Cambodian
Cambodian, or Khmer, belongs to the Mon-Khmer family of languages. It is the
national language of Cambodia, and is spoken by over 6 million people there
(90 percent ot the population). The Khmers were once a powerful people who dominated
much of Southeast Asia from the 9th through the 12th century and the language
is attested from the earliest period by numerous inscriptions. With the introduction
of Buddhism at the beginning of the fifteenth century, Cambodian was influenced
by Indian language and culture. Pali and Sanskrit became sources of new vocabulary,
and Khmer script, which is related to the Davanagari script used to write Sanskrit,
Hindi, and other Indian languages, was developed. During French colonial hegemony,
many French loans entered the language and it has also been influenced by Chinese,
Vietnamese and Thai.. However, as a consequence of Khmer nationalism that emerged
in the 1960s, linguistic purity became an issue and a committee was established
that focused on the creation of neologisms using indigenous linguistic devices
rather than borrowing from Sanskrit or Pali. The Khmer Rouge has also left a
linguistic legacy in expunging certain linguistic features which reflected social
status.
Khmer is a language that is devoid of inflection in either nouns or verbs. This
type of language is sometimes referred to as isolating. . The language
is non-tonal and most native words are monosyllabic, however a number of polysyllabic
words exist, many of which have been borrowed from other languages.
Sources:
UCLA Language Materials Project
World Language
United Cambodian Association of
Minnesota
Information on writing systems:
Geocities.com:
Brahmi descended scripts
omniglot.com
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
Other Local Resources:
UCSD International Center
Mingei museum of folk art
SD cultural events
Cambodian Nazarene Church~(619) 527-1449; 4639 Olive