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L'alfabeto khmer (in khmer: អក្សរខ្មែរ; ʔaʔsɑː kʰmaːe) è un abugida (alfasillabario) usato per scrivere la lingua khmer, la lingua ufficiale della Cambogia. Viene anche usato per scrivere il pāli nella liturgia buddhista in Cambogia e Thailandia.

Fu adattato dall'alfabeto pallava, che discende dall'alfabeto brahmi, usato nell'India meridionale e nel Sudest asiatico nel V e VI secolo. La più antica iscrizione in alfabeto khmer fu rinvenuta nel Distretto di Angkor Borei nella Provincia di Takéo, a sud di Phnom Penh, e risale al 611. La moderna scrittura khmer è piuttosto diversa dalle precedenti forme presenti sulle rovine di Angkor. Gli alfabeti thai e lao derivano da un'antica forma dell'alfabeto khmer.

Antiche iscrizioni khmer incise su pietra

La lingua khmer si scrive da sinistra a destra. Le parole nella stessa frase sono generalmente scritte insieme senza spazi tra di esse. I gruppi di consonanti all'interno di una stessa parola sono "ammassati", con la seconda (e occasionalmente con la terza) consonante che viene scritta in forma ridotta sotto la consonante principale. In origine c'erano 35 consonanti ma l'alfabeto khmer moderno ne usa solo 33. Ciascuno di questi caratteri rappresenta un suono consonantico con una vocale inerente, â oppure ô.

Ci sono alcune vocali indipendenti, ma i suoni vocalici sono più comunemente rappresentati con vocali dipendenti; segni addizionali che accompagnano un carattere consonantico indicano quale suono vocalico deve essere pronunciato dopo quella consonante (o gruppo consonantico). Molte delle vocali dipendenti hanno due pronunce differenti, nella maggior parte dei casi ciò dipende dalla vocale inerente alla consonante a cui sono aggiunte. In alcune posizioni, una consonante scritta senza vocale dipendente è seguita dal suono della sua vocale inerente. Esistono anche dei segni diacritici usati per indicare ulteriori modifiche alla pronuncia. L'alfabeto khmer include anche un sistema numerico e dei segni di punteggiatura propri.

Consonanti

L'alfabeto khmer conta 35 consonanti sebbene nel khmer moderno ne vengano usate solo 33 poiché due sono cadute in disuso. Ogni consonante ha una vocale inerente: â (pronuncia: /ɑː/) oppure ô (/ɔː/); equivalentemente, si dice che ogni consonante appartenga alla "serie a" o alla "serie o". Una serie consonantica determina la pronuncia delle vocali dipendenti che le sono allegate, e in alcune posizioni si pronuncia anche la vocale inerente. Le due serie in origine rappresentavano rispettivamente le consonanti sorde e sonore (e in khmer ci si riferisce tuttora ad esse in questo modo); i cambiamenti fonetici durante il periodo dello khmer medio interessarono le vocali che seguono le consonanti sorde, e questi cambiamenti sono stati preservati nonostante sia stata persa la loro distintiva intonazione.

Ogni consonante, con una sola eccezione, ha anche una forma deponente. Queste si possono chiamare anche "sub-consonanti"; la definizione khmer è "cheung âksâr " (ជើងអក្សរ), che significa "piede di una lettera". La maggior parte delle consonanti deponenti ricorda il simbolo della consonante corrispondente, ma in forma semplificata e più piccola, sebbene in alcuni casi non vi sia nessuna somiglianza ovvia. Molte di esse sono scritte direttamente sotto altre consonanti, sebbene la "r" deponente appaia a sinistra mentre alcune altre hanno elementi che appaiono sulla destra. Le deponenti sono usate nella scrittura dei gruppi consonantici (consonanti pronunciate consecutivamente in una parola senza vocali tra di esse). Tali gruppi nella lingua khmer normalmente consistono di due consonanti, sebbene occasionalmente al centro di una parola possano esservene tre. La prima consonante viene scritta usando il simbolo principale, con la seconda (o la terza, se presente) allegata ad essa in forma deponente. Le deponenti erano precedentemente usate anche per scrivere le consonanti finali; nella lingua khmer moderna ciò può essere fatto, facoltativamente, in alcune parole che terminano -ng o -y, come "aôy" (ឲ្យ, "dare").

