---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: VONGMeng <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 11:00 AM Subject: Re: [CANCAMBODIA] A Language in Crisis To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Dear Can members: I really felt disappointed when I read the article written by Theary Seng's. What she mentioned the Khmer language to the Phnom Penh's readers made me and include many Cambodian people upset. Why I said like this because the problems she raised are not the problem of Khmer language and it was the problem by herself. If she can speak, write, and read Khmer fluently, she feel happy and enjoy the Khmer not only Khmer language but also Khmer culture and many things on Cambodia. The Khmer language is the identification of Khmer people, the Cambodian nation and the ASEAN nation as well. The Khmer language is not dying; otherwise, the Khmer language is developing in terms of vocabulary, research, learning and many more. The Institute of National language plays a key role in developing Khmer language and we create new dictionary of Khmer. The new Orthographic Khmer dictionary was published in 2005 and it consists of around 40,000 words (old dictionary has more than 20,000 word called dictionary of CHOUN Nat). The new dictionary has the term in law, economy, IT, business, language, etc. In addition, the new dictionary is also updating and it is on the way for readers. Moreover, the National Commission for Khmer Language also plays an important role in preparing the Standard Khmer language and the results of the commission are in the Journal. The commission is working on Khmer language everyday. Their jobs are not only language but politics, medicine, agriculture, social science, philosophy, literature, linguistics, law, mathematics, and physics. Talking about the Khmer language, first we focuses on phonetics and phonology. The Khmer language consists of 17 phonemes and these phonemes represents the 72 letters (Khmer letter was inscribed in the GUINNESS BOOK, it has the most letters in its alphabet in the WORLD). Second, we discuss about the Khmer morphology. The Khmer morphology has the rule to recreate new word; let talk a bit about derivation. The Khmer Derivation consists prefixes and Infixes; the Modern Khmer doesn't have the suffixation. Third, the Khmer syntax is based on SVO or OSV language. This syntax rule offers the learners are easy to write and easy to speak out. Fourth, Khmer language is not tonal language like Thai, Vietnamese, or Chinese and it is the non-isolating language that it was required for learners to write without space. You can have a space in the case of phrase, clause, sentence, even words and Khmer language you can recognize the Proper noun via the meaning or via native speakers. If Seng Theary learns Khmer and she can understand Khmer fully; I hope she will not write her reaction like that in the Phnom Penh Post. __________________________________________ *Meng Vong Coordinator Khmer Studies Program * Institute of National Language Royal Academy of Cambodia http://INL-RAC.BLOGSPOT.COM P.O. Box 540 Phnom Penh, Cambodia Email: [email protected] Fax: (855 23) 898 180 Mobile: (855-12) 446 416 ------------------------------ *From:* Soth Sok <[email protected]> *To:* [email protected] *Sent:* Thursday, August 18, 2011 4:11 PM *Subject:* Re: [CANCAMBODIA] A Language in Crisis Dear CAN members I was disappointed in reading Ms Theary Seng's analysis of Khmer language being used in the modern society. She bases her views on her observation on a small arena wherein Khmer language is used and her ignorance, narrow-mindedness and perhaps critical opinion of the language seemed to prevent her from reading more into the complex role of a language and its users. A colleague of mine back in Cambodia responded to her as attached in this e-mail. Regards, Soth On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 6:54 PM, Chea Sarom <[email protected]> wrote: Dear CAN! It is very interesting reading the thoughtful article of Dr. Sampot and others. Personal observation, I see the young Cambodians seem to play with roman characters in their informal written communication via messengers, text messages, or in facebook. Similarly, I saw a lot the Khmer songs' titles written in roman adopting the Khmer sounds in Youbute. At office, or during the conferences or workshops, many Cambodians have already trying to pick up " term in English" to explain instead of using the Khmer words that still existing. In a Khmer movie screened almost 20 years ago, the Star asked his mother (could not remember father or mother) to bring វិទ្យុ. The mother replied why her son used បារាំង word as she could not understand that word at all. In stead the mother know only "radio". People did make fun with that kind of playing words. I seem to agree that the Khmer language are in danger! Though I am very appreciate that intellectual group, royal academy of Cambodia, has been trying hard to make the Khmer language alive and active. New generation should be alert on this! Sarom ------------------------------ *From:* Supote Prasertsri <[email protected]> *To:* [email protected] *Sent:* Wednesday, August 17, 2011 7:35 PM *Subject:* Re: [CANCAMBODIA] A Language in Crisis Dear Lok Theary C. SENG, Thank you very much for presenting this issue to the public via the PP Post. When comparing to other nations in ASEAN, I find that the Khmer language is very refined and still alive and evolving despite the tragic linguacide by the KR in late 1970s though systematic killings of educated population. I am very proud that the Khmer language has survived both spoken and written one to the present day, while those in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia