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Khmer
Type Abugida
Spoken languages Khmer
Time period c. An abugida ( from Ge‘ez አቡጊዳ ’äbugida or Amharic አቡጊዳ ’abugida is a segmental Writing system which Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. 600–present
Parent systems Proto-Canaanite alphabet (disputed)
 → Phoenician alphabet (disputed)
  → Aramaic alphabet (disputed)
   → Brāhmī
    → Pallava
     → Khmer
Child systems Thai
Lao
Sister systems Mon
Old Kawi
Unicode range U+1780–U+17FF,
U+19E0–U+19FF
ISO 15924 Khmr
Image:Example.of.complex.text.rendering.svg This article contains Indic text. The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia,
Without rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes or other symbols instead of Indic characters; or irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. Mojibake is the happenstance of incorrect unreadable characters (garbage characters shown when Computer software fails to render a text correctly according to its associated
The Brahmic script and its descendants

Brāhmī

Ancient Khmer script engraved on stone.
Ancient Khmer script engraved on stone. The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, Brāhmī script refers to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of alphabets. The Gupta script (or Gupta Brahmi) was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India which was a period of material The Śāradā, or Sharada, script (sa शारदा is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts developed from ca The Laṇḍā script ( Gurmukhi: ਲੰਡਾ meaning an alphabet "without tail" is a Punjabi word used to refer to scripts in Northern India Kashmiri (कॉशुर کٲشُر Koshur) is a Dardic language spoken primarily in the valley of Kashmir, a region situated in the Indian state Gurmukhī (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ Shahmukhi:) is the most common script used for writing the Punjabi language. The Takri script (sometimes called Tankri) is an Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts Not to be confused with the Dogrib language. Dogri (डोगरी or ڈوگرى is an Indo-Aryan Language spoken by Siddhaṃ ( Sanskrit सिद्धं "accomplished" or "perfected" — is the name of a North Indian script used for writing Sanskrit during the period The Nāgarī script appeared in ancient India around the 8th century CE as an eastern variant of the Gupta script (whereas Śāradā was the western The Gujarati script (ગુજરાતી લિપિ, Gujǎrātī Lipi) which like all Nāgarī writing systems is strictly speaking an Abugida rather The Eastern Nagari script (also known as the Eastern Neo-Brahmic script or the Purvi Script) is an Abugida system of writing The Bengali script ( Bengali: বাংলা লিপি Bangla lipi) is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Assamese and The Assamese script (অসমীয়া আখৰ Ôxômiya Akhôr) is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Bengali and Bishnupriya Mithilakshar ( Devanagari script मिथिलाक्षर mithilākṣar; Eastern Nagari script: মিথিলাক্ষর or Tirhuta The Oriya script is used to write the Oriya language, and can be used for several other Indian languages for example Sanskrit. Nepal script ( Nepal Bhasa:नेपाल लिपि is a group of scripts that developed from Brahmi script and are used primarily in Nepal Bhasa. Bhujimol is the name of the most ancient form of the Nepal script. The Ranjana script (syn Kutila, Lantsa) is an Abugida writing system developed as a derivate of Brāhmī in 11th century The Tibetan script is an Abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language The ’Phagspa script (дөрвөлжин үсэг dörvöljin üseg "square script" Tibetan: hor gsar yig "new Mongolian script" Tamil-Brahmi was an early variant of the Brahmi script used to write Tamil characters Vatteluttu () or "rounded writing" is an Abugida Writing system originating from the Dravidian peoples of Southern India and The Grantha ( Tamil: கிரந்த ௭ழுத்து Bengali: গ্রন্থলিপি Malayalam: ml ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി Sanskrit The Malayalam script is an Abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. The Tulu script, also known as the Tigalari script, strongly resembles the script of Malayalam language The Thai Alphabet (อักษรไทย àksŏn thai) is used to write the Thai language and other minority languages in Thailand The Lao script is used mainly to write the Lao language. The minority languages of Laos are also written in the Lao script and officially it is the only script The Balinese script is an Abugida that was used to write the Balinese language, an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. The Mon language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon, who live in Burma and Thailand. The Burmese abugida ( Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ mjànmà eʔkʰəyà is a script in the Brahmic family used in Burma for writing Kalinga script (Dravidi is one of many descendants of the ancient Brāhmī script used in territory of modern Orissa. The Kadamba Dynasty ( Kannada:ಕದಂಬರು (345 - 525 CE was an ancient royal family of Karnataka that ruled from Banavasi in present Kannada (kn [[wiktಕನ್ನಡ ಕನ್ನಡ]] Kannaḍa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state The Kannada script is a Syllabary (of the type sometimes called an Abugida) of the Brahmic family, primarily to write the Kannada language Telugu script, an Abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts is used to write Telugu language, a Dravidian Language found in the Southern The Sinhala script is an Abugida script used in Sri Lanka to write the Official language Sinhala and also sometimes the Liturgical
History of the alphabet

