Khmer language

Khmer is the official language of Cambodia.
Overview
The Khmer is spoken by the Khmer people, who live in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and many other countries. Its script was the base for the Thai script, although Thai does not use subscript consonants. 

One thing that makes it particularly difficult for many foreigners to learn is that Khmer words are not separated in a sentence and the sounds are quite hard for foreigners to repeat. But still each word in the sentence can be distinguished. Also, there is not much material on Khmer, although this situation is changing.

Writing
The Khmer script is based on an ancient Indian alphabet. It is written from left to right. There are 35 consonants, some of which can be written under other consonants (2 consonants are not used anymore). Vowels are combined with the consonants to make a sound.

For instance, the "t" sound ត can be combined with the "-ah" sound ា to make the word តា (tah, which means grandfather). The Khmer writing script also has its own special way of writing numbers. The Khmer numerals are ០១២៣៤៥៦៧៨៩.

Grammar
The language has a subject-verb-object order, just like English. Pronouns change based on who you are speaking to. For instance, if you are not a monk and you are speaking to a monk, you would call him "ព្រះតេជព្រះគុណ".

Examples
ខ្ញុំមិនចង់បានទេ
"I don't want it."

អ្នកចង់ទៅលេងសៀមរាបទេ
"Do you want to go to Siem Reap?"
Related pages
 History of Asia
 Austronesian peoples
 Austroasiatic languages

References

Category:Austro-Asiatic languages
Category:Languages of Asia
Category:Cambodian culture