Khmer script (, ) is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official language of Cambodia. It is also used to write Pali in the Buddhist liturgy of Cambodia and Thailand.
Khmer is written from left to right. Words within the same sentence or phrase are generally run together with no spaces between them. Consonant clusters within a word are "stacked", with the second (and occasionally third) consonant being written in reduced form under the main consonant. Originally there were 35 consonant characters, but modern Khmer uses only 33. Each character represents a consonant sound together with an inherent vowel, either â or ô; in many cases, in the absence of another vowel mark, the inherent vowel is to be pronounced after the consonant.
There are some independent vowel characters, but vowel sounds are more commonly represented as dependent vowels, additional marks accompanying a consonant character, and indicating what vowel sound is to be pronounced after that consonant (or consonant cluster). Most dependent vowels have two different pronunciations, depending in most cases on the inherent vowel of the consonant to which they are added. There are also a number of diacritics used to indicate further modifications in pronunciation. The script also includes its own numerals and punctuation marks.
Origin
The Khmer script was adapted from the Pallava script, used in southern India and South East Asia during the 5th and 6th centuries AD, which ultimately descended from the Tamil-Brahmi script, The oldest dated Khmer inscription was found at Angkor Borei District in Takéo Province south of Phnom Penh and dates from 611. Stelae of the Pre-Angkorean and Angkorean periods, featuring the Khmer script, have been found throughout the former Khmer Empire, from the Mekong Delta to what is now southern Laos, Northeast Thailand, and Central Thailand. Slight differences can be seen between ancient Khmer inscriptions written in Sanskrit and those written in Khmer. These two different systems have evolved into the modern and styles of Khmer script. The former is used for sacred inscriptions while the latter is used for general use. The style is a cursive form of , adapted to fit the Khmer language.
The modern Khmer script differs somewhat from precedent forms seen on the inscriptions of the ruins of Angkor. The Thai and Lao scripts are descendants of an older cursive form of the Khmer script, through the Sukhothai script.
Consonants
There are 35 Khmer consonant symbols, although modern Khmer only uses 33, two having become obsolete. Each consonant has an inherent vowel: â or ô ; equivalently, each consonant is said to belong to the a-series or o-series. A consonant's series determines the pronunciation of the dependent vowel symbols which may be attached to it, and in some positions the sound of the inherent vowel is itself pronounced.
The two series originally represented voiceless and voiced consonants respectively (and are still referred to as such in Khmer). Sound changes during the Middle Khmer period affected vowels following voiceless consonants, and these changes were preserved even though the distinctive voicing was lost (see phonation in Khmer).
Each consonant, with one exception, also has a subscript form. These may also be called "sub-consonants"; the Khmer phrase is , meaning "foot of a letter". Most subscript consonants resemble the corresponding consonant symbol, but in a smaller and possibly simplified form, although in a few cases there is no obvious resemblance. Most subscript consonants are written directly below other consonants, although subscript appears to the left, while a few others have ascending elements which appear to the right.
Subscripts are used in writing consonant clusters (consonants pronounced consecutively in a word with no vowel sound between them). Clusters in Khmer normally consist of two consonants, although occasionally in the middle of a word there will be three. The first consonant in a cluster is written using the main consonant symbol, with the second (and third, if present) attached to it in subscript form. Subscripts were previously also used to write final consonants; in modern Khmer this may be done, optionally, in some words ending -ng or -y, such as ("give").