Middle Bronze Age 19 c. The history of the Alphabet begins in Ancient Egypt, more than a millennium into the History of writing. The Middle Bronze Age alphabets are two similar Undeciphered scripts dated to be from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BCE and believed to be ancestral BCE

  • Ugaritic 15 c. The Ugaritic alphabet is a Cuneiform Abjad (alphabet without vowels used from around 1500 BCE for the Ugaritic language, an extinct BCE
  • Phoenician 14–11 c. The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC BCE
    • Paleo-Hebrew 10 c. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, also know as Ktav Ivri, is an offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet (see the akin Phoenician alphabet) BCE
      • Samaritan 6 c. The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the paleo-Hebrew variety of the Phoenician alphabet. BCE
    • Aramaic 8 c. The Aramaic alphabet is an Abjad, a Consonantal Alphabet, used for writing Aramaic. BCE
      • Brāhmī & Indic 6 c. Brāhmī script refers to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of alphabets. The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, BCE
        • Tibetan 7 c. The Tibetan script is an Abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language CE
        • Khmer/Javanese 9 c. The Javanese script, natively known as Carakan ( Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. CE
      • Hebrew 3 c. The Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. BCE
      • Syriac 2 c. The Syriac alphabet is a Writing system used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC. BCE
        • Arabic 4 c. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. CE
      • Pahlavi 3 c. BCE
        • Avestan 4 c. The Avestan alphabet is a writing system developed during the Sassanid era (226-651 in Iran to render the Avestan language. CE
    • Greek 9 c. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early BCE
      • Etruscan 8 c. Old Italic refers to several now extinct Alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic BCE
      • Gothic 3 c. This article is about the 4th century alphabet of the Gothic bible CE
      • Armenian 405 CE
      • Glagolitic 862 CE
      • Cyrillic 10 c. The Armenian alphabet is an Alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavic Alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by CE
    • Paleohispanic 7 c. The Paleohispanic scripts are the writing systems created in the Iberian peninsula before the Latin alphabet became the dominant script BCE
  • Epigraphic South Arabian 9 c. The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad المُسند branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in about the 9th century BC. BCE
    • Ge'ez 5–6 c. Ge'ez (gez ግዕዝ) also called Ethiopic, is an Abugida script that was originally developed to write Ge'ez, a Semitic language BCE
Meroitic 3 c. The Meroitic script is an Alphabetic script originally derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs used to write the Meroitic language of the Kingdom of Meroë / BCE
Ogham 4 c. Ogham (ogam ˈɔɣam Modern Irish or, English) is an Early Medieval Alphabet used primarily to represent the Old Irish language (and CE
Hangul 1443 CE
Canadian syllabics 1840 CE
Zhuyin 1913 CE
complete genealogy

