12 Facts About Khmer script

Khmer script is an abugida script used to write the Khmer language, the official language of Cambodia.

Khmer script was adapted from the Pallava script, which ultimately descended from the Tamil-Brahmi script, which was used in southern India and South East Asia during the 5th and 6th centuries AD.

The oldest dated inscription in Khmer was found at Angkor Borei District in Takeo Province south of Phnom Penh and dates from 611.

Stelae of the Pre-Angkorean and Angkorean periods, featuring the Khmer script, have been found throughout the former Khmer Empire, from the Mekong Delta to what is southern Laos, Northeast Thailand, and Central Thailand.

Sound changes during the Middle Khmer script period affected vowels following voiceless consonants, and these changes were preserved even though the distinctive voicing was lost.

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Clusters in Khmer script normally consist of two consonants, although occasionally in the middle of a word there will be three.

Khmer script writing system includes supplementary consonants, used in certain loanwords, particularly from French and Thai.

When both members of a cluster are dominant, the subKhmer script consonant determines the pronunciation of a following dependent vowel.

In Khmer script they are called sra penh tuo, which means "complete vowels".

Khmer script writing system contains several diacritics, used to indicate further modifications in pronunciation.

Western-style punctuation marks are quite commonly used in modern Khmer script writing, including French-style guillemets for quotation marks.

Basic Khmer script block was added to the Unicode Standard in version 3.