|
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 khôm' 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' (ជើងអក្សរ), 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. Because of Khmer phonology, in which final stops are unreleased and possible finals are limited, word-final values may differ. 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. For some phonemes in loanwords, the Khmer writing system has 'created' supplementary consonants. Most of these consonants are created by stacking a subscript under the character for. The consonant for , however, is created by using the diacritical sign called musĕkâtônd over the consonant for . These additional consonants are mainly used to represent sounds in French and Thai loanwords. Dependent vowels There are 23 dependent vowel symbols, however this number varies depending on the source, some of which count certain diacritics, and their combination with basic vowel symbols, as unique vowel symbols. 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. For most vowel symbols, there are two phones. The phone used depends on the series (or the inherent vowel) of the dominant consonant in a syllable cluster. Some vowel symbols may even have a regular third or fourth phone after certain consonants. 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. Diacritics 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 period in the Khmer language "។" resembles an eighth rest in music writing. Ligatures
Numerals The numerals of the Khmer script, similar to that used by other civilazations in Southeast Asia, are also derived from the southern Indian script. Arabic numerals are used as well, but to a lesser extent. Khmer in Unicode Notes See also | |||||||||||||||||||
|
--> | ||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |