Language

Khmer is the official language of Cambodia. This language is immensely influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers. Cambodians from different regions of the country speak variant accents, but it is understood by all people throughout the country. Having its own scripts known as Aksar Khmer, Khmer is different from neighboring languages such as Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese.

Khmer employs 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 verbs, names of body parts and pronouns. For example, the Khmer word for “sleep” used between intimates is keing, used in reference to animal is deik, to those of a higher social status is somrann, to the royal family is somrann, and to monks is soeng.

When speaking Khmer, it is not customary to address someone by name. Addressing a person, Cambodians usually use the title associated with the person’s status such as brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandpa, and grandma. Also, Cambodians do not usually address others by a family name. To address someone in a polite speech, the title Mr., Mrs., Ms., or Dr. usually precedes the first name (not the family name). It should be noted that family name always comes first in Khmer-name order. As an example, a Cambodian lady with the name of Mean Meta, her family name is Mean, her first name is meta, and would be appropriately called Ms. Meta.