This article describes the grammar of the Khmer (Cambodian) language, focusing on the standard dialect.
Khmer is primarily an analytic language, with no inflection. There is some derivation by means of prefixes and infixes, but it is no longer always productive,[1] as those elements are often crystallized in words inherited from Old Khmer. Even in Old Khmer, the same affix could have multiple functions (for example, it could serve as a nominalizer in one word and as a causativizer in another).
A common infix has the form pronounced as /[-ɑm(n)-]/ or pronounced as /[-ɑn-]/ (or with other vowels), inserted after an initial consonant, especially to convert adjectives or verbs into nouns.
Compounding is common; in a compound of two nouns, the head generally comes first, often the reverse of the English order: "duck egg" is Central Khmer: ពងទា pronounced as /[pɔːŋ tiə]/, literally "egg-duck".
Since Khmer is an analytic language, word order is relatively fixed, as changes in word order often affect meaning. Khmer is generally a subject–verb–object (SVO) language. Topicalization is common: the topic of the sentence is often placed at the start, with the rest of the sentence a comment on that topic.
Like in English, prepositions are used rather than postpositions (words meaning "in", "on", etc. precede the noun that they govern).[2] The language is generally head-initial so modifiers come after the words modified (adjectives, possessives, demonstratives, relative clauses, etc. follow nouns; adverbs mostly follow verbs; and so on).
Khmer nouns have no grammatical gender or grammatical number inflections. There are no articles, but indefiniteness is often expressed by the word for "one" following the noun. Plurality can be marked by postnominal particles, numerals, or reduplication of a following adjective, which, although it is similar to intensification, is usually differentiated by context:[3]
Possessives are formed by placing the noun or pronoun representing the possessor after the main noun, often with the word Central Khmer: របស់ pronounced as /[rəbɑh]/ between them. (The word Central Khmer: របស់ is also a noun, meaning "thing".)
In Khmer, a number that indicates quantity follows the noun.
Exceptions include nouns indicating passage of time such as hours or days, units of measurements and currencies, all of which function as noun classifiers without the explicit mention of what is being classified. Reversal of the order can change the meaning:
Classifying particles for use with numerals and nouns exist but are optional, unlike Thai, except in introductory clauses. They are used for clarity or formality, and number precedes classifiers.
The following example illustrates the superfluous mention of what is being classified:
Counting in Khmer is based on a biquinary system (6 to 9 have the form "five one", "five two", etc.) However, the words for multiples of ten from 30 to 90 are not related to the basic Khmer numbers but are probably borrowed from Thai. The Khmer script has its own versions of the Arabic numerals. The principal number words are listed in the following table, which gives Western and Khmer digits, Khmer spelling and IPA transcription:[1]
| 0 | Central Khmer: ០ | Central Khmer: សូន្យ | pronounced as /[soun]/ | |||||
| 1 | Central Khmer: ១ | Central Khmer: មួយ | pronounced as /[muəj]/ | |||||
| 2 | Central Khmer: ២ | Central Khmer: ពីរ | pronounced as /[piː]/ | 20 | Central Khmer: ២០ | Central Khmer: ម្ភៃ | pronounced as /[mphej]/ | |
| 3 | Central Khmer: ៣ | Central Khmer: បី | pronounced as /[ɓəːj]/ | 30 | ៣០ | Central Khmer: សាមសិប | pronounced as /[saːm səp]/ | |
| 4 | Central Khmer: ៤ | Central Khmer: បួន | pronounced as /[ɓuən]/ | 40 | Central Khmer: ៤០ | Central Khmer: សែសិប | pronounced as /[sae səp]/ | |
| 5 | Central Khmer: ៥ | Central Khmer: ប្រាំ | pronounced as /[pram]/ | 50 | Central Khmer: ៥០ | Central Khmer: ហាសិប | pronounced as /[haː səp]/ | |
