Language

The most comprehensive Cambodian-English dictionary available.

Originally published by Yale University Press, 1972. Reissued by Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1988. 499 pages. (Oversized) This SEAP Language text has accompanying audio, available separately from: The Language Resource Center, Tape Sales, Room G11, Noyes Lodge, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4701.

This volume consists of four parts: (1) The Cambodian Writing System, a formal description of the relationship between the writing system and the phonology of the language; (2) Programmed Reading Exercises, a series of highly structured reading drills to train the student to read all regular Cambodian word shapes; (3) Beginning Cambodian Reader, fifty reading selections, graded in length and difficulty, ranging from short, simple narratives to essays on various aspects of Cambodian culture; and (4) Cambodian-English Glossary, containing some 2,000 words.

This is a unique learning aid for making rapid headway in the acquisition of comprehension and speaking ability in Khmer, the language of Cambodia. In recent years, Cambodia has moved from a society menaced by war to a society orientated to commerce. With this shift in attention from military to social and economic matters has come an increase in the numbers of foreign visitors and residents in the country for the purposes of tourism, aid work or investment-related activities. Many of these foreigners or 'chun bor-tay' speak English as a first or second language, but know little of written or spoken Khmer.

This work is reissued as an aid not only to students of the Cambodian language but also to Cambodians residing in English-speaking countries. The glossary includes some 10,000 words, with definitions that are useful and complete at a general level, beyond the specific context of the published readings that the glossary was originally designed to accompany. Although less comprehensive than a dictionary, it fills an important purpose as an inexpensive aid for speakers of either language.

Khmer or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. With approximately 16 million speakers, it is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language (after Vietnamese). Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through the vehicles of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon–Khmer family, predating Mon and by a significant margin Vietnamese.