CAMBODIAN LANGUAGE
Understanding The Cambodian Language & Providing Professional Cambodian Interpreters, Translators and Transcriptionists
American Language Services (AML-Global) understands the importance of working in the Cambodian language. For over a Quarter of a Century, American Language Services has worked with the Cambodian language as well as hundreds of others from around the world. We offer comprehensive language services 24 hours, 7 days a week worldwide by providing Cambodian interpreting, translation and transcriptions services along with hundreds of other languages and dialects. Our linguists are native speakers and writers who are screened, credentialed, certified, field tested and experienced in a number of specific industry settings. The Cambodian language is unique and has very specific origins and characteristics.
Cambodia’s Unique Political System and Bonn Om Teuk
Cambodian or Khmer is a language native to Cambodia with over 15 million speakers of the language worldwide. A majority of those speakers live in Cambodia, which offers numerous activities and sightseeing for travelers and historians. Cambodia’s main industries are garments, tourism and construction. Cambodia has a unique political system; the politics of Cambodia formally take place, according to the nation’s constitution of 1993, in the framework of a constitutional monarchy operated as parliamentary representative democracy. It is an interesting combination not practiced in other countries, the Prime Minister is the head of government, while the king is the head of state. The King appoints the Prime Minister and Legislative power is vested in both the executive and the two chambers of Parliament. Other important aspects of Cambodia relate to its indigenous wildlife, ranging from elephants to leopards, and their festive activities. One famous festival is the Bonn Om Teuk (Festival of Boat Racing), which is held at the end of the rainy season and is one of the most attended boat races in the world. Approximately 10% of Cambodia’s population attends this event to give thanks to the moon, watch fireworks and attend the boat race in a carnival type atmosphere. It’s a festival not to be missed, and definitely worth traveling to Cambodia to witness first hand.
The Complex Registers of Cambodian
Khmer is a language heavily influenced by Sanskrit, Pali and especially the royal and religious vehicles of Hinduism and Buddhism. This heavy influence of royal languages establishes Khmer as a system of registers in which the speaker must always be conscious of the social status of the person spoken to. The different registers, which include those used for common speech, polite speech, speaking to or about royals and speaking to or about monks, employ alternate forms of the language. To foreigners this may appear to be different dialects or a completely different language altogether, but it’s the same language spoken differently under certain aspects. Therefore, it is vital that a professional translator who is an expert at understanding, speaking and writing in the different registers of the language be used for any translation purposes.
Different Dialects Pertaining to Cambodian
Like most languages, Cambodian has a variety of different dialects spoken in Burma. Despite its upper Cambodian origins, the standard dialect of Cambodian today comes from Yangon, because of the largest city’s media influence. Still, most differences between Yangon are not in the accent or pronunciation but in the vocabulary usage. The majority of Cambodian vocabulary is monosyllabic, especially those loaned from other languages since Cambodian has been influenced greatly by Pall, English and Mon. Today, Cambodian government tries to limit the use of western vocabulary in the Cambodian language but certain words, phrases and constanants still remain. It is because of this that a translator well versed in the varied dialects be used for any professional translation service in regards to the Cambodian language.
Khmer Script
Khmer is written with the Khmer script, developed from the Pallava script of India before the 7th century. The Khmer script is similar in appearance and usage to both Thai and Lao, which were based on the Khmer system and is distantly related to the Burmese script. The Khmer script is also used within Cambodia to transcribe hill tribe languages that have no writing system. Khmer differs from neighboring script and languages such as Thai, Lao and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language, not necessarily representative of the similarities shared in script.
Who are You Going to Trust with Your Vital Cambodian Language Needs?
The Cambodian language is an important language worldwide. It is vital to understand the general nature and specific idiosyncrasies of Cambodian. Since 1985, AML-Global has provided outstanding Cambodian interpreters, translators and transcriptionsts worldwide.
