (Cambodian Language), but also of Thai, Laos, and Burma. While
the written system of the language has many similarities throughout all
these countries, the numbers are all written the same or very similar.
Khmer is written from left to right, top to bottom,
withnospacesbetweenthewords and with very little punctuation There are 3
styles of writing: the standard textbook style which is used in
handwriting, a block form based on the standard style used in magazines
and newspapers, and a rounded style used on signs, titles of books and
magazines, and in places on official documents and formal invitations.
The Khmer alphabet is considered to have 33 consonants and 23 vowels. There are many more consonants and vowels not included in the standard alphabet.
The spoken language has no particular tone, as the Thai and Vietnamese languages do. There are no regional dialects, but people from the countryside do speak a little differently from the people in the cities.
And now….. on to some Khmer words and phrases.
What is your name? |
Please |
I don’t understand what you say |
|
One |
There is a fly in my soup Meeun roy kanung soop kinyum Where is the bathroom? Bantoop duk no I na? No problem Aut bine yaha How are you? Saak sabai tay? I’m fine Sok sabai Goodbye Som leea hi See you tomorrow Sa aik chooup kaneea I want to go to Bokor Mountain Kinyum chung dto panoom boko |