| 6 | Central Khmer: ៦ | Central Khmer: ប្រាំមួយ | pronounced as /[pram muəj]/ | 60 | Central Khmer: ៦០ | Central Khmer: ហុកសិប | pronounced as /[hok səp]/ | |
| 7 | Central Khmer: ៧ | Central Khmer: ប្រាំពីរ | pronounced as /[pram piː]/, pronounced as /[pram pɨl]/ | 70 | Central Khmer: ៧០ | Central Khmer: ចិតសិប | pronounced as /[cət səp]/ | |
| 8 | Central Khmer: ៨ | Central Khmer: ប្រាំបី | pronounced as /[pram ɓəːj]/ | 80 | Central Khmer: ៨០ | Central Khmer: ប៉ែតសិប | pronounced as /[paet səp]/ | |
| 9 | Central Khmer: ៩ | Central Khmer: ប្រាំបួន | pronounced as /[pram ɓuən]/ | 90 | Central Khmer: ៩០ | Central Khmer: កៅសិប | pronounced as /[kaʋ səp]/ | |
| 10 | Central Khmer: ១០ | Central Khmer: ដប់ | pronounced as /[ɗɑp]/ | 100 | Central Khmer: ១០០ | Central Khmer: មួយរយ | pronounced as /[muəj rɔːj]/ |
Intermediate numbers are formed by compounding the above elements. Powers of ten are denoted by Central Khmer: រយ pronounced as /[rɔːj]/ (100), Central Khmer: ពាន់ pronounced as /[pŏən]/ (1,000), Central Khmer: ម៉ឺន pronounced as /[məɨn]/ (10,000), Central Khmer: សែន pronounced as /[saen]/ (100,000), Central Khmer: លាន pronounced as /[liən]/ (1,000,000) and Central Khmer: កោដិ pronounced as /[kaot]/ (10,000,000). For more information, see Khmer numerals.
Ordinal numbers are formed by placing the particle Central Khmer: ទី pronounced as /[tiː]/ before the corresponding cardinal number.
In Khmer, demonstratives follow the nouns that they modify. In standard literary Khmer, there are two degrees of distance, but there are other distinctions in colloquial language. Demonstratives can also function as articles only after introductory clauses.
| Demonstrative | Alternative Forms | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Khmer: នេះ (nih) | Central Khmer: ហ្នឹង (nəŋ) | This | |
| Central Khmer: នោះ (nuh) | Central Khmer: ហ្នុង (noŋ) | That |
The pronominal system is complex and is full of honorific variations. There is generally no single pronoun appropriate for all situations, with the choice of pronoun based on age, gender, and relationship. Nouns referring to a specific person, like brother or uncle, can be used as pronouns even when one directly addresses the person.
For some examples of typical pronoun forms, see Khmer language – Social registers. Below is a table of the most common kinship terms that are also used as personal pronouns.
| Kinship term | Translation | Non-kinship usage | Note | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ឪពុក | កូន pronounced as //koun// | father; child | none | formally refers to one's own father, other terms for "father/dad" include: pronounced as //paː//, pronounced as //ʔəw//, pronounced as //bəi daː//, pronounced as //puk// | |
| ម្តាយ pronounced as //mdaːj// | កូន pronounced as //koun// | mother; child | Many other terms are used commonly: pronounced as //mae//, pronounced as //maʔ// | ||
| បង pronounced as //bɑːŋ// | ប្អូន, អូន pronounced as //pʔoun//, pronounced as //ʔoun// | older sibling | an older man or woman of the same generation; the man in a romantic relationship | ចែ pronounced as //cae// is a Chinese-derived term used to refer to a woman around the same age in Cambodia and is more often said among Chinese Cambodians and sometimes in urban settings | |
| ប្អូន, អូន | បង | younger sibling | a younger person of the same generation; a child; the woman in a romantic relationship | Other colloquial terms are used to refer to younger generations using pronounced as //ʔaː// as a diminutive: pronounced as //ʔaː nuh//, pronounced as //miː nuh//, pronounced as //niəŋ// | |
| កូន pronounced as //koun// | ប៉ា, មែ pronounced as //paː//, pronounced as //mae// | biological child or grandchild | a young child; a person at least one generation younger | ||
| ចៅ pronounced as //caw// | តា, យាយ pronounced as //taː//, pronounced as //jiəj// | grandchild, cousin of junior generations | a young child; a person at least one generation younger | ||
| តា pronounced as //taː// | ចៅ or កូន | grandfather | any man of grandparents' generation | other terms can be used depending on family structure and dialect | |
