Translations and equivalents (of western names)

Post by **Freightdog** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 1:12 pm

I'm curious how some of you may have managed with translations of names, especially for official papers.

There are Khmer versions of English names
Mark- ម៉ាកុស (Makuh?)

Then there are the closest equivalents that some people end up with. Sean becoming John in some cases, then further khmerised. I can sort of understand that given the difficulty the other half has with sh in words like fish and finish. (Fitch and chip anyone?).

Translating surnames is a different matter. I've managed to translate mine, but I'm not sure if it would pass scrutiny, legally. Pretty much a best effort working phonetically. Is there a compendium anywhere of western (English) names with Khmer equivalents?

Post by **Username Taken** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:01 pm

"Mark- ម៉ាកុស (Makuh?)"

More like Marcus.

explorer · Post by **explorer** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:23 pm

They should be using the person's real name on official papers, instead of translating it into Khmer. Even Cambodian IDs have names written with English letters.

explorer · Post by **explorer** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:25 pm

Username Taken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:01 pm "Mark- ម៉ាកុស (Makuh?)"

More like Marcus.

You are right, but the s is not pronounced. So you are both right.

Kammekor · Post by **Kammekor** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:37 pm

When it comes to translating names you have to support the (local) authorities a bit. Let an official translator Like Pyramid translate the names you need according to the guidelines and go from there.

If you want to translate a Khmer name to Latin script do the same. Then check if the translation according to the guidelines will suit your mother tongue. In my case the name became unpronounceable (the nh combination isn’t pronounced as nj in my language) so I translated my kids Khmer name according to my own guidelines instead of the official guidelines. Cost me 100$ to ‘convince’ them at the ministry of foreign affairs though to write the name on the birth certificate the way I wanted.

theKid · Post by **theKid** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:04 pm

Username Taken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:01 pm "Mark- ម៉ាកុស (Makuh?)"

More like Marcus.

I’ve seen Mark written like this a lot, while “Marcus” is ‘មាកខើស ‘

Post by **Freightdog** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:13 pm

A little difficult to get someone local in France to translate names as requested by a Sangkat. I’m dealing with these things from 6000miles away. The last time one of the translators in Phnom Penh did this, they managed to mess it up, and whilst it appeared correct, they’d changed my lads name subtly from one name to two separate names. So it certainly isn’t foolproof, and currently we aren’t dealing with Phnom Penh, but somewhere a bit removed.

Back to the example. If Mark doesn’t translate to ម៉ាកុស, then what is the correct translation of Mark?

Yes, in Khmer the S ស at the end of a word is very short, and more like a huh than a sibilant sound, from what I’ve come to understand. Rather similar in a way to how the word for ten, ដប់ is understood to sound as either dob or dop by us barang, but is actually neither.

Imagine a Brit saying ‘what‘ but not pronouncing the t fully.

Post by **Username Taken** » Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:23 pm

ម៉ាក

Translations and equivalents (of western names)

Translations and equivalents (of western names)

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