Le consonanti e le loro forme deponenti sono elencate nella tabella seguente. I valori fonetici comuni sono dati usando l'alfabeto fonetico internazionale; le variazioni sono descritte più sotto nella tabella. Il nome di ogni consonante è considerato insieme alla sua vocale inerente. Le romanizzazioni sono effettuate col sistema UNGEGN.

Consonante	Forma deponente	Valore completo (con vocale inerente)		Valore della sola consonante
		IPA	UNGEGN	IPA	UNGEGN
ក	្ក	[kɑː]	kâ	[k]	k
ខ	្ខ	[kʰɑː]	khâ	[kʰ]	kh
គ	្គ	[kɔː]	kô	[k]	k
ឃ	្ឃ	[kʰɔː]	khô	[kʰ]	kh
ង	្ង	[ŋɔː]	ngô	[ŋ]	ng
ច	្ច	[cɑː]	châ	[c]	ch
ឆ	្ឆ	[cʰɑː]	chhâ	[cʰ]	chh
ជ	្ជ	[cɔː]	chô	[c]	ch
ឈ	្ឈ	[cʰɔː]	chhô	[cʰ]	chh
ញ	្ញ	[ɲɔː]	nhô	[ɲ]	nh
ដ	្ដ	[ɗɑː]	dâ	[ɗ]	d
ឋ	្ឋ	[tʰɑː]	thâ	[tʰ]	th
ឌ	្ឌ	[ɗɔː]	dô	[ɗ]	d
ឍ	្ឍ	[tʰɔː]	thô	[tʰ]	th
ណ	្ណ	[nɑː]	nâ	[n]	n
ត	្ត	[tɑː]	tâ	[t]	t
ថ	្ថ	[tʰɑː]	thâ	[tʰ]	th
ទ	្ទ	[tɔː]	tô	[t]	t
ធ	្ធ	[tʰɔː]	thô	[tʰ]	th
ន	្ន	[nɔː]	nô	[n]	n
ប	្ប	[ɓɑː]	bâ	[ɓ], [p]	b, p
ផ	្ផ	[pʰɑː]	phâ	[pʰ]	ph
ព	្ព	[pɔː]	pô	[p]	p
ភ	្ភ	[pʰɔː]	phô	[pʰ]	ph
ម	្ម	[mɔː]	mô	[m]	m
យ	្យ	[jɔː]	yô	[j]	y
រ	្រ	[rɔː]	rô	[r]	r
ល	្ល	[lɔː]	lô	[l]	l
វ	្វ	[ʋɔː]	vô	[ʋ]	v
ឝ	្ឝ	Caduto in disuso; storicamente usato per la "s" palatale
ឞ	្ឞ	Caduto in disuso; storicamente usato per la "s" retroflessa
ស	្ស	[sɑː]	sâ	[s]	s
ហ	្ហ	[hɑː]	hâ	[h]	h
ឡ	none	[lɑː]	lâ	[l]	l
អ	្អ	[ʔɑː]	’â	[ʔ]	’

La lettera bâ appare in una forma piuttosto modificata (ad esempio បា) quando è combinata con certe vocali dipendenti.

La lettera ញ (nhô) è scritta senza il segno curvo in basso quando le viene aggiunta una deponente. Quando è scritta sotto a sé stessa la deponente è una forma ridotta dell'intera lettera: ញ្ញ (-nhnh-).

I caratteri ដ (dâ) e ត (tâ) hanno la stessa forma deponente. Nei gruppi iniziali questa si pronuncia sempre [d], ma nelle posizioni centrali corrisponde al suono [d] in alcune parole e al suono [t] in altre.

La serie ដ (dâ), ឋ (thâ), ឌ (dô), ឍ (thô), ណ (nâ) originariamente rappresentava le consonanti retroflesse negli alfabeti indiani. La seconda, la terza e la quarta sono rare e compaiono solo per ragioni etimologiche in alcuni prestiti linguistici dal pali e dal sanscrito. Poiché il suono /n/ è comune e spesso grammaticamente produttivo, nelle lingue Mon-Khmer la il quinto carattere del gruppo (ណ), fu adattato come una controparte della serie della "a" rispetto alla lettera ន (nô) per convenienza (tutte le altre consonanti nasali fanno parte della serie della "o").

Variazioni nella pronuncia

Le consonanti aspirate (kh-, chh-, th-, ph-) si pronunciano con l'aspirazione solo prima di una vocale. Vi è anche una leggera aspirazione con i suoni k, ch, t e p prima di alcune consonanti, ma ciò avviene indipendentemente dal fatto che siano scritte con una lettera che indica l'aspirazione.

