First series, independent vowels...?

     Now that I find myself with all this free time, I'm ready to resume studying Khmer. My first attempt, back in our first few weeks here, was an exercise in frustration and humiliation. I was too tired by the end of the day, too overwhelmed with all the other things I was trying to learn, and my brain was completely unreceptive to the idea of a new alphabet, let alone new words. In that time period, I integrated one new word every few days if I was lucky. I tried to learn more, but nothing would stick for more than three minutes. My Khmer teacher would come over and I would be filled with the dread of having to admit that I hadn't done any homework, that I couldn't remember anything he had taught me at the previous lesson, and that I was a complete failure as a student. Eventually, I just started using the time to interview him about Khmer culture, Buddhism, and his life. Then after a month of that charade, I admitted that I couldn't continue.


    After I stopped studying, I started to retain a few more words, particularly those I heard every day in the clinic. I could say "headache," "sore throat," "cold," "pain," and "two pills four times a day." I also learned important terms like "hammock," "drunk," "sorry," and "cilantro." I began to recognize a word here or there when listening to conversations. I read a book that included a lot of Khmer vocabulary (with English translations) and I occasionally noticed those words around me. I began to feel like I could tackle this project again, so on Monday I began my second attempt. 


     The question when studying a new language with a whole new alphabet is whether to just learn to speak and understand, or to also learn to read. I'm way too much of a visual learner, and the Khmer alphabet is way too intriguing to look at, so now I am the equivalent of a 48-year-old first-grader, learning a few letters at a time. I figured I could handle two Khmer lessons a week, giving me time to study in between and hopefully integrate the things I was trying to learn. It's a very slow pace, especially in contrast to the Khmer people here who might work all day then go to English class for two or three hours every evening, but I'm trying to be realistic. And when Yeum, my teacher comes back this evening, I'm hoping to redeem myself somewhat in his eyes by showing him that I actually practiced and remember what we did on Monday.


     It's going to be a long road. The Khmer alphabet is one of the largest in the world, with first series and second series dependent and independent vowels. I don't even know what exactly those terms mean just yet; I just know that such things exist.


According to this website:

The Khmer alphabet is the largest alphabet in the world (Guinness Book of World Records, 1995). It consists of 33 consonants, 23 vowels and 12 independent vowels. The 23 main consonants are separated into two groups: the first series (small sound) and second series (big sound). Furthermore, each consonant has two representations, regular and subscript (like upper and lower case, except in most cases the two do not resemble one another at all). Lastly, 10 of the most used consonants have a more "formal" appearance when written in titles, in advertising, on temple walls, etc. Hence, there are 101 distinct symbols.

Each of the 23 vowels has two distinct sounds, one when it is paired with a consonant from the first series and another when it is paired with a consonant from the second series. Sometimes, a vowel takes on a third sound when the pairing is followed by a certain other consonant. Confused yet?? Too bad. There is more. There are six accents that change all rules and add even more vowel sounds. They appear over top of words and act to either shorten, lengthen or emphasize sounds. The bontop looks a lot like a straightened out apostrophe, shortens a vowel sound, at the same time altering it. The bontop pii, which looks like two straightened apostrophes, (pii=two), changes the sound of a first series consonant to a second series sound. There is another symbol to change the sound of a second series consonant to a first series, but this only applies to a limited number. The other 3 accents occur infrequently

Khmer words are written without spaces in between. This leads to confusion because many words are compounds of two others. For example, the word for rencil is "black hand". If you start reading a story about little Phanith learning how to read and write in the countryside with his favorite pencil, and you don't know this, you might wonder if he is a psychotic serial killer and furthermore, question why anyone wrote a story about him.

The Khmer language, unlike others in the area is not tonal. (compare: Thai has 5 tones, Laotian has 6 tones, Vietnamese sounds like it is spoken backwards AND it has 6 tones) This might lead a new learner to the language to the delusional idea that it is a simple language to acquire. The joke, of course, is on that learner.

Reading the above description of the division of the alphabet and the schizophrenic nature of its vowels, one can quickly calculate there is a vast array of vowel sounds. To the untrained (in this case English speaking) ear, many of these seem virtually indistinguishable. This can lead to problems.

     I think that description is better than anything I can offer you in my own words. And whatapainitisnottohavespacesbetweenthewords. 


     Now I will offer you a peek at my homework, so you can fully appreciate the fact that I've put some effort into it:

It's harder than it looks... Or my fine motor skills aren't as good as I thought they were.

Someday maybe I'll know them ALL!!!!