Freightdog's very own translation thread...

[Kammekor]

Bat Bong
This was uttered many times in a recent conversation, resulting in mutual frustration.

Any chance she was joking with you? It's possible she just wanted to say (playfully) 'yes' to you, addressing you with 'bong' but using the male version of 'yes' instead of the female version.

Men use Baah(t)
Female use Chaaaaa
for 'yes'.

[Freightdog]

Oh, it's so easily possible.

It could easily have been her saying 'yes', and 'what the hell have you lost now, you idiot?' and my dull ear not differentiating. I'm tending towards the second option. Time will tell. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't understand half of what she says...

[StroppyChops]

Thanks, so far for the pointers.
Being dependent upon working out of Europe for now is a bit of limitation. However, while I'm looking for a job in SEA/Asia generally, I'd still be out of the country for periods, as it's the nature of the business. I'm sure she'll get her head around English faster than I shall with Khmer, but I'll not be giving up.
Once I'm spending more time over there, it'll be hopefully easier to get enrolled in something constructive.

it is possible if youve got the spare time, i still have some stuff i used with my private tutor if you PM me your email i can email you the beginners coarse, it is very good
and you can post any questions here now you have your own thread and me and the others will try answer them the best we can

What resources did you use, Punchy?

Edit - sorry, finished reading the thread and you'd already addressed this.

[StroppyChops]

Khmer is not a tonal language.....

Yeah, people keep saying that, but I disagree - and I have an expensive piece of paper to back it up.

Ask a Khmer friend to pronounce the word អំបិល (ambel) for you - it's salt. Then ask them to pronounce អំពូល (ampoul) for you - it's light globe. Then go for អំពៅ (ampow) - it's sugarcane. There are two or three other variations in this word cluster that I can't recall right now, but I challenge any non-Khmer to hear the word spoken in conversational language, in isolation, no context, and be able to repeatedly and accurately give the right translation. I've seen Khmer from different regions have to provide context on these words for the meaning to be clear. To me, this word cluster is tonal. There are other word clusters that are similar.

I'm not sure where this "not tonal" notion came from, but I suspect it was the American war office which produced language learning tapes during the wars (I can still pick the people who learned American from them) which did a "barely good enough" job in that era, but an utterly screwed job for this era. Incidentally, the Khmer team members sit and chuckle at all the mistakes in Contemporary Cambodian, so if you learned with that resource, don't be too confident of your accuracy.

[Username Taken]

Baht depends whether it's a rising or falling tone.

Baht = yes. Baht Bong = yes brother freightdog.

Baht? (rising tone) = What? Say again.

KOW = Kingdom of Wonder.


I often get a laugh when I say "G'doy ma vear". Ask your boss for the translation.
"Joy!" can be used to express exasperation or frustration.

Khmer is not a tonal language.....

You are obviously referring to my mention of 'rising or falling tone'. Are you seriously saying that you can't hear the difference between 'baht' as yes, and 'baht' as What did you say? ?

[StroppyChops]

"Joy!" can be used to express exasperation or frustration.

Khmer is not a tonal language.....

You are obviously referring to my mention of 'rising or falling tone'. Are you seriously saying that you can't hear the difference between 'baht' as yes, and 'baht' as What did you say? ?

Come to think of it, "joy" is most often used to express something else...

[Jamie_Lambo]

Bat Bong
This was uttered many times in a recent conversation, resulting in mutual frustration.

Any chance she was joking with you? It's possible she just wanted to say (playfully) 'yes' to you, addressing you with 'bong' but using the male version of 'yes' instead of the female version.

Men use Baah(t)
Female use Chaaaaa
for 'yes'.

tbh...
Baat doest really mean "Yes" its more of a Acknowledgment word, similar to the word "Yeah..." just saying "Baat" doesnt say whether you agree with what they have just said or not, only to that you acknowledge that youve heard them... when speaking formally you would say Baat regardless of whether you agree or not out of politeness

អើ - Ery - is a more direct "Yes" or "I Agree" or "Thats right", but its use is more informal, as in formal situations you would say Baat, followed by repeating the question either positively or negatively...

eg..
Formal:
Ter Neak Jong Tov Merl Kon Ru Men Te? - Do you want to go watch a movie or...?
Baat, Khnyom Jong Tov Orkun - Yeah.. I want to go thankyou
Baat, Som Tos, Khnyom Min Jong Tov Na Te - Yeah.. Sorry, i don't want to go anywhere

Informal:
Jong Tov Merl Kon Ot? - Want to go watch a movie?
Nung Ery, Jong Tov - Yes, want to go
Ot Te! Ot Jong Tov Te - No, dont want to go


I've also seen/heard girls using Baat as well, although i dont think its that common tbh

[StroppyChops]

Bat Bong
This was uttered many times in a recent conversation, resulting in mutual frustration.

Any chance she was joking with you? It's possible she just wanted to say (playfully) 'yes' to you, addressing you with 'bong' but using the male version of 'yes' instead of the female version.

