Wiktionary:About Old Khmer

Writing Systems

For now at least, entries are being created in the Latin script. The equivalent Khmer script can also be added. However, the Pallava script which is true writing is not supported; it might be displayed as image instead.

The Latin script is the standard Indological transliteration of the original old Khmer script. Consequently, word-final implicit vowels are written even though they were, for the most part, probably not sounded. The old Khmer script almost never distinguishes <b> and <v>; the single character is written as <v>, except for a very few instances where a distinct <b> is written.

Thus, the array of consonants is:

	1	2	3	4	5		1	2	3	4	5
Velar	k	kh	g	gh	ṅ		ក	ខ	គ	ឃ	ង
Palatal	c	ch	j	jh	ñ		ច	ឆ	ជ	ឈ	ញ
Retroflex	ṭ	ṭh	ḍ	ḍh	ṇ		ដ	ឋ	ឌ	ឍ	ṅ
Dental	t	th	d	dh	n		ត	ថ	ទ	ធ	ន
Labial	p	ph	(b)	bh	m		ប	ផ	(ព)	ភ	ម
	Palatal	Retroflex	Dental	Labial	Glottal		Palatal	Retroflex	Dental	Labial	Glottal
Semivowel	y	r	l	w			យ	រ	ល	វ
Velar	ś	ṣ	s	h​			ឝ	ឞ	ស	ហ
Oddments
	ḷ	ʼ	aṃ	ḥ			ឡ	អ	អំ	ះ

The ten vocalic vowels are used in writing. There are some very rare examples of syllabic consonants; they will be added as occasion arises. The vowels are thus, with dependent vowels written on ក:

Latin	a	ā	i	ī	u	ū	e	o	ai	au
Khmer independent	អ	អា	ឥ	​​ឦ	ឧ	ឩ	ឯ	ឱ	ឰ	ឳ
Khmer dependent	ក	កា	កិ	កី	កុ	កូ	កេ	កោ	កែ	កៅ

The independent vowel អ behaves as a consonant only in that it can take subscript consonants, in which case it is transliterated as the modifier letter apostrophe, U+02BC. The combination can take a dependent vowel, as in ʼtā (អ្តា, “old man”). When independent vowels are subscripted, the transliteration writes the glottal stop as an apostrophe, e.g. ឋ្ឯំ (phʼeṃ, “sweet”). Independent vowels in hiatus are also written with an apostrophe.

There is an alternative notation in which the independent vowel with a subscript consonant is written superscript (^a) and the hiatus before a non-subscript independent vowel is marked with a hyphen.

Robat acts like reph in the middle of a word (-Vr). It means to be put immediately over the next consonant. Viriam acts like virama at the end of a word, making a consonant halant.

On-line Resources

There is an on-line dictionary at SEAlang. The dictionary indicates word attested only as prefixes or suffixes by appending a degree sign. On Wiktionary, we use a hyphen, before or after as appropriate. A quick account of the orthography is given in 'The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages' by Paul Sidwell and Mathias Jenny. There is a Google books preview accessible by searching for "Angkorian Khmer writing".