Cambodian words with no English equivalent

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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by taabarang »

"Don't you have a fight you have to be in?"

Not really, why are you looking for one again?
As my old Cajun bait seller used to say, "I opes you luck.
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that genius
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by that genius »

explorer wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 6:59 pm
Kammekor wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 9:24 am For instance 'sloet'. How do read that 'oe'? An O sound like in the English word 'boat'?

And 'gaaj' / oosaa. How would you pronounce the 'aa'?
It is best to ask a Cambodian for the pronunciation, as words may have sounds we dont have in English. You may notice different people spell words differently.

Having said that, yes the oe in sloet is similar to the oa in boat.

The aa is similar to the a in father.

The oo is similar to the oo in good.
Americans mostly say daaaarg, whilst most Poms say Dog

Linguistics is a fascinating subject

I've always been curious what part latitude plays in accent development.

Saffers, Kiwis (and yes, I'm ashamed to say) Australians say many words in a similar way.

Russians from Siberia speak a very different Russian to those on the Chinese border or in the Ukraine/Crimea
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by that genius »

taabarang wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 7:28 pm "Don't you have a fight you have to be in?"

Not really, why are you looking for one again?
You missed a comma. 8-)
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by taabarang »

"You missed a comma. 8-)"

Go away little boy, you bother me.
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by explorer »

Jamie_Lambo wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 6:50 pm Chhloas knea ឈ្លោះគ្នា
There is another word we dont have in English.

គ្នា I would pronounce it knia, which is almost the same. There is no correct way to spell it in English, so nobody is wrong. When people have different accents they naturally spell words differently.

គ្នា knia means each other. I know it is only two words in English, but this is a common word in Khmer.

So ឈ្លោះគ្នា chloo knia means argue (with) each other.
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by that genius »

So you would use knia in a sentence such as 'We love each other'?
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

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that genius wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 7:37 pm So you would use knia in a sentence such as 'We love each other'?
yes

srolun(y) knia - love each other
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by explorer »

Something I am curious about. Why the two h's?

Chhloas

chhlua

Do the two h's give it a different sound to one h?

If not, why use two?

Cambodian writing with English letters is full of silent h's.

For example Phnom Penh. There is no h sound in Phnom Penh. I suspect this came from French. But people writing English copy silent letters. I know it is a name and is not likely to be changed. But why use it in other words?
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

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Meybe you should do a daily thread to teach the retarded section posters Khmer

(and to piss off taabarang, but that's easy)

I'm in.
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Re: Cambodian words with no English equivalent

Post by taabarang »

"Something I am curious about. Why the two h's?"

It's vestige of the French system of rendering Khmer language into French.

Chh=the CH sound as in Chuck while the Ch=juh as in jam. The is no one acceptable transliteration system for Khmer with the possible exception of The International Phonetic Alphabet which few people want to struggle with.
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