by merchantsmutual » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:57 pm
One sentence that I took to heart was when a poster said that a lot of the foreigners who know Khmer speak fine, but, oddly enough, have a difficult time understanding it. This has been the case for me, which explains why I spend hours each week in private lessons breaking down spoken, colloquial Khmer in order to try to better understand it. We go line by line through videos. I thought I would share a video and some patterns to see what others thought. This is by no means definitive; I think I actually have one of the worst ears of any of the Khmer language posters. I put some English transliterations because some posters have clamored for them and when I was starting out, I had the same habit, although I think it is imperative to learn the Khmer script to advance past the beginner stage.
I have transcribed many videos, but country people tend to make better examples of spoken Khmer, so let’s start with a classic Khmer folk tale about a jay, the name of a not so smart farmer (skip to 54 seconds in):
VIDEO
(0:54) ឯងឆាប់ចុះម៉ោណេះម៉ាភ្លែតមើ! (translates roughly: come down quickly for a second) aing chab joh mow maplait mul
Boom. Off the bat, we get our first irregular usage. Mouk (to take) មក almost always turns into just ម៉ោ. This is actually pretty common, as the Khmer love to remove the gaw ក from the end of words, like the word for ice កក or the word for to look for រក and either completely emphasize the first letter or basically eliminate the ending ក. A jay’s dad doubles down on the irregular usage by turning មួយភ្លែត muay plait into either ម៉ាភ្លែ maplai(t) with a very subtle ត t sound at the end, depending on your ear. The Khmer also like to put several types of words at the end of spoken sentences for emphasis, like ម៉ង mawng or មើល mull (listen at 6:32 for ឯងគិតងូតអោយអស់ម៉ាពាងនឹងម៉ងហ្អី? aing git noik dtuk ahh ma being mawng eh). Here, based on the context, it appears he is saying មើល but almost drops the ល. Again, the angular written language becomes much quicker.
If the initial phrase threw you off, the reason that a jay jumps off the stairs to get down there is not going to make you feel much better. A few line laters, a jay says:
(1:23) ពីជដើរ (from the staircase) ខ្លាចអត់ទាន់ពុកឯងហៅ ខ្ញុំលោតម៉ោ (translates roughly: from the staircase. I was worried I was late. You, dad, called me so I jumped to come down.) bi jon dall klaic at toan pouk aing hall knyom lout mow
This is a very common Khmer habit. They love to take words with multiple syllables and find ways to កាត់ contract them if at all possible. The full word ជណ្ដើរ jon dall is turned into j dall ជដើរ. This way, they avoid pronouncing the long o vowel and put less pressure on the palate. There are so many examples of this I wouldn’t even know where to start, but some common contractions that every Khmer learner should know are:
ចំការ (jom ga) ជការ (j ga) means farm
ផ្ទះ (pdteah) ទះ (teah) means house
និយាយ (ni yeay) យាយ (yeay) means say
How do you know when they mean grandma and when they mean to clap their hands or the house? Context. Context is everything in spoken Khmer. Lose control of the subject of the conversation, you will have a tough time.
(1:57) អើ ង៉ៃមុខ ង៉ៃក្រោយ(ង៉ៃឃោយ) អោយប្រយ័ត្នប្រយ៉ែង លើជដើរនឹងឯងធ្លាក់បាក់កងាប់ (translates roughly: in the future be careful you can fall land break your neck and die) nai mok nai crowy aoy brayatbrayaing loocon dall aing bak k ngoab
ង៉ៃ is pretty common spoken usage, although sometimes I confuse it with word to flirt ញ៉ៃ and have to infer which one based on context. Again, the Khmer almost always find ways to drop the រ when they are speaking colloquially but a lot of times they will compensate for the loss by lowering their voice and dropping a big sound consonant instead. Here the small sound consonant ក turns into ឃ; it is important as you are listening to spoken Khmer not just to listen to the consonant sounds, but, rather, the inflection. They will speak more loudly and deeply when they drop the រ. The most famous example is one of the most common words in the language, the word for the field of rice:
ស្រែ turns into ស៊ែ like in the same video at (7:53) កូនឯងទៅយប្រដាប់ប្រដារ (tool) ទៅស្រែនឹង kon aing tull bradab dbrada tull srai nung. Here, they drop the r from the word for tool and then again for the word for field. Also check out this song VIDEO (1:44, 1:53, 2:00, et cetera). For another example, skip to គ្រតអើយ (3:13, the aunt drops the r in her name).
(2:31) អញចាំស្រេក (សេក) ទឹកជិតងាប់ហើយណៀក (translates roughly: I wait; I am so thirsty I am almost dead here.) awn jam srawk dtuk cit noab neeak
All he’s saying is that he’s thirsty, and the deviation from formal Khmer is also intense. First, we have the rude អញ awn that almost no Khmer teachers teach but that Khmer use quite a bit in informal speech between friends and family members, especially when displeased. As noted above, in informal, spoken Khmer the រ is almost always dropped from the first syllable of multiple syllable words. There are literally hundreds of examples you can find, but here is a good spoken one. ស្រេច sraick just becomes សេច “sac” (ironically same word for parrot). ណៀក neeak is also rarely, if ever taught, and it means the same as នេះ nih.
Practice really does make perfect, but being at least somewhat aware of these common usages goes a long way. This is by no means an exhaustive list. I just picked a video that I liked and have transcribed almost in full. Happy listening!
