this dictionary has good audio files for Khmer use with mekongeasy to get transliterations
also FORVO has for all languages khmer lao thai myanmar vietnamese
eg.ឆ្នាំង znaḿg (pot)
| k/q __G in Gold x/ᶍ __K in Kick t/ţ __T in Tick ŧ/ṯ __T with soft h after f/p __P in Pig s __S in Sit |
c/j __J in John z/ç __CH in CHop d/ᶁ __D in Dog đ/ḏ __D with soft h after ń/n __N in Nit ł/l __L in Lit |
g __NG in riNG y __Y in Yep ᵽ __P with soft h after ṉ __NYA in Tanya m __M in Mit r __R in Rip v __VW |
Difficult words, including Missing Vowels
| Black OR ɑɑ consonants
LONG VOWEL a e ii oo uu OR SHORT VOWELS a’ e’ i o o’ u'(also before ḿ) IPA ə DOUBLE SOUND PALI/SANSKRIT |
Blue dangling OH ɔɔ consonants
LONG VOWEL a e ii oo uu OH U ធំ ṯḿ ṯOHḿ large SHORT VOWELS a’ e’ i o o’ u’ (also before ḿ) IPA ɨ DOUBLE SOUND ħ PALI/SANSKRIT |
2 consonants rule
1st syllable consonant is dominant and determines sound for 2nd syllable
eg. ប៉ុន្មានb:onman, 1st syllable b is OR and 2nd syllable m is OH. As the 1st syllable consonant is dominant (b OR), the 2nd (m OH) also acts as an OR consonant, hence sound is b:onman, not b:onmien
| uo __OU in tour ue __UE in suet / also __UI in fluid ie __IE in tier e __AY in day |
Vowels that change after BLUE (OH consonant)
(dangling: q ᶍ g j ç ṉ ᶁḏ ţṯ pᵽ y + l m n r v or with trailing semicolon eg. h; s;)
| after BLACK (OR consonant) sounds like written | after BLUE (OH consonant) q ᶍ g j ç ṉ ᶁḏ ţṯ pᵽ y + l m n r v |
| ka __AR in park ko __O in sOng koo __OH tou __OU in house ផឹកfuk __UR in tURn kae __AE |
qa->qIE __IE in tIEr qo->qU’ __U in full qoo->qU __UU in fool ţou->ţOH __ ţuk->ţɨk __EU’ qae->qAIR __AI in AIr fţħ->fţEAħ __EA in mEA culpa naḿ->nOaḿ __OAM |
Vowels that change after BLACK (OR consonant) ( k d đ t ŧ b f h ł ń · c s x z )
| changes after BLACK (OR consonant) k d đ t ŧ b f h ł ń · c s x z | after BLUE (OH consonant) sounds like written |
| ចិនcin->cE’n __E in tEn ស្រីsrii->srEii __EY in prey ដៃdei->dAei __Y-i in mY-i តើteu->tAeu __OU in OUr ខ្មៅxmw->xmAw __Aeu+w តោះtouħ->tAħ __AH in bAH |
មិនmin __E in shortEn ទីţii __EE in tree qei __ លើleu __UR in tURn ទៅţw __eu*+wţaḿ __UM in rUM |
ţoṃ
ţṃ
tuṃ
tṃ
Silent last letters eg ᶍ in prħsgᶍ
c–>IK តូច tooc tooIc
; convert BLACK to BLUE e.g. h;an = hIEn
: convert BLUE to BLACK, b to p eg. b:onman = ponman (how much), b:ooliis = pooliis
´ preceding letter unpronounced eg. ·armmń´= ·armm (feeling), ·oţahrń´ = ·oţahr (example)
Stacked Consonants
When one consonant written above 2nd one, called stacked, subscript or sub-consonant,
the 2nd consonant determines vowel, UNLESS 2nd one is blue lmnrv ṉgy, practically all the non-dangling blue letters. in these cases the 1st consonant determines vowel.
this means in most cases, if the double consonant has a letter which dangles, it’s blue, otherwise it’s black
black doubles br, cr, tr, kr, kl, kn, sv, sm, sl, ŧm,
but also dangling xṉ, sg, ŧg, xy (any with 1st black letter +2nd consonant non-dangling or ṉgy)
blue letter doubles jr, lg, pr, qn, qr, fţ, but also mn
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