Una parola khmer non può terminare con più di una consonante, quindi le consonanti deponenti alla fine delle parole che appaiono per ragioni etimologiche non si pronunciano, sebbene possano essere pronunciate quando la stessa parola inizia un composto??? begins a compound.

In some words, a single medial consonant symbol represents both the final consonant of one syllable and the initial consonant of the next.

The letter ប bâ represents [ɓ] only before a vowel. When final or followed by a subscript consonant, it is pronounced [p] (and in the case where it is followed by a subscript consonant, it is also romanized as p in the UN system). For modification to p by means of a diacritic, see Supplementary consonants. The letter, which represented /p/ in Indic scripts, also often maintains the [p] sound in certain words borrowed from Sanskrit and Pali.

The letters ដ dâ and ឌ dô are pronounced [t] when final. The letter ត tâ is pronounced [d] in initial position in a weak syllable ending with a nasal.

In final position, letters representing a [k] sound (k-, kh-) are pronounced as a glottal stop [ʔ] after the vowels [ɑː], [aː], [iə], [ɨə], [uə], [ɑ], [a], [ĕə], [ŭə]. The letter រ rô is silent when final (in most dialects; see Northern Khmer). The letter ស sâ when final is pronounced /h/ (which in this position approaches [ç]).

Consonanti supplementari

The Khmer writing system includes supplementary consonants, used in certain loanwords, particularly from French and Thai. These mostly represent sounds which do not occur in native words, or for which the native letters are restricted to one of the two vowel series. Most of them are digraphs, formed by stacking a subscript under the letter ហ hâ, with an additional treisâpt diacritic if required to change the inherent vowel to ô. The character for pâ, however, is formed by placing the musĕkâtônd ("mouse teeth") diacritic over the character ប bâ.

Supplementary consonant	Description	Full value (with inherent vowel)		Consonant value		Notes
		IPA	UN	IPA	UN
ហ្គ	hâ + kô	[ɡɑː]	gâ	[ɡ]	g	Example: ហ្គាស, [ɡas] ('gas')
ហ្គ៊	hâ + kô + diacritic	[ɡɔː]	gô	[ɡ]	g
ហ្ន	hâ + nô	[nɑː]	nâ	[n]	n	Example: ហ្នាំង or ហ្ន័ង, [naŋ] ('shadow play' from Thai: หนัง)
ប៉	bâ + diacritic	[pɑː]	pâ	[p]	p	Example: ប៉ាក់, [pak] (to 'embroider'), ប៉័ង, [paŋ] ('bread')
ហ្ម	hâ + mô	[mɑː]	mâ	[m]	m	Example: គ្រូហ្ម, [kruː mɑː] ('shaman', from Thai: หมอ)
ហ្ល	hâ + lô	[lɑː]	lâ	[l]	l	Example: ហ្លួង, [luəŋ] ('king', from Thai: หลวง)
ហ្វ	hâ + vô	[fɑː], [ʋɑː]	fâ, vâ	[f], [ʋ]	f, v	Pronounced [ʋ] in ហ្វង់, [ʋɑŋ] ('clear') and [f] in កាហ្វេ, [kaafeɛ] ('coffee')
ហ្វ៊	hâ + vô + diacritic	[fɔː], [ʋɔː]	fô, vô	[f], [ʋ]	f, v	Example: ហ្វ៊ីល, [fiːl] ('film')
ហ្ស	hâ + sâ	[ʒɑː], [zɑː]	žâ, zâ	[ʒ], [z]	ž, z	Example: ហ្សាស, [ʒas] ('jazz')
ហ្ស៊	hâ + sâ + diacritic	[ʒɔː], [zɔː]	žô, zô	[ʒ], [z]	ž, z	Example: ហ្ស៊ីប, [ʒiːp] ('jeep')

Vocali dipendenti

Most Khmer vowel sounds are written using dependent, or diacritical, vowel symbols, known in Khmer as ស្រៈនិស្ស័យ srăk nissăy or ស្រៈផ្សំ srăk phsâm ("connecting vowel"). These can only be written in combination with a consonant (or consonant cluster). The vowel is pronounced after the consonant (or cluster), even though some of the symbols have graphical elements which appear above, below or to the left of the consonant character. Most of the vowel symbols have two possible pronunciations, depending on the inherent vowel of the consonant to which it is added. Their pronunciations may also be different in weak syllables, and when they are shortened (e.g. by means of a diacritic). Absence of a dependent vowel (or diacritic) often implies that a syllable-initial consonant is followed by the sound of its inherent vowel.

