About Khmer

by Pisith Phlong

Number of speakers
Khmer (also called Cambodian), the official language of the Kingdom of Cambodia, is spoken by about 95% of the total population of 12 million. (Brown, Vol. 2, p. 188)

Language group
Khmer is one of the oldest languages in Southeast Asia. It is classified into the Khmeric subgroup of the Mon-Khmer group of the Austro-Asiatic language family and it is quite distinct from the other languages. (Brown, Vol. 6, p. 189; Frawley, p. 355)

History of written language and script
The Mon-Khmer group is believed to have settled in inland Southeast Asia since about 4,000 years ago, and the Khmer had contacts with India through the India-China trades since the beginning of the Christian era. Historians and linguists believe that the India-China trades influenced Cambodian culture significantly, especially the language and religion, and they believe that the Old Khmer language is closely related to the present-day Khmer. (Chandler, p. 9; Enfield, p. 47-48) The earliest dated Khmer writing was the Angkor Borei Inscription, dated 611 A.D, written in Old Khmer with scripts deriving from Brahmi scripts of India. (Brown, Vol. 6, p. 189) However, Khmer writing can be dated earlier to about the 4th or 5th century based on the paleography of undated Khmer and Sanskrit inscriptions.

Language
The historical connection of the India-China trade in Southeast Asia in the early Christian era brought Hinduism and Buddhism into the region. The Khmer adopted Hinduism at least in the 7th century, adding to their original animistic belief system. Sanskrit, a religious language of Hinduism, was used for recording royal orders, while Old Khmer was used for the record of daily life, economics, and land administration. Sanskrit and Old Khmer were the predominant languages during the pre-Angkor and Angkor Period (7th-14th century). By the 15th century, Theravada Buddhism established itself in Cambodia; the Pali and Middle Khmer languages were commonly used. Pali was used for Buddhist practices and writing, while Middle Khmer language was used for daily life. The present-day Modern Khmer evolved from Old Khmer and borrowed a lot of words from Sanskrit and Pali. Modern Khmer continues to develop through contact with the global economy. Khmer also borrows many words from French, English, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai.  (Brown, Vol. 6, p. 191; Brown, Vol.2, p. 189) Loan words between Khmer and Thai are so abundant that people often think Khmer and Thai are related to each other when in fact they belong to two different groups of languages, Austro-Asiatic and Tai. (Strazny, p. 572)

Khmer words are usually either monosyllabic or disyllabic, and they can also be formed by a combination of monosyllabic words with a prefix or infix, but not a suffix. Like other Austro-Asiatic languages, Khmer is a non-tonal language. It is a hierarchical speech language where the choice of words varies according age, gender and status of a person. A number of language types such as monastic language, royal language and common spoken language are often used in Khmer society. (Frawley, p. 359)

Scripts
Khmer writing has long been in existence, since at least the 7th century, or even as early as the 4th or the 5th century, based on studies of the scripts. Evidence from the early inscriptions showed that Old Khmer scripts developed from the Brahmi scripts of India. (Frawley, p. 355) Khmer scripts can be divided into three different periods: 1) Old Khmer scripts (ca 5th – 14th century) were used during the Pre-Angkor and Angkor period to inscribe on stone slabs for religious and economic purposes. 2) Middle Khmer scripts (15th -19th century) were slightly developed from the Old Khmer scripts, used in the Modern Angkor Inscriptions, in royal chronicles and in Buddhist manuscripts of Pali language; 3) Present Khmer scripts have two forms of writing: mul form (round) is used to write Pali texts, and for books and newspaper titles and headings; crien form (sloping) is used for ordinary writing. (Herbert, p. 51-53) Khmer writing is from left to right, and there is no space between words. Words are formed by the combination of 33 consonants, 27 vowels and 12 independent vowels; usually vowels are placed before, after, above, or below the initial consonant. Khmer has one of the largest number of vowels of all languages, a characteristic of the Austro-Asiatic language family, especially in the Mon Khmer group. (Strazny, p. 571-572)

Other Dialects
As an old language of the Mon Khmer group in Southeast Asia, Khmer is not only spoken in Cambodia, it is also spoken by people in the neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. Besides the official Khmer spoken by majority of Cambodians, there are another three different Khmer dialect groups identified: 1) the Lower Khmer (Khmer Krom or Southern Khmer) is spoken by about 1 million people in Southern Vietnam; 2) the Upper Khmer (Khmer Leu or Khmer Surin) is spoken by about 1.3 million people north of the Dangrek Mountains in Sri Saket, Surin and Buriram in eastern Thailand; 3) Western Khmer, spoken by a small number of Khmer along the Cardamom Mountains up to Prachinburi, Chanthaburi and Trat of Thailand. The Upper Khmer and Western Khmer still preserve the vocal register and the final sound ‘r’ of words in their pronunciation, while it has disappeared in other groups of Khmer speakers. These two groups might have separated from the present Khmer at about the Middle period (15th - 19th century). (Brown, Vol. 6, p. 189; Frawley, p. 356)

Comparison to Western languages
Khmer differs from the Western languages in a number of ways. It has no inflection of noun with adjective, pronoun with verb in terms of number and gender; words are formed by adding a prefix or infix, but not suffix; sentence structure is arranged in Subject-Verb-Object and the adjective is preceded by the noun in compound nouns. Usually, a word can change its class from being a verb to a noun, a transitive to an intransitive verb, or a noun to a modifier. (Brown, Vol. 6, p. 191; Brown, Vol. 2, p. 188; Frawley, p. 357)

References

• Brown, K. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Volume 6. (2nd ed.). Elsevier: Oxford, 2006.
• Brown, K. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Volume 2. (2nd ed.). Elsevier: Oxford, 2006.
• Chandler, D. P., A History of Cambodia, (2nd ed.). Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Pres, 1992.
• Enfield, N. J. Linguistics epidemiology : semantics and grammar of language contact in mainland Southeast Asia. RoutledgeCurzon: London and New York, 2003.
• Frawley, W. J. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Vol. 2. (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Herbert, P. and Milner, A. Southeast Asia, Languages and Literatures. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu, 1989.
• Strazny, P. Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Vol. 1. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005.