Search

There are very few studies on Cambodia’s linguistic landscapes, on the use of Khmer in linguistic landscapes, and even less on the use of Khmer linguistic landscapes in education. As part of a joint research project involving Cambodian and French teams, we examined the linguistic landscapes of the town of Siem Reap, where we carried out joint fieldwork in 2022. This paper presents the first observations we made, based on a study of the regulations concerning public displays on the one hand and on the scriptural practices on the other. We also share some activity around the material we collected on the field for teaching Khmer, in Cambodia as well as in France.

In the Khmer writing system, the Khmer script is the official letter of Cambodia, written from left to right without a space separator; it is complicated and requires more analysis studies. Without clear standard guidelines, a space separator in the Khmer language is used inconsistently and informally to separate words in sentences. Therefore, a segmented method should be discussed with the combination of the future Khmer natural language processing (NLP) to define the appropriate rule for Khmer sentences. The critical process in NLP with the capability of extensive data language analysis necessitates applying in this scenario. One of the essential components in Khmer language processing is how to split the word into a series of sentences and count the words used in the sentences. Currently, Microsoft Word cannot count Khmer words correctly. So, this study presents a systematic library to segment Khmer phrases using the bi-directional maximal matching (BiMM) method to address these problematic constraints. In the BiMM algorithm, the paper focuses on the Bidirectional implementation of forward maximal matching (FMM) and backward maximal matching (BMM) to improve word segmentation accuracy. A digital or prefix tree of data structure algorithm, also known as a trie, enhances the segmentation accuracy procedure by finding the children of each word parent node. The accuracy of BiMM is higher than using FMM or BMM independently; moreover, the proposed approach improves dictionary structures and reduces the number of errors. The result of this study can reduce the error by 8.57% compared to FMM and BFF algorithms with 94,807 Khmer words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the pyramid of Koh Ker, 10th-century temple complex, part of what the local people call Prasat Thom, the Great Temple. It further discusses that according to pioneering authors, Prasat Thom includes two rectangular laterite enclosures, joined end to end; Angkorian king Harshavarman I built the pyramid of Baksei Chamkrong; and Khmer language prose-passage, engraved on all the five towers of Prasat Kravan about the auspicious time of foundation of the temple.

Copyright of Chinese as a Second Language Research is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reducing dropout rates is a major issue in Cambodia. This study examined the effects of school-level and student-level factors on dropout in rural Cambodian primary schools. We collected data of the same students over 3 years by visiting the same school. We used questionnaires for students and parents, checklists of school facilities, checklists of teacher characteristics and Khmer language and mathematics tests achievement as research tools. We found that the effect size of the school was small: students who dropped out had similar characteristics – even when dropout rates varied among schools. At the school level, teacher absence in both cohorts, mean interaction with teachers in higher-grade cohorts, and mean test achievement in lower-grade cohorts were significantly associated with dropout. At the student level, age at first school entry in both cohorts were significantly associated with dropout. In cohort 1, gender, relative achievement in class, parental educational attainment, economic status, parents' educational aspiration, and school distance were related to dropout. In cohort 2, repetition experience, absence, educational aspiration, teacher interaction, living with parents, and time spent helping the family were related to dropout. Reducing teacher absence and late school entry were key factors of preventing from dropping out of school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was conducted in a Cambodian community recently recognized as the second Cambodia Town in the United States, which is new to the linguistic landscape research community. Data for this research were 279 photos collected in Lowell, MA during August of 2013. They were collected from two important main streets (Westford Street and Branch Street) that house many Cambodian businesses. The site for this data collection was purposefully selected because it is located in the heart of the Cambodia Town with many Cambodian businesses and offices. All the photos were entered into and coded with NVivo 10. Findings were reported in relation to the number of languages, the role of Khmer language, and the amount of transliteration reflected in the signs. These findings were discussed with implications for a better understanding of the language-in-contact situation (in this case Khmer and English) and the functions of Khmer as a minority language in this context. This understanding also has implications for the learning and teaching of English or Khmer in this community and the language planning of the Cambodia Town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an acoustic and perceptual study of the r>h shift in the variety of Khmer spoken in Giông Riêng district, Kiên Giang province, Vietnam. In Phnom Penh Khmer, /r/ is realized as [h] in syllable onsets and onset clusters, and accompanied by lowered pitch, breathiness, and in some cases a change in the quality of the following vowel. In Kiên Giang Khmer, the r>h shift is accompanied by pitch lowering, but without changes in aspiration or vowel quality, and spectral measures did not indicate substantial differences in voice quality. Consistent with their productions, users of this dialect appear to rely solely on differences pitch to identify these lexical items. We discuss the implications of our findings for Khmer dialectology, mechanisms of sound change, and variation in the realization of rhotics more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Prasat Banteay Pir Choan, temples at Koh Ker, Cambodia, and god Prajapatishvara (Brahma) is the presiding deity of a temple. It further discusses that the Khmer-language inscription, ordering a daily offering of three prastha of rice to Vrah Kamrateng an Prajapatishvara; Harshavarman II, the son and successor of Jayavarman IV, particularly attached to the cult of Brahma and Brahma was worshipped as a cult figure besides Shiva and Vishnu in ancient Combodia.

