Khmer Language Guide

Official language in
Cambodia
Also spoken in
Thailand, Vietnam
Script
Khmer
Speakers
15M (2019)

Where it's spoken

Khmer is the official language of Cambodia, and Cambodia's constitution makes Khmer both the official language and the official script. Dialects of Khmer are also spoken by a few million people in northeastern Thailand (Surin Khmer) and in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam (Khmer Kraom); the Unicode Standard describes these dialects as mutually intelligible.

Within Cambodia, the speech of people from Siem Reap, from Battambang in the north, and from other areas differs from that of Phnom Penh, where the generally standard pronunciation is heard. Alongside the standard pronunciation, "alternate pronunciations" that change or drop consonants or syllables at the beginning or end of a word are very widely used, and they can confuse learners who are unaware of them; one textbook example is the word ខ្ញុំ ("I / me"), which is compressed in rapid speech.

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Script & pronunciation

Khmer is written in its own script, called aksaa khmae ("Khmer letters"), which descends from the Brahmi script of South India, as do the Thai, Lao and Myanmar scripts. It is written from left to right. Each consonant letter carries an inherent vowel, and other vowels are shown with signs placed before, above, below, and/or after the consonant. Consonant letters are organized into two series, or registers, whose inherent vowels are nominally -a in the first and -o in the second. A consonant that follows the first consonant of a written syllable is written as a subscript sign called coeng ("foot, leg"), as in ខ្ញុំ ("I / me"). Khmer does not put spaces between words, although it does use spaces between clauses.

There is no standardized or universally accepted romanization of Khmer, so different transliterations are used for Khmer script. This app's cards also vary: the men's "yes," បាទ, is written Bat on one card and Baat on another, and the women's ចាស is written Chas on one card and Chaa on another.

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Grammar essentials

Khmer is described as an analytic, isolating language: word parts combine without changing form, and particles and auxiliary words show how words relate to each other. The general word order is subject–verb–object. Modifiers typically follow the word they modify, and an adjective usually comes after its noun, so hot water is ទឹកក្តៅ (tuk kdav), literally "water" + "hot," as in the card "Do you have hot water for instant noodles?" No word for "to be" is used before an adjective.

To say "not," put មិន (min) or អត់ (At) before the main verb and ទេ (te) at the end of the statement, as in ខ្ញុំមិនយល់ទេ (Khnhom min yol te, "I don't understand"). The final ទេ is optional and is omitted in spoken language.

ទេ (te) is a question particle placed at the end of the question sentence, as in អ្នកសុខសប្បាយទេ? (Neak sok sabay te?, "How are you?"). In formal questions a question can also begin with the particle តើ (Tae), which is commonly used in written language and in formal situations, as in តើលោកមានបណ្ណសមាជិកទេ? (Tae lok mean ban samachik te?, "Do you have a membership card?").

People are counted with the classifier neak, and when it is used with "one," it is contracted, as in មនុស្សពេញវ័យម្នាក់ (Mnus penh-vey mneak, "One adult, please").

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Politeness & etiquette

Men say បាទ and women say ចាស for "yes," as on the card បាទ / ចាស (Baat / Chaa, "Yes"). When one of these words comes at the start of a sentence, it makes the sentence polite. These response particles work as a polite acknowledgment of what the other person has just said, and a negative reply is one of them followed by ទេ, or ទេ alone.

The formal and respectful way to say hello is ជំរាបសួរ (Chumreab sour, "Hello (formal)"), said with the sampeah: the hands clasped together in a lotus-bud shape, as if praying, with the head bowed. Where the sampeah is held depends on the age of, and relationship with, the person being greeted; the higher the hands and the lower the bow, the more respect is shown.

Title nouns can be used as pronouns to show formality and politeness: លោក (lok, "you (respectful, to a man)") works as a polite "you," as in តើលោកមានបណ្ណសមាជិកទេ? (Tae lok mean ban samachik te?, "Do you have a membership card?").

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