explorer wrote: ↑Tue Jan 29, 2019 11:08 am If there are any French people who speak Khmer and participate in this forum, I would be interested to know, if you learn Khmer using the French spelling, how close is the pronunciation to the way Cambodian people speak?

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Tue Jan 29, 2019 5:07 pm Still, I'd sometimes spell things differently myself, so it's best to hear a word yourself then romanize it yourself. Khmer script is best, but then a lot of people who rely on that end up speaking really unnaturally according to Khmers I know. Overpronouncing words in-a-very-ro-bo-tic-way.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Tue Jan 29, 2019 5:07 pm I speak French fluently. I used a combination of French/English and German for the sounds when I first started. I'd say French is much closer than English in terms of closeness to the sounds (a, r, é, è etc). Cambodians also tend to sound good when they speak French (no/fewer consonant sounds at the end of words like English). I didn't use any of the "official" spellings, as they don't sound the same as French either. I just made my own symbols for short and long vowel sounds and so forth. I think Khners are the ones who romanized a lot of those dictionaries. There's a really good book by a French doctor which has good romanization for French speakers (along with Khmer script). I'd say it's the best/closest romanization system I've seen. Still, I'd sometimes spell things differently myself, so it's best to hear a word yourself then romanize it yourself. Khmer script is best, but then a lot of people who rely on that end up speaking really unnaturally according to Khmers I know. Overpronouncing words in-a-very-ro-bo-tic-way.