Re: Romanization of Reduced Vowels

John Cowan wrote :

Mathias M. Lassailly wrote:
>
> > I'm very happy that you learn Khmer : that's so rare but so rewarding > because
> > Khmer people LOVE it when barangs have a try.
>
> I judge from this sentence that Khmer lacks [f]?
>
Lacks ? No way : Lao-Thai has one consonant in excess... :-)

I'm sincerely happy that Kristian is interested in MODERN Khmer because this
language is despised by most scholars who are only interested in Angkorian
litterature and can't accept that the language dramatically changed in the
70's. Very basic features like the common *ot* negation are denied (;-) as
*derogatory*. Problem is : nobody speaks like scholars anymore and Khmer coming
back from exile are really badly resented for that. I also think that the Khmer
script is a nightmare for pupils : they spend two long years trying to master
it whereas school is expensive and an easier script perfectly possible. Please
judge from my description :

Khmer letters as I write them :

First a few arbitrary choices of mine :
e" = IPA Russian *sh* = between genuine e~ and French *oeu* in *coeur*.
o" = IPA short gamma = German *o"*.
e^ = IPA epsilon German *a"*.
o = IPA backward *c*.
o^ = IPA *o*.
ee = IPA long *e:*.
e = the famous so-called schwa, sounds differently everywhere, I give up explanation :-(.
c = English *ch*.
q = *n* in *sing*.
n^ = Spanish *n~*, French *gn*.
bp = like it's written.
dt = idem.
^ = aspiration written above the consonant.
p^ = p+h, not (Viet) *f* please or you're one of them for sure (too bad).
x = glottal stop.
' = accent showing that a diphtong is short.

Example : k^n^om = khnyom = me
Why these arbitrary choices ? Because there are few *odd* letters, it's easy for
me, my brother and my Fench friends who live there. Also, the script is quite
nice : try and write *choony* (*c^o^o^n^*) linking the ^ together in the Khmer
way : Khmers I know like it because it's like the little dangling things above
their own consonants :-)
No tones. You hardly pronounce the last consonant so do as Khmer do themselves to
be sure they get the message : 3 words per sentence, and that's already hard
working (so hot over there) :-).

Now the nice tricky stuff : there are around 25 vowels, BUT they sound differently
depending whether they're written with a consonant of first or second register,
AND in case of cluster of consonants (half of the words), they obey to the
initial consonant of that cluster, EXCEPT when a diacritic sign tells to the
contrary OR when the vowel sounds just different for no known reason ; SO you
have :
pkaa = written *paa* with *k* subscribed; since *p* is of FIRST register, the vowel
sounds *AA*; if it where the *p* of SECOND register, that same vowel would
sound *IE*.
Note that the same vowel sounds slightly differently in the two registers : for
instance *IE* of first register sounds more *forward* than the *IE* of second
register. But I can hardly hear it so I don't write that shift.

Letters :

Consonants of first register :
k, k^, c, c^, n, t, t^, b/bp, p^, s, h, l, x

vowels on 1st register :
oo, o, a, a~, aa, e", o"y/ey, o", o"o", o^, o^o^, ao", e"a, ie, ee, ae^, ao^, av,
o^m, om, am, o^h, eh, oh, and others rarely used.

Consonants of second register :
k, k^, q, c, c^, n^, dt, t^, t, t^, n, p, p^, m, y, r, l, v.

vowels on second register :
oo, u'o, o'a, e'a, ie, i, ii, e", e"e", u, uu, o"o", e"a, ie, ee, e^e^, o^o^,e"v,
um, o'am, e'am, uh, eh, o^h, ih, and others rarely used.

That's all.

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See the original message at http://www.egroups.com/list/conlang/?start=19079