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Khmer language

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Khmer
[pʰiːəsaː kʰmaːe]
Native toCambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, the People's Republic of China, USA, France, Australia
Native speakers
15.7 to 21.6 million (2004)
  • Native speakers: 14.7 to 20.6 million
    • Cambodia: 12.1 million
    • Vietnam: 1,055,174[1]
    • Thailand: 1.2 million
    • USA: 190,000
    • France: ca. 50,000
    • Australia: 22,000
    • Canada: 16,500
  • 2nd language speakers: 1 million in Cambodia
Official status
Official language in
Cambodia
Language codes
ISO 639-1km
ISO 639-2khm
ISO 639-3Either:
khm – Central Khmer
kxm – Northern Khmer
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ), or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. One of the more prominent Austroasiatic languages, the language has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through the vehicles of Buddhism and Hinduism. As a result of geographic proximity, the Khmer language has affected, and also been affected by, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and Cham which all form a sprachbund in peninsular Southeast Asia.[2]

Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Thai, Lao and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language. It has three main dialects that are mutually intelligible: the Phnom Penh (considered the standard), Northern Khmer, also known as Khmer Surin, spoken by ethnic Khmer native to Northeast Thailand, and Cardamom Khmer, an archaic form spoken by a small population in the Cardamom Mountains of Western Cambodia.[3]

History

Linguistic study of the Khmer language divides its history into four periods.[4] Pre-Angkorian Khmer, the language after its divergence from Proto-Mon-Khmer until the ninth century, is only known from words and phrases in Sanskrit texts of the era. Old Khmer (or Angkorian Khmer) is the language as it was spoken in the Khmer Empire from the 9th century until the weakening of the empire sometime in the 13th century. Old Khmer is attested by many primary sources and has been studied in depth by a few scholars, most notably Saveros Pou, Phillip Jenner and Heinz-Jürgen Pinnow. Following the end of the Khmer Empire the language lost the standardizing influence of being the language of government and accordingly underwent a turbulent period of change in morphology, phonology and lexicon. The language of this transition period, from about the 14th to 18th centuries, is referred to as Middle Khmer and saw borrowing from Thai, Lao and, to a lesser extent, Vietnamese. The changes during this period are so profound that the rules of modern khmer can not be applied to correctly understand the Old Khmer. The language became recognizable as the Modern Khmer spoken today in the 19th century.[4]

Phonology

Modern Standard Khmer has the following consonant and vowel phonemes. The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds of the spoken language, not how they are written in the Khmer alphabet.

Consonants

Labial Apical Palatal Velar Glottal
Aspirated plosive pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ
Unaspirated plosive p t c k ʔ
Implosive ɓ ɗ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Liquid r l
Fricative s h
Approximant ʋ j

The consonants /f/, /ʃ/, /z/ and /g/ occur only in loanwords from French and other recent introductions.

Vowel nuclei

Long vowels iː eː ɛː ɨː əː aː uː oː ɔː
Short vowels i e ɨ ə ɐ a u o
Long diphthongs iə ei ɐe ɨə əɨ ɐə ao uə ou ɔə
Short diphthongs eə̆ uə̆ oə̆

The precise number and the phonetic value of vowel nuclei vary from dialect to dialect. Short and long vowels of equal quality are distinguished solely by duration.

Syllable structure

Khmer words are predominantly of one or two syllables. There are 85 possible clusters of two consonants at the beginning of syllables and two three-consonant clusters with phonetic alterations as shown below:

p ɓ t ɗ c k ʔ m n ɲ ŋ j l r s h ʋ
p pʰt- pɗ- pʰc pʰk- pʔ- pʰn- pʰɲ- pʰŋ- pʰj- pʰl- pr- ps-
t tʰp- tɓ tʰk- tʔ- tʰm- tʰn- tʰŋ- tʰj- tʰl- tr- tʰʋ
c cʰp- cɓ cʰk- cʔ- cʰm- cʰn- cʰŋ- cʰl- cr- cʰʋ-
k kʰp- kɓ kʰt- kɗ- kʰc kʔ- kʰm- kʰn- kʰɲ- kŋ- kʰj- kʰl- kr- ks- kʰʋ-
s sp- sɓ st- sɗ- sk- sʔ- sm- sn- sɲ- sŋ- sl- sr- sʋ
ʔ ʔʋ-
m mt- mɗ- mc mʔ- mʰn- mʰɲ- ml- mr- ms- mh-
l lp- lɓ lk- lʔ- lm- lŋ- lh- lʋ-

