Romanization systems for Khmer
edit
Cambodian geographical names are often
romanized
with a
transliteration
system, where representations in the
Khmer script
are mapped regularly to representations in the Latin alphabet (sometimes with some additional
diacritics
). The results do not always reflect standard Khmer pronunciation, as no special treatment is given to unpronounced letters and irregular pronunciations, although the two registers of Khmer vowel symbols are often taken into account.
When
transcription
is used, words are romanized based on their pronunciation. However, pronunciation of Khmer can vary by speaker and region. Roman transcription of Khmer is often done
ad hoc
on
Internet forums
and
chatrooms
, the results sometimes being referred to as
Khmenglish
or
Khmerlish
. These ad hoc romanizations are usually based on
English pronunciations
of letters, although they may also be influenced by Khmer spelling (as with the use of
s
rather than
h
to represent a final
aspirate
).
Since some sounds can be represented by more than one symbol in Khmer orthography, it is not generally possible to recover the original Khmer spelling from a pronunciation-based Roman transcription. Even transliteration systems often do not preserve all of the distinctions made in the Khmer script.
Some of the more commonly used romanization systems for Khmer are listed below. For full details of the various systems, see the links given in the
External Links
section.
The Khmer romanization scheme published by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names is based on the BGN/PCGN system, described below. It is used for Cambodian geographical names in some recent maps and gazetteers, although the Geographic Department's modified system (see below) has come into use in the country since 1995.
[1]
Correspondences in the UNGEGN system are detailed in the
Khmer alphasyllabary
article.
Geographic Department
edit
The Geographic Department of the Cambodian Ministry of Land Management and Urban Planning has developed a modified version of the UNGEGN system,
[2]
originally put forward in 1995, and used in the second edition of the Gazetteer of Cambodia in 1996. Further modifications were made in 1997, and the system continues to be used in Cambodia.
[1]
The main change made in this system compared with the UNGEGN system is that
diacritics
on vowels are omitted. Some of the vowels are also represented using different letter combinations.
A system used by the
United States Board on Geographic Names
and the
Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use
, published in 1972. It is based on the modified 1959
Service Geographique Khmer
(SGK) system.
[3]
ALA-LC Romanization Tables
edit
This system (also called Transliteration System for Khmer Script), from the
American Library Association
and
Library of Congress
,
[4]
romanizes Khmer words using the original Indic values of the Khmer letters, which are often different from their modern values. This can obscure the modern Khmer pronunciation, but the system has the advantage of relative simplicity, and facilitates the etymological reconstruction of
Sanskrit
and
Pali
loanwords whose pronunciation may be different in modern Khmer. The system is a modification of that proposed by
Lewitz
(1969), and was developed by Franklin Huffman of Cornell University and Edwin Bonsack of the Library of Congress for the
library cataloguing
of publications in Khmer.
Example words written in each romanization system
edit
English
|
Khmer
|
Pronunciation
|
Romanization
|
UNGEGN
(or BGN/PCGN)
|
Geographic
Department
|
ALA-LC
|
Khmer script
|
??????????
|
[?aks?ː k?mae]
|
'aksar khmer
|
'aksar khmaer
|
??aksar khmaer
|
Cambodia
|
???????
|
[kampuci?]
|
Kamp?chea
|
Kampuchea
|
Kambuj?
|
centre
|
?????
|
[m?n??l], [m??n??l]
|
mondol
|
mondol
|
ma??al
|
brightness
|
?????
|
[p?nl?ː]
|
ponlœ
|
ponlueu
|
banl?
|
peace
|
????????
|
[s?ntep?i?p]
|
sant?pheap
|
santepheap
|
santibh?b
|
belief
|
????
|
[cumn??]
|
chumnœ?
|
chumnoea
|
ja?n?a
|
to go
|
??