In determining the inherent vowel of a consonant cluster (i.e. how a following dependent vowel will be pronounced), stops and fricatives are dominant over sonorants. For any consonant cluster including a combination of these sounds, a following dependent vowel is pronounced according to the dominant consonant, regardless of its position in the cluster. When both members of a cluster are dominant, the subscript consonant determines the pronunciation of a following dependent vowel. A non-dominant consonant (and in some words also ហ្ hâ) will also have its inherent vowel changed by a preceding dominant consonant in the same word, even when there is a vowel between them, although some words (especially among those with more than two syllables) do not obey this rule.

The dependent vowels are listed below, in conventional form with an ellipse as a dummy consonant symbol, and in combination with the a-series letter អ ’â. The IPA values given are representative of dialects from the northwest and central plains regions, specifically from the Battambang area, upon which Standard Khmer is based. Vowel pronunciation varies widely in other dialects such as Northern Khmer, where diphthongs are leveled, and Western Khmer, in which breathy voice and modal voice phonations are still contrastive.

Dependent vowel	Example	IPA		UN		Notes
		a-series	o-series	a-series	o-series
(none)	អ	[ɑː]	[ɔː]	â	ô	See Modification by diacritics and Consonants with no dependent vowel.
ា	អា	[aː]	[iə]	a	éa	See Modification by diacritics.
ិ	អិ	[ə], [e]	[ɨ], [i]	ĕ	ĭ	Pronounced [e]/[i] in syllables with no written final consonant (a glottal stop is then added if the syllable is stressed; however in some words the vowel is silent when final, and in some words in which it is not word-final it is pronounced [əj]). In the o-series, combines with final យ yô to sound [iː]. (See also Modification by diacritics.)
ី	អី	[əj]	[iː]	ei	i
ឹ	អឹ	[ə]	[œ]	œ̆
ឺ	អឺ	[əː]	[œː]	œ
ុ	អុ	[o]	[u]	ŏ	ŭ	See Modification by diacritics. In a stressed syllable with no written final consonant, the vowel is followed by a glottal stop [ʔ], or by [k] in the word តុ tŏk ("table") (but the vowel is silent when final in certain words).
ូ	អូ	[ou]	[uː]	o	u	Becomes [əw]/[ɨw] before a final វ vô.
ួ	អួ	[uə]		uŏ
ើ	អើ	[aə]	[əː]	aeu	eu	See Modification by diacritics.
ឿ	អឿ	[ɨə]		œă
ៀ	អៀ	[iə]		iĕ
េ	អេ	[ei]	[eː]	é		Becomes [ə]/[ɨ] before palatals (or in the a-series, [a] before [c] in some words). Pronounced [ae]/[ɛː] in some words. See also Modification by diacritics.
ែ	អែ	[ae]	[ɛː]	ê		See Modification by diacritics.
ៃ	អៃ	[aj]	[ɨj]	ai	ey
ោ	អោ	[ao]	[oː]	aô	oŭ	See Modification by diacritics.
ៅ	អៅ	[aw]	[ɨw]	au	ŏu

The spoken name of each dependent vowel consists of the word ស្រៈ srăk [sraʔ]("vowel") followed by the vowel's a-series value preceded by a glottal stop (and also followed by a glottal stop in the case of short vowels).

Modifiche dovute ai segni diacritici

The addition of some of the Khmer diacritics can modify the length and value of inherent or dependent vowels.

The following table shows combinations with the nĭkkôhĕt and reăhmŭkh diacritics, representing final [m] and [h]. They are shown with the a-series consonant អ ’â.

Combination	IPA		UN		Notes
	a-series	o-series	a-series	o-series
អុំ	[om]	[um]	om	ŭm
អំ	[ɑm]	[um]	âm	um	The word ធំ "big" is pronounced [tʰom] (but [tʰum] in some dialects).
អាំ	[am]	[ŏəm]	ăm	ŏâm	When followed by ង ngô, becomes [aŋ]/[eəŋ] ăng/eăng.
អះ	[aʰ]	[ĕəʰ]	ăh	eăh
អិះ	[eʰ]	[iʰ]	ĕh	ĭh
អុះ	[oʰ]	[uʰ]	ŏh	ŭh
អេះ	[eʰ]	[iʰ]	éh
អោះ	[ɑʰ]	[ŭəʰ]	aôh	ŏăh	The word នោះ "that" is pronounced [nuʰ].