Syllables begin with one of these consonants or consonant clusters, followed by one of the vowel nuclei. When the vowel nucleus is short, there has to be a final consonant. /p/ /t/ /c/ /k/ /ʔ/ /m/ /n/ /ɲ/ /ŋ/ /l/ /h/ /j/ and /ʋ/, can exist in a syllable coda. /h/ and /ʋ/ become [ç] and [w] respectively. The most common word structure in Khmer is a full syllable as described above, preceded by an unstressed, “minor” syllable that has a consonant-vowel (CV) structure CV-, CrV-, CVN- or CrVN- (N is any nasal in the Khmer inventory). Words can also be made up of two full syllables. The vowel in these preceding syllables is usually reduced in conversation to [ə], however in careful or formal speech and in TV and radio, they are always clearly articulated.

Words with three or more syllables exist, particularly in science, the arts and religion. These words are loanwords, usually derived from Pali, Sanskrit, or more recently, French.

Grammar

Main article: Khmer grammar

Khmer is generally a Subject Verb Object (SVO) language with prepositions.[5] Although primarily an isolating language, lexical derivation by means of prefixes and infixes is common.[6] Adjectives, demonstratives and numerals follow their noun:

ស្រីឡើនោះ /srəːj lʔɐː nuç/ (girl pretty that) = that pretty girl

The noun has no grammatical gender or singular/plural distinction. Plurality can be marked by postnominal particles, numerals, or by doubling the adjective, which can also serve to intensify the adjective:

ឆែ្កធំ /cʰkae tʰom/ (dog large) = large dog

ឆែ្កធំធំ /cʰkae tʰom tʰom/ (dog large large) = large dogs or a very large dog

ឆែ្កពីរ /cʰkae ɓəːj/ (dog three) = three dogs

Classifying particles for use between numerals and nouns exist although are not obligatory as in, for example, Thai. As is typical of most East Asian languages,[7] the verb does not inflect at all; tense and aspect can be shown by particles and adverbs or understood by context. Verbs are negated by putting "/min/", "/pum/" or "/ʔɐt/" before them and "/teː/" at the end of the sentence or clause.

ខ្ញុំជឿ /kʰɲom cɨə/ - I believe

ខ្ញុំមិនជឿទេ /kʰɲom min cɨə teː/ - I don't believe

Social registers

Khmer employs a system of registers in which the speaker must always be conscious of the social status of the person spoken to. The different registers, which include those used for common speech, polite speech, speaking to or about royals and speaking to or about monks, employ alternate verbs, names of body parts and pronouns. This results in what appears to foreigners as separate languages and, in fact, isolated villagers often are unsure how to speak with royals and royals raised completely within the court do not feel comfortable speaking the common register. Another result is that the pronominal system is complex and full of honorific variations.

As an example, the word for "to eat" used between intimates or in reference to animals is /siː/. Used in polite reference to commoners, it's /ɲam/. When used of those of higher social status, it's /pisa/ or /tɔtuəl tiən/. For monks the word is /cʰan/ and for royals, /saoj/.[2]

Numbers

The numbers[6] are:

0 ០ សូន្យ (son) /soːu̯n/
1 ១ មួយ (muŏy) /muːə̯j/
2 ២ ពីរ (pi) /piː/
3 ៣ បី (bei) /ɓəj/
4 ៤ បួន (buŏn) /ɓuːə̯n/
5 ៥ ប្រាំ (prăm) /pram/
6 ៦ ប្រាំមូយ (prăm muŏy) /pram muːə̯j/
7 ៧ ប្រាំពីរ (prăm pi) /pram piː/ (also /pram pɨl/)
8 ៨ ប្រាំបី (prăm bei) /pram ɓəj/
9 ៩ ប្រាំបួន (prăm buŏn) /pram ɓuːə̯n/
10 ១០ ដប់ (dâp) /ɗɑp/
100 ១០០ មួយរយ (muŏy rôy) /muːə̯j rɔj/
1,000 ១០០០ មួយពាន់ (muŏy péan) /muːə̯j piːə̯n/
10,000 ១០០០០ មួយមុី់ន (muŏy mein) /muːə̯j məjn/
100,000 ១០០០០០ មួយសែន (muŏy sên) /muːə̯j saːe̯n/
1,000,000 ១០០០០០០ មួយលាន (muŏy léan) /muːə̯j liːə̯n/

