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The Khmer script (អក្ខរក្រមខេមរភាសា: âkkhârâkrâm khémâraphéasa) is used to write the Khmer Language which is the official language of Cambodia . The oldest dated inscription in Khmer, found at Angkor Borei in Takev Province south of Phnom Penh, dates from 611 AD, but Khmer script was probably in use much earlier. Before this the Khmer used a southern Indic Script ( Sanskrit ) for several hundred years. Khmer script is probably the oldest writing system among the Southeast Asian cultures next to Mon script. Mon script was developed around the 8th century and Thai script was established in the late 13th century (1292 AD). It is also used to write a few other minority languages in Cambodia who have no form of script of their own. A notable feature of the Khmer alphabet is that it has fewer symbols for , which can change the series of the consonant or change the pronunciation of the vowel. STYLES There are several styles of the Khmer script which are used for different purposes. 'Âksâr chriĕng' refers to slanted (or italic) letters. Slanted letters do not serve the same purpose as italics in English, so entire bodies of text such as novels and other publications may be produced in 'âksâr chriĕng' . 'Âksâr chhôr' refers to any style that is "standing" or upright. Upright letters were previously not common as 'âksâr chriĕng', but now most computer fonts defaultly display Khmer text upright making it more widely seen. 'Âksâr mul' is a round style which can be seen used for titles and headings in Cambodian documents, books, or currency, on shop signs or banners. Religious text on palm leaves can be entirely composed of this style of script. It is sometimes used to write royal names while the surrounding text was plain. Several consonants and some subscripts in this style look totally different than the usual. 'Âksâr khôm' is a variation of 'âksâr mul', but with some minor difference. When these last two styles are handwritten, they can be pencil-line width. Most Khmer computer fonts depict neither style correctly; in fact, some may meld elements of 'âksâr mul' and 'âksâr khôm' into one style, so generally either is referred to as 'âksâr mul'. CONSONANTS There are 35 Khmer consonants, but in modern Khmer, two of them have become obsolete leaving only 33. To form consonant clusters, subscript consonants are used. Subscript consonants are commonly referred to plainly as subscripts or sometimes sub-consonants. In Khmer, they are known as 'cheung âksâr' (ជើងអក្សរ) meaning the ''foot of a letter''. Subscript consonants help form consonant clusters by cancelling out the inherent vowel of the preceding consonant it's paired with. Listed in the table below are the pronunciation of the consonants when recited, their pronunciation values may be slightly different in orthography. Almost all of the time, the inherent vowels of consonants in the final position are never pronounced. The two obsolete consonants are highlighted in gray.
For some phonemes in Loanwords , the Khmer writing system has 'created' supplementary consonants. Most of these consonants are created by stacking a subscript under the character for. The consonant for , however, is created by using the diacritical sign called ''musĕkâtônd'' over the consonant for . These additional consonants are mainly used to represent sounds in French and Thai loanwords. DEPENDENT VOWELS There are 23 dependent vowel symbols, however this may vary among other sources which counts certain diacritics and their combination with basic vowel symbols as unique vowel symbols. Dependent vowels are known in Khmer as ''srăk nissăy'' (ស្រៈនិស្ស័យ) or ''srăk phsâm'' (ស្រៈផ្សំ). Dependent vowels always have to be combined with a consonant in Orthography . For most of the vowel symbols, there are two Phones . As to which phone is used depends on the series (or the inherent vowel) of the dominant consonant in a syllable cluster. Some vowel symbols may even have a regular third or fourth phone after certain consonants. INDEPENDENT VOWELS Independent vowels are vowels that do not have to be paired with a consonant in a syllable, hence the name. In Khmer they are called ''srăk penhtuŏ'' (ស្រៈពេញតួ) which means ''complete vowels''. DIACRITICS PUNCTUATION MARKS The Khmer script uses several unique punctuation marks as well as some borrowed from the Latin script such as the Question Mark . The period in the Khmer language resembles an Eighth Rest in music writing. LIGATURES Most consonants, including a few of the subscripts, form Ligatures with all dependent vowels that contain the symbol used for the vowel ''a'' (ា). A lot of these ligatures are easily recognizable, however a few may not be. One of the more unrecognizable is the ligature for the ''bâ'' and ''a'' which was created to differentiate it from the consonant symbol ''hâ'' as well as the ligature for ''châ'' and ''a''. It is not always necessary to connect consonants with the dependent vowel ''a''. Examples of ligatured symbols: Ligatured consonant subscript and vowel combination: NUMERALS Khmer has its own set of numerals derive from Indian numerals, which is also used by the Thais. Arabic Numerals are used to a lesser extent. KHMER IN UNICODE REFERENCES
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