On Friday I’m going to do a short presentation about Cambodia at Charlotte’s preschool and I’ve been brushing up on my Khmer alphabet facts.
Did you know that the Khmer language has the largest alphabet* in the world? 74 letters! That’s according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
*Japanese and Chinese are pictographs rather than alphabets. Most of Tamil isn’t alphabetic but syllabic.
| ក | ខ | គ | ឃ | ង | ច | ឆ | ណ |
| ថ | ទ | ធ | ន | ប | ផ | ព | ឞ |
| ហ | ឡ | អ | ឣ | ឤ | ឥ | ឦ | ឮ |
| ឰ | ឱ | ឲ | ឳ | ើ | ៩ | ា | ៎ |
| ៀ | េ | ែ | ៃ | ោ | ៅ | ំ | ៨ |
| ័ | ៑ | ្ | ៓ | ។ | ៕ | ៖ | ៧ |
| ០ | ១ | ២ | ៣ | ៤ | ៥ | ៦ | ៝ |
| ជ | ឈ | ញ | ដ | ឋ | ឌ | ឍ | ៜ |
| ភ | ម | យ | រ | ល | វ | ឝ | ៛ |
| ឧ | ឨ | ឩ | ឪ | ឫ | ឬ | ឭ | ៚ |
| ិ | ី | ឹ | ឺ | ុ | ូ | ួ | ៙ |
| ះ | ៈ | ៉ | ៊ | ់ | ៌ | ៍ | ៘ |
| ៗ |
The Khmer alphabet is made up of consonants, independent vowels, and dependent vowels! Letters sometimes transform based on their placement beside other letters! On top of all of that there are also 12 diacritics!
Khmer is a beautiful written language but it can be intimidating for those of us learning Khmer as a second language!
I can hear the kindergarten kids sitting under someone’s house reciting this.
One goal of mine is to actually learn the alphabet this time! Last time I just focused on being able to speak and listen.
Thanks, Charles, that is a huge amount of letters to learn. It looks like the students are all boys, or perhaps they are just separated in the classroom. Thanks and blessing.
Hi Mary – that photo just happened to not have any girls in it. It was also of a math class! I just switched it out for a photo of a Khmer language class.