The first four configurations listed here are treated as dependent vowels in their own right, and have names constructed in the same way as for the other dependent vowels (described in the previous section).

Other rarer configurations with the reăhmŭkh are អើះ (or អឹះ), pronounced [əh], and អែះ, pronounced [eh]. The word ចា៎ះ "yes" (used by women) is pronounced [caːh].

The bântăk (a small vertical line written over the final consonant of a syllable) has the following effects:

• in a syllable with inherent â, the vowel is shortened to [ɑ], UN transcription á
• in a syllable with inherent ô, the vowel is modified to [u] before a final labial, otherwise usually to [ŏə]; UN transcription ó
• in a syllable with the a dependent vowel symbol () in the a-series, the vowel is shortened to [a], UN transcription ă
• in a syllable with that vowel symbol in the o-series, the vowel is modified to [ŏə], UN transcription oă, or to [ĕə] eă before k, ng, h

The sanhyoŭk sannha is equivalent to the a dependent vowel with the bântăk. However, its o-series pronunciation becomes [ɨ] before final y, and [ɔə] before final (silent) r.

The yŭkôleăkpĭntŭ (pair of dots) represents [a] (a-series) or [ĕə] (o-series), followed by a glottal stop.

Consonanti senza una vocale dipendente

There are three environments where a consonant may appear without a dependent vowel. The rules governing the inherent vowel differ for all three environments. Consonants may be written with no dependent vowel as an initial consonant of a weak syllable, an initial consonant of a strong syllable or as the final letter of a written word.

In careful speech, initial consonants without a dependent vowel in weak initial syllables are pronounced with their inherent vowel shortened as if modified by the bantak diacritic (see previous section). For example the first-series letter "ច" in "ចន្លុះ" ("torch") is pronounced with the short vowel /ɑ/. The second-series letter "ព" in "ពន្លឺ" ("light") is pronounced with the short diphthong /ŏə/. In casual speech, these are most often reduced to /ə/ for both series.

Initial consonants in strong syllables without written vowels are pronounced with their inherent vowels. The word ចង ("to tie") is pronounced /cɑːŋ/, ជត ("weak", "to sink") is pronounced /cɔːt/. In some words, however, the inherent vowel is pronounced in its reduced form, as if modified by a bântăk diacritic, even though the diacritic is not written (e.g. សព [sɑp] "corpse"). Such reduction regularly takes place in words ending with a consonant with a silent subscript (such as សព្វ [sɑp] "every"), although in most such words it is the bântăk-reduced form of the vowel a that is heard, as in សព្ទ [sap] "noise". The word អ្នក "you, person" has the highly irregular pronunciation [nĕəʔ].

Consonants written as the final letter of word usually represent a word-final sound and are pronounced without any following vowel and, in the case of stops, with no audible release as in the examples above. However, in some words adopted from Pali and Sanskrit, what would appear to be a final consonant under normal rules can actually be the initial consonant of a following syllable and pronounced with a short vowel as if followed by ាក់. For example, according to rules for native Khmer words, សុភ ("good", "clean", "beautiful") would appear to be a single syllable, but, being derived from Pali subha, it is pronounced /soʔ pʰĕəʔ/.

Legature

Most consonants, including a few of the subscripts, form ligatures with the vowel a () and with all other dependent vowels that contain the same cane-like symbol. Most of these ligatures are easily recognizable; however, a few may not be, particularly those involving the letter ប bâ. This combines with the a vowel in the form បា, created to differentiate it from the consonant symbol ហ hâ and also from the ligature for ច châ with a (ចា).

Some more examples of ligatured symbols follow:

bau /ɓaw/ Another example with ប bâ, forming a similar ligature to that described above. Here the vowel is not a itself, but another vowel (au) which contains the cane-like stroke of that vowel as a graphical element.

léa /liə/ An example of the vowel a forming a connection with the serif of a consonant.

chba /cɓaː/ Subscript consonants with ascending strokes above the baseline also form ligatures with the a vowel symbol.

msau /msaw/ Another example of a subscript consonant forming a ligature, this time with the vowel au.

tra /traː/ The subscript for រ rô is written to the left of the main consonant, in this case ត tâ, which here forms a ligature with a.