Men use Baah(t)
Female use Chaaaaa
for 'yes'.

tbh...
Baat doest really mean "Yes" its more of a Acknowledgment word, similar to the word "Yeah..." just saying "Baat" doesnt say whether you agree with what they have just said or not, only to that you acknowledge that youve heard them... when speaking formally you would say Baat regardless of whether you agree or not out of politeness

អើ - Ery - is a more direct "Yes" or "I Agree" or "Thats right", but its use is more informal, as in formal situations you would say Baat, followed by repeating the question either positively or negatively...

eg..
Formal:
Ter Neak Jong Tov Merl Kon Ru Men Te? - Do you want to go watch a movie or...?
Baat, Khnyom Jong Tov Orkun - Yeah.. I want to go thankyou
Baat, Som Tos, Khnyom Min Jong Tov Na Te - Yeah.. Sorry, i don't want to go anywhere

Informal:
Jong Tov Merl Kon Ot? - Want to go watch a movie?
Nung Ery, Jong Tov - Yes, want to go
Ot Te! Ot Jong Tov Te - No, dont want to go


I've also seen/heard girls using Baat as well, although i dont think its that common tbh

Some of the girls on the team use baat to me to take the piss from time to time and see if I'm actually listening, it's usually followed by laughter.

I've noticed this weird thing related to acknowledging what has been said (or simply that the person has spoken) with baat - repeating the phrase back and following it with "mairn dtay?" is basically asking "isn't that so?" as another form of confirmation, and I've heard it used often but when you specifically ask a friend about the mairn dtay component they blink blankly, not realising they've used it. Some will deny ever using it. Every encounter this?

[Jamie_Lambo]

Khmer is not a tonal language.....

Yeah, people keep saying that, but I disagree - and I have an expensive piece of paper to back it up.

Ask a Khmer friend to pronounce the word អំបិល (ambel) for you - it's salt. Then ask them to pronounce អំពូល (ampoul) for you - it's light globe. Then go for អំពៅ (ampow) - it's sugarcane. There are two or three other variations in this word cluster that I can't recall right now, but I challenge any non-Khmer to hear the word spoken in conversational language, in isolation, no context, and be able to repeatedly and accurately give the right translation. I've seen Khmer from different regions have to provide context on these words for the meaning to be clear. To me, this word cluster is tonal. There are other word clusters that are similar.

I'm not sure where this "not tonal" notion came from, but I suspect it was the American war office which produced language learning tapes during the wars (I can still pick the people who learned American from them) which did a "barely good enough" job in that era, but an utterly screwed job for this era. Incidentally, the Khmer team members sit and chuckle at all the mistakes in Contemporary Cambodian, so if you learned with that resource, don't be too confident of your accuracy.

the difference is you mixing up tones with the lazy pronunciation, if all these words were pronounced correctly how they are written you would hear the different vowels being pronounced, its not the tone in how you say it which changes the word meaning here its the pronunciation of the vowels

[Jamie_Lambo]

Bat Bong
This was uttered many times in a recent conversation, resulting in mutual frustration.

Any chance she was joking with you? It's possible she just wanted to say (playfully) 'yes' to you, addressing you with 'bong' but using the male version of 'yes' instead of the female version.

Men use Baah(t)
Female use Chaaaaa
for 'yes'.

tbh...
Baat doest really mean "Yes" its more of a Acknowledgment word, similar to the word "Yeah..." just saying "Baat" doesnt say whether you agree with what they have just said or not, only to that you acknowledge that youve heard them... when speaking formally you would say Baat regardless of whether you agree or not out of politeness

អើ - Ery - is a more direct "Yes" or "I Agree" or "Thats right", but its use is more informal, as in formal situations you would say Baat, followed by repeating the question either positively or negatively...

eg..
Formal:
Ter Neak Jong Tov Merl Kon Ru Men Te? - Do you want to go watch a movie or...?
Baat, Khnyom Jong Tov Orkun - Yeah.. I want to go thankyou
Baat, Som Tos, Khnyom Min Jong Tov Na Te - Yeah.. Sorry, i don't want to go anywhere

Informal:
Jong Tov Merl Kon Ot? - Want to go watch a movie?
Nung Ery, Jong Tov - Yes, want to go
Ot Te! Ot Jong Tov - No, dont want to go


I've also seen/heard girls using Baat as well, although i dont think its that common tbh

Some of the girls on the team use baat to me to take the piss from time to time and see if I'm actually listening, it's usually followed by laughter.

I've noticed this weird thing related to acknowledging what has been said (or simply that the person has spoken) with baat - repeating the phrase back and following it with "mairn dtay?" is basically asking "isn't that so?" as another form of confirmation, and I've heard it used often but when you specifically ask a friend about the mairn dtay component they blink blankly, not realising they've used it. Some will deny ever using it. Every encounter this?

yeah saying "Men Te?" at the end of a sentence kinda turns what has been said into a kinda "Really?/are you sure?/Is that so?/factual/truth" kind of question,
saying មែនទែន "Men Ten" in response means like "yeah sure/truly/actually/exactly"