One sentence that I took to heart was when a poster said that a lot of the foreigners who know Khmer speak fine, but, oddly enough, have a difficult time understanding it. This has been the case for me, which explains why I spend hours each week in private lessons breaking down spoken, colloquial Khmer in order to try to better understand it. We go line by line through videos. I thought I would share a video and some patterns to see what others thought. This is by no means definitive; I think I actually have one of the worst ears of any of the Khmer language posters. I put some English transliterations because some posters have clamored for them and when I was starting out, I had the same habit, although I think it is imperative to learn the Khmer script to advance past the beginner stage. I have transcribed many videos, but country people tend to make better examples of spoken Khmer, so let’s start with a classic Khmer folk tale about a jay, the name of a not so smart farmer (skip to 54 seconds in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRSwocFg1ks (0:54) ឯងឆាប់ចុះម៉ោណេះម៉ាភ្លែតមើ! (translates roughly: come down quickly for a second) aing chab joh mow maplait mul Boom. Off the bat, we get our first irregular usage. Mouk (to take) មក almost always turns into just ម៉ោ. This is actually pretty common, as the Khmer love to remove the gaw ក from the end of words, like the word for ice កក or the word for to look for រក and either completely emphasize the first letter or basically eliminate the ending ក. A jay’s dad doubles down on the irregular usage by turning មួយភ្លែត muay plait into either ម៉ាភ្លែ maplai(t) with a very subtle ត t sound at the end, depending on your ear. The Khmer also like to put several types of words at the end of spoken sentences for emphasis, like ម៉ង mawng or មើល mull (listen at 6:32 for ឯងគិតងូតអោយអស់ម៉ាពាងនឹងម៉ងហ្អី? aing git noik dtuk ahh ma being mawng eh). Here, based on the context, it appears he is saying មើល but almost drops the ល. Again, the angular written language becomes much quicker. If the initial phrase threw you off, the reason that a jay jumps off the stairs to get down there is not going to make you feel much better. A few line laters, a jay says: (1:23) ពីជដើរ (from the staircase) ខ្លាចអត់ទាន់ពុកឯងហៅ ខ្ញុំលោតម៉ោ (translates roughly: [I jumped] from the staircase. I was worried I was late. You, dad, called me so I jumped to come down.) bi jon dall klaic at toan pouk aing hall knyom lout mow This is a very common Khmer habit. They love to take words with multiple syllables and find ways to កាត់ contract them if at all possible. The full word ជណ្ដើរ jon dall is turned into j dall ជដើរ. This way, they avoid pronouncing the long o vowel and put less pressure on the palate. There are so many examples of this I wouldn’t even know where to start, but some common contractions that every Khmer learner should know are: ចំការ (jom ga) ជការ (j ga) means farm ផ្ទះ (pdteah) ទះ (teah) means house និយាយ (ni yeay) យាយ (yeay) means say How do you know when they mean grandma and when they mean to clap their hands or the house? Context. Context is everything in spoken Khmer. Lose control of the subject of the conversation, you will have a tough time. (1:57) អើ ង៉ៃមុខ ង៉ៃក្រោយ(ង៉ៃឃោយ) អោយប្រយ័ត្នប្រយ៉ែង លើជដើរនឹងឯងធ្លាក់បាក់កងាប់ (translates roughly: in the future be careful you can fall land break your neck and die) nai mok nai crowy aoy brayatbrayaing loocon dall aing bak k ngoab ង៉ៃ is pretty common spoken usage, although sometimes I confuse it with word to flirt ញ៉ៃ and have to infer which one based on context. Again, the Khmer almost always find ways to drop the រ when they are speaking colloquially but a lot of times they will compensate for the loss by lowering their voice and dropping a big sound consonant instead. Here the small sound consonant ក turns into ឃ; it is important as you are listening to spoken Khmer not just to listen to the consonant sounds, but, rather, the inflection. They will speak more loudly and deeply when they drop the រ. The most famous example is one of the most common words in the language, the word for the field of rice: ស្រែ turns into ស៊ែ like in the same video at (7:53) កូនឯងទៅយប្រដាប់ប្រដារ (tool) ទៅស្រែនឹង kon aing tull bradab dbrada tull srai nung. Here, they drop the r from the word for tool and then again for the word for field. Also check out this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr1IVVOWSTk (1:44, 1:53, 2:00, et cetera). For another example, skip to គ្រតអើយ (3:13, the aunt drops the r in her name). (2:31) អញចាំស្រេក (សេក) ទឹកជិតងាប់ហើយណៀក (translates roughly: I wait; I am so thirsty I am almost dead here.) awn jam srawk dtuk cit noab neeak All he’s saying is that he’s thirsty, and the deviation from formal Khmer is also intense. First, we have the rude អញ awn that almost no Khmer teachers teach but that Khmer use quite a bit in informal speech between friends and family members, especially when displeased. As noted above, in informal, spoken Khmer the រ is almost always dropped from the first syllable of multiple syllable words. There are literally hundreds of examples you can find, but here is a good spoken one. ស្រេច sraick just becomes សេច “sac” (ironically same word for parrot). ណៀក neeak is also rarely, if ever taught, and it means the same as នេះ nih. Practice really does make perfect, but being at least somewhat aware of these common usages goes a long way. This is by no means an exhaustive list. I just picked a video that I liked and have transcribed almost in full. Happy listening!