Ancient language sits on the brink of extinction
ONE of Cambodia’s oldest known languages is teetering on the brink of extinction, according to language experts, who say its loss will erase the last vestiges of a culture stretching back far into Southeast Asia’s prehistory. The S’aoch tongue, a distant relation to modern Khmer, is now spoken by just a handful of villagers in...
Minority tongues face grim future
DEVELOPMENT and economic integration are pushing the languages of Cambodia’s highland ethnic minorities towards extinction, according to language specialists, who are concerned some native tongues may be beyond the reach of government programs aimed at reversing the slide. “You could compare it with burning down a library. When it disappears, centuries of experience are just...
Pisah Khmer
After two months, my Khmer is coming along like a dry-season slum fire. I now have a tutor named Sokha, a former journalist, who comes to my apartment on Sundays to guide me through a fairly solid textbook course. Speaking Khmer is not too difficult in comparative terms — I’ve met a lot of people...