Vocali indipendenti

Independent vowels are non-diacritical vowel characters that stand alone (i.e. without being attached to a consonant symbol). In Khmer they are called ស្រៈពេញតួ srăk pénhtuŏ, which means "complete vowels". They are used in some words to represent certain combinations of a vowel with an initial glottal stop or liquid. The independent vowels are used in a small number of words, mostly of Indic origin, and consequently there is some inconsistency in their use and pronunciations. However, a few words in which they occur are used quite frequently; these include: ឥឡូវ [ʔəjləw] "now", ឪពុក [ʔəwpuk] "father", ឬ [rɨː] "or", ឮ [lɨː] "hear", ឲ្យ [ʔaoj] "give, let", ឯង [ʔaeŋ] "oneself, I, you", ឯណា [ʔaenaː] "where".

Independent vowel	IPA	UN
ឥ	[ʔə], [ʔɨ], [ʔəj]	ĕ
ឦ	[ʔəj]	ei
ឧ	[ʔo], [ʔu], [ʔao]	ŏ, ŭ
ឨ	Obsolete (equivalent to the sequence ឧក)
ឩ	[ʔou], [ʔuː]	not given (ou in GD system)
ឪ	[ʔəw]	âu
ឫ	[ra~ru]	rœ̆
ឬ	[raː~ruː]	rœ
ឭ	[la~lu]	lœ̆
ឮ	[laː~luː]	lœ
ឯ	[ʔae], [ʔɛː], [ʔeː]	ê
ឰ	[ʔaj]	ai
ឱ, ឲ	[ʔao]	aô
ឳ	[ʔaw]	au

Independent vowel letters are named similarly to the dependent vowels, with the word ស្រៈ srăk [sraʔ] ("vowel") followed by the principal sound of the letter (the pronunciation or first of the pronunciations listed above), followed by an additional glottal stop after a short vowel. However the letter ឥ is called [sraʔ ʔeʔ].

Segni diacritici

Il sistema di scrittura khmer contiene diversi segni diacritici, usati per indicare ulteriori modifiche nella pronuncia.

Diacritic	Khmer name	Function
ំ	និគ្គហិត nĭkkôhĕt	The Pali niggahīta, related to the anusvara. A small circle written over a consonant or a following dependent vowel, it nasalizes the inherent or dependent vowel, with the addition of [m]; long vowels are also shortened. For details see Modification by diacritics.
ះ	រះមុខ reăhmŭkh "shining face"	Related to the visarga. A pair of small circles written after a consonant or a following dependent vowel, it modifies and adds final aspiration /h/ to the inherent or dependent vowel. For details see Modification by diacritics.
ៈ	យុគលពិន្ទុ yŭkôleăkpĭntŭ	A "pair of dots", a fairly recently introduced diacritic, written after a consonant to indicate that it is to be followed by a short vowel and a glottal stop. See Modification by diacritics.
៉	មូសិកទន្ត musĕkâtônd "mouse teeth"	Two short vertical lines, written above a consonant, used to convert some o-series consonants (ង ញ ម យ រ វ) to a-series. It is also used with ប bâ to convert it to a p sound (see Supplementary consonants).
៊	ត្រីសព្ទ treisâpt	A wavy line, written above a consonant, used to convert some a-series consonants (ស ហ ប អ) to o-series.
ុ	ក្បៀសក្រោម kbiĕh kraôm	Also known as បុកជើង bŏkcheung ("collision foot"); a vertical line written under a consonant, used in place of the diacritics treisâpt and musĕkâtônd when they would be impeded by superscript vowels.
់	បន្តក់ bântăk	A small vertical line written over the last consonant of a syllable, indicating shortening (and corresponding change in quality) of certain vowels. See Modification by diacritics.
៌	របាទ rôbat រេផៈ répheăk	This superscript diacritic occurs in Sanskrit loanwords and corresponds to the Devanagari diacritic repha. It originally represented an r sound (and is romanized as r in the UN system). Now, in most cases, the consonant above which it appears, and the diacritic itself, are unpronounced. Examples: ធម៌ /tʰɔː/ ("dharma"), កាណ៌ /kaː/ (from karṇa), សួគ៌ា /suǝrkie ~ suǝkie/ ("Svarga").
៍	ទណ្ឌឃាដ tôndâkhéat	Written over a final consonant to indicate that it is unpronounced. (Such unpronounced letters are still romanized in the UN system.)
៎	កាកបាទ kakâbat	Also known as a "crow's foot", used in writing to indicate the rising intonation of an exclamation or interjection; often placed on particles such as /na/, /nɑː/, /nɛː/, /ʋəːj/, and on ចា៎ះ /caːh/, a word for "yes" used by females.
៏	អស្តា âsda "number eight"	Used in a few words to show that a consonant with no dependent vowel is to be pronounced with its inherent vowel, rather than as a final consonant.
័	សំយោគសញ្ញា sanhyoŭk sannha	Used in some Sanskrit and Pali loanwords (although alternative spellings usually exist); it is written above a consonant to indicate that the syllable contains a particular short vowel; see Modification by diacritics.
៑	វិរាម vĭréam	A mostly obsolete diacritic, corresponding to the virama, which suppresses a consonant's inherent vowel.

