Romanization of Khmer

Khmer romanization refers to the representation of the Khmer (Cambodian) language using letters of the Latin (Roman) alphabet. Romanization of Khmer is usually applied to Khmer proper nouns such as names of people and geographical names as in a gazetteer.

Romanization Systems for Khmer

Geographical Cambodian names are often romanized with a transliteration system. An issue seen with the transliteration of Khmer is the results not always reflecting standard Khmer pronunciation as transliteration is a system that maps one script onto another script. It does not always take into account examples such as unpronounced letters and irregular pronunciations, although the two registers of Khmer vowel symbols are often taken into account.

When using transcription, words are romanized based on the pronunciation. However, pronunciation of Khmer can vary by speaker and region. Transcription of Khmer is often done ad hoc on Internet forums and chatrooms (i.e. ad hoc romanizations) and referred to as Khmenglish or Khmerlish. These ad hoc romanizations are usually based on English phonetics. Sometimes, the International Phonetic Alphabet is used to transcript Khmer words based on either their Khmer spellings or their pronunciations.

UNGEGN

Khmer romanization using the system from United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names can be seen in most recent maps with Cambodian geographical names and in the newer gazetteers.

ALA-LC Romanization Tables

From the American Library Association and Library of Congress -- the system for romanizing Khmer uses the original Indic values of Khmer letter for romanization which are totally different from their modern values. The advantage of this system is that it is possible for etmylogical reconstruction of Sanskrit and Pali loanwords whose pronunciation may be totally different in modern Khmer, (e.g. Kampuchea and Kambuja).

Service Géographique Khmer

From the Khmer Geographical Service based in Cambodia.

BGN/PCGN

the United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use

Applied IPA

Various attempts have been made to modify the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA to transcribe Khmer. The widespread use of J.M. Filippi's 2004 Textbook Khmer au quotidien, a.k.a., Everyday Khmer (Funan Editions: Phnom Penh) has resulted in a classroom pseudo-standard that follows IPA in its broad outlines (e.g., marking long vowels with the triangular colon), but also digresses from it for reasons the textbook leaves unexplained (e.g., perhaps due to widespread familiarity with certain assumptions inherited from the aforementioned Pali etymological tradition, e.g., rendering "ch" sounds as Roman /c/).

Tables

Consonants	Subscript form	Official (1956)	Official (1993)	UNGEGN	IPA
ក	្ក	c	g	kâ	kɑ
ខ	្ខ	k	k	khâ	kʰɑ
គ	្គ	c	g	kô	kɔ
ឃ	្ឃ	k	k	khô	kʰɔ
ង	្ង	ng	ng	ngô	ŋɔ
ច	្ច	g	j	châ	cɑ
ឆ	្ឆ	sh	ch	chhâ	cʰɑ
ជ	្ជ	g	j	chô	cɔ
ឈ	្ឈ	sh	ch	chhô	cʰɔ
ញ	្ញ	ny	gn	nhô	ɲɔ
ដ	្ដ	d	d	dâ	ɗɑ
ឋ	្ឋ	t	t	thâ	tʰɑ
ឌ	្ឌ	d	d	dô	ɗɔ
ឍ	្ឍ	t	t	thô	tʰɔ
ណ	្ណ	n	n	nâ	nɑ
ត	្ត	t	t	tâ	tɑ
ថ	្ថ	t	t	thâ	tʰɑ
ទ	្ទ	t	t	tô	tɔ
ធ	្ធ	t	t	thô	tʰɔ
ន	្ន	n	n	nô	nɔ
ប	្ប	b	b	bâ	ɓɑ
ផ	្ផ	p	p	phâ	pʰɑ
ព	្ព	p	p	pô	pɔ
ភ	្ភ	p	p	phô	pʰɔ
ម	្ម	m	m	mô	mɔ
យ	្យ	y	y	yô	jɔ
រ	្រ	r	r	rô	rɔ
ល	្ល	l	l	lô	lɔ
វ	្វ	v	v	vô	vɔ
ឝ	្ឝ	s	s	shâ	-
ឞ	្ឞ	s	s	ssô	-
ស	្ស	s	s	sâ	sɑ
ហ	្ហ	h	h	hâ	hɑ
ឡ	្ឡ *	l	l	lâ	lɑ
អ	្អ	-	-	qâ	ʔɑ

Issues and tradeoffs with romanization

Many Khmer dependent vowel symbols represent two phonemes and some phonemes can be represented by more than one symbol (letter); hence, it is sometimes impossible to revert the romanization to the Khmer script. Virtually all romanization systems for Khmer use the letter H to represent a final aspirate but many ad hoc romanizers often prefer to use the letter S to represent it (e.g. kâoh vs. koss).

References

• English-Khmer Dictionary; ISBN 0-300-02261-1
• Working Group on Romanization Systems
• ALA-LC Romanization Tables

External links

Links to romanization tables

• UNGEGN (PDF - 166kb)
• ALA-LC (PDF - 1,064kb)
• BGN/PCGN (PDF - 334.49kb)