Yes, what you're describing was called "nasal enclitics" by Frank Huffman; as far as I know, there is no term for it in Khmer, and some singers are not even aware that they do it.Jamie_Lambo wrote:yeah i think its probably due to you having to, as you said, use/rely on your scripted khmer more and probably having to over think everythingmerchantsmutual wrote:I think low level Khmer has a few things that distinguish it:
(1) more slang phrases and expressions. For instance, you don't hear the educated khmer say something like ចង់ស៊ីសាច់របស់អញ
(2) different frequency of words. ម៉េច becomes a very common word; phrases like ម៉េចចង់ម៉េច are more common
(3) any polysyllabic word gets cut down. ក្រដាស់ to កដាស់ for instance
where as with me, most of my Khmer is mainly spoken, a lot of the time i know things are pronounced wrong/different/more common tongue, and you just get used to it, and copy,
and i only rely on scripted khmer when i have to use my dictionary app to quickly learn or refresh a word,
or learning someones (real) khmer name (so i know im pronouncing it right) or when texting/messaging my khmer friends online/sms
i practice my reading and writing by translating the Khmer songs, as you may or may not have noticed in the Khmer songs thread
trying to translate Khmer songs without the lyrics is a nightmare though, as its almost another language sometimes if a word ends in a K sound or a number of others it becomes a ង sound, T's often become ញ or a ង sound!! not always but very common!!
for example the first lines in this song... hahaha
សូររហាត់ទឹក អូននឹកដល់បង នឹកណាស់នួនល្អង នឹកចិត្តប្រណី។
So Rohat Dtuk, Oun Nuk Dol Bong, Nuk Nas Nuonlong, Nuk Chet Bronei... becomes
So Rohatnh Dtung, Oun Nung Dol Bong, Nung Nang Nuonlong, Nung Chetnh Bronei...
Basically, when a sung word ends in a stop consonant, you attach the nasal consonant that's from the same row as the stop consonant in question.
So, for words ending in ក you add ង, for words ending in ច you add ញ, for words ending in ត you add ន (not ង or ញ as you said...the reason it's always the nasal from the same row as the consonant in question is that one's tongue is in the same place for every consonant in a given row, including the nasal--except the bottom consonant row, of course), and for words ending in ប you add ម. For some reason, it also extends to words ending in aspiration (those which end in ស or one of the ះ vowels); in that case you add ង (just like in the case of ក-ending words).
This practice also exists in Thai (in a less complex form, since Thai is much less phonologically complex than Khmer) singing. Some Khmer singers do it every chance they can, others are more restrained. It's also widely done in traditional songs (and poetry chanting), and in fact in some songs or poems it's absolutely required that one adds the nasal, or the word would not correctly fit the meter.
There's one more use of nasal enclitics in Khmer: it's used in colloquial spoken Khmer, when the speaker is excited, frustrated, or angry. The amount of nasals that get used really varies by individual speaker, though.