The Austro-Asiatic ( Austroasiatic ) languages, in recent classifications synonymous with Mon – Khmer, are a large language family of Southeast Asia, also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh.

# REDIRECT Khmer language

Khmer (, ; or more formally,, ), or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia.

It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon – Khmer family, predating Mon and by a significant margin Vietnamese.

Khmer is primarily an isolating language.

The Khmer language is written with an abugida known in Khmer as អក ្ សរខ ្ ម ែ រ ().

Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Thai, Lao and Vietnamese in that it is not a tonal language.

Khmer is a member of the Austro-Asiatic language family, the most archaic family in an area that stretches from the Malay Peninsula through Southeast Asia to East India.

More recent classifications doubt the validity of the Mon-Khmer sub-grouping and place the Khmer language as its own branch of Austro-Asiatic equidistant from the other 12 branches of the family.

Khmer is spoken by approximately 12. 6 million people in Cambodia where it is the official language.

Standard Khmer, or Central Khmer, the language as taught in schools and used by the media is based on the Battambang dialect spoken throughout the plains of the northwest and central provinces.

Some linguists classify Northern Khmer as a separate, but closely related language rather than a dialect.

Linguistic study of the Khmer language divides its history into four periods one of which, the Old Khmer period, is subdivided into pre-Angkorian and Angkorian.

Pre-Angkorian Khmer, the language after its divergence from Proto-Mon – Khmer until the ninth century, is only known from words and phrases in Sanskrit texts of the era.

Old Khmer ( or Angkorian Khmer ) is the language as it was spoken in the Khmer Empire from the 9th century until the weakening of the empire sometime in the 13th century.

Much work has been done on the reconstruction of Proto-Mon – Khmer in Harry L. Shorto's Mon – Khmer Comparative Dictionary.

Little work has been done on the Munda languages, which are not well documented ; with their demotion from a primary branch, Proto-Mon – Khmer becomes synonymous with Proto-Austro-Asiatic.

Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through the vehicles of Hinduism and Buddhism.

Additionally, syllable-final, which has become silent in other dialects of Khmer, is still pronounced in Northern Khmer.

Western Khmer, also called Cardamom Khmer or Chanthaburi Khmer, spoken by a very small, isolated population in the Cardamom mountain range extending from western Cambodia into eastern Central Thailand, although little studied, is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer.

Old Khmer is attested by many primary sources and has been studied in depth by a few scholars, most notably Saveros Pou, Phillip Jenner and Heinz-Jürgen Pinnow.

This measure taken by the short-lived governmental authority would be popular and long-lasting, for since then no government in Cambodia has tried to romanize the Khmer language again.

The relationship between the massive carpet bombing of Cambodia by the United States and the growth of the Khmer Rouge, in terms of recruitment and popular support, has been a matter of interest to historians.

The Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia, launched at the request of the Khmer Rouge, has also been cited as a major factor in their eventual victory, including by Shawcross.

Modern research has located 20, 000 mass graves from the Khmer Rouge era all over Cambodia.

Jacques Vergès ( born 5 March 1925 ) is a French-Vietnamese lawyer who has earned fame continually since the 1950s, first as an anticolonialist communist figure and then for defending a long string of well-known clients from anticolonialist Algerian militant Djamila Bouhired ( his future wife ) in 1957-1962 to former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan ( 2008 ).

Much like the Burmese adopted the Mon script ( which also has Indic origins ), the Thais adopted and modified the Khmer script to create their own writing system.

Internationally, it has influenced many communists around the world, including third world revolutionary movements such as Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, Peru's Shining Path and the revolutionary movement in Nepal.

Khmer, an Austroasiatic language, has seven different infixes.

Some ethnomusicologists believe that Laos is a country where the ancient art music of the Khmer people has been best preserved -- as well as diverse forms of folk music related to the oldest types of Indian music, music that has largely disappeared in India itself.

The province is rich in Khmer culture and has a long history.

Despite absence of compelling evidence as to the ethnicity of the Funanese, modern scholar Michael Vickery has stated that " on present evidence it is impossible to assert that Funan as an area and its dominant groups were anything but Khmer ".

Breathy voicing has since been lost in standard Khmer, although the vowel changes triggered by it still remain.

* Royal Thai ( ราชาศ ั พท ์): ( influenced by Khmer ) used when addressing members of the royal family or describing their activities.

Breaking with the tradition of the Khmer kings, and influenced perhaps by the concurrent rise of Vaisnavism in India, he dedicated the temple to Vishnu rather than to Siva.

Because of its physical territory located deep into the north-eastern part of Thailand which was once a territory of Khmer or what is modern day Cambodia, Phimai ’ s Architecture and cultural decorations are heavily influenced by Khmer cultures.

These ensembles, while being deeply influenced by Khmer and even older practices and repertoires from India, are today uniquely Thai expressions.

The Sukhothai and Ayutthaya kingdoms were major powers of the Thai people who were influenced by the Khmer.

Consequently, a number of temples influenced by ancient Khmer art were found in Isan, most notably in southern part, at Phanom Rung and Phimai, which lie on the so-called Ancient Khmer Highway, the direct link to Angkor.

This script was ultimately influenced by earlier writing systems in use by the Mon and the Khmer.

They were heavily influenced by the more advanced cultures around them: the Khmer to the east, and the Hindu cultures of India to the west.

This material was also adopted by the Javanese influenced cultures of Thailand, Khmer and Myanmar.

Like the other early peoples of Southeast Asia such as the Pyu, Mon, Cham, Malay and Javanese, the Khmer were influenced by Indian and Sri Lankan traders and scholars, adapting their religions, sciences, and customs and borrowing from their languages.

Khmer culture has influenced Thai and Lao cultures and vice versa.

On the other hand, the country is also greatly influenced from its modern influences of French colonialism, and a half century of radical change from constitutional monarchy, to a presidential regime under Lon Nol, a radical Marxism-Leninism under the Khmer Rouge, a Vietnamese occupation under the communist party People's Republic of Kampuchea ( PRK ), to finally the restoration of constitutional monarchy under a United Nations administered transition ( UNTAC ), a result of the Paris Agreement signed in 1991.

Cambodian French was influenced by Khmer and Chinese spoken variants, and was spoken by children of French men married to Khmer or ethnic Chinese women.

In khône and lakhone dance-dramas, the symbolism, costumes, and story are also more attuned to and influenced by Hindu Khmer, Thai, and even Javanese traditions.

Other scholars theorize that Khmer classical dance, as seen today, developed from, or was at least highly influenced by, Siamese classical dance innovations during the 19th century and precedent forms of Cambodian dance were different from the present form.