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Old Khmer (ក្មេរ៑, pronounced /kʰmɛːr/) is the oldest attested stage of the Khmer language, an Austroasiatic language historically and presently spoken across Cambodia, Southern Vietnam, and parts of Thailand and Laos. It is recorded in stone inscriptions dating from the early 7th century until the first few decades of the 15th century. Such inscriptions, spanning nearly a millennium and numbering well over a thousand, present one of the most extensive sources of indigenous documentation in early medieval Southeast Asia.

Old Khmer is written in an early variant of the Khmer script derived from Pallava, a southern variant of Brahmi, and in turn became the basis of the scripts used for Thai and Lao. Along with Brahmi and Indian influence on Cambodia, Old Khmer saw an influx of Sanskrit loanwords in the domains of religion, philosophy, and to a lesser extent, in politics. Despite this, Old Khmer retained a prototypical Austroasiatic profile in phonology, syntax, and morphology, being sesquisyllabic, analytic, having a rich system of derivational affixes.

The language is customarily divided into Pre-Angkorian (611-802) and Angkorian (802-1431) stages based on both the date and the distribution of surviving inscriptions, with Pre-Angkorian inscriptions concentrated in the southern regions of present day Cambodia. After the abandonment of the sites of Angkor as the political centre of the Khmer Empire, the practice of epigraphy decreased in the following centuries but did not disappear, persisting in some regions until the 20th century. However, inscriptions after the 15th century are customarily held to reflect the Middle Khmer stage of the language.

Terminology[edit]

As an endogenous term referring to the people and language, ក្មេរ៑ (kmer, /kʰmɛːr/) is attested in inscriptional lists specifying the ethnolinguistic affiliation of personnels attached to temples alongside terms for other ethnic groups, e.g. Mon, Chong, Bru. Its provenance is unknown, possibly deriving from mer "chief", "principal" or "mother".

Attestation and History[edit]

Direct evidence of Old Khmer comes from the more than one thousand surviving stone inscriptions spread across present day Cambodia, the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, southern Laos, and various parts of Thailand. These inscriptions span a period of about eight centuries, with the earliest dated to 611 and the last clearly dated to 1327.[4] Before this period, undated Sanskrit inscriptions from 5th century and undated Khmer inscription from the 6th century. (Lustig doesn't cite anyone for this. Where is the original source?)

Old Khmer entered into the historical period rather abruptly, with all earlier inscriptions in present day Cambodia and the Mekong Delta being written in Sanskrit. However, Old Khmer did not supplant Sanskrit in inscriptions, and the two language are to be found alternating in the same text or in parallel texts.

The earliest Pre-Angkorian inscriptions already show a high degree of standardization in orthography, suggesting a period of development prior to the first epigraphic attestation. Their contents, like later inscriptions, tend to concern legal matters such as land and property, donations to temples, and genealogies and lineages (is this in Khmer inscriptions or Sanskrit inscriptions?), suggesting a society already deeply entrenched in lower Cambodia. In terms of geography, the earliest inscriptions are concentrated in the southern parts of Cambodia and subsequent inscriptions show a south-to-north dispersal. Pre-Angkorian inscriptions are more numerous during the 7th century than the 8th century.[7]

Angkorian inscriptions date from the 9th century onwards and are concentrated in northwestern Cambodia. They are also found in regional cities of the Khmer empire, such as Phimai in northeastern Thailand and Vat Phou in southern Laos. Old Khmer was also used in epigraphy in neighbouring polities, including Sukhothai and Ayutthaya.[8]

Due to the primarily dual juridical and religious function of the inscriptions, the surviving corpus of Old Khmer represent only a partial picture of the language. Nonetheless, they provide important documentary evidence of the language's phonology, morphology, and syntax as well as clues about the natural and sociopolitical environments surrounding its speakers.

While Old Khmer is particularly well attested in epigraphy, writings on perishable materials such as palm leaves and animal skins have not survived in the humid climate. The use of such materials, however, is evidenced in statuary depictions, in inscriptional references, and from foreign accounts.[10]

Orthography[edit]

Phonology[edit]

Morphosyntax[edit]

Old Khmer differs little from modern Khmer in syntax or morphology.

Lexicon[edit]

Like other classical languages of Southeast Asia, Old Khmer was subject to heavy Sanskrit influence. This is especially evident in religious and philosophical concepts and in calendrical numerology, for which Khmer had no equivalents, but sometimes the choice of Sanskrit words over native equivalents were stylistic rather than necessary.