have lost their ancient writing system completely. They bravely fought the Western colonizers for independence, but they were defeated culturally by relying on the Roman scripts for their communication. Secondly, if you review all Khmer inscription for the past 1,500 years, you will find that the Khmer scripts have evolved almost every century. Currently, I am glad to see the Unicode system has been applied to Khmer scripts so that people around the world can communicate via computers and the Internet. The Limon system will soon be abandoned after 20 years of use. Thirdly, during the past 1500 years, the Khmer people received their formal education through Hindu and Buddhist temples in almost every village. The French education came only in the late 19th Century and was designed for only the elite who wanted to serve the French, while most Khmer people continued with our Buddhist education. If you count all of those who graduated from temples, you may find millions in 1954. Cambodia was the most litereate socieity in SE Asia in the 13th Century when Zhou Da Guan visited Cambodia. Fourthly, I find Khmer language is very simple to learn, when compared to Chinese, Russian, English and others. This is bebcause the Khmer language has clear grammar and vocabulary. Verbs and nouns do not change with tense and persons like English and French. If you want to transform a verb into a noun, you simply add "kar" as prefix to the verb (kar yuol doeng), or add "pheap" as suffix after the verb or adjective (serei pheap). We are also lucky because Khmer is a monotone language. Fifth, the meanings of the word sometimes vary from region to region and time to time. The word "phoeum" is applied to animals only in Central Cambodia, but it is perfect to describe a pregnant woman in Siem Reap and Surin. The word "slap" for the Khmer north of Phnom Dangrek is referred to only the people who are killed (sam lap) by the other, while the word "ngoeup" or " khoj" is applied to those who die naturally. During the French era, the colonialists were trying to abolish the Khmer scripts and wanted to introduce the Roman scripts instead, like in Vietnam. Our brave Buddhist monks strongly rejected this policy and were able to maintained our Khmer scripts to the present day. In the 1980s, some " scholars" in Cambodia were attempting to simplify the Khmer spelling by introducing this new system into textbooks for school children. This second policy has failed too, but it still creates confusion among the Khmer. Also, the Khmer has adopted so many Pali and Sanskrit vocabularies into the Khmer language, causing incomprehension among the less educated group, especially those Cambodians who have studied only foreign education. Those who have studied in Buddhist temples have no problem in understanding the mixed sentense of Khmer and Sanskrit and Pali. I feel pity for those Cambodians who have only foreign education because they have missed many good Khmer Civilization in this life time. I was fortunate to have studied my Khmer language in a Buddhist temple with Buddhist monk teachers who taught us for free. In the 20th century, there were 6000 languages in the world. In the 21st Century, some 3000 of them are disappearing. Let us help preserve all languages, oral and written. Som Anumodhana preah song Khmer del ban reaksa pheasa khmer (This is the writing system the French wanted to impose on the Khmer.) Somphot Prasertsrey On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 10:24 AM, Chanroeun Pa <[email protected]>wrote: FYI, Regards, Chanroeun COMMENTARY *A Language in Crisis* The Phnom Penh Post 16 August 2011 The Cambodian language is dying: the spoken language is either crude and earthy (to the point of offensiveness) or highly stylized (to the point of incomprehension); the written language is in crisis from carelessness and undevelopment, mummified from antiquity, rattled by modernity. And no one is doing anything about it. Here, I am not speaking as a linguist, which I am not; nor am I speaking as a lawyer, which I am. (Both professions parse language for clarity.) I am not even speaking as someone who is fluent, but only proficient, in speaking her native tongue. However, I am speaking as someone who has been acutely observing communication in the Khmer language for at least the last 7 years, both spoken and written, and who is aghast at the state of affairs. Here are some *general observations* which should cause great concern for Cambodian educators and leaders: 1. *1.* SPOKEN: The *prevailing* use (by both adults and children alike) of crude, offensive language—“*aign*” for I/me, “*haign*” for you, “*veer*” for him/her/them (when its correct use is for “it”), “*phoeum*” for pregnancy (when the word is reserved for animals), and the myriad cuss words, many of sexual crassness which I cannot even write, etc.—needs to stop. More than impolite, it’s dehumanizing. The matter careens to the opposite extreme in formal setting where the spoken Khmer is so stylized and antiquated that comprehension is lost on the listeners. The speaker takes more pleasure in using big words than communicating his/her message; sometimes, I wonder if the speaker him/herself understands what s/he is saying. 2. *2.