The Khmer script (អក្ខរក្រមខេមរភាសា; âkkhârâkrâm khémârâ phéasa) is used to write the Khmer language which is the official language of Cambodia. Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing', or simply syllabics, is a family of Abugidas {dubious}} used to write a number of Aboriginal Canadian Nearly all the segmental scripts (loosely " Alphabets " but see below for more precise terminology used around the globe appear to have derived from the Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. The Kingdom of Cambodia ( formerly known as Kampuchea (, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in South East It is generally thought that the Khmer script developed from the Pallava script of India. Grantha ( Tamil: கிரந்த ௭ழுத்து Bengali: গ্রন্থলিপি Malayalam: ml ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി Sanskrit [1] The oldest dated inscription in Khmer was found at Angkor Borei in Takev Province south of Phnom Penh and dates from 611 AD. Angkor Borei District ( Khmer: ស្រុកអង្គរបុរី is a district located in Takéo Province, in southern Cambodia. Takéo is a province of Cambodia. Its capital is Takéo. Takeo town is an easygoing place that possesses a fair amount of natural and manmade beauty [2] Those inscriptions that have survived are engraved in stone and the evolution of Khmer script is as follows:

The Khmer alphabet has fewer symbols for vowels than the language has vowel phonemes. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU To account for this, each consonant belongs to one of two series, and the vowel produced depends on which series the consonant belongs to (making it an abugida rather than a true alphabet). An abugida ( from Ge‘ez አቡጊዳ ’äbugida or Amharic አቡጊዳ ’abugida is a segmental Writing system which An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either Therefore, most vowel signs have two possible pronunciations, depending on which series the consonant belongs to. When no vowel sign is present, usually the inherent vowel of the consonant is used. Vowels signs can be divided into two groups: dependent vowel signs, which are written around a consonant letter, and independent vowel letters, which can stand alone. Dependent vowel signs are used more frequently than independent vowels and all independent vowel letters can be phonetically rendered with a dependent vowel. Khmer also has a number of diacritics, which can change the series of the consonant or change the pronunciation of the vowel. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation

Contents

Styles

There are several styles of Khmer script which are used for different purposes.

The last two styles, when handwritten, are usually pencil-line width, however, in printed form and on computer fonts, they are usually seen in wider widths. Most Khmer computer fonts depict neither style correctly; in fact, some may meld elements of 'âksâr mul' and 'âksâr khâm' into one style, so generally either is referred to as 'âksâr mul'.

Consonants

There are 35 Khmer consonants symbols, although modern Khmer only uses 33, two having become obsolete. Subscript consonants are special forms used to form consonant clusters. Also sometimes referred to as "sub-consonants", subscript consonants often resemble the corresponding consonant symbol, only smaller. In Khmer, they are known as 'cheung âksâr' (ជើង​អក្សរ), meaning the foot of a letter. In forming consonant clusters, the second (and where necessary, the third) consonant sound of the cluster is written as a subscript which cancels the inherent vowel of the preceding consonant. Most subscript consonants are written directly below consonant which they follow, although subscript /r/ is written before while a few others have ascending elements which appear after.

Listed in the table below are the pronunciations of the consonants when recited. Although Khmer spelling is very regular, the pronunciation of some consonants may be slightly different from the recited version in a few words. This is especially true in loan words. The IPA values given are for consonants in the initial or medial position. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic Because of Khmer phonology, in which final stops are unreleased and possible finals are limited, word-final values may differ. An unreleased stop or unreleased plosive is a Plosive consonant without an audible release burst For example, word-final /s/ is pronounced /h/ and, in most dialects, word-final /r/ is silent. The inherent vowels of consonants in the final position are almost never pronounced. The two obsolete consonants are highlighted in gray.

Consonants Subscript form Transliteration IPA
្ក kâ
្ខ khâ kʰɑ
្គ
្ឃ khô kʰɔ
្ង ngô ŋɔ
្ច châ
្ឆ chhâ cʰɑ
្ជ chô
្ឈ chhô cʰɔ
្ញ nhô ɲɔ
្ដ ɗɑ
្ឋ thâ tʰɑ
្ឌ ɗɔ
្ឍ thô tʰɔ
្ណ
្ត
្ថ thâ tʰɑ
្ទ
្ធ thô tʰɔ
្ន
្ប ɓɑ
្ផ phâ pʰɑ
្ព
្ភ phô pʰɔ
្ម
្យ
្រ
្ល
្វ
្ឝ shâ -
្ឞ ssô -
្ស
្ហ
្ឡ*
្អ ʔɑ

* The subscript for the consonant is included in Unicode although its usage in modern Khmer is generally non-existent.

