The Value of Trying to Learn a Not-So Dying Language
- JBTrain
- Expatriate
- Posts: 451
- Joined: Fri May 16, 2014 3:44 pm
- Reputation: 98
- Location: Phnom Penh
- Contact:
Re: The Value of Trying to Learn a Not-So Dying Language
If Romanizing a tonal language like Vietnamese could work, i can't see why Khmer wouldn't. It was done after all, there were dictionaries and school curricula prepared in the 1940s. My daughter, who is 6, reads English faster than my Cambodian attorney reads Khmer(who reads for a living).
Using Tapatalk
-
- Expatriate
- Posts: 129
- Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2014 8:45 pm
- Reputation: 22
Re: The Value of Trying to Learn a Not-So Dying Language
Of course it could work, the question is why bother? You could fix the speed issue just by putting spaces between the words, which would be very easy to fix seeing as all typed Khmer already has spaces between the words so that word processors and web browsers know where to break lines, they are just hidden when the text is rendered. In fact now I think of it I might have a play with my computer later and see if I can get it to do that automatically.JBTrain wrote:If Romanizing a tonal language like Vietnamese could work, i can't see why Khmer wouldn't. It was done after all, there were dictionaries and school curricula prepared in the 1940s. My daughter, who is 6, reads English faster than my Cambodian attorney reads Khmer(who reads for a living).
I don't think it's any easier to learn English than it is Khmer. We have a smaller alphabet but we have lots of different sounds that are created by joining two or three letters together, so in reality there's not any less to remember. I would even argue that Khmer is easier to learn to read than English because there are very few exceptions to the rules, whilst in English they are countless.
- JBTrain
- Expatriate
- Posts: 451
- Joined: Fri May 16, 2014 3:44 pm
- Reputation: 98
- Location: Phnom Penh
- Contact:
Re: The Value of Trying to Learn a Not-So Dying Language
Learning English is a bitch but Romanizing is not the same as Anglicizing. In Vietnamese each sound has one letter regardless of where it's used. Written Khmer is complex in ways that a Romanized version would not be (multiple registers, letter order mixed up). I'm not arguing it needs to be done but I do believe literacy would be improved if it were.starkmonster wrote:Of course it could work, the question is why bother? You could fix the speed issue just by putting spaces between the words, which would be very easy to fix seeing as all typed Khmer already has spaces between the words so that word processors and web browsers know where to break lines, they are just hidden when the text is rendered. In fact now I think of it I might have a play with my computer later and see if I can get it to do that automatically.JBTrain wrote:If Romanizing a tonal language like Vietnamese could work, i can't see why Khmer wouldn't. It was done after all, there were dictionaries and school curricula prepared in the 1940s. My daughter, who is 6, reads English faster than my Cambodian attorney reads Khmer(who reads for a living).
I don't think it's any easier to learn English than it is Khmer. We have a smaller alphabet but we have lots of different sounds that are created by joining two or three letters together, so in reality there's not any less to remember. I would even argue that Khmer is easier to learn to read than English because there are very few exceptions to the rules, whilst in English they are countless.
Using Tapatalk
-
- Tourist
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2014 7:57 pm
- Reputation: 0
Re: The Value of Trying to Learn a Not-So Dying Language
If you run linux you can replace zero-width spaces with normal spaces very easily with the shell command:starkmonster wrote:You could fix the speed issue just by putting spaces between the words, which would be very easy to fix seeing as all typed Khmer already has spaces between the words so that word processors and web browsers know where to break lines, they are just hidden when the text is rendered. In fact now I think of it I might have a play with my computer later and see if I can get it to do that automatically.
Code: Select all
sed 's/\xe2\x80\x8b/ /g' < input.txt > output.txt
You'll find that different authors are highly idiosyncratic with their placement of zero-width spaces. Some will divide words like កាំភ្លើង, សាងសង់, etc. while others will treat them as a single unit.
I think you're right that spacing the Khmer script would increase reading speed, but I do prefer the look of unspaced text.
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post
-
- 12 Replies
- 3453 Views
-
Last post by Arthur&Hobson
-
- 15 Replies
- 3271 Views
-
Last post by nemo
-
- 15 Replies
- 6878 Views
-
Last post by bossho
-
- 11 Replies
- 4392 Views
-
Last post by newkidontheblock
-
- 12 Replies
- 3754 Views
-
Last post by Jerry Atrick
-
- 39 Replies
- 7761 Views
-
Last post by Kohker
-
- 2 Replies
- 1560 Views
-
Last post by John Bingham
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 338 guests