|
[t?w]
|
t?u
|
tov
|
dau
|
Tables of romanization systems
edit
This chart shows in full the three main systems for the romanization of Khmer: UNGEGN (or BGN/PCGN), Geographic Department and ALA-LC:
1st series
2nd series
[note 1]
Khmer
|
UNGEGN
(or BGN/PCGN)
|
Geographic
Department
|
ALA-LC
|
Full
form
|
Subscript
form
|
IPA
|
?
|
??
|
[k]
|
ka
|
Ka
|
k
|
?
|
??
|
[k?]
|
kha
|
Kha
|
kh
|
?
|
??
|
[k]
|
Ga
|
Go
|
g
|
?
|
??
|
[k?]
|
Gha
|
Gho
|
gh
|
?
|
??
|
[ŋ]
|
?a
|
?o
|
ng
|
?
|
??
|
[c]
|
Ca
|
Ca
|
c
|
?
|
??
|
[c?]
|
Cha
|
Cha
|
ch
|
?
|
??
|
[c]
|
Ja
|
Jo
|
j
|
?
|
??
|
[c?]
|
Jha
|
Jho
|
jh
|
?
|
??
|
[?]
|
Na
|
No
|
n
|
?
|
??
|
[?]
|
?a
|
?a
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[t?]
|
?ha
|
?ha
|
?h
|
?
|
??
|
[?]
|
?a
|
Do
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[t?]
|
?ha
|
?ho
|
?h
|
?
|
??
|
[n]
|
?a
|
?a
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[t]
|
Ta
|
Ta
|
t
|
?
|
??
|
[t?]
|
Tha
|
Tha
|
th
|
?
|
??
|
[t]
|
Da
|
Do
|
d
|
?
|
??
|
[t?]
|
Dha
|
Dho
|
dh
|
?
|
??
|
[n]
|
Na
|
No
|
n
|
?
|
??
|
[?],
[p]
|
Pa
|
Pa,Ba
[note 2]
|
p
|
?
|
??
|
[p?]
|
Pha
|
Pha
|
ph
|
?
|
??
|
[p]
|
Ba
|
Bo, po
[Note 2]
|
b
|
?
|
??
|
[p?]
|
Bha
|
Bho
|
bh
|
?
|
??
|
[m]
|
Ma
|
Mo
|
m
|
?
|
??
|
[j]
|
Ya
|
Yo
|
y
|
?
|
??
|
[r]
|
Ra
|
Ro
|
r
|
?
|
??
|
[l]
|
La
|
Lo
|
l
|
?
|
??
|
[?]
|
Va
|
Vo
|
v
|
?
|
??
|
[s]
|
?a
|
sha
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[s]
|
?a
|
Sha
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[s]
|
Sa
|
Sa
|
s
|
?
|
??
|
[h]
|
Ha
|
Ha
|
h
|
?
|
―
|
[l]
|
?a
|
La
|
?
|
?
|
??
|
[?]
|
A
|
A
|
A
|
Khmer
|
UNGEGN
(or BGN/PCGN)
|
Geographic
Department
|
ALA-LC
|
A-series
|
O-series
|
A-series
|
O-series
|
A-series
|
??
|
a
|
o
|
a
|
o
|
a
|
??
|
a
|
o
|
a
|
o
|
a
|
?
|
a
|
ea
|
a
|
ea
|
?
|
??, ??
|
?
|
e?
,
o?
|
a
|
ea
,
oa
|
a
|
?
|
?
|
e?
|
ak
|
eak
|
a
|
??
|
?y
|
o?y
|
ai
|
ey
|
?y
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
e
|
i
|
i
|
?
|
ei
|
i
|
ei
|
i
|
?
|
?
|
œ?
|
œ?
|
oe
|
ue
|
?
|
?
|
œ
|
œ
|
eu
|
ueu
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
o
|
u
|
u
|
?
|
o
|
u
|
ou
|
u
|
?
|
?
|
u?
|
u?
|
uo
|
uo
|
ua
|
?