Ordine alfabetico

For the purpose of dictionary ordering of words, main consonants, subscript consonants and dependent vowels are all significant; and when they appear in combination, they are considered in the order in which they would be spoken (main consonant, subscript, vowel). The order of the consonants and of the dependent vowels is the order in which they appear in the above tables. A syllable written without any dependent vowel is treated as if it contained a vowel character that precedes all the visible dependent vowels.

As mentioned above, the four configurations with diacritics exemplified in the syllables អុំ អំ អាំ អះ are treated as dependent vowels in their own right, and come in that order at the end of the list of dependent vowels. Other configurations with the reăhmŭkh diacritic are ordered as if that diacritic were a final consonant coming after all other consonants. Words with the bântăk and sanhyoŭk sannha diacritics are ordered directly after identically spelled words without the diacritics.

Vowels precede consonants in the ordering, so a combination of main and subscript consonants comes after any instance in which the same main consonant appears unsubscripted before a vowel.

Words spelled with an independent vowel whose sound begins with a glottal stop follow after words spelled with the equivalent combination of អ ’â plus dependent vowel. Words spelled with an independent vowel whose sound begins [r] or [l] follow after all words beginning with the consonants រ rô and ល lô respectively.

Words spelled with a consonant modified by a diacritic follow words spelled with the same consonant and dependent vowel symbol but without the diacritic. Template:Dubious

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However, words spelled with ប៉ (a bâ converted to a p sound by a diacritic) follow all words with unmodified ប bâ (without diacritic and without subscript). Template:Dubious

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Sometimes words in which ប is pronounced p are ordered as if the letter were written ប៉..

Numerali

The numerals of the Khmer script, similar to that used by other civilizations in Southeast Asia, are also derived from the southern Indian script. Western-style Arabic numerals are also used, but to a lesser extent.

Khmer numerals	០	១	២	៣	៤	៥	៦	៧	៨	៩
Arabic numerals	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

In large numbers, groups of three digits are delimited with Western-style periods. The decimal point is represented by a comma. The Cambodian currency, the riel, is abbreviated using the symbol ៛ or simply the letter រ rô.

Spazi e punteggiatura

Spaces are not used between all words in written Khmer. Spaces are used within sentences in roughly the same places as commas might be in English, although they may also serve to set off certain items such as numbers and proper names.

Western-style punctuation marks are quite commonly used in modern Khmer writing, including French-style guillemets for quotation marks. However, traditional Khmer punctuation marks are also used; some of these are described in the following table.

Mark	Khmer name	Function
។	ខណ្ឌ khăn	Used as a period (the sign resembles an eighth rest in music writing). However, consecutive sentences on the same theme are often separated only by spaces.
៘	ល៉ៈ lăk	Equivalent to etc.
ៗ	លេខទោ lékhtoŭ ("figure two")	Duplication sign (similar in form to the Khmer numeral for 2). It indicates that the preceding word or phrase is to be repeated (duplicated), a common feature in Khmer syntax.
៕	បរិយោសាន bâriyaôsan	A period used to end an entire text or a chapter.
៚	គោមូត្រ koŭmot ("cow urine")	A period used at the end of poetic or religious texts.
៙	ភ្នែកមាន់ phnêkmoăn ("cock's eye")	A symbol (said to represent the elephant trunk of Ganesha) used at the start of poetic or religious texts.
៖	ចំណុចពីរគូស châmnŏch pi kus "two dots (and a) line"	Used similarly to a colon. (The middle line distinguishes this sign from a diacritic.)

