Khmer

Khmer is the national and official language of Cambodia. It is the native language of the Khmer people and the lingua franca of Cambodia. Khmer is spoken by about 16 million people in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. The Khmer script is an abugida derived from the Pallava script, which was used in southern India and South East Asia in the 5th century AD. The Khmer script is used to write the Khmer language, as well as Pali, Sanskrit and Thai. The Khmer script is an alphabet with 33 consonants, 23 vowels and 12 independent vowels. The consonants are arranged in the following order: The Khmer script has its own set of numerals, which are used to write numbers in Khmer. The Khmer script is written from left to right. Each character is written on a square grid, with each square representing one sound. Khmer words are usually separated by spaces, but can also be written without spaces. The Khmer script is used in a variety of different contexts, including newspapers, books, websites and signs. It is also possible to write Khmer in Latin script, using a variety of different transliteration schemes.