|
aeu
|
eu
|
aeu
|
eu
|
oe
|
?
|
œ?
|
œ?
|
oea
|
oea
|
?a
|
?
|
i?
|
i?
|
ie
|
ie
|
ia
|
?
|
e
|
e
|
e
|
e
|
e
|
?
|
e
|
e
|
ae
|
eae
|
ae
|
?
|
ai
|
ey
|
ai
|
ey
|
ai
|
?
|
ao
|
o?
|
ao
|
ou
|
o
|
?
|
au
|
?u
|
au
|
ov
|
au
|
??
|
om
|
?m
|
om
|
um
|
u?
|
?
|
am
|
um
|
am
|
um
|
a?
|
??
|
?m
|
?am
|
am
|
oam
|
??
|
???
|
?ng
|
e?ng
|
ang
|
eang
|
??ng
|
?
|
?h
|
e?h
|
ah
|
eah
|
a?
|
??
|
?h
|
?h
|
eh
|
is
|
i?
|
??
|
œ?h
|
œ?h
|
oeh
|
ueh
|
??
|
??
|
?h
|
?h
|
oh
|
uh
|
u?
|
??
|
eh
|
eh
|
eh
|
eh
|
e?
|
??
|
aeuh
|
euh
|
aeuh
|
euh
|
oe?
|
??
|
eh
|
eh
|
aeh
|
eaeh
|
ae?
|
??
|
aoh
|
??h
|
aoh
|
uoh
|
oa?
|
Khmer
|
UNGEGN
(or BGN/PCGN)
|
Geographic
Department
|
ALA-LC
|
?
|
a
|
a
|
a
|
??
|
a
|
a
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
e
|
i
|
?
|
ei
|
ei
|
?
|
?
|
?
,
?
|
o
,
u
|
u
|
?
|
o
,
u
|
ou
,
u
|
?
|
?
|
au
|
au
|
yu
|
?
|
rœ?
|
rue
|
?
|
?
|
rœ
|
rueu
|
?
|
?
|
lœ?
|
lue
|
?
|
?
|
lœ
|
lueu
|
?
|
?
|
e
|
ae
|
ae
|
?
|
ai
|
ai
|
ai
|
?, ?
|
ao
|
ao
|
o
|
?
|
au
|
au
|
au
|
International Phonetic Alphabet transcription
edit
Various authors have used systems based on the
International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA) to transcribe Khmer. One such system is used in the books of Franklin E. Huffman and others;
[5]
a more recent scheme is that used in J.M. Filippi's 2004 textbook
Everyday Khmer
or
Khmer au quotidien
.
[6]
These systems differ in certain respects: for example, Huffman's uses doubling of vowel symbols to indicate long vowels, whereas Filippi's uses the IPA
triangular colon
vowel length symbol.
- ^
Khmer consonants belong to two classes that dictate the value of dependent vowels.
- ^
When accompanied by a subscript form, it is romanized as
p
in the 1st series, although the Khmer diacritical mark
?
is generally omitted:
?????
→
plaeng
,
?????
→
p'oun
,
??????
→
prab
.
- ^
a
b
Report on the Current Status of United Nations Romanization Systems for Geographical Names ? Khmer
, UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems, September 2013 (linked from
WGRS website
).
- ^
Geographical Names of the Kingdom of Cambodia
, submitted by Cambodia to the 8th UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, 2002 (also
addendum with corrections
).
- ^
Romanization System for Khmer (Cambodian)
, BGN/PCGN 1972 System.
- ^
ALA-LC Romanization Tables
, Khmer, rev. 2012.
- ^
For example, Franklin E. Huffman,
Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader with Drills and Glossary
, Adam Wood, 1970 (
downloadable PDF
).
- ^
Jean Michel Filippi,
Everyday Khmer
, Funan, Phnom Penh , 2004. French edition: Filippi et al.,
Khmer au quotidien
, Librairie You-Feng, 2008.
External links to romanization tables
edit