This paper explores the process in which an ethnic Khmer language became the national one in Cambodia, through a discussion of activities and debates concerned with orthography and coinage of the modern vocabulary. The committee for editing a Khmer dictionary established in 1915 consisted of both members who insisted on an etymological style of orthography and those who favored a phonemic style. A Buddhist monk Chuon Nath took the initiative from 1926 on and published the first Khmer-language dictionary in 1938. After the perfection of orthography based on an etymological style in the dictionary, the "Cultural Committee" began to create new vocabularies in 1947. Here again Chuon Nath assumed leadership with his best friend Huot Tat. The Cultural Committee rejected Sanskrit-originated words created in Siam and preferred the Pali language as elements of the modern vocabulary. Keng Vannsak objected strongly to these activities and claimed that the Khmer language had to exclude as many Sanskrit/Pali-originated words as possible in order to expand primary education. In 1967 the National Assembly recognized Khmer as the teaching language in schools, and a new educational magazine Khemarayeanakam [Khmerization] was launched. In the process of editing this magazine, the followers of Keng Vannsak presented another way of coinage that they alleged was much easier, and advocated a new orthography. Even after the civil war, their new orthography continued to be used in education and media. In 2009, however, orthography recurred to the dictionary. Through a study of the vicissitudes of language policies, we can understand the formation and development of Cambodian cultural nationalism. By the early 1960s, Buddhist monks were attempting to differentiate Cambodian modern vocabulary from Thai. Thereafter advocates of Khmerization, who no longer learned the Thai language, aimed at the "purification" and "simplification" of the Khmer language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the existing single-strategy approach towards the teaching of early literacy in schools in rural Cambodia with a multiple-strategy approach introduced as part of a reading intervention programme. Classroom observations, questionnaires and in-depth interviews with teachers were used to explore teachers’ practices and attitudes. Research was also conducted into the nature of the Khmer language. These preparations informed the design of the programme implemented in 127 rural schools. The success of the intervention was evaluated through classroom observations and a survey of teachers. Pupils’ reading was assessed in a sample of the intervention schools and compared with a sample of pupils in schools without the intervention. Results showed that most teachers in Cambodia use a one-strategy approach to teaching reading but that reading competence remains poor. In comparison, the assessment of pupils following the training of teachers in a multiple-strategy approach showed a marked improvement in their reading. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the distributional pattern of signs in the linguistic landscape of a neighbourhood in the commercial district of Phonm Penh, Cambodia. Informed by the frameworks of ethnolinguistic vitality and ethnocultural stereotypes, it discusses the developing multilingualism from socio-economic and historical perspectives. An analysis of the language distribution shows that Khmer, the national and official language of Cambodia is, unsurprisingly, numerically the most prominent language in the linguistic landscape, followed by English. The high visibility of English is remarkable given that it is a newcomer in a former Francophone space that subsequently experienced decades of a nationalistic language policy. Sometimes, the policy was marked by a strict prohibition of the teaching and use of foreign languages. The ascendancy of English has resulted in the gradual displacement of French in the past decade, although it is too early to write off the latter. Assistance leverage, globalisation, gentrification, a generational change in attitudes toward languages, the new language policy-in-education and the complex history of modern Cambodia explain the rapid ‘multilingualisation’ and the rise of English in the graphic environment and in the socio-economic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having gone through a colonial history and colonial language policies similar to those of many African countries, Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam have all chosen a different path when it comes to language policy, opting against retaining a European language (i.e., English or French) and choosing instead Khmer, Lao, Myanma and Vietnamese respectively, as their national and official languages. Taking a closer look at the linguistic situations in these countries, this paper asks whether a national language policy makes a difference when it comes to a multilingual context. In other words, is there a perceptible difference in the language policies of these countries and those of most African countries that can be attributed to the choice of the national and/or official language? More importantly, can a national/official language policy resolve the fundamental issues of development in multilingual contexts? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers and students spend much time interacting with written resources such as textbooks, tests, or worksheets during classroom instruction. What if no text is available, however, in the language of the learners? This case study describes the processes and techniques adopted by two university lecturers in Cambodia, as they translated an L1 (first language) science text into Khmer in a manner that tried to take full account of the cultural, linguistic, and social dimensions of language. Using a variety of translation techniques, they aimed to produce a Khmer text which would be most effective in promoting the learning of the new scientific terms required. Among the approaches used were the employment of English-Khmer word pairs, repetition throughout the text, and the incorporation of pictures where appropriate. The significance of this study is that it provides detailed and specific examples of how teachers and lecturers might respond to the challenges of translating scientific texts into languages that have not been extensively used as a medium of instruction at third level in recent times. It is hoped that it will also make some contribution to the larger effort to promote and restore native languages to their rightful place in education in post-colonial countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines units including barevasap 'attendant words' in Khmer. The units including attendant words ('attendant word complexes') are compound-like units, which break down into two words under certain conditions. The 'decomposition' of attendant word complexes is done by systematic ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of Cambodian geography in two Khmer polities: Funan, an empire that occupied the southeastern portions of modern-day Cambodia and Vietnam during the early centuries A.D., and Democratic Kampuchea, a Cambodian state that existed from April 17, 1975, until the Vietnamese invasion of December 25, 1978. The terms "Cambodia" and the alternative English transliteration "Kampuchea" refer to the modern Southeast Asian state located between Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, while "Khmer" is used to denote the language, culture, and nation of the people who are ruled by that state. The territory of modern Cambodia can be thought of as a shallow saucer with a broken rim on the lower right or southeast side. The Cardamom mountains along Cambodia's southwestern coast form a barrier with the ocean while the Dangrek mountains along Cambodia's northern border separate the country from the Khorat plateau of Thailand. Highlands are located in Cambodia's extreme northeast. Most of Cambodia's interior is flat. The Mekong river, which enters Cambodia from the north, traverses an alluvial plain in Cambodia's southeast before entering Vietnam to eventually empty into the South China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies nouns, verbs and syntactic backsliding in the Khmer language. Difficulties associated with parsing Khmer; Characteristics of the Khmer language; Hypothesis that the infix Vm(n) was originally meaningless and that infixation arose in the language via the process of secretion.

