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UNIT 1 CONSONANTS AND VOWELS 1

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

The image below illustrates how the first five Khmer consonants can be written. For example, the first consonant needs two strokes. The first stroke starts from the bottom left to the bottom right. The second stroke starts from the top left to the top right. The second consonant needs one stroke.

ក is probably the most used consonant in Khmer language whereas ឃ is one of the least used consonants.

Khmer consonants are divided into two groups. I arbitrarily call the first group the female group and the second group the male group. You will notice the difference between the two groups of consonants when I introduce the first five vowels. ក and ខ are in the female group whereas គ ឃ and ង are in the male group.

Now let’s put the first five consonants and vowels together. Remember that the sound of the vowels may change depending on the type of consonant (male of female) they are associated with in a word.

Watch the video for pronunciation. Note the pronunciation difference between the two groups of syllable.

Now you can try combining each consonant with all the vowels presented in this unit. Remember ក and ខ are in the female group whereas គ ឃ and ង are in the male group. The sounds of the vowels change when they are with the male group of consonants.

MEANINGFUL WORDS

In Khmer, consonants can go together without a visible vowel to form a word. Technically, a Khmer consonant has an embedded vowel when it has no visible vowel with it. When you pronounce all the consonants, you notice that they all share one embedded vowel. A consonant may be a word itself. Study the meaningful words below from combination of consonants and vowels you just learned above.

View a series of videos below for pronunciation.

SIGN

In addition to consonants and vowels, Khmer has a set of signs that are used to alter pronunciation. The first common sign is “BONTOK” សញ្ញាបន្តក់

There are probably more ways “BONTOK” has phonological effect on words. But for now just notice the three ways as illustrated in the video above. You will get to see more in later units.

EXERCISES

Click on the following link to get exercise sheet.

Click on this LINK to get the exercise sheet.