Introduction
Khmer is used synonymously to mean the Cambodian languange as well as the people. The oldest known Khmer text was written on stone and was found at Ankor Borei in Takev Province, dating to 611A.D.
The modern Khmer language consists of 33 consanants, 23 dependent vowels, and 12 independent vowels. The consonants are broken up into two series of either "light" or "strong" sounds. The dependent vowels have two possible sounds, depending on whether a "light" or "strong" consonant is used. When no vowels are present, the inherent sound of the consonant is used. Independent vowels are those that can stand alone or be combined with consonsants to form words. In addition to the changing sounds, the Khmer language also consists of diacritics that can also change the pronunciation of consonsants and vowels.
The Khmer letters presented herein are Romanized in accordance with UNGEN (United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names) which is commonly used on recent Cambodian maps. For more details on how UNGEN standard, download the following file: roman-khmer.
Consonants Sets: There are 33 consonants. Each consonant falls in either the "light" or "strong" series. Those highlighed in BLUE are "light" sound while the ones in RED are "strong" sounds.
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k
|
x
|
K
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X
|
g
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| ka | kha | ko | kho | ngo |
|
c
|
q
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C
|
Q
|
j
|
| cha | chha | cho | chho | nho |
|
d
|
z
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D
|
Z
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N
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| da | tha | do | tho | na |
|
t
|
f
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T
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F
|
n
|
| ta | tha | to | tho | no |
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b
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p
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B
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F
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m
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| ba | pa | po | pho | mo |
|
y
|
r
|
l
|
v
|
s
|
| yo | ro | lo | vo | sa |
| h | L | G | ||
| ha | la | 'a |
Dependent Vowel Sets: There are 23 dependent vowels. Each dependent vowel has two sounds. When combined with the "light" consonant, they make a "light" sound and when combined with a "strong" consonant, they make a "strong" sound. Khmer vowels can appear before, after, above, or below, or even surround the consonants. The O below respresents a consonant.
| 0a | 0i | 0I | 0w | 0W | 0u | 0U | 0Y | ||||
| a-ea | e-i | ei-i | oe | oe | o | uo | uo | ||||
| e0I | e0O | e0o | e0 | E0 | «0 | 0Mu | 0M | 0aM | |||
| 0H | 0uH | e0H | e0aH |
Independent Vowel Sets: The independent vowels are listed below.
Khmer Numbers are Listed Below: Khmer numbers consists of 10 digits, starting from 0 to 9. The numbers are written from left to right as in romanized numbers. Below are the Khmer numbers and the corresponding, along with their pronunciation and their equivalent in roman numbers.
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0
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
|
|
sone
|
muey
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bpi
|
beay
|
buon
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prum
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prum-muey
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prum-bpi
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prum-beay
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prum-buon
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|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
|
|
|||||||||
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| dop-muey | dop-bpi | dop-beay | dop-buon | dop-prum | dop-prum-muey | dop-prum-bpi | dop-prum-beay | dop-prum-buon | dop-pru |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
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|
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| 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100 | 200 |
| 1000 | 2000 | 10000 | 20000 | 100000 | 200000 | 1000000 | 2000000 | ||