This study investigates acoustic correlates of the putative breathy and clear phonation type contrast in a dialect of Khmer (Cambodian) spoken in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand. The goal is to determine whether this Khmer dialect still preserves this historical contrast. Out of seven acoustic parameters measured, four, namely *H1−*H2, *H1−A1, *H1−*A3, and vowel RMS amplitude successfully distinguished between breathy and clear vowels, with *H1−*H2 measured at the beginning of the vowel being the most robust cue. However, the use of these cues varied from speaker to speaker. The *H1−*H2 measurement obtained from male speakers’ production suggested that the contrast being realized may be that of a tense versus lax voice rather than a breathy versus clear voice. It is concluded that the historical breathy and clear phonation distinction in Khmer is preserved among female speakers, but this distinction may be disappearing or have become a tense versus lax distinction among male speakers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Provides information on a research project on a Khmer-English bilingual program in a primary school in Western Australia. Information on the research participants; Difference between Khmer and English; Details on the progress of the children in writing in both languages.

In the present article mother-tongue literacy in the Cambodian community in the United States will be dealt with. A report will be given on a longitudinal ethnographic study of literacy in two language-minority communities in the United States to describe the literacy practices and the attitudes toward L1 literacy in the Cambodian community. On the basis of earlier studies it is assumed that individuals develop and use their language and literacy skills in response to the environmental pressure acting on them in the particular contexts of their daily lives. The present article explores to what degree there are monoliterate or biliterate contexts that require or encourage L1 literacy use in the daily lives of members of the Cambodian community in the United States. The occurrence of mother-tongue literacy events in a range of community contexts is documented The experiences of individuals with and attitudes toward L1 literacy are also recorded In this way the influences that appear to be affecting L1 literacy maintenance in this community are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the issue of what language to use in court for the hearing of the heinous crimes committed between 1975 and 1979 in Khmer Rouge, Cambodia. The United Nations and Cambodia have plan to hear the trial for the heinous crimes in the Khmer Rouge court but it had temporarily put on hold since the officials are disputing on which language to use. SokAn, Cambodia's chief trial negotiator said they have to use the Cambodian language since its stated on its constitution as the official language of Cambodia.