| យាយ pronounced as //jiəj// | ចៅ or កូន | grandmother | a middle-aged (married) woman | other terms may be used depending on family structure and dialect | |
| មីង pronounced as //miːŋ// | ក្មួយ pronounced as //kmuəj// | a parent's younger sister/sister-in-law | any woman of parents' generation, but younger than parents, a young (usually unmarried) woman (formal) | អ៊ី pronounced as //ʔiː// is the equivalent Chinese term and, similar to pronounced as //cae//, is sometimes used in urban areas and among Chinese Cambodians | |
| ពូ pronounced as //puː// | ក្មួយ pronounced as //kmuəj// | a parent's younger brother/brother-in-law | any man of parents' generation, but younger than parents; also a man slightly older than the speaker (formal) | an equivalent, but more colloquial, term is pronounced as //miə// | |
| អ៊ុំ pronounced as //ʔom// | ក្មួយ pronounced as //kmuəj// | a parent's older sibling; his/her spouse | any person of parents' generation but older than parents | ||
| អ្នក pronounced as //nĕəʔ// | ប្អូន pronounced as //pʔoun// | "you" (when addressing an older brother- or sister-in-law) | third person equivalent is បងថ្លៃ pronounced as //bɑːŋ tʰlai// |
Adjectives in Khmer follow the noun; doubling the adjective can indicate plurality or intensify the meaning (see Nouns above). Adjectives follow verbs when they function as adverbs. Adjectives are actually stative verbs and are used without a copula and can be negated, like other verbs.
Comparatives are expressed using the word Central Khmer: ជាង /ciəŋ/: "A X /ciəŋ/ [B]" (A is more X [than B]). The most common way to express superlatives is with Central Khmer: ជាងគេ /ciəŋ keː/: "A X /ciəŋ keː/" (A is X-est of all).[3]
In Khmer, nouns and adjectives can be reduplicated. Reduplication can occur as perfect reduplicates or by altering the rhyme of words. Khmer also uses compound reduplication in which two phonologically unrelated words with similar or identical meanings are compounded.
The Khmer script includes the symbol ៗ, which indicates that the preceding word or phrase is to be repeated.
As is typical of most East Asian languages,[4] Khmer verbs do not inflect at all; tense and aspect can be expressed using particles (such as កំពុង pronounced as /[kəmpuŋ]/, placed before a verb to express continuous aspect) and adverbs (such as "yesterday", "earlier", "tomorrow"), or may be understood from context. Serial verb construction is quite common.
Yes–no questions can be formed by placing the particle Central Khmer: ទេ /teː/ at the end of a sentence. This particle can also serve as an emphatic particle (it is also used in negative sentences, as shown below), and so intonation may be required to indicate that a question is being asked.
In wh-questions, the question word generally remains in its usual grammatical position in the sentence, rather than being brought to the start as in English (that is, wh-fronting does not normally take place).
Verbs can be negated in three primary fashions, all of which convey a slightly different connotation or formality. The most common method of negation is a discontinuous construction placing Central Khmer: មិន "pronounced as /[mɨn]/" (not, not to be) before the verb and ending the verb phrase with Central Khmer: ទេ "pronounced as /[teː]/", which, as a stand-alone word can be either "no" or a particle contradicting a previous statement. Colloquially, the final "Central Khmer: ទេ" may be omitted.
Another fairly common way of indicating negation uses Central Khmer: អត់ (also spelled (Central Khmer: ឥត)) "pronounced as /[ɑt]/" instead of Central Khmer: មិន. "Central Khmer: អត់", as an independent word, means "without" or "lacking" and expresses a similar connotation when used to negate a verb.
A third method is basically identical to the first method except Central Khmer: ពុំ "pronounced as /[pum]/" is used instead of "pronounced as /[mɨn]/". This is used only in literary or very formal contexts.