For some phonemes in loanwords, the Khmer writing system has 'created' supplementary consonants. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Most of these consonants are created by stacking a subscript under the character for/hɑ/ to form digraphs. The consonant for /pɑ/, however, is created by using the diacritical sign called musĕkâtônd over the consonant for /bɑ/. These additional consonants are mainly used to represent sounds in French and Thai loanwords.

Digraph consonants Transliteration IPA
ហ្គ
ហ្ន
ប៉
ហ្ម
ហ្ល
ហ្វ fâ, wâ ,
ហ្ស žâ ʒɑ

Dependent vowels

There are 16 unique dependent vowel symbols. Although this name can be added up to 24 when dependent vowels with diacritical symbols are included. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation Dependent vowels are known in Khmer as srăk nissăy (ស្រៈនិស្ស័យ) or srăk phsâm (ស្រៈផ្សំ). Dependent vowels always have to be combined with a consonant in orthography. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language For most the vowel symbols, there are two sounds (registers). The sound of the vowel used depends on the series (the inherent vowel) of the dominant consonant in a syllable cluster.

Dependent
vowels
Transliteration IPA
a-series o-series a-series o-series
អា a éa iːə
អិ ĕ ĭ e i
អី ei i əj
អឹ ŏe ə ɨ
អឺ œ əːɨ ɨː
អុ ŏ ŭ o u
អូ o u oːu
អួ   uːə  
អើ aeu eu aːə əː
អឿ eua ɨːə
អៀ iːə
អេ é eːi
អែ ê aːe ɛː
អៃ ai ey aj ɨj
អោ aːo
អៅ au ŏu aw ɨw
Dependent
vowels
& diacritics
Transliteration IPA
a-series o-series a-series o-series
អុំ om ŭm om um
អំ âm um ɑm um
អាំ ăm ŏâm am oəm
អះ ăh eăh eəʰ
អុះ ŏh uh
អេះ éh eiʰ
អែ êh aeʰ ɛʰ
អោះ aŏh uŏh ɑʰ ʊəʰ

Independent vowels

Independent vowels are vowels that do not have to be paired with a consonant in a syllable, hence the name. In Khmer they are called srăk penhtuŏ (ស្រៈពេញតួ) which means complete vowels.

Independent
vowels
Transliteration IPA
â ʔɑʔ
a ʔa
ĕ ʔe
ei ʔəj
ŏ ʔ
ŭ ʔu
ŏu ʔɨw
rŏe ʔrɨ
ʔrɨː
lŏe ʔlɨ
ʔlɨː
é ʔeː
ai ʔaj
ឱ, ឲ ʔaːo
âu ʔaw