A hyphen (Khmer name សហសញ្ញា sâhâ sânhnha) is commonly used between components of personal names, and also as in English when a word is divided between lines of text. It can also be used, for example, between numbers to denote ranges or dates. Particular uses of Western-style periods include grouping of digits in large numbers (see Numerals hereinbefore) and denotation of abbreviations.

Stili

Several styles of Khmer writing are used for varying purposes. The two main styles are âksâr chriĕng (literally "slanted script") and âksâr mul ("round script").

Âksâr khâm (អក្សរខម, Aksar Khom), an antique style of the Khmer script as written in Uttaradit, Thailand. In this picture, although it was written with Khmer script, all texts in this manuscript are in Thai languages.

• Âksâr chriĕng (អក្សរជ្រៀង) refers to oblique letters. Entire bodies of text such as novels and other publications may be produced in âksâr chriĕng. Unlike in written English, oblique lettering does not represent any grammatical differences such as emphasis or quotation. Handwritten Khmer is often written in the oblique style.
• Âksâr chhôr (អក្សរឈរ) or Âksâr tráng (អក្សរត្រង់) refers to upright or 'standing' letters, as opposed to oblique letters. Most modern Khmer typefaces are designed in this manner instead of being oblique, as text can be italicized by way of word processor commands and other computer applications to represent the oblique manner of âksâr chriĕng.
• Âksâr khâm (អក្សរខម) is a style used in Pali palm-leaf manuscripts. It is characterized by sharper serifs and angles and retainment of some antique characteristics; notably in the consonant kâ (ក). This style is also for yantra tattoos and yantras on cloth, paper, or engravings on brass plates in Cambodia as well as in Thailand.
• Âksâr mul (អក្សរមូល) is calligraphical style similar to âksâr khâm as it also retains some characters reminiscent of antique Khmer script. Its name in Khmer, lit. 'round script', refers to the bold and thick lettering style. It is used for titles and headings in Cambodian documents, books, or currency, on shop signs or banners. It is sometimes used to emphasize royal names or other important nouns with the surrounding text in a different style.

Unicode

The basic Khmer block was added to the Unicode Standard in version 3.0, released in September 1999. It then contained 103 defined code points; this was extended to 114 in version 4.0, released in April 2003. Version 4.0 also introduced an additional block, called Khmer Symbols, containing 32 signs used for writing lunar dates.

The Unicode block for basic Khmer characters is U+1780–U+17FF: Template:Unicode chart Khmer

The first 35 characters are the consonant letters (including two obsolete). The symbols at U+17A3 and U+17A4 are deprecated (they were intended for use in Pali and Sanskrit transliteration, but are identical in appearance to the consonant អ, written alone or with the a vowel). These are followed by the 15 independent vowels (including one obsolete and one variant form). The code points U+17B4 and U+17B5 are invisible combining marks for inherent vowels, intended for use only in special applications. Next come the 16 dependent vowel signs and the 12 diacritics (excluding the kbiĕh kraôm, which is identical in form to the ŏ dependent vowel); these are represented together with a dotted circle, but should be displayed appropriately in combination with a preceding Khmer letter.

The code point U+17D2, called ជើង ceung, meaning "foot", is used to indicate that a following consonant is to be written in subscript form. It is not normally visibly rendered as a character. U+17D3 was originally intended for use in writing lunar dates, but its use is now discouraged (see the Khmer Symbols block hereafter). The next seven characters are the punctuation marks listed hereinbefore; these are followed by the riel currency symbol, a rare sign corresponding to the Sanskrit avagraha, and a mostly obsolete version of the vĭréam diacritic. The U+17Ex series contains the Khmer numerals, and the U+17Fx series contains variants of the numerals used in divination lore.

The block with additional lunar date symbols is U+19E0–U+19FF: Template:Unicode chart Khmer Symbols

The symbols at U+19E0 and U+19F0 represent the first and second "eighth month" in a lunar year containing a leap-month (see Khmer calendar). The remaining symbols in this block denote the days of a lunar month: those in the U+19Ex series for waxing days, and those in the U+19Fx series for waning days.

Bibliografia

• Dictionnaire Cambodgien, Vol I & II, 1967, L'institut Bouddhique (Khmer Language)
• Jacob, Judith. 1974. A Concise Cambodian-English Dictionary. London, Oxford University Press.