Dialects

Dialects are sometimes quite marked. Notable variations are found in speakers from Phnom Penh (the capital city), the rural Battambang area, the areas of Northeast Thailand adjacent to Cambodia such as Surin province, the Cardamom Mountains, and in southern Vietnam.[4] The dialects form a continuum running roughly north to south. The speech of Phnom Penh, considered the standard, is mutually intelligible with the others but a Khmer Krom speaker from Vietnam, for instance, may have great difficulty communicating with a Khmer native to Sisaket Province in Thailand.

Northern Khmer, the dialect spoken in Thailand, is referred to in Khmer as Khmer Surin and, although it only began divergence from standard Khmer within the last 200 years, is considered by some linguists to be a separate language. This is due to its distinct accent influenced by the surrounding tonal language, Thai, lexical differences and its phonemic differences in both vowels and distribution of consonants. Final "r", which has become silent in other dialects of Khmer, is pronounced in Northern Khmer.

Western Khmer, also called Cardamom Khmer, spoken by a small, isolated population in the Cardamom mountain range extending from Cambodia into Thailand, although little studied, is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer.[4]

A notable characteristic of Phnom Penh casual speech is merging or complete elision of syllables, considered by speakers from other regions as a "relaxed" pronunciation. For instance, "Phnom Penh" will sometimes be shortened to "m'Penh". Another characteristic of Phnom Penh speech is observed in words with an "r" either as an initial consonant or as the second member of a consonant cluster (as in the English word "bread"). The "r", trilled or flapped in other dialects, is either pronounced as an uvular trill (similar to French) or not pronounced at all. This alters the quality of any preceding consonant causing a harder, more emphasized pronunciation. Another unique result is that the syllable is spoken with a low-rising or "dipping" tone much like the "hỏi" tone in Northern Vietnamese. For example, some people pronounce /trəj/ (meaning "fish") as /təj/, the "r" is dropped and the vowel begins by dipping much lower in tone than standard speech and then rises, effectively doubling its length. Another example is the word /riən/ ("study, learn"). It is pronounced /ʀiən/, with the "uvular r" and the same intonation described above.[8]

Writing system

Main article: Khmer script

Khmer is written with the Khmer script, an abugida developed from the Pallava script of India before the 7th century.[9] The Khmer script is similar in appearance and usage to both Thai and Lao which were based on the Khmer system.[9] Khmer numerals, which were inherited from Indian numerals, are used more widely than Hindu-Arabic numerals. The Khmer script is also used within Cambodia to transcribe hill tribe languages that have no writing system.[10]


References and notes

  1. ^ Vietnams estimated amount of Khmer speakers by Ethnologue.com in (1999)
  2. ^ a b David A. Smyth, Judith Margaret Jacob (1993). Cambodian Linguistics, Literature and History: Collected Articles. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0728602180.
  3. ^ Nancy Joan Smith-Hefner (1999). Khmer American: Identity and Moral Education in a Diasporic Community. University of California. ISBN 0520213491.
  4. ^ a b c d Mon-Khmer Studies Paul Sidwell. Australian National University. Accessed February 23, 2007.
  5. ^ Huffman, Franklin. 1967. An outline of Cambodian Grammar. PhD thesis, Cornell University.
  6. ^ a b David Smyth (1995). Colloquial Cambodian: A Complete Language Course. Routledge (UK). ISBN 0415100062.
  7. ^ East and Southeast Asian Languages: A First Look at Oxford University Press Online
  8. ^ William Allen A. Smalley (1994). Linguistic Diversity and National Unity: Language Ecology in Thailand. University of Chicago. ISBN 0226762882.
  9. ^ a b Khmer Alphabet at Omniglot.com
  10. ^ Huffman, Franklin. 1970. Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-01314-0

Further reading

  • Ferlus, Michel. 1992. Essai de phonétique historique du khmer (Du milieu du premier millénaire de notre ère à l'époque actuelle)", Mon-Khmer Studies XXI: 57-89)
  • Headley, Robert et al. 1977. Cambodian-English Dictionary. Washington, Catholic University Press.
  • Jacob, Judith. 1974. A Concise Cambodian-English Dictionary. London, Oxford University Press.
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