Learn Khmer With Me: Khmer Consonants

Chum reap suor (chumree-uhp soo-uh)! That is a more formal way of saying hello. See, already you've learned two ways of saying hello and one way to say goodbye!

Before we begin our language learning, just a little more on the history and background of Khmer. We'll do a little bit of background like this in each entry. Linguistic study of the Khmer language divides its history into four periods one of which, the Old Khmer period, is subdivided into pre-Angkorian and Angkorian. This is what Dr. Sak-Humphry, one of the preeminent scholars of Old Khmer, has to say about it (I trust her much more than the Wikipedia article on Khmer language that has some gross inaccuracies)

From: The Syntax of Nouns and Noun Phrases of Pre-Angkorian Khmer Dated Inscriptions.
Mon-Khmer Studies Vol. 22:1-126, A Journal of Southeast Asian Languages, Mahidol University.

Our first lesson is to learn the alphabet, beginning with the consonants. If you are following along in the Communicating in Khmer textbook and CD-Rom this is the first unit, and independent consonants.

Just like the English "ABCs" the letters of Khmer have names. There are a lot of YouTube videos out there that review these. I've embedded one that is short and simple, with the pronunciations that can allow you to practice; I thought it was very helpful, more than any others I found. Below is also a list where you can see them all with hyperlinks to .mp3 files. Each consonant is expresses with what is known as an inherent vowel. This is a feature of the alpha-syllabic system of Indic scripts. That means when you see ក written it isn't just the /-k/ sound--it has a vowel with it--the basic /aa/ sound (like the sound "a" in "father" but drawn out a little longer). Now, there is also what is called a low register or voiceless--like below--as well as a high register, or voiced. We'll move on to looking at the high register consonants in the net few days, but the change is that the high registered is accompanied by the /ɔɔ/ sound which is like the "a" sound in "arm" but again drawn out a little longer.

So, take your time and practice these consonants. We'll spend another lesson on the high register consonants we well before we move to the diacritics and the vowels (more on this next time). After we've mastered saying the alphabet, we'll move onto phonetics--that is, learning the sounds of the language--as well as writing simple words. The sound files in the char below courtesy of the Khmer Website bongthom.com.