zhiguli wrote:Unfortunately, you're right. And that's not even the start of your troubles.
Japanese is "easier" to read because the kana/kanji break up sentences and clearly mark out the different parts of speech, in Khmer there is practically nothing to tell you where one word ends and another begins.
Neqitan wrote:Wow, great to have you here rouviirouvoul!
I think the greatest barrier to learn Khmer is the lack of interest in Western society; consequently, materials become scarce. I've always liked the Khmer abugida, as a user from another forum put it, "it feels like royalty", plus the concept that the vowel value of the vowel mark changes by supporting consonant.
rouviirouvoul wrote:As for the Khmer script, it's beauty lies not only in its decorative form, but also in it's complexity. There are various rules to abide by when reading. I will post in my spare time the general rules for reading Khmer for those who want to learn it.
rouviirouvoul wrote:Khmer orthography is complex and difficult to parse, but once you get use to it you will realize how predictable reading can be. Honestly for the most part word boundaries are easy and predictable. Native Khmer words are either one syllable, or two syllable with stress on the last syllable. Since all root words are one syllable and derivative morphology recognizable, boundaries are clear. However since Khmer absorbed many Sanskrit and Pali loans, you'll have to recognize etymological spelling and utilize different reading conventions.
Psi-Lord wrote:rouviirouvoul wrote:As for the Khmer script, it's beauty lies not only in its decorative form, but also in it's complexity. There are various rules to abide by when reading. I will post in my spare time the general rules for reading Khmer for those who want to learn it.
Although I’m not studying Khmer, I regard the script as extremely interesting, so I’ll be definitely looking forward to reading such rules.
zhiguli wrote:And let me be the next to welcome you here, rouviirouvoul, សូមស្វាគមន៍
Though there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in this language, it's always good to have native speakers around, hope you'll stay with us.
I also have a small blog about Khmer, if you have a few moments, please take a look, I'd be interested to hear your comments/corrections.
This is also a good place to start:
http://pratyeka.org/csw/
Yeah, there are just a lot of characters to keep straight. Once you get through that, it's not terribly difficult. And, yeah, I was really surprised myself at how quickly I was able to put together sentences once I got a handful of vocab words!Meera wrote:I got a major wanderlust for Khmer yesterday for some unknown reason, and I went through a chapter of Colloquial Cambodian and Im really shcoked at how simple it was, I mean it's not an easy langauge but I thought it would be much more diffcult. Anyway its really interesting! The script doesn't seem that bad to me, it works a lot like Hindi and Bengali lol
Iluverie, I havent tried the Begginers one yet but the Colloquail seems okay, although it looks a bit old. I think Cambodian for Beginners has better reviews on Amazon though.
ILuvEire wrote:Yeah, there are just a lot of characters to keep straight. Once you get through that, it's not terribly difficult. And, yeah, I was really surprised myself at how quickly I was able to put together sentences once I got a handful of vocab words!Meera wrote:I got a major wanderlust for Khmer yesterday for some unknown reason, and I went through a chapter of Colloquial Cambodian and Im really shcoked at how simple it was, I mean it's not an easy langauge but I thought it would be much more diffcult. Anyway its really interesting! The script doesn't seem that bad to me, it works a lot like Hindi and Bengali lol
Iluverie, I havent tried the Begginers one yet but the Colloquail seems okay, although it looks a bit old. I think Cambodian for Beginners has better reviews on Amazon though.
zhiguli wrote:another useless forum for another language nobody cares about, but it will be the last one for awhile (promise!)
sisyphe wrote:Believe it or not, this language is actually useful in Southern California.
Return to “South East Asian Languages”
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests