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Language code: km

Technical information about ISO 639 language code km

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Central Khmer language, designated by the km code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

km

Name

Official

Central Khmer

Native

ខេមរភាសា

Family
Austroasiatic
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Standard (Phnom Penh) KhmerWestern KhmerCardamom KhmerSouthern Khmer (Khmer Krom)
Related languages
Northern KhmerPearSamreChong
Key facts
Written with the Khmer abugida descended from Brahmi, one of the largest alphabets in current useHas two consonant registers that determine vowel quality rather than using tonesFormal vocabulary is heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, with newer French loansWords are chiefly monosyllabic or sesquisyllabic and new terms are often formed through compoundingEmploys numeral classifiers and serial verb constructions typical of Mainland Southeast Asian languages.
Sample phrase

សួស្តី, តើអ្នកសុខសប្បាយទេ?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Central Khmer, commonly known as Khmer, belongs to the Austroasiatic language family. It is the official language of Cambodia and is also spoken by ethnic Khmer minority groups in parts of Thailand and Vietnam. It is written using the Khmer script. It is estimated that there are more than 17 million speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

Cambodia

15M

Vietnam

1.3M

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Central Khmer speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

Related locale codes

km-KH – Khmer (Cambodia)

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