* WRITTEN GENERALLY: The current written Khmer language is a nightmare with great limitations for communicating complex ideas and for understanding. The written Khmer lacks clarity. First, there lacks a modern, comprehensive Khmer dictionary incorporating new words and uniform spelling, e.g. “Sida, “Aids”, “Hiv”, “Untac” are used as words without understanding their background as deriving from foreign acronyms and their full meaning. Second, there lacks a modern, comprehensive Khmer-English (vice-versa) dictionary to accommodate the barrage of materials being produced from translation, as many new thoughts and documents are first written in English and not originally created in Khmer. Much of the translated works have not been reviewed for accuracy nor for comprehension; thus, much gibberish are entering the public square for consumption, which oftentimes creates more confusion than learning. If I am to guestimate, on average only 50% of the published translated materials are accurate; I have worked with the best translators (meticulous, conscientious, deeply experienced) in the country, and on average their works are only 85% correct. Fourth, Cambodia has been, until recently, relying on oral traditions. Formal education had been very late in coming. For example, only 144 Cambodians had completed the *baccalaureate*(high school diploma) by 1954, with no tertiary education in the whole country. Fifth, all the above difficulties are contextualized by a Cambodia which has been mummified by 90 years of French colonialism and broken by years of Cold War instability: civil war, followed by genocide, occupation, and now autocracy. The current political leadership believes theoretically in education but lacks understanding of what education requires in practical terms; it is a leadership which keeps the population thinking only of survival, leaving little room for any other thoughts, e.g. clear communication, quality education, civility, human flourishing, social and national development. Related, we are currently a society which values form over substance. 3. *3.* WRITTEN STRUCTURE: The Khmer written structure makes already for difficulty in communicating, without the added technical issue of typing and layout. Written Khmer (*i*) has words running into each other; the spacing of words and phrases are at the discretion of the writer/typist, with little standard guidelines; (*ii*) has no proper nouns; (*iii*) has very limited punctuations, effectively only the period (*khan*), question mark (often times used with the *khan*), the double quotation marks (“s”, but not ‘s’) vacillating between the French and English versions, and the colons (again, vacillating between the French and English versions, sometimes creating confusion as the English colon is exactly like a Khmer vowel). If used at all, the comma is inserted with great reluctance or inconfidence because its function is not widely understood. 4. *4.* TYPING KHMER: Currently, two competing systems exist for typing Khmer – the pictorial system (best exemplified by *Limon*) and the Unicode system. As a way of illustration, the act of typing “A” in the old (but still in prevalent use) pictorial system requires three strokes on a keyboard, as one is effectively drawing a picture of the “A”. Consequently, the pictorial system is not conducive to searches and the internet. The Unicode (universal) system allows for searches and internet usage, but presents more problems in doing layout for publication with all the “hair” and “feet” of the vowels and words jumping all over the page. One almost needs another pair of hands with another set of fingers to type Khmer in any of the two systems. Additionally, there is little harmonization of the fonts within each system, as well as little harmonization between the systems to each other. And on some computer, saving a word document to transfer from one computer to another can lead to words and phrases mixing into gibberish nonsense, a phenomenon we, at CIVICUS Cambodia, encountered recently in saving, transferring, printing a draft Khmer curriculum we have been working on for a workshop in Siem Reap!). Why am I listing these language woes, which are really only the top of the iceberg? Because language is the foundation of education, which is the foundation of ideas and deep thoughts and clear thinking. Because language is the foundation of communication, which is the foundation of relationship, which is the foundation of human flourishing, which is the foundation of societal well-being, which is the foundation of national development. I see a lot of frustrated Cambodians due to their inability to communicate clearly and precisely. I see a society lacking a vehicle to communicate ideas and to build on ideas for deeper thought and clearer thinking. The key is missing for all the woes we are experiencing in current-day Cambodia – from educational failing to human rights abuses. Or, if not missing, than that key is broken. And that key is a living language. ________________ *Theary C. SENG* Founding President CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education -- ____________________ * Cambodian Academic Network Mailing List [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/cancambodia * You're cordially invited to visit and contribute to www.cambosastra.org -- ____________________ * Cambodian Academic Network Mailing List [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/cancambodia * You're cordially invited to visit and contribute to www.cambosastra.org -- ____________________ * Cambodian Academic Network Mailing List [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/cancambodia * You're cordially invited to visit and contribute to www.cambosastra.org -- ____________________ * Cambodian Academic Network Mailing List [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/cancambodia * You're cordially invited to visit and contribute to www.cambosastra.org -- ____________________ * Cambodian Academic Network Mailing List [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/cancambodia * You're cordially invited to visit and contribute to www.cambosastra.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. 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