One Woman’s Fight to Bring Commas to Khmer
If Theary Seng had her way, hundreds of years of writing the Khmer language would be turned on its head, with spaces introduced between words and the Western comma utilized liberally for intelligibility.
A refugee who fled the civil war to the U.S. as a child in 1979 and returned in 1995, Ms. Seng has since become the sole proselytizer for an apocalyptic vision of written Khmer, which she depicts as a long-neglected form often unable to communicate complex ideas [...]
Seng Theary desperately trying to be relevant again
Seng Theary desperately trying to be relevant again
After human rights violations in Cambodia, after the Khmer Rouge trials... Seng Theary chose Khmer language to try and be relevant again: https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/one- ... er-111111/
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What I find intersting is that the Daily thinks this is front page news. Or...the Daily is working to keep her in the spotlight in anticipation of her role as an anti-govt/pro-Sam Rainsy advocate in the upcoming elctions.
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Say what you will about her or page placement (I agree), the Khmer language DOES need reforming, and those would be the best "first moves".
Last edited by LexusSchmexus on Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ridiculous minor language. Requires Roman script, obviously holding the country back.
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Interesting point. Though I've heard it said many times by the more nationalistic types that the evil "yuon do not even have a language of their own" since they use the roman alphabet, and that Khmer script is a source of great national pride because it is Khmer. (Nobody mention Sanskrit please.)ken svay wrote:Ridiculous minor language. Requires Roman script, obviously holding the country back.
Such was Sihanouk's rationale for short circuiting French efforts to go to a romanized alphabet in the 40s. My experience is that even highly educated Khmers are terribly slow readers. Too many vowels, not enough commas.LTO wrote:Interesting point. Though I've heard it said many times by the more nationalistic types that the evil "yuon do not even have a language of their own" since they use the roman alphabet, and that Khmer script is a source of great national pride because it is Khmer. (Nobody mention Sanskrit please.)ken svay wrote:Ridiculous minor language. Requires Roman script, obviously holding the country back.
Here's one comparison of reading speeds (Khmer not tested). Not huge differences across cultures but Chinese at the top, Arabic at the bottom in terms of texts/minute.
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I haven't really studied it enough, so please excuse my ignorance, but I don't see much of a resemblance between the written Sanskrit or Pali and Khmer script. There is a Khmer Pali which closely resembles Khmer Script but is in a different language. I am aware of the links between root words in Khmer and Sanskrit but perhaps some of this is overstated?LTO wrote:Nobody mention Sanskrit please
As far as the OP goes, personally I believe that the complicated nature of the writing system here is counter-productive. It is a very beautiful script but needs some overhauling to encourage literacy, reading, writing and study. I can never believe how few books most local people have in their homes.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
Pallava is the more obviously direct antecedent. Some discussion here.Lucky Lucan wrote:I haven't really studied it enough, so please excuse my ignorance, but I don't see much of a resemblance between the written Sanskrit or Pali and Khmer script. There is a Khmer Pali which closely resembles Khmer Script but is in a different language. I am aware of the links between root words in Khmer and Sanskrit but perhaps some of this is overstated?LTO wrote:Nobody mention Sanskrit please
As far as the OP goes, personally I believe that the complicated nature of the writing system here is counter-productive. It is a very beautiful script but needs some overhauling to encourage literacy, reading, writing and study. I can never believe how few books most local people have in their homes.
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.p ... pic=326635
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Cheers. I always thought it was a bit of a palava.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
Khmer has 30 vowel sounds according to this:
http://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=27640
which would rule out using the Latin alphabet with 5 vowel signs (it's not much good for English either, for that matter, though presumably it was fine for Latin).
It would certainly be an improvement if words could have gaps between them and sentences could end with full stops. Commas would be nice too. I wonder whose job/authority it would be to do this? Education Ministry?
http://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=27640
which would rule out using the Latin alphabet with 5 vowel signs (it's not much good for English either, for that matter, though presumably it was fine for Latin).
It would certainly be an improvement if words could have gaps between them and sentences could end with full stops. Commas would be nice too. I wonder whose job/authority it would be to do this? Education Ministry?
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PJC wrote:
It would certainly be an improvement if words could have gaps between them and sentences could end with full stops. Commas would be nice too. I wonder whose job/authority it would be to do this? Education Ministry?
There is no bribe money from ADB or World Bank etc for the relevant officials to make this happen. Change the language with a few commas, or seek billions to build bridges and roads, from which lucrative sums can be skimmed? You decide.
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