Khmer Greetings – Lesson 1
Here are some general Khmer greetings, and some other basic words to help you learn Khmer. Enjoy!
[table]
Khmer, English
Knom, I
Nek, you
bong, you(older person)*
aun, you(younger)*
cmuah, name
jum-riab-sua, hello (formal)
jum-riab-lia, bye (formal)
sok-sa-baay dte, how are you
sok-sa-baay, fine
jo nek win, and you?
et-dtooh, excuse me
soom-dtooh, sorry
min-ey-dtee, it doesn’t matter or your welcome**
aw-kun, thank you
baat, yes (male)
ja, yes (female)
nih, this
et, no
a-vwey, what
yul, understand
yul dtee?, understand?
min yul dtee, i dont understand
et dung, i dont know
et yul, i dont understand
[/table]
*If you need to catch a waiter or waitress’attention just call out aun or bong depending on if they are older or younger. If it is a girl and in doubt her age, maybe say aun. If it is a guy and in doubt of age maybe say bong.
**Min-ey-dtee is a multi purpose word. It is very important to learn. If you have an understanding of Thai is like the word mai pen ra. If someone bumps into you, just say min-ey-dtee if no offense was taken. This word can get you out of a lot of trouble and save face for others. Most important word to learn out of this Khmer greetings lesson.
So that completes lesson 1 Khmer greetings. Continue to lesson 2. which is mainly vocab talking about things in or at your house. Ta! (continue)
One reply on “Khmer greetings – lesson 1”
A few more! 😉
cmuah > chmuah
Jum-riab-sua / Jum-riab-lia, I defer to your expertise; I just hear and spell this differently, but phonetically I spell it pretty much the same, “Chum reeup sooah / Chum reeup leeah.” Same same only different. ;P
Sok-sa-baay dte > Sok-sabai dtay. The “baay” looks (to English speakers) more to sound like “bay” with a long “a” sound, and “dte” would be a high pitched “ee” and miss the long “a” (with lilt) sound…
Soom-dtooh > soam-dtoh, Soom might be translated similar to “zoom,” and “dtooh” like “two…”
Min-ey-dtee > Maan-ey-dtay, to mean-ey-dtay. Depending on where in Kampuchea the speaker’s from, while “min” might sound like “fin” (finsh in French).
Baat > Bah! or Ba:, I see the t in “baat” but I never seem to actually hear it when people speak. It may just be a slang usage though the way I hear it…
et > ot and ot-dtayyyyy! 😉 Because et would sound more like placing a “bet” instead “ot” like “bought.”
a-vwey > a’way But once again I defer to your expertise, I don’t hear the “vw” sound and seem to be understood with my a’way(s).
yul dtee? > yul dtay Once again the pronunciation of dtee would sound more like drinking “tea” than dtay like shouting “hey!” like dtay…
et dung/et yul >> ot dung/ot yul
But I still learned a few things! 🙂 Akoon J’raan!