Diacritics

Diacritics Name Notes
nĭkkôhĕt (និគ្គហិត) niggahita; nasalizes the inherent vowels and some of the dependent vowels, see anusvara, sometimes used to represent [aɲ] in Sanskrit loanwords
reăhmŭkh (រះមុខ) shining face; adds final aspiration to dependent or inherent vowels, usually omitted, corresponds to the visarga diacritic, it maybe included as dependent vowel symbol
yŭkôleăkpĭntŭ (យុគលពិន្ទុ) yugalabindu (pair of dots); adds final glottalness to dependent or inherent vowels, usually omitted, a relatively new diacritic
musĕkâtônd (មូសិកទន្ដ) musikadanta (mouse teeth); used to convert some o-series consonants to the a-series
trei sâpt (ត្រីសព្ទ) trisabda; used to convert some a-series consonants to the o-series
kbiĕh kraôm (ក្បៀសក្រោម) also known as bŏkcheung (បុកជើង); used in place when the diacritics trei sâpt and musĕkâtônd impede with superscript vowels
bântăk (បន្តក់) used to shorten some vowels
rôbat (របាទ), répheăk (រេផៈ) rapada, repha; behaves similarly to the tôndâkhéat, corresponds to the Devanagari diacritic 'repha', however it lost its original function which was to represent a vocalic r
tôndâkhéat (ទណ្ឌឃាដ) daṇḍaghata; used to render some letters as unpronounced
kakâbat (កាកបាទ) kakapada (the crow's foot); more a punctuation mark than a diacritic; used in writing to indicate the rising intonation of an exclamation or interjection; often placed on particles such as /na/, /nɑː/, /nɛː/, /vəːj/, and the feminine response /cah/
sanhyoŭk sannha (សំយោគសញ្ញា) represents a short inherent vowel in Sanskrit and Pali words; usually omitted
vĭréam (វិរាម) a mostly obsolete diacritic, corresponds to the virama
cheung (ជើង) a. Anusvara (Dev अनुस्वार anusvāra) is the diacritic used to mark a type of Nasalization used in a number of Indic languages. Visarga ( visarga) is a Sanskrit word meaning "sending forth discharge" This article is about the sound in spoken language For the letter see Glottal stop (letter. In Phonetics, vocalic r refers to the phenomenon of a Rhotic segment such as or occurring as the Syllable nucleus. In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore Virama is a generic term for the Diacritic character in many Brahmic scripts that is used to suppress an inherent Vowel sound that occurs with every consonant w. coeng; a sign developed for Unicode​ to input subscript consonants, appearance of this sign varies among fonts

Punctuation marks

The Khmer script uses several unique punctuation marks as well as some borrowed from the Latin script such as the question mark. The question mark (? also known as an interrogation point, question point, query, or eroteme, is a punctuation mark that replaces The period in the Khmer language "។" resembles an eighth rest in music writing. In Music notation, a note value indicates the relative Duration of a note, using the color or shape of the Note head, the presence

Ligatures

Most consonants, including a few of the subscripts, form ligatures with all dependent vowels that contain the symbol used for the vowel a (ា). A lot of these ligatures are easily recognizable, however a few may not be. One of the more unrecognizable is the ligature for the and a which was created to differentiate it from the consonant symbol as well as the ligature for châ and a. It is not always necessary to connect consonants with the dependent vowel a.

Examples of ligatured symbols:

Image:Khmerligatures1.gif

Ligatured consonant subscript and vowel combination:

Image:Khmerligatures2.gif

Numerals

Main article: Khmer numerals

The numerals of the Khmer script, similar to that used by other civilizations in Southeast Asia, are also derived from the southern Indian script. Khmer numerals are the numerals used in the Khmer language of Cambodia. Arabic numerals are also used, but to a lesser extent. The arabic numerals (often capitalized are the ten Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 which—along with the system

Khmer numerals
Arabic numerals 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Khmer in Unicode

The Unicode range for Khmer consists of two ranges: U+1780 . In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's . . U+17FF for the basic characters, and U+19E0 - U+19FF for additional symbols. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.

Khmer
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+178x
U+179x
U+17Ax
U+17Bx
U+17Cx
U+17Dx    
U+17Ex            
U+17Fx            
Khmer Symbols
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+19Ex
U+19Fx ᧿

Notes

  1. ^ Punnee Soonthornpoct: From Freedom to Hell: A History of Foreign Interventions in Cambodian Politics And Wars. page 29, Vantage Press, Inc
  2. ^ Russell R. Ross: Cambodia: A Country Study, page 112, Library of Congress. Federal Research Division, 1990

References

See also

External links

The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. Khmer romanization refers to the representation of the Khmer (Cambodian language utilizing letters of the Latin (Roman alphabet.

Dictionary

Khmer script

-noun

  1. The complex abugida script that is used to write the Khmer language (Cambodian). It consists of two series of consonants and a host of vowels. Each consonant also has a subscript form, called a leg, used to create consonant clusters.
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