Speaking Khmer

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cambodia travel khmer guide language

This is the second of my guides to Cambodia. While Im pretty good with programming languages, spoken languages is a completely different kettle of fish. Still, I spent a long enough time in Cambodia to pick up some Khmer not enough to have conversations, but generally enough to get the gist of what the locals were saying to me. Khmer has its own character set sixteen vowels and thirty-five consonants so my attempts to provide speaking guides below arent anything to swear by. Theres a few characters that can be translated as mixtures of our own, such as bp and dj. Also, keep in mind that if you speak more than the very basics, then youll get one of two reactions. Either the Khmer will assume you know the language, and will answer in the same language which quite likely wont be that helpful; or, theyll do a double-take, and repeat what you said and laugh. The latter happened to me a lot in Siem Reap in particular, because Westerners (Berangs) that speak Khmer in such a tourist-heavy location are few and far between. If you get stuck in the former situation though, Id recommend saying Khmer tik-tik (small Khmer), and theyll probably laugh and then switch back to English, should they know any.

Greetings and Thank-you

Hello: Soosdai How are you?: Sock-sabai? (Literally: Healthy and Happy? This can also be used as the response much like a va in French) Happy: Sabai Very Happy: Sabai na Good: Lor Very Good: Lor na Thank-you: Oarkun Thank-you very much: Oarkun Djeraan Yes: Baht (when said by males) or Djaa (when said by females) No: Atay (Again, works very similarly to the French ne pas, with the word being negated going in between, as shown in the next example). No Problem: At-banya-ha, or more correctly At-banya-ha-tay.

Sock-sabai is used as a general greeting, and more than often will be the response offered in return. If you want to be a bit of a smart-arse, you can switch the syllables of Sock-sabai to Saisabock which is something the Khmer do themselves occasionally, but a Westerner saying it is often seen as a great joke to them.

Numbers
The Khmer counting system is pretty easy to get your head around it generally works by fives, as you can see below. The only thing I find tricky is each multiple of ten has no connection to the factor (ie: 2 and 20 dont sound the same).

1: Moi (as in Moira) 2: Bpee 3: Bai 4: Buan 5: Pram 6: Pram-Moi (ie: 5 + 1) 7: Pram-Bpee 8: Pram-Bai 9: Pram-Buan 10: Dop 11: Dop-Moi (10 + 1) 12: Dop-Bpee 16: Dop-Pram-Moi (10 + 5 + 1) 20: Moipai 21: Moipai-Moi (20 + 1) 30: Samsup 40: Saesup 50: Hasup 100: Moi-roy 121: Moi-roy-Moipai-Moi (100 + 20 + 1) 200: Bpee-roy 1000: Moi-bpuan

Wikipedia has a lot more detail on the number system, if youre feeling curious.

People
When talking about people, youll generally indicate their age (younger or older than yourself) and gender.

Older: Bong Younger: Ohn Male: Proh Female: Srei

So, if youre at a restaurant, and you want to get the waiters attention, its best to err on the side of seniority, and call him Bong-Proh. An older woman is Bong-Srei, although Bong will likely be fine in both cases. The literal translations are older/younger sister/brother, but its not meant as an indication of immediate family (although they are also used in that manner).

Older Sister: Bong-Srei Older Brother: Bong-Proh Younger Sister: Ohn-Srei Younger Brother: Ohn-Proh

Keep in mind this is just the basics I didnt really get my head around the rest.

Dining and Shopping

This is one area where Im quite rusty I never really ordered in true Khmer restaurants (only places that catered for Westerners). Youll notice, though, that each meat shares the same prefix Satch, meaning flesh. So if you see the live animals (ie: a cow), just call it Ko, instead of Satchko.

Chicken: Satch-muern Beef: Satch-ko Pork: Satch-cheruu Banana: Jake Tasty: Chngngyang (this one takes a bit of practicing) Delicious: Chngngyang na (literally, very tasty) Cheers: Chul moi (As one) Money: Loy Can I have the bill?: Som kit loy? How much is this?: Tly pon-man? Expensive: Tly na One more: Moi tiet

Directions

Turn right: Bat saddaam Turn left: Bat schweng Straight ahead: Dtrong Here: Tini There: Tinu

Everything Else

Westerner: Berang (in the past, this meant French, as they colonised the region, but its now a catch-all term for any Anglo-looking person) Pretty: Saat Beautiful: Saat na (literally, very pretty) Small: Tik-tik Large: Tom-tom Slow: Yuut-yuut Strong: Klung Miss: Nook (as in, to miss someone)

Dog: Chkai Cat: Chmaa Dont need: Atrega (Useful when dealing with the never-ending calls of touts for taxis, tuk-tuks and motos in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap) Have: Mien Already: Howie Have already: Mien Howie

That should give you a decent start although Im sure Ill think of more words tomorrow. Next up in this series (and hopefully appearing a bit more quickly than this post) is tackling travel around Cambodia.