More Country Speak

Have questions or resources regarding Khmer Culture? This forum is all about the Kingdom of Cambodia's culture. Khmer language, Cambodian weddings, French influence, Cambodian architecture, Cambodian politics, Khmer customs, etc? This is the place. Living in Cambodia can cause you to experience a whole new level of culture shock, so feel free to talk about all things related to the Khmer people, and their traditions. And if you want something in Khmer script translated into English, you will probably find what you need.
thelost
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by thelost »

i think sah ey is more like an abrupt version of ey?

kind of like....huh????

from personal experience, i dont think it's used with people who are older than you i.e. elders. i got smacked.
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by Username Taken »

ថាម៉េច?: What did you say? [Say what?]

ថា (tha or taa or tah, up to you) means to say or tell.

Wondering whether it's the different way that things are pronounced colloquially in different parts of the country, but, I'm thinking that the ones below may be a derivative of ថាម៉េច?: (thamech)

taabarang wrote: " yang meuch." [ yang may sound similar to tha]

jamie wrote: "សារអីគេ - Sar Ey Ke" [as above for Sar]


Just wondering, not saying it is. :Rose:
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

Username Taken wrote:ថាម៉េច?: What did you say? [Say what?]

ថា (tha or taa or tah, up to you) means to say or tell.

Wondering whether it's the different way that things are pronounced colloquially in different parts of the country, but, I'm thinking that the ones below may be a derivative of ថាម៉េច?: (thamech)

taabarang wrote: " yang meuch." [ yang may sound similar to tha]

jamie wrote: "សារអីគេ - Sar Ey Ke" [as above for Sar]


Just wondering, not saying it is. :Rose:

yeah agree Tha Ey Ke could mean like say what
i did find what thelost was talking about in the dictionary a few moments ago though

ស្អី - Sa'ey
colloquial form of អី (ey) or អ្វី (avey)
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks :x
thelost
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by thelost »

to me, personally, i think it's like this

taa mech? - what did you say? huh what do you mean? say again?

yang mech? - how come? why is it like that?

sah ey ke? - huh???

kind of different usage in different context but i could be wrong because i'm still learning khmer.

also "taa mech" in my experience is the most commonly used when someone say something, and the respondent will say "taa mech" when the respondent didnt get it or the speaker didnt say clearly.
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by Raybull »

thelost wrote:to me, personally, i think it's like this

taa mech? - what did you say? huh what do you mean? say again?

yang mech? - how come? why is it like that?

sah ey ke? - huh???

kind of different usage in different context but i could be wrong because i'm still learning khmer.

also "taa mech" in my experience is the most commonly used when someone say something, and the respondent will say "taa mech" when the respondent didnt get it or the speaker didnt say clearly.
Agree with all of those, that's pretty much what I interpreted them to mean, although maybe 1 and 3 may not be appropriate with older people.
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by thelost »

Guys, I just realised something that I want to share about everyday speak that is spoken throughout Cambodia. I think it's a trick or a pattern.

When you encounter a word that has the N ending in the middle of the word, the sound is changed. Let me illustrate an example.

The written word for Marijuana is Kanchaa. Did you see the N? then it is spoken as Kachaa.
Vagina? Kanduay. And it is spoken as Kaduay.
Middle? Kandal as in Kandal province. It's spoken as Kadaal
Elderly / Old? Kanchah becomes Kachah

And I think that pattern applies to any written words that has "Tro" or "Sro" in the beginning like..

Trobaek / Guava tree - Tabaek

Srolanh / Love - Salanh

Man, khmer is a tough language to crack.
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

thelost wrote:Guys, I just realised something that I want to share about everyday speak that is spoken throughout Cambodia. I think it's a trick or a pattern.

When you encounter a word that has the N ending in the middle of the word, the sound is changed. Let me illustrate an example.

The written word for Marijuana is Kanchaa. Did you see the N? then it is spoken as Kachaa.
Vagina? Kanduay. And it is spoken as Kaduay.
Middle? Kandal as in Kandal province. It's spoken as Kadaal
Elderly / Old? Kanchah becomes Kachah

And I think that pattern applies to any written words that has "Tro" or "Sro" in the beginning like..

Trobaek / Guava tree - Tabaek

Srolanh / Love - Salanh

Man, khmer is a tough language to crack.
i know in PP they often drop their R's
but
i do notice down in SHV the Rolled R is usually very predominant in a lot of the speech and is rarely dropped
its one thing i like about SHV speech

about the N, yeah think you are right, its one thing i actually noticed recently
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by Username Taken »

thelost wrote:Elderly / Old? Kanchah becomes Kachah
That seems to be my name at home. "Ah K'chah!" :whip:
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by thelost »

Jamie_Lambo wrote: i know in PP they often drop their R's
but
i do notice down in SHV the Rolled R is usually very predominant in a lot of the speech and is rarely dropped
its one thing i like about SHV speech

about the N, yeah think you are right, its one thing i actually noticed recently
Yeah SHV rolling their Rs are faithful to the written script pronunciation, though to be honest I think rolling Rs can be a bit tricky because you either
a) spit saliva or
b) end up mispronouncing due to having to prepare to roll the tongue beforehand

or it's because we speak English all the time so we're not used to trilling unlike the Spanish.

PP people are fast talkers, that's why I think they have no time to trill/roll Rs as it takes some time to trill in term of speech speed.

I can roll Rs but not very fast or fluid.

In Khmer Surin, they roll their Rs just the same as SHV. They even went as far to roll Rs when saying the word Khmerrrrrrrr.

But in the rest of Cambodia or at least in Battambang, I think they either roll their Rs or drop some R in some words. PP people just drop the Rs in almost everything. Their accent is probably the least "Khmer" traditional sound. At least to me.
Username Taken wrote: That seems to be my name at home. "Ah K'chah!" :whip:
Haha, K'chah, that's funny. Did you know that you can add the "Ka" to anyone's name? Or you can say "Ah K' (Insert name) "
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Re: More Country Speak

Post by Username Taken »

thelost wrote:
Username Taken wrote: That seems to be my name at home. "Ah K'chah!" :whip:
Haha, K'chah, that's funny. Did you know that you can add the "Ka" to anyone's name? Or you can say "Ah K' (Insert name) "
Yes I know.

I remember a Khmer comedy skit a few months back where the two guys were trying to out-do each other with name calling. Referring to each other as 'Ah K'<made up word>.

"Ah K,ngang nong!"
"Ah K'dunga dang!"
etc.

At least I think they were made up words. The audience were in tears of laughter (as they often are).
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