The Khmer alphabet (ÂkkhârâKrôm Khémâra Phéasa - អក្ខរក្រមខេមរភាសា) is used to write the Khmer language. It is also used to write a few other minority languages in Cambodia who have no form of script of their own.

A notable feature of the Khmer alphabet is that it has fewer symbols for vowels than the language has vowel phonemes. Instead, each consonant belongs to one of two series, and the vowel produced depends on which series the consonant belongs to (incidentally making it an abugida rather than a true alphabet). Therefore, most vowels have two different possible pronunciations, depending on which series the consonant belongs to. When no vowel is present, usually the inherent vowel of the consonant is used. Vowels can be divided into two groups: dependent vowels, which depend on a consonant, and independent vowels, which can stand alone. Dependent vowels are used more frequently than independent vowels and all independent vowels 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.

History

The Khmer alphabet descended from the Pallava script of India.

Styles

The Khmer script comes in many styles that are used for different purposes.

• Aksar Moul (round letters; អ័ក្សរមូល) is used for shop signs, book titles, banners and such.
• Aksar Chrung (square lettters; អ័ក្សរជ្រុង)
• Aksar Chhor (standing letters; អ័ក្សរឈរ)
• Aksar Ch'ieng (slanted letters; អ័ក្សរជ្អៀង)

Consonants

There are 35 consonants in the Khmer alphabet. Two of which are obsolete (shown in red).

Subscript Consonants

Commonly reffered to plainly as subscripts or sometimes sub-consonants they are known in Khmer as cheung âksâr (also romanized as jeurng, coeng, joeng, etc.; in Khmer: ជើង​អ័ក្សរ) meaning the foot of a letter. Subscript consonants help form consonant clusters by cancelling the inherent vowel of the preceding consonant it's paired with. All consonants except for the Khmer letter Lâ (ឡ) has a subscript form. Most subscript consonants are smaller versions of the consonants and appear under the consonant they are paired with. Other subscript consonants look very different and seem to have no relationship with their regular counterpart such as the ones for the Khmer letter Ngô (ង្ង) and the Khmer letter Chô (ជ្ជ). Some appear after the consonant they are paired with such as the subscript consonant for the Khmer letter Bâ (ប្ប)​. Only one subscript consonant appears before the consonant it's paired with and that is the subscript consonant for the Khmer letter Rô (រ្រ).

Dependent Vowels

There are 23 official dependent vowels in Khmer. In Khmer they are known as srăk nissăy (ស្រៈនិស្ស័យ) or srăk phsâm (ស្រៈផ្សំ). Dependent vowels always have to be combined, or paired with a consonant in writing. Just like the consonants, there are A-series and O-series vowels. Of the 23, 15 of the vowels have a different pronounciation in the O-series. Vowel pronounciation depends on the series of the consonant it is paired with.

Independent Vowels

Independent Vowels are vowels that can be written without a consonant, hence the name. In Khmer they are called srăk penhtuŏ (ស្រៈពេញតួ) which means complete vowels.

Consonant-Vowel Combinations

Consonant Combinations

Despite the number of Khmer consonants, many of them are monotonous. The Khmer alphabet does not contain a few consonant that are found in English, like the letter f or z for example. These consonants occur mostly in loanwords.

Numerals

Khmer has its own set of numerals. Khmer numerals are very similar to Thai numerals, but have their own Khmer names. Arabic numerals are used to a lesser extent.

Khmer in Unicode

See also

• Khmer language
• Brahmic family

External links

• FAQ and Resources on Khmer in Unicode
• Enabling Khmer Unicode
• Omniglot entry on Khmer
